In every thread of the Jewish narrative, there is a heritage of futurism. 🌟 Jewish history is that of coming through humanity’s narrative collapses with reimagined wisdom; In ever epoch, it is Jewish people in the present who turned to our past, stood resilient in the present, and envisioned an expansive and ethical future that defies our wildest imagination.
When Mira and I met in Jerusalem just before 2012, we found solace in the shared understanding that endings are merely illusions. 💑🌍 When many awaited an end, we celebrated a beginning, and this ethos has been imprinted upon each of our children, marked with a ‘Z’ to symbolize not a finality, but a perpetual cycle of renewal.
The legacy we bequeath to our children, each named with a ‘Z,’ is our family belief that the end of one thing will be part of something else. 🧭 Our fifth child was born a week after October 7th. We include a z in her name too, because we believe endings are for books or seasons, not for life, never for the Jewish people.
Our belief in intergenerational leadership through narrative collapse is exemplified by the process of Midrash. And it was fortified for us space nerds by the promise given to Abraham, that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. 🌠 This passage from Genesis, once seen as figurative, challenges us now in our generation. How should we midrash this ancient promise in the context of interplanetary exploration?
The challenge posed to Abraham—”Count the stars if you can”—echoes across epochs. ⭐ It is an invitation to gaze upon the universe with humility and wonder. Yet, it also carries a promise—”So shall your offspring be.” If we consider our descendants reaching for the stars, it becomes a literal and metaphorical journey.
As we recount our trials and triumphs, we recognize that our story is far from over. 📜 The pogroms and persecutions, the destruction and despair—these are not the terminus of our journey. Instead, they serve as stark reminders of our capacity to rise, to rebuild, to redefine the meaning of progress.
The Jewish story is not just one of survival but of relentless innovation. 🔭 From the scriptures to the stars, we the descendants of Abraham have grown from second-class citizens to a people who literally contemplate and reach for the heavens.
Storytelling and community building have been our tools in shaping the meaning and beauty of our existence. 🤲 We have taken the remnants of past epochs and crafted them into a mosaic of hope and aspiration, a vision of a future where our narrative weaves through the cosmos.
Our gaze toward the stars is filled with the wisdom of our ancestors and the curiosity of our descendants. 🌌 The narrative of a people more numerous than the stars is no longer a distant allegory but a foreseeable reality as we prepare to become citizens of the universe.
We are not just the children of Abraham, but the pioneers of the cosmos. 🚀 Like Jewish people in every epoch, we embrace the legacy of our past, casting our gaze forward, to a future where the story is a new one, of our making – greater and more expansive than that of our ancestors, because our ancestors showed us to live that way.
Shabbat Shalom. 🕯️✡️