Every generation of the Jewish people has its critics, and ours is no exception. By traditional measures like Jewish education, community involvement, connection to faith, and commitment to Jewish values and G-d, it doesn’t feel like a Jewish golden age.
It seems like earlier generations had things we lack: greater education, stronger community cohesion and investment, fewer external distractions, and a more revealed relationship to the creator. It’s a fair observation, and people within the community have been making it for some time.
I want to offer a counterview drawn from Kabbalah. In Jewish mystical thought, there are ten divine attributes, called Sefirot, that describe both the human soul and G-d’s relationship to the world. Most people have heard of Chesed (kindness) and Gevurah (strength or severity).
Then there’s Netzach.
Netzach, the seventh Sefirah, means victory, endurance, or persistence. It doesn’t get the same airtime as the others. It’s not glamorous. Chassidic thought argues it may be the most essential quality of all, and understanding why changes how you see this generation entirely.
Netzach isn’t rooted in emotion or intellect like other sefirot. Kabbalah describes netzach as the very essence of the soul itself. It isn’t a mood or conviction; netzach is the bedrock, the energy that emanates from the soul itself. Sometimes people call it grit, but it is deeper than that; it’s the energy behind creation. It is the thing that remains when everything else has been stripped away.
The energy derived from this sefirah is only activated when it faces a real challenge, when the outcome isn’t guaranteed. When life is difficult and the challenges seem insurmountable, there is an even deeper well to draw from.
Our moment is difficult on multiple fronts. Internally, we navigate the question of identity and belonging. Externally, we are living through a sharp rise of antisemitism, and a global climate where any support for Israel or Jewish peoplehood is contested in ways that would have seemed unimaginable years ago. The pressure this generation faces is real and is coming from every direction.
Moses is described in our tradition as the most humble person who ever lived. One explanation is that he was shown all future generations, and when he saw the later ones, the ones closest to our time, he was humbled. Not because they were more brilliant or more learned. What humbled him was their persistence. The fact that, in conditions far more challenging than anything he faced, they kept showing up. They kept being Jewish.
The problems our generation faces aren’t problems; they’re activation conditions.
A family that makes real financial sacrifices to give their children a Jewish education is acting out of something deeper. The young adult who asks hard questions about faith and stays in the conversation anyway, the person who finds their way back to synagogue time and again, even when life has pulled them elsewhere, none of that is running on fumes. That’s Netzach. That’s the essence of the soul doing what only the essence of the soul can do.
And that’s what genuinely excites me about this moment.
This isn’t just another story of Jewish perseverance. At its core, the Jewish soul has been awakened.
Intellectual passion comes and goes. Emotional inspiration rises and falls. Previous generations may have been more spiritually attuned, but we are operating on a different level: we are wearing our souls on our sleeves.
And when the Jewish soul is revealed, it is unstoppable. What was once endurance becomes victory; what was persistence becomes transformation.
We aren’t just surviving due to our Netzach conviction, we’ve unlocked the unstoppable power at the core of our identity – the soul itself – the spark of the creator that He imbued within us.
We may not look like the golden generation to some. Yet we are running on the most powerful force there is, Netzach. The future isn’t just fine, it’s bright, because this generation isn’t just showing up, it is showing up with new unstoppable energy.
Rabbi Levik Gourarie is the co-director of Chabad Young Professionals Cincinnati