Millennium Countdown Israeli Style
Israel has never seen anything this glitzy. True, there have been neon menorahs for Chanukah and light bulbs outlining Israel\’s numerical age on Independence Days.
Israel has never seen anything this glitzy. True, there have been neon menorahs for Chanukah and light bulbs outlining Israel\’s numerical age on Independence Days.
Is the change of the secular calendar from 1999 to 2000 a Jewish issue?
Okay, let\’s just get this out in the open. The marking of the second millennium since the birth of Jesus is, well, not a Jewish event. In fact, it doesn\’t take a theologian to figure out that it\’s pretty much a Christian way of chalking up the years.
Just last month, Walt Disney World appeared to be right in the path of a bona fide hurricane. Hurricane Floyd was headed for Florida\’s eastern coast, and Walt Disney World was forced to close its doors for the first time in its 28-year history. But Mickey\’s luck held out. Floyd veered north, and Walt Disney World was saved from potential devastation.
As we approach the new millennium, we often discuss the unity of the Jewish people, seeking those aspects of Jewish life that will hold our diverse communal elements together after the year 2000. Rabbi Joseph Soleveitchek has referred to our Jewish covenant as including our shared history, shared suffering, shared responsibility and shared action.
Before Carl Reiner invented the \”Dick Van Dyke Show\” and thetemperamental, toupee-clad Alan Brady, before Mel Brooks was aYiddish-spouting Indian chief in \”Blazing Saddles,\” indeed, beforethe dawn of Christianity, there was The 2000 Year Old Man.