So the usual script continues. The Unites States - (President, Secretary of State, Middle East Envoy etc.) lands in Israel and gets the full red carpet treatment.
All smiles, press conferences, flashbulbs, noisy police convoys, state dinners etc. and then the back room reality kicks in - hard pressed demands, negotiations, promises to release murderers, freeze settlements, give back land (Sinai, Gaza and now Jerusalem - G-d save us).
It's a vicious cycle continuing for the better part of the last 40 years - with absolutely nothing to show for itself, save the thousands of lives needlessly lost in between.
Now this week again...different players...same storyline...probably the same results.
What are we supposed to think?
Perhaps Albert Einstein help our thinking...
This Shabbat we read, at the beginning of story of the Exodus from Egypt, the very first instruction given by G-d to the Jewish People through His spokesman - Moshe Rabeinu.
"This is the Month" G-d says, showing Moshe the new moon and signaling the beginning of the relationship of the Jewish People and the lunar cycle as their definition of time.
Every month we have the obligation to sanctify the renewal of time with the rebirth of the New Moon.
Wow - what a powerful Mitzvah - we actually make time holy, sanctifying every moment of our life, from one month to the next.
In fact this is, the Rebbe explains, why symbolically the Mitzvah of sanctifying the Month is the first Mitzvah given to the Jewish People - It sanctifies time and time is everything.
Well, if this is the first Mitzvah and the Torah is all about the Mitzvot then why doesn't the Torah start here instead of Genesis (hey - and that way could avoid the Genesis/Darwin conflict too...)?
Rashi on the very verse of the Torah in Genesis explains that the reason for beginning the Torah with Creation is to teach us the sanctity of the earth. To highlight the reach of the Divine Touch - that all of the Universe is the domain of the Almighty.
The sanctity of space. All of it.
Why is that so important?
Rashi continues, "so if the nations of the world claim that we are thieves in our settlement of the land of Israel we can point to them and say, all of the Earth is G-d's, He took it (the land of Israel) from you and gave it to us."
The sanctity of space, the earth, as the creation of G-d and by His will, is our primary claim to Israel.
The Balfour Declaration, U.N. Treaty, Oslo Accords, Road Maps...each contradicting each other and each full of gaping holes...
Our claim to land of Israel must be rooted in the promise from G-d to our forefathers.
So that's why we have the story of Genesis;
To teach us the sanctity of space, and of our ownership of the most sacred of all spaces.
But it's only this week that we are given the opportunity to do something about that sanctity of space.
By sanctifying time.
These two ideas, the sanctity of time and space are intertwined.
As Albert Einstein taught through his epic scientific discoveries and the theory of relativity; Time and Space are relative to one another.
They define each other and are measure against one another.
So when we sanctify time, recognizing that through the Mitzvah of the New Moon we declare every moment of our lives as a Mitzvah, an opportunity, a connection to G-d, that essentially sanctifies space as well.
Perhaps listening to the Torah, with Einstein's theory of relativity - through our commitment to the sanctity of time, and through that the sanctity of space, we will create the energy and inspiration in the merit of Israel's peace and security.
The People and leaders of Israel need our support, our solidarity is with them.
Let us sanctify time, with its greatest potential - the strength of the Mitzvot, with the intent of sanctifying space, with its greatest potential - the strength of the land of Israel.
Wishing you a Shabbat of peace and sanctity for us and all of Israel.