Service Beyond Self-Advantage

Echoes of "Michtavei Yoni" (The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu) trickle from these thoughts. "Serving" - in our era, so focused on self-benefit, the IDFniks seasons focusing as one solider described it to me "with every thought, every deed, every day being about something other than yourself - only on your country, and what it needs to survive" - is rare, indeed. This is part of why we so often sign our notes in our synagogue with, "For Zion's sake." We know to whom we are sent, and what specific population we serve: "Do not go in the way of the non-Jewish nations, but rather go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." (Mt. 10:5-6) There are countless millions focused on and serving the news of Messiah or social welfare for specific ethnicities other Jewish – or social zones of tangible need. But – "How shall they (any specific population) hear without someone proclaiming to them?" Rav Saul asks in his letter to the Romans. The Book of Acts goes out of its way to tell us, "When the Jewish people heard Paul speak to them in the Hebrew language, they became all the more attentive." (Acts 22:2) That seems to be because of proven-baseless rumor that Jewish people accepting Yeshua were being taught and teaching that Jews no longer should live Jewish lives or faith. (Acts 21:18-25)

We are here - doing that proclaiming work - in Manhattan, the capital of the world's Jewish community outside our nation's borders – we serve however we may, and with whatever we have, that Heaven enables, provides, and permits.

The words of the soldier above echo our own commitment. We serve so our People might have eternal life - in this world, and in the world to come. "This is eternal life," Yeshua of Nazareth taught us: "to know You, the One True God; and Yeshua, the Messiah whom You have sent." (Yochanon/John 17:3)

Our lives – and our service – are our heartfelt, "Amen."

And our "Amen" affirms Jewish perpetuity.

It is to this necessary, eternally valuable balance, we have committed "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." May Heaven be with our Nation, in Israel and beyond her borders.