Let My People Know

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “The Torah is given to those who can carry on even when oppressed and downtrodden.”

Trust and stability can be expected only from those who are always ready to proceed, with or without miracles.

The Torah is given to those who can carry on even when oppressed and downtrodden, not to those who need constant miracles throughout their forty years of travel in the wilderness to sustain them spiritually.

The test determining who merited entering the Land of Israel ultimately hinged on this same distinction as well.

People like the patriarchs and like many of our other great and holy ancestors were able to bear this burden, to live through all kinds of troubles and distressful situations and still remain faithful to God.

But for someone who is not built for this, no number of wondrous miracles will change his basic nature.

It is possible to survive for a while, but eventually one’s basic nature comes to the fore.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz