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Honorable Mensch-ion

Forward


As we honored Veterans Day, our son taught us the custom of how veterans wear the American Flag. In order to create the image of the flag flying through the breeze, the flag is worn on the right shoulder, backwards, giving the same effect as the wearer moves forward. In times of a pandemic, a divided country, and so many other challenges we face as individuals and as a global community, this image is powerful, reminding us that we must find the sparks to do exactly that: move forward.

This week, we also lost a giant in the Jewish world, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom. In his newly published book, “Morality,” he explains in his introduction that as a Jew, the only way forward is the reintroduction of morality into our world; less about the I, and more about the we. “If we act on self-interest without a commitment to the common good, if we focus on self-esteem and lose our care for others, we will lose much else.” We recite the pledge of allegiance by saying, “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Rabbi Sacks was not an American citizen, but he was a Jew living in the modern world. His principles and words of Torah are a model we have for us to move forward. Yes, looking at the flag on an army uniform may appear backwards, but when the breeze blows, and we walk step by step, we do in fact move forward.

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