From There to Here

It was a couple of Thursday nights ago, I don’t exactly remember when.

Let’s just say it wasn’t a particularly easy time for Am Yisrael.

A group of 14 and 15-year-old girls and I were sitting on the floor in one of their homes. Candles, popcorn, sweets- Voices. A Rosh Chodesh Kumzitz.

Not such a big deal.

I have been reflecting on this over the past few days.

This is the biggest deal ever. This is huge. This is massive. This is everything.

I may be wrong, but let me ask you, is there any other nation in the world where a group of teenage girls in 2021 choose to get together one evening and sing their hearts out to their Creator?

“U’vchol zos shimcha lo shachachnu, nah al tishkachanu – But despite all this, we have not forgotten Your Name – we beg You not to forget us.“

Teenagers. With questions, lots of questions. With struggles, with daily battles.

In 2021.

Singing these words.

Close your eyes for a moment and just take that in. That is not normal.

They are phenomenal.

An excerpt from The Story of Our Lives by R’ Yaakov Klein:

“Reb Tzadok Hakohen teaches that yeridos hadoros, the apparent lessening of spiritual stature from generation to generation is only an external phenomenon. On a deeper level, the very opposite is true; as global society continues to sink to new moral lows, the souls Hashem sends down to the world to serve Him amidst the terrible filth are that much more precious, rooted in the loftiest places. While they may appear simple, unassuming, and even unworthy, the shining souls at the end of time are thirsting for the deepest secrets of the Torah that will alone enable them to survive the ocean of heresy, immorality and shallowness that threatens to drown them.”

Our precious teenagers are all too familiar with the term “yeridos hadoros.” If you’re still reading this, I beg you to try something. We all know a kid in high school who needs to hear this. Read them the above passage or even say it in your own words.

You will find that something incredible happens. Their eyes will widen. You will see a sort of sparkling – a flicker of hope. Someone believes in them. I can be more. I am already more. The world needs me. There are answers to my questions.

These teens are our leaders. We need to trust them. They may not yet know it. Many of us do not yet know it. But we are learning. And things are changing.

I observed something beautiful that night at the kumzitz. It just so happened that there were exactly the same number of candles as girls in the room. As the evening progressed and the flames continued to jump, flicker, and rise, and as their souls continued to sing songs of faith, the words, “Ner Elokim nishmas adam” were bursting out at me through the flames. The ever-present reality that each and every one of us holds far, far more than what lies on the surface.

“At our core we are holy.”

Let’s do this! We can – we must! – journey together, hand in hand, arm in arm – as foot soldiers of Moshiach.

Allow me to end with something stunning from the Rebbe of Piaseczna H’yd, found in Sheloshah Ma’amarim. The tzaddik writes:

“Relating God’s praises and greatness is like describing a great light that illuminates a certain faraway place. However, singing praises of God’s greatness is like bringing a candle from there to here.”

It was dark in the room that night. But those girls brought a candle from there to here.

Now if that doesn’t warrant the words “anachnu dor metzuyan“, I’m not sure what does.