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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rabbi Warren Elf

Forefathers Day

Good morning.

Today is Forefathers' Day which commemorates the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on 21st December 1620. The town observes the holiday on December 22nd.

This got me thinking about our forefathers and their importance to us. In our prayers in Judaism we often refer to the God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and of our mothers Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. We read about them in our regular readings from the Torah. We tell the stories about them, their relationship with God, our link to them as our ancestors and what that means for us in our relationship with God; all this is important for us.

The stories of our forefathers, of those at the start of our story, is significant. It is part of our identity and who we are.

The stories passed down to us, with the embellishment and commentary, help provide the basis for the way we look at life and relate to the world.

It may well be that we have different ways of looking at the stories. In conflicts, there are at least two versions (if not many more) of what happened – a winner and a loser, at least. The stories are not always nice and comfortable and sometimes the hardship and oppression stories help give us resilience and strength and help the community to bond.

This is often an important religious or cultural lesson. Understanding our stories and even more importantly, the stories of others, helps us appreciate each other and gives an insight into what we and our communities have been through.

I pray that we learn from each other and with each other to overcome prejudice and anger, hatred and fear, so that we may learn to live side by side in peace and harmony. Through our prayers and our actions help us to build trust in our world, bringing calm to conflict and peace of mind to all who live in fear.

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