Carry it with you. We carry it proudly, sometimes unsteadily, often with our backs arched, but we carry it on our backs. It shapes our family destinies, our choices, our celebrations and our griefs. It guides us in our customs and cultural traditions, it makes us laugh at our misunderstandings. Jewishness and heritage are intertwined, inseparable. 

 

What do you bring with you from your ancestors?" we ask, even though we know the answer. 

 

Because almost all of us bring strength and staying alive, we bring the inexplicable desire to know where we come from and why we do things this way or that way, we bring fears and the ability to laugh in every situation.

 

We are connected as Jews to a long, long chain that began with the promise of inheritance from the Eternal One to our father Abraham. And perhaps this is one of our most important legacies: the certainty that we have a promise.

 

That is why what we do, whether it is a close or loose adherence to the eternal conditions that vary from community to community and family to family: the strict keeping of the commandments or the tradition of matzo ball soup, whether it is the sense of the land of Israel as a homeland or the enormous responsibility we feel for the world, all starts from the fact that Abraham set out because he had a promise: the promise of an inheritance.

This year's Torah giving holiday, Shavuot, is about inheritance. Long generations have passed between Mount Sinai and the advent of artificial intelligence, thousands of years separate Abraham and the challenging 21st century land he inherited. 

​

But here we are. And the chain is alive. And it's definitely a celebration.

​

Zsuzsa Fritz