RESTORATION AND REHABILITATION

  From the beginning of time humanity has had to make choices. One of the most frequent situations of choice was one between restoring and/or rehabilitating or chucking it. When materials and expertise were not present in quantity and quality, the choice was much more severe. Possibly even reaching a point of absence of that item. Or, the possibility of happenstance attempts at restoring it to its function, hopefully to remain so for a long period of time.

We, or at least those of my generation and even into the generation below, have moments of remembering the repairman coming to the house with a bag of tools and replacement parts. Or, of loading those heavy TV's and cumbersome radios and cameras into the car and schlepping to the repairman. Hoping and praying that it could be fixed. At a reasonable price. Rather than being discarded. With the horror of replacement of buying a new one hitting us upon the head with a hammer. Money not available or free to spend upon non necessities of life, almost always led to the attempt to restore to working order. For as long as possible. Generally, with the members of the family standing anxiously alongside the home repairman or riding along in the attempt to restore it to life, a valuable component in the life of that family with the memories of it part of the family lore.

It was a pride of ownership. A reluctance to let something go, for the meaning behind it and its presence and existence within the household. It was also a society where the old adage of waste not, want not was still of active application and understanding. Purchases were undertaken not on a whim, but only after careful consideration and comparison. Of quality and cost. Of benefit. It was almost a tangible atmosphere of concern of the family as they watched an item go down the stairs and out the door. Perhaps to return, perhaps not.

Today, we live in a throwaway society. There's no patience to fix something. No patience to investigate as to exactly what the cause of the problem is, if it can be fixed relatively easily. Even when one desires to check the box first of restoration and rehabilitation, it is not so easy to carry it out in actuality. Those capable of restoring and rehabilitating are few and far in between. So many times, when an appliance is broken and the repairman comes to check it out, the conversation generally rolls around as to why it cannot be fixed. Why it would be only temporary. Why it pays to buy a new one rather than attempt to fix this old one. Always along those same lines. I am not even sure if the training programs for repairman of multiple types of items actually receive training in the art of repairing such.  Far more capable of installing and explaining the newly ever more complicated set of directions necessary to start and operate this new item.  

It is generally only when one ventures into neighborhoods where recent immigrants live, that one can find a repairman knowledgeable and capable of repairing and restoring. In fact, when one finds one of these rare treasures it is with a look of horror that they respond to your suggestion of perhaps one needs to totally discard it. It is anathema in their culture. There is no throw it away train of thought. Money and items are too scarce, too important and too difficult to replace without at least making a strong effort to fix the problem at its source. Then they are regarded as magicians and are given the title of "genius". 

In the new development where we live in our other country, one has the opportunity to make that choice. If one ventures into neighborhoods of immigrants, or any monetarily challenged folks, who tend to think twice and then again before discarding a broken item, chances are there will be those folks who can repair and rehabilitate. Often quite successful in their attempts and restore it to   its place within the hearth and home. At times one is amazed at how simple the repair actually was. And then wonders why the hell do we insist at   present to keep on discarding items which can be rehabilitated. Whose materials are precious and non-renewable. Allow for pride of ownership. For the meaning behind it. To carry weight and to prevent waste.

Now transfer the whole idea of repair and rehab to humans, or the awful decision, the horrendous choice to willfully discard, dehumanize, and devalue other humans. Because of their differing appearance. Or different viewpoints. Or whatever. vile hook used to further the nefarious plans resulting from those awful choices made. The choices of humanity re humanity are heavily spiced and tainted with greed and hate and convenience. There are rarely, if any, valid reasons as to why we should accept a decision to discard humanity, rather than work to make it better. To always inch up the ladder of true progress. To reach the deepest depths and heights of goodness to be found within humanity. 

Many will raise the rather righteous call upon humanity to understand that there are those within the mass who are neither capable of reformation nor willing or wanting to do so. These are the people who have, due to Nature and/or Nurture have declared themselves outside the camp of humanity. Who have given up all attempts to reform. Who have chosen of their own free will to continue on this path of no return.

