<HTML>Hayyim Angel asks how to articulate an answer to a student who asks why he
believes in the God of Israel.
I believe, because my father told me.
We are the only religion that I know of that received our marching orders
directly from the boreh olam, not through any intermediary. Other
religions base themselves on a 'belief' in the prophecy of a single
individual or a small group of dynamic individuals who then related that
prophecy to followers who were convinced of its legitimacy.
Not so for us. There were 2 or 3 million people at ma'amad Har Sinai who
personally witnessed Hashem's revelation. When we say on Pesach that each
one of us should consider ourselves to have been there, the p'shat is that
we are all directly connected to that moment by virtue of the fact that
our ancestors (not just a chosen few) were, in fact, present. Every man,
woman and child that witnessed the events of the Exodus and were present
for matan Torah gave eyewitness testimony to their children who then
passed it on in a virtually unbroken chain throughout the generations.
This is the reason for the centrality of y'tsiat mitsra'im in our lives.
And so, I believe, because my father told me and his father told him and
so on all the way back to Har Sinai.
Paul Kopyt</HTML>
