This is absolutely AMAZING.
I had just published the previous post about how the Torah is relevant even in today's times. I noted that it is interesting that in the week that we will be reading about how the generation after the flood rebelled against G-d by building the tower of Babel, the New York Times had published an article about a campaign to promote atheism.
A little while later, I came across an article on the BBC website entitled The death of language.
Midway through the article is an image of the tower of Babel with the underlying caption, "The story of Babel bestowed great power on societies with one language."
Fascinating - The very same week Jews will gather in the synagogue to read about the tower of Babel, a reference to the incident has been published in a leading newspaper.
Later on in the article, Tom Colls discusses how Hebrew had been revived.
"Hebrew, says Claude Hagege, was a dead language at the beginning of the 19th century. It existed as a scholarly written language, but there was no way to say "I love you" and "pass the salt" - the French linguists' criteria for detecting life.
But with the "strong will" of Israeli Jews, he says, the language was brought back into everyday use. Now it is undeniably a living breathing language once more."
To your left is a partial screenshot of the article containing an image of a section of the Torah and the underlying caption, "Hebrew was successfully revived from a written to a living language."
I was convinced that out of all the portions of the Torah that could be selected as an image showing an example of the Hebrew language, there must be a reason why this one was published. There must be a hidden message in the text selected. Nothing happens by chance.
The following is an English translation of the words the text, including some sentences before and after the text which will put the message into context.
Deuteronomy 26:1
When you come to the land that God your Lord is giving you as a heritage, occupying and settling it,
26:2
you shall take the first of every fruit of the ground produced by the land that God your Lord is giving you. You must place it in a basket, and go to the site that God will choose as the place associated with His name.
26:3
There you shall go to the priest officiating at the time, and say to him, 'Today I am affirming to God your Lord that I have come to the land that God swore to our fathers to give us.'
26:4
The priest shall then take the basket from your hand and place it before the altar of God your Lord.
26:5
You shall then make the following declaration before God your Lord: 'My ancestor was a homeless Aramean. He went to Egypt with a small number of men and lived there as an immigrant, but it was there that he became a great, powerful, and populous nation.
26:6
The Egyptians were cruel to us, making us suffer and imposing harsh slavery on us.
26:7
We cried out to God, Lord of our ancestors, and God heard our voice, seeing our suffering, our harsh labor, and our distress.
26:8
'God then brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm with great visions and with signs and miracles.
26:9
He brought us to this area, giving us this land flowing with milk and honey.
26:10
I am now bringing the first fruit of the land that God has given me.'
Thank you, BBC, for reminding the world the eternal words of the Torah וירשת וישבת בה
(occupying and settling it).
To read the full article, click on the link below.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8311000/8311069.stm
The Lubavitcher Rebbe said we "live with the times". The world follows the parsha, even if it doesn't realise it.
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