However, before we assign one to be non-redeemable, one must be very sure of the righteousness and justice behind that decision.  Even in a throwaway world we do not extend that way of life and thought to humans.   It is only with hard and demanding work and process wherein we do our utmost, that a decision to outlaw one from the rest of humanity can be rightfully and righteously reached. The difficulty and the permanence of such a decision cannot be downplayed nor discounted. If and when one does do so, one is actually being dismissive of one's own humanity.   

The question that arises is thus: What does one do with those who willfully, even with enjoyment, have declared and made themselves to be declared as outside the camp of humanity? What are we to do with such people who have denied their own humanity and then rage ruthlessly through the ranks of those unprepared and unknowing as to how to reckon with such violence and toxicity?

Those are difficult questions to answer. Yes, indeed there are people who are so evil that they have forfeited the right to deserve to live. The weight of that decision and its implementation lays heavily upon the one making and/or carrying it out. That decision diminishes one, causes a piece of one's soul and heart to shiver, possibly even break. But that is a burden which unfortunately those who have taken upon themselves the responsibility of protecting humanity will carry. It is we, the others, who benefit from these most difficult decisions, who owe them an eternal and endless, unmeasurable gratitude. Yet too often that gratitude is forgotten, even turned inside out, as we so often care to 'disremember' unpleasantness and pass the blame and consequences onto others, to rebound upon them, as all the while we act as if our hands were nowhere near the deed nor its inception. 

This all leads to a necessity of a clear and definite definition, not politically influenced, as to what exactly is the line which must not be crossed in the determination of war crimes, crimes against humanity.  These days we waffle and drift with the winds of the political nature of nations. These currents all too often result in fragile and incorrect definition and assignment of guilt. We turn blind eyes and deaf ears to the cries of those slaughtered. We ignore the truth. The perpetrators of these crimes are given a pass because it suits us at that moment to do so. Truth is pushed aside. Negated. And the innocents suffer twice over what should never have been theirs in the first place.  

So often the ugliness that results from this playing around with truth, with convenience overwhelming all else, causes a blurring of the lines. Purposeful intentional slaughter of civilians. Gross maltreatment of prisoners of war. All are downplayed. Ugly and unfortunate realities of the world, of the nature of nations occupying this globe, skew the truth.  Ancient and ugly tropes and memes of hate, toxic beyond understanding, rule the day. Falsehoods are passed on into the history books with terrible consequences.

One day, perhaps. we will all see the truth for what it is. The falsehoods for what they perpetuate and perpetrate upon mankind. One day we will know better. But until then how do we accommodate that which is right and deny that which is wrong? How is it possible to convince those deeply entwined in ugliness to forsake it. To come to that which is necessary for humanity to move forward. For all to live a better life. How indeed do we get rid of these prejudices? These venomous hates which periodically decimate the ranks of the people of this globe and inflict only more tragedy upon us all.

We did not know those answers yesterday. 

We sure as hell don't know them today.

Will we know them tomorrow?

Not so sure, as we appear to be slow learners. 

Too slow, in fact, for our own good.

Traffic

 Sorry for the surprise lack of posting today. Unfortunately, the state of Florida has decided to repair its roads all at once and traffic does not move. Not a whit. We are currently waiting for forward movement and will not be able to post today.

My bad- actually Florida's bad and we will return tomorrow.

Thank you and have a good day. Certainly, better than the one we are experiencing right now.

HOW TO REMAIN WHOLE

  That title my friends is the question of the day. Actually, many days, weeks, months. Life is truly confusing. Take the issue of leadership. There is no single person on this earth, who is serving in leadership position, who is worthy of it. Yes, at times these rather damaged and lacking individuals do something good, do the right thing. But so many. too many, and too much of the time there is a negation of the good, erased via a bad, evil, stupid, thoughtless decision and/or action. One can almost always find within a soft spot, a place where rot can be clearly seen or uncovered slightly beneath the surface.

