For US, it’s time to rekindle the light

light unto the nations.”

I have been thinking about this biblical commandment as the Jewish world prepares for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which starts this Tuesday evening.

When the sun sets and the shofar blows Wednesday night, Jews around the world will have sought forgiveness for their sins and looked forward to being entered in the Book of Life for another year.

According to our calendar, we have been at this for 5,779 years, so we ought to have a pretty good idea about how to survive in a world that has seemed, at times, hell-bent on preventing the Jewish people from reaching the next new year.

The history books are replete with stories of man’s inhumanity toward the Jews, the latest and most horrific, of course, being the Holocaust. And, still, we pray for peace in the Middle East and around the world since we have been commanded to be that light — especially during the dark times — to people everywhere.

We find ourselves and our world at a point that most people would consider challenging, certainly when viewed historically over the past century. A worldwide depression and a world war — which witnessed the worst of man’s inhumanity — was overcome by the nations of the world coming together in a way previously unknown or (unavailed) as an antidote to global destruction.

The United States led the way forward as the light unto the nations of the world. In doing so, it forged the alliances to help create the State of Israel as well as rebuild a war-torn Europe. History has shown that it was a Europe that would have virtually disappeared without America and an Israel that could not have survived without the United States having its back.

So now we find ourselves deep into a new century with the need for our country, the United States of America, to lead the world away from the brink once again. But this time, unfortunately, I see our own country heading