IT HAPPENED TOMORROW Who Am I?

By Guido Vitale

“There are Jews who believe and those who don’t. There are Jews who practise and those who don’t. But there are few Jews indeed who, when their people are suffering, can walk away saying, ‘This has nothing to do with me’.
Maimonides, who defines this as ‘separating yourself from the community’ (poresh mi-darkhei ha-tsibbur, Hilkhot Teshuva 3:11), says that it is one of the sins for which you are denied a share in the world to come. This is what the Hagaddah means when it says of the wicked son that ‘because he excludes himself from the collective, he denies a fundamental principle of faith.’ What fundamental principle of faith? Faith in the collective fate and destiny of the Jewish people.” (Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks)