The Quiet Victory of What Never Changed 

When we recite Kiddush on Friday night, we are not simply making a blessing—we are speaking the very words of Creation itself. Hashem commanded us to remember and proclaim His creation of the world every single week. We have done so without interruption for 3,338 years – since we received the Torah on Mount Sinai.  

Nearly four thousand years ago, God commanded Avraham to walk into the Land of Israel. Long before borders, councils, or nations existed, Hashem promised that land to Avraham, Yitzchak, Ya’akov—and to their descendants: us. 

That more than six million Jews live in this land today, in a resurrected nation once declared dead, is not coincidence. It is the fulfillment of a promise spoken before history learned to write itself. 

From Shabbat to Kiddush, from settling the Land to the smallest mitzvah, every Jew is a living link in an unbroken chain of serving God—one that began long before the world we call “the West” ever existed. Our daily prayers trace back to the Temple sacrifices, practiced centuries before Western civilization was born. 

Even the simplest blessing—like the prayer over a glass of water—predates Rome. Every act a Jew performs reaches back beyond Greece, beyond Rome, beyond Europe, beyond America—into eternity itself. 

The Arrogance of the New: When Progress Forgets Eternity 

The past hundred years have been dominated by modern Western thought — confident, assertive, and utterly convinced of its own authority: 

• The belief that because Western technology dramatically improved the material quality of life —surpassing anything that came before it, even the eras of Kings David and Shlomo — it therefore earned the right to define good and evil, right and wrong.
• The belief that because the modern world is in constant motion, with new technologies endlessly replacing the old, morals and values must be updated just as frequently—like a smartphone operating system or a word-processing application.
• The belief that modern thinking sits at the center of all wisdom, and that any worldview which refuses to conform to its standards must be labeled radical, fanatic, or extreme.

Here’s the problem: none of these beliefs are new. 

They thought this way in Greece. 
They thought this way in Rome. 
They thought this way at the dawn of the modern age, as monarchies ruled across Europe. 

None of it lasted. 

Greece collapsed. 
Rome imploded from within. 
Monarchies rose and fell.  

The arrogance of royal Europe led to two world wars, over 110 million dead, and the worst genocide in human history. By the end of World War II, empires were dismantled, colonies dissolved, and kings stripped of their crowns—or of the power that once made those crowns meaningful. 

Today, the foundational values of the Western world are unraveling once again. The idea of a strong man devoted to protecting and providing for his family, reward earned through effort, and even the sanctity of marriage between man and woman have been discarded and replaced. 

The modern world has been dictating right and wrong for barely 150 years—and already, its certainties lie in ruins. 

How Eternity Outlasts Empire 

We are the children of Israel, who live by the Torah of Israel, in the Land of Israel, to serve the God of Israel. Baruch Hashem, it has been this way for nearly four thousand years—long before any civilization that exists today had even taken its first breath. 

Centuries before China emerged as a nation, Avraham walked into this land and entered an eternal covenant with God, on behalf of the Jewish People and through his own flesh—and ours. That covenant still stands. Hashem’s commandments have not faded, fractured, or expired. They have endured. 

We affirm this living truth every day: with every prayer we recite, with every Shabbat we welcome, with every meal we eat according to the laws He gave us thousands of years ago and that we joyfully keep today. 

The modern world can feel overwhelming. Trillion-dollar giants like Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Facebook shape the messages we absorb about truth, morality, and meaning. Many of us are reading these words on an Apple phone; these lines were written in Microsoft Word. Their reach is vast, their influence undeniable. 

And yet—we have been here before. 

This is what it felt like to stand faithful before mighty Greece, and even mightier Rome. This is what it felt like in the days of Rashi, as foreign armies swept across the Holy Land. Each time, the world seemed unstoppable. Each time, it passed. 

Egypt faded. Canaan vanished. Greece and Rome live only in history books. So too will the fashions and certainties of our own age. Edom rises and falls, gains strength, challenges Israel—and moves on. None of what it stands for survives the test of time. 

But one thing always does. 

A single mitzvah—small, quiet, eternal—has outlived every empire the world has ever known. Connection to the Eternal has always prevailed over the temporary. 

Those who cleave to He Who was, Who is, and Who will be will continue to guard Shabbat, lay tefillin, and whisper a blessing over a simple glass of water—not just tomorrow, but for another thousand years. 

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David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, 60,000 passionate Israelis, and Matilda, our local camel.