“All men are created equal,” lies our country. We are all born with different strengths and different weaknesses. Our challenges are designed with each person’s unique character in mind. Hashem knows us better than we do. So equality was never our goal. Neither is perfection. Tzaddikim are even taken to task throughout Tanach for their seemingly small mistakes. In the past couple of centuries, however, there has been a new miraculous-like phenomenon. Tens of perfect Tzaddikim have sprung up in our Jewish history books. Remarkably, they seem to have surpassed even Moshe Rabbeinu in perfection. Or actually, maybe, something else has been happening. Maybe we have lied to ourselves. We have covered up the struggles of Tzaddikim and created a fake ideal. For Kavod Tzaddikim, we lied.

Our generation has been taught to become tzaddikim. We have been taught to want perfection. So we struggle, and muddle, and then lie to everyone about what we are doing. Most of the time, we lie to ourselves about who we are. We are afraid of mediocrity, and of being human. Then we lie to the children about who they are, and who they must turn out to be. Anyone else wondering why the kids don’t fall for it. Why do they look at the adults as a sham? Maybe because they are. In hiding the imperfections, we have failed our children and misrepresented the Torah. Some will ultimately reject Judaism because they never saw Judaism.

​So what is Areivim? And why am I suddenly mentioning it now? I rejected my parent’s Judaism years ago as a falsehood. It took me many years to find that Judaism was actually honestly beautiful and that what I learned at home and at school was a falsehood. I have found in Areivim a community of Jews who understand me, and themselves as humans. We make mistakes, we suffer, we judge, and we serve Hashem in our own unique ways. There is no one answer to society’s problems, but there is one Torah with the unique answers we each need. The truth may be difficult to accept, and we could run and hide while the problems grow. Or we can face the difficulties we have been given, knowing that our ancestors have been doing so since the first man was created.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]