Guest post form Mendy Meyer:
"There is a perush I have heard from a Shul Rov that shines a great light on the role of the Jewish people. The Torah forbids us from eating any animal that does not chew its cud or have split hooves. Split hooves according to this Pshat (Rav Hirsch learns a bit differently) signifies the animal's ability to sprint forward. Chewing the cud signifies the animal's propensity to dwell in the past. There are among the nations of the world, those who are constantly "sprinting forward- leaping towards change with a disdain for the generations past. This would be the western world. And there are those that have had their heyday in math and science many centuries ago- but cannot move forward to the norms of modern civilization. The Torah is commanding us to embrace every new situation bravely and wisely- yet never breaking from our life source, the connection to Sinai.
"TIDE has also given us this dual system of embracing that which can serve us in the service of Our Creator and facing every situation while in the cloak of Yisroel. It has asked us to master the world in which we live. And it has given us a charge, with the unbending stamp of an Austritt-Kehilla, to monitor, to filter, and temper our connection to this world and all it has in store for us.
This system of checks and balances has produced many views, approaches, and nuances to TIDE itself, and us as a Yeshiva are sometimes at the cutting edge- and sometimes we won't budge. And this has been our legacy and our charge. It is up to us to continue the "conversation".
יישר כחך ר' מנחם, חזק ואמץ
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