Will You Invest in Our IPO?

Big news this week for savvy investors in anticipation of what could become the largest IPOs in history. SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI are collectively valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. Artificial intelligence is advancing at breathtaking speed. Technologies that sounded like science fiction only a decade ago are rapidly becoming everyday reality.

Humanity stands on the threshold of a new era. But alongside the excitement sit uncomfortable questions: as machines become smarter and faster, what makes us human? What gives life meaning? What values will remain constant in a world changing faster than ever before?

History teaches that periods of rapid change often produce something else as well: uncertainty, anxiety and the search for someone to blame. I’ll give you one guess who that might be.

More than a century ago, after the pogroms that swept through Russia, Leon Pinsker, a pioneering Jewish thinker and physician, observed that antisemitism was not driven by any particular accusation against Jews. The charges changed with the times: we were condemned for being poor and for being rich, for being powerless and powerful, for being too separate and too integrated.

The accusations were never the cause. They were merely the excuse. Pinsker argued that the deeper issue was that the Jewish people represented something the world struggled to understand: a nation scattered across the globe, ancient yet enduring, different yet deeply engaged in the societies around them.

His conclusion was revolutionary. Antisemitism could not be solved by convincing others to like Jews more. The solution was for Jews to like their Jewishness more. For us to rediscover our own Jewish self-respect, Jewish purpose, and Jewish self-determination. To stop seeing ourselves through the eyes of others and start reclaiming our own story.

More than a hundred years later, Leon Pinsker’s insight remains remarkably relevant. And it is a theme in this week’s parsha Shelach.

Moshe sends the leaders of the twelve tribes to survey the promised land. Ten returned defeated before the battle had even begun. “We were like grasshoppers in their eyes and in our own”. The tragedy was not how others saw them, but how they saw themselves.

Too often, we make the same mistake. We allow the hostility of others to shape our own self perception. In short: don’t let Jew-hatred define Jewish identity. Let Jewish purpose do that.

Today, antisemitism dominates Jewish communal conversations. It fills headlines, security briefings and social media feeds, It mutates, adapts and reinvents itself. This is not a temporary glitch in history. It is a recurring feature of Jewish existence.

That doesn’t mean it should be accepted, but it does mean it should be understood differently. The question is not merely how to fight antisemitism. The question is how to respond to it.

That response lies in rediscovering the meaning of Jewish chosenness.

Being “the chosen people” is often misunderstood as privilege or superiority. In the Torah, however, it is a mission. The Jewish people were chosen not for their own sake alone, but to bring morality into power, holiness into daily life, and human dignity into a fractured world.

Our mission has never been more relevant. Humanity is searching for answers that technology cannot provide. An algorithm can generate content, but not purpose. AI can provide information, but not meaning.

The Torah is far more advanced. It teaches that progress without ethics is dangerous. Power without purpose is destructive. Shabbat teaches that our worth is not measured by productivity. Tzedakah teaches responsibility for others. The list goes on.

These are not relics of the past, but guideposts for the future.

Perhaps it’s time for an IPO of our own. Not an Initial Public Offering, but an Infinite Purpose Offering. A renewed investment in Jewish values. A renewed confidence in Jewish identity. A renewed determination to be a light when the world grows darker.

Are you ready to invest in our IPO? It offers extraordinary returns, pays generous dividends across generations, and it’s tax free!

Together, let us carry our ancient mission forward with pride, confidence, courage and hope.

Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Levi and Chan