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"When the non-Jewish world, and even those of the Jewish world who have strayed from the Jewish way of life, challenge the observant and practicing Jew: You, who like us, live in a materialistic world, in the midst of a highly competitive society, facing a desperate struggle for economic survival, how can you escape subservience to the idolatry of the land (be it the Dollar, or the fear to be "different", etc.)? How can you adhere to a code of 613 precepts which "burden" your life and limit your competitiveness at every side and turn?
"The answer is: Yetzias Mitzraim (departure from Egypt) provides the clue:
"One of the fundamental features. of the Yetzias Mitzraim message is the unlimited Bitachon - the absolute· reliance on: Divine Providence - which found such poignant expression in the historic event of the Exodus from Egypt. A whole people, men, women and children, several million in number, eagerly leave a well-settled and prosperous country, with all its fleshpots and material blessings, and go out on a long and perilous journey, without provision, but with absolute reliance on the word of G-d coming through Moshe Rabeinu.
"And, as in the case of Yetzias Mitzraim, when the Jews responded to the Divine call and precepts, disregarding so-called rational considerations, and breaking with the negative past, it turned out that precisely the application of this principle in actual life was the road to their true happiness, and not only spiritually (receiving the Torah and becoming the G-d chosen people and holy nation), but also materially (in coming to the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey).
"So it is also today and always. By virtue of the Divine Law, which is called Taras Chayim, the Law of Life, and the Mitzvos, whereby Jews live and experience in daily life, regardless of how the past had been, the Jew attaches himself to the Creator and Master of the World, and liberates himself from all "natural" restrictions and limitations, and attains his true happiness, materially arid spiritually."
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Light Candles
