The Idea We Call Hope

“We can only change the world if we can change ourselves. That is why the book of Genesis ends with the story of Joseph and his brothers. It tells on an individual level the story that the book of Exodus tells on a national level. Israel is charged with the task of transforming the moral vision of humankind, but it can only do so if individual Jews, of whom the forerunners were Jacob’s children, are capable of changing themselves.”

“Teshuvah is the ultimate assertion of freedom. Time then becomes an arena of change in which the future redeems the past and a new concept is born – the idea we call hope.”

The Future of the Past (Vayechi, Covenant & Conversation)