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2000 Worries

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Topic: 2000, Year

Email@Withheld wrote:

Dear Rabbi,

I am a new internet user. I have been exploring everything I (usually accidentally) click on. Anyway, I have been reading a lot of y2k [year 2000] doomsday info and it has caused me much anxiety! I realize much of it is a hysterical messianic reaction. My question (finally!) what is the Jewish response to y2k ?

What is the Jewish response to "the end of the world?" I am a reform Jew by choice, living in a rural Appalachian area. My only Jewish contact right now is the Hillel at the local university and I've not been very involved yet. Thank you for your time!


Dear Email@Withheld,

The Jewish people have survived for 3,500 years and we have experienced much worse than the Y2K bug. The destruction of our Temple and worldwide exile of an entire people was quite a cataclysm, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Black Death, the Holocaust, etc. And yet, here we are. I am a Jew living in Jerusalem (a miracle in and of itself), son of a holocaust survivor (another miracle) actively teaching Judaism to thousands of Jews around the world (another miracle). So our attitude would be that of Alfred E. Neuman in Mad Magazine which is "What, me worry?"

The Torah guarantees that there will always be Jews around observing, studying and teaching Judaism - the only thing that you have to worry about is will you be one of them?


 
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