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Ruth
Cagan Fatolitis was born
and raised in Washington Heights, along with her
twin sister, Miranda. Having spent her elementary school years at PS/IS 187,
she is now a 7th grader at Hunter College High School and is loving her expanding universe. She is a fierce reader and
writer who pens everything from poems to plays. She is a member of the
school’s Film Club and loves speaking French—much to her mother’s delight.
She also loves to sing and perform at the productions at Raananah,
the family’s summer community in Orange County.
Ruth
has worked her way up from Kita Alef to her current
status as a member of Kita Vav at Hebrew
Tabernacle. She has always been an active member of the Hebrew
Tabernacle/Beth Am community and is now instilling that love to a new
generation by working with the Tot Shabbat program as part of her mitzvah
project. She also
worked
behind the scenes for the production of “MendelsSongs:
Story of a Neighborhood.” When she isn’t busy keeping in contact with her
Eisner Camp friends, she loves to visit her two baby nephews in Florida.
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I have chosen to talk about a quote that made an impact on
me in my parasha: 26:45, “I will remember in their
favor the covenant with the ancients, whom I freed from the land of Egypt in
the sight of the nations to be their God: I, the Lord.” I was struck by this
quote makes because it occurs after we have broken the commandments. God is
taking us back. In other parts of the Torah, God reveals he is jealous, a
god from whom we may not turn, and yet
here we are after we turn our backs, and
God will accepts us once more. It is ironic, given that a large part
of this parashat is what will happen if we don’t
follow God. But here is Adonai, reminding us of the
good that we will receive if we reconsider and follow the commandments again.
This
serves as another reminder of our covenant with God, reiterating that it is
both God and our people’s responsibility in the agreement. The agreement can
be made and kept, and it can be broken, but this verse is meant to remind us
that what has been broken can be fixed, if we’re willing to glue the pieces
back together, bringing the parasha full circle. It
starts with rewards, then punishments, and then second chances, reminding us
that perhaps we break our promises, but if we start keeping our side of the
agreement again, than God will extend the same
favor.
This is actually very relatable
because sometimes people make promises that are very important, and mostly
what we hear and think about when the promise is made are the consequences
when it isn't kept. However, what is rarely mentioned is that sometimes we
will have a chance, a second chance, to show that we can keep the promise.
And that’s the message of this verse.
It
doesn’t only apply to promises, either. Haven’t most of us betrayed or hurt a
friend before? And unless it was something very, very heinous, weren’t we
forgiven after we apologized and said we would never do it again? You see,
that’s what second chances are about. It’s not about being forgiven,
it’s about being told you deserve a
second chance. You’ve shown that you're not going to do whatever made them
lose their trust in you again. That’s why a second chance is different than
being forgiven, and why it’s more important. You can always be forgiven—all
you have to do is apologize, whether or not you mean it. To get a second
chance, you have to be trustworthy. And that’s the choice God is offering,
for God to remember that we are God’s people once we remember that we are
supposed to act like God’s people. For
someone to remember that you're their friend, you have to act like you are.
This is also
important because it reminds us that if God, who is all-powerful and doesn’t
need to offer second chances, is willing to give one to us, then we ought to
offer second chances to others. As Alexander Pope wrote, “To err is human, to
forgive divine.” After all, mistakes will be made, but if you give second
chances, for the most part you will be rewarded, because no one wants to make
the same mistake when it'll cost them so much. For most people, having to get
a second chance is enough to keep them from repeating their mistake, and this
is obviously what God is hoping for—for us to learn from our mistakes.
Second
chances, in turn, help create a conscience, and isn't that what everyone
considers God? A conscience, if nothing more, the voice in your heart telling
you right from wrong. Perhaps that is what God is hoping, that by restoring
faith in us, we will be able to restore our faith in others.
And on the topic of faith in
others: I have to say thank you to some people in whom I have total faith.
Thank you to my mom, my dad, Sandy Horowitz, Janet McDowell, Connie Heymann, Cantor
Michelle Rubell, Rabbi Gale, David Deschamps, Shelly Koy, and, of
course, Kitah Zayin.
Congratulation to Miranda Fatolitis on her bat
mitzvah.
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