Blue and White: Shmuel Sackett

This is the time of year when people email each other far more than usual. Most of the correspondence centers around wishing “A Happy and Healthy New Year” but, for some reason, the emails I receive are much different.

On my recent trip to the United States, I spoke in several locations and noticed that the age of the crowd was older than usual. Yes, I am also “older than usual,” but something seemed different. Over the years, I have spoken in over 500 Jewish communities in the United States and Canada and am used to seeing Jews of all ages; but this time, there was not one person under 40 in any of my presentations. Baruch Hashem, in my personal goal of making it to 120, I recently entered the second half of life (Do the math), so I thought that maybe it had to do with me. Am I no longer able to attract the younger crowd? Are only older people interested in hearing about Israel and the Jewish nation? I spoke about this to a dear friend of mine and he explained what was going on.

Many years ago, a wonderful fighter for the Jewish people, Shifra Hoffman a”h, coined a term that I never forgot. She said that our leader, Moshe Rabbeinu, referred to the Jewish nation as “a stiff-necked people” (Sh’mos 34:9). Now, however, we have become “a short-necked people.” She explained this to mean that when things get difficult for our nation and we reach out to our leaders for help, they put their hands and shoulders up, making their necks very short, and say, “Sorry, but what can we do?”

This past Shabbos, a person I didn’t recognize walked into my shul. I went over to him – as I try to do to all the guests – and said, “Shabbat Shalom and welcome to Herzliya! My name is Shmuel Sackett. Where are you visiting from?” His answer stunned me.

Everyone is talking about Artificial Intelligence these days, but most Torah observant Jews – I included – have been AI robots for years. We love Hashem and keep His mitzvos but tend to do it in an “artificially intelligent” way.

People throw around the term “Jewish unity” all the time, but what does it mean and how do we achieve that important goal? Do we have to agree with everyone? Must we compromise our values and ideology to make room for our brothers and sisters? Should we cast aside all that is important to us in the name of unity? I have a two-letter answer to all those questions: N-O!