{"id":5195121,"date":"2025-12-15T12:26:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T09:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breslev.co.il\/?p=5195121"},"modified":"2025-12-15T12:34:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T09:34:21","slug":"the-quiet-victory-of-what-never-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/5195121\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quiet Victory of What Never Changed\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">When we recite <i>Kiddush<\/i> on Friday night, we are not simply making a blessing\u2014we are speaking the very words of Creation itself. Hashem commanded us to remember and proclaim His creation of the world every single week. We have done so without interruption for 3,338 years \u2013 since we received the Torah on Mount Sinai. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Nearly four thousand years ago, God commanded Avraham to walk into the Land of Israel. Long before borders, councils, or nations existed, Hashem promised that land to Avraham, Yitzchak, Ya\u2019akov\u2014and to their descendants: us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">That more than six million Jews live in this land today, in a resurrected nation once declared dead, is not coincidence. It is the fulfillment of a promise spoken before history learned to write itself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">From Shabbat to <i>Kiddush<\/i>, from settling the Land to the smallest mitzvah, every Jew is a living link in an unbroken chain of serving God\u2014one that began long before the world we call \u201cthe West\u201d ever existed. Our daily prayers trace back to the Temple sacrifices, practiced centuries before Western civilization was born.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Even the simplest blessing\u2014like the prayer over a glass of water\u2014predates Rome. Every act a Jew performs reaches back beyond Greece, beyond Rome, beyond Europe, beyond America\u2014into eternity itself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\" data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><b>The Arrogance of the New: When Progress Forgets Eternity<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The past hundred years have been dominated by modern Western thought \u2014 confident, assertive, and utterly convinced of its own authority:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\" data-contrast=\"auto\"> The belief that because Western technology dramatically improved the material quality of life \u2014surpassing anything that came before it, even the eras of Kings David and Shlomo \u2014 it therefore earned the right to define good and evil, right and wrong.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\" data-contrast=\"auto\"> The belief that because the modern world is in constant motion, with new technologies endlessly replacing the old, morals and values must be updated just as frequently\u2014like a smartphone operating system or a word-processing application.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\" data-contrast=\"auto\"> The belief that modern thinking sits at the center of all wisdom, and that any worldview which refuses to conform to its standards must be labeled radical, fanatic, or extreme.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Here\u2019s the problem: none of these beliefs are new.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">They thought this way in Greece.\u00a0<\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">They thought this way in Rome.\u00a0<\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">They thought this way at the dawn of the modern age, as monarchies ruled across Europe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">None of it lasted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Greece collapsed.\u00a0 <\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Rome imploded from within.\u00a0 <\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\" data-contrast=\"auto\">Monarchies rose and fell.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\" data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The arrogance of royal Europe led to two world wars, over 110 million dead, and the worst genocide in human history. By the end of World War II, empires were dismantled, colonies dissolved, and kings stripped of their crowns\u2014or of the power that once made those crowns meaningful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Today, the foundational values of the Western world are unraveling once again. The idea of a strong man devoted to protecting and providing for his family, reward earned through effort, and even the sanctity of marriage between man and woman have been discarded and replaced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The modern world has been dictating right and wrong for barely 150 years\u2014and already, its certainties lie in ruins.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\" data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><b>How Eternity Outlasts Empire<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">We are the children of Israel, who live by the Torah of Israel, in the Land of Israel, to serve the God of Israel. <i>Baruch Hashem<\/i>, it has been this way for nearly four thousand years\u2014long before any civilization that exists today had even taken its first breath.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Centuries before China emerged as a nation, Avraham walked into this land and entered an eternal covenant with God, on behalf of the Jewish People and through his own flesh\u2014and ours. That covenant still stands. Hashem\u2019s commandments have not faded, fractured, or expired. They have endured.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">We affirm this living truth every day: with every prayer we recite, with every Shabbat we welcome, with every meal we eat according to the laws He gave us thousands of years ago and that we joyfully keep today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">The modern world can feel overwhelming. Trillion-dollar giants like Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Facebook shape the messages we absorb about truth, morality, and meaning. Many of us are reading these words on an Apple phone; these lines were written in Microsoft Word. Their reach is vast, their influence undeniable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">And yet\u2014we have been here before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">This is what it felt like to stand faithful before mighty Greece, and even mightier Rome. This is what it felt like in the days of Rashi, as foreign armies swept across the Holy Land. Each time, the world seemed unstoppable. Each time, it passed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Egypt faded. Canaan vanished. Greece and Rome live only in history books. So too will the fashions and certainties of our own age. Edom rises and falls, gains strength, challenges Israel\u2014and moves on. None of what it stands for survives the test of time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">But one thing always does.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">A single mitzvah\u2014small, quiet, eternal\u2014has outlived every empire the world has ever known. Connection to the Eternal has always prevailed over the temporary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">Those who cleave to He Who was, Who is, and Who will be will continue to guard Shabbat, lay tefillin, and whisper a blessing over a simple glass of water\u2014not just tomorrow, but for another thousand years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\" data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\">***\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/300marketingsolutions\/\"><i><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">David Ben Horin<\/span><\/strong><\/i><\/a><i>\u00a0lives in Afula with his family, 60,000 passionate Israelis, and Matilda, our local camel.\u00a0<\/i><i>\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\" data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:276}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When we recite Kiddush on Friday night, we are not simply making a blessing\u2014we are speaking the very words of Creation itself. Hashem commanded us to remember and proclaim His creation of the world every single week. We have done so without interruption for 3,338 years \u2013 since we received the Torah on Mount Sinai. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/breslev.com\/5195121\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Quiet Victory of What Never Changed\u00a0&#8220;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62109,"featured_media":5195129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[15745,15144],"tags":[16725,42517,38889,26077,20834,22432,38923,68604,58106],"author_post":[16252],"new_serie":[],"class_list":["post-5195121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-israel-and-aliyah","category-jewish-outlook","tag-mitzvot","tag-covenant","tag-greek-exile","tag-jewish-identity","tag-jewish-people","tag-land-of-israel","tag-roman-exile","tag-secular-society","tag-torah-observant","author_post-david-ben-horin"],"acf":{"paragraph_first":"Every act a Jew performs reaches back beyond Greece, beyond Rome, beyond Europe, beyond America\u2014into eternity itself.","paragraph_second":"We are the children of Israel, who live by the Torah of Israel, in the Land of Israel, to serve the God of Israel. It has been this way for nearly four thousand years.","meta_title":"The Quiet Victory of What Never Changed ","meta_description":"Before you were born, before your country existed, before the world agreed on what was \u201cright,\u201d the Jewish People were already serving God. Not as a tradition\u2014but as an eternal covenant that time itself can never erase. ","special_content_in_the_post":"none","youtube":"","intro_text":"<p><span class=\"TextRun SCXW106813216 BCX0\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW106813216 BCX0\">Before you were born, before your country existed, before the world agreed on what was \u201cright,\u201d the Jewish People were already serving God. Not as a tradition\u2014but as an eternal <\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW106813216 BCX0\">covenant<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW106813216 BCX0\"> that time itself c<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW106813216 BCX0\">an<\/span><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW106813216 BCX0\"> never erase.<\/span><\/span><span class=\"EOP SCXW106813216 BCX0\" data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5195121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5195121"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5195121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5195151,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5195121\/revisions\/5195151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5195129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5195121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5195121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5195121"},{"taxonomy":"author_post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/author_post?post=5195121"},{"taxonomy":"new_serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breslev.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/new_serie?post=5195121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}