| Hope is the gift of Judaism to the world, asserts Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. “Western civilization is the product of two cultures: ancient Greece and ancient Israel. The Greeks believed in fate: the
future is determined by the past,” wrote Rabbi Sacks, who served as chief rabbi of England from 1991 to 2013. “Jews believed in freedom: there is no ‘evil decree’ that cannot be averted. The Greeks gave the world the concept of tragedy. Jews gave it the idea of hope.” “To be a Jew is to be an agent of hope in a world serially threatened by despair,” wrote Sacks, who calls hope the belief we can make things better.
Holocaust survivor and celebrated author Elie Wiesel
certainly knew his share of hopeless situations. He once said, “One must wager on the future. I believe it is possible, in spite of everything, to believe in friendship in a world without friendship, and even to believe in God in a world where there has been an eclipse of God’s face…we must not give in to cynicism. To save the life of a single child, no effort is too much. To make a tired old man smile is to perform an essential task. To defeat injustice and misfortune, if only for one instant, for a single victim, is to invent a new reason to hope.”
Imagine Joseph, a Jewish man given the ultimate chance to make things better, by bringing Hope into the world. He held a tiny Hope close to his chest, inhaling his baby scent and listening to his gentle breath. He took the small hand of Hope into his own as he guided his first steps. He marveled at the humility of Hope sweeping the sawdust from the floor. Joseph marveled at the Incarnation: Hope,
a person, a Savior, Jesus Christ!
This reflection is written by Mary Hallman, Director of Evangelization
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