The Madness of our Contemporary World

Michael Berenbaum

Presentation by Michael Berenbaum.

There is an old Hasidic story about a town whose drinking water was poisoned. Anyone who drank the water
went mad. The town came to its Rebbe and asked him: “what are we to do? If we do not drink the water we die; yet, if we drink the water we go mad.” The Rebbe pondered the question for a moment and then turned to his trusty shamas, his closest disciple. He said: “give me brush and some paint.” His disciples were startled but they complied with his order and he quickly drew a X on the forehead of his shamas and insisted that the shamas in turn paint an X on the Rebbe’s forehead. And he turned to the community and said: “Drink the water!  But when you look at him and when you look at me remember. We are mad.”

Well if you want to know the condition of our world today remember we are mad.

When the President of Iran says that the Holocaust did not happen and the President of Germany responds: “Oh
yes it did and we know because we did it and we cannot face our future without admitting the crime of our past.”
This is madness.

Click here to read the entire speech: The Madness of our Contemporary World