I think Chuvai is one of the most remarkable ideas ever to event of the human mind.

Chouva tells us that history can change because we can change.

Our character is not pre-programmed in our genes.

We can act differently tomorrow than we did yesterday.

Yesterday's enemies can become tomorrow's friends.

It happened between Israel and Germany.

Israel and Egypt, Israel and Jordan. History can change because we can change and we are the makers of history.

And my deepest prayer this year is that Israel's enemies, its neighbors, change too, because then we can, together,

write a new chapter in the history of the Middle East, a chapter of joy, not of distress.

But just think about Israel for a moment. Jews hadn't formed an army since the days of the Bar-Korkechre

rebellion almost 19th centuries ago, yet they did so

brilliantly to defend their land. For 2,000 years, rarely were Jews farmers, yet in Israel,

they became the world's great agricultural innovators. Because of the vicissitudes of Jewish history,

no people has changed more dramatically and more often than Jews.

And yet throughout it all, we stayed loyal to our fundamental principles, justice, compassion, love of life, love of children, love of study argument, and the life of the mind.

Useshuva, usufilo, Uduk, Amarvirin, Esra

hagsera. Penitence, prayer and charity can avert the evil decree. There is nothing inevitable

in the affairs of humankind. The greatest gift God gave us was the ability to change. Jews never accept defeat. Because of that,

after all the hammer blows of history, we are still undefeated. Yes, there have been tough times

in recent months, but consider this. In almost 4,000 years of Jewish history, never before have we had simultaneously

independence and sovereignty in the land of Israel and freedom and equality in most countries

outside. To paraphrase an old Hasidic saying, if things are so bad, how come they're so good?

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