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<font size=3>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<br><br>
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. <br>
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