“History is the record of threatening crises.”
Rabbi Olan delivered “An Answer to War” on November 18, 1962, just weeks after the Cuban Missile Crisis., so the fear of atomic war was still very much on the minds of his listeners. To an anxious audience, Rabbi Olan shared the history of threatening crises from Caesar to modern day, from bullies to idealists, from the rule of chaos to the need for abiding by a higher law.
Today the possibility of the annihiliation of all life on earth from an intentionally or accidentally started thermonuclear war is still with us. Do you think that the twenty-first century is less dangerous? Or are our times even more dangerous than the 1960s? Can anything make the threat of nuclear war go away? Perhaps it is time for us to consider Rabbi Olan’s words of wisdom once again.
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(#67, revised 2024 tsb)
Rabbi Levi A. Olan: The Conscience of the City 