[Avodah] The Jew and History

[Prof. Levine]

The following is from the introduction to RSRH's essay Adar I that 
appears in the Collected Writings of RSRH, Volume II,  beginning on 
page 365.  It seems to me to elucidate an attitude towards life that 
we should all strive to attain. YL

  To no race of men has it been granted to make its way through 
history with a clear vision of the path before it as it has to the 
Jewish. At the very beginning of its history, it went through 
experiences to which it could ever and anon turn its glance in order 
to see, as in a prophetic looking-glass, itself, its fitness for its 
task, its relations to neighboring peoples, the course of conduct 
which would bring to it chastisement, self-improvement, testing and 
reward. The Jew who knows his task and his history is not surprised 
by anything that happens, he is never thrown off his balance or 
dazzled. He has only to look back on the mirror of his past which God 
is ever presenting to him, and he knows where he is everywhere and in 
all circumstances, he is able to weigh correctly every event of his 
time, and he steers calmly, whether over a smooth sea or through 
storm and fire, towards the goal to which God is leading him. He is 
prepared for everything. He trusts no moment and fears none. He finds 
his grounds of hope or fear not in the political conditions of the 
day, but in his own breast. An undeserved piece of good fortune 
cannot elate him, an unmerited suffering cannot crush him. Only the 
evidence afforded by his own conscience can elevate or depress him. 
He knows only one enemy-sin; he knows only one armour-innocence.

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