It is, however, quite sad, and most probable a prediction of bad times forthcoming. When that rot   is developing, even emitting the slightest sour odor, that is the time to pay attention.  When ignored, or even part of a wishful never ever happening, we are just about 100% certain to complicate the whole matter, for in ignoring a little bit, we get a big bundle of trouble. A well-deserved consequence. The only problem is that the resultant unpleasantness and worse, caused by spineless or hapless or selfish leaders, rebounds onto us, and we are the ones who pay the price.   

Unfortunately, it seems there is no way out of this ever-recurring nastiness. For this one coming up we are at fault. We allowed glib and glitter to convince too many of us to look past the obvious spots of rot. And yes, even evil. Certainly, of glaring stupidity. And a growing dementia. And all topped with an absolute lack of taste or loyalty or tradition. For sure, there is no empathetic or sympathetic nerve or feeling in his head. Even when the head is trying its best! Which is actually not much better than its lowest point. And where goeth democracy?

His one good deed was to increase pressure on Hamas and Islamic Jihad to step up the pace of release of the hostages. Dead or alive. However, his hot air balloon ran out of steam. It is way past the deadline. A deadline which promised Hell to rain down upon the heads of those two organizations. Not so good was that in the end as Israel is now fighting for her life again and Ran Gvili, a hero, perhaps the first to lose his life, remains hostage, denied burial, denied to his parents and family. To his nation. WHERE IS HELL? 

His gilt and poor taste in the decorations for his decor. The Christmas decorations for the White House. The East Wing destroyed. For a tasteless ballroom. The Rose Garden dead. The Kennedy Arts Center. His Hall of Presidents. And his pettiness in that situation. His absence of tact. And his most disgusting insane constant claim of earning Nobel Prizes and seeking that peace prize, even if it has to come from FIFA, the soccer organization. No, he wants what he wants. Even as he continues to deteriorate before our apparently unseeing eyes.

The other leaders, supposed leaders, of the world, are equally as disappointing. Putin is psychotic. Bibi is enmeshed in his own high opinion of himself. The leaders of Spain, Ireland, England, France. They and others have all crossed over the line. Allowed their inner flickering antisemitism to burst forth in all its ugly flames of the rabid JewHatred now roiling the world. The people of the world have bought into this. hook, line, and sinker, and have been refusing in every which way to halt their bloody and hateful fishing. It is the exception rather than the rule for one to oppose, verbally, visually. even within one's home.

When a goodly number of politicians in places of authority, call out against Israel. That is not good. When the presidents of major universities sanction ugly anti Semitism. Verging into physical violence. and threats and intimidation, it is claimed OK because that is freedom of speech!!! That is not a good situation, is it? Would we too have freedom of speech? If we stood there with bats in our hand. With chants and posters calling for death. Demean and debase the religion of Islam.  All the countries which adhere to it. Do you think the presidents would then call it freedom of speech? Highly doubtful.

When distinguished publishing companies put out and advertise and praise malicious tomes of hate. Even their covers filled with lies, where then is one to turn to hope? Is there, in fact, any chance to turn this nation, all the nations of the world, around, for they have all gone over to this ugliness. Whether they claim to be right or left, always in common is their hatred for the Jews? 

Here is what USC Publishing spewed forth.  

  Big oversize heavy black letters, GAZA. 

Beside it in black capitals - CASTROPHE. 

Beneath it in smaller, black capitals -   mob rousing words - THE GENOCIE IN WORLD-HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE  

Author: Gilbert Achcar. 

The blurb. Please note that sarcasm from me is dropping steadily even as I type these words, these lies, these ignorant statements. Feel them.

"From a foremost expert on the Middle East -a searing indictment of the forces that led to genocidal war on Gaza and its reverberations across the globe."

 It is indeed a pity when our supposed brains, our eggheads and their enablers push this filth, these blatant lies into the world at large. Genocide. A planned scientific manner by which an entire people is to be exterminated. That is not the case in Gaza. Not at all. Not even in distant cousin relationship. The reverberations across the globe. Where were they on October 7th, 2023? Where were they when our kidnapped emerged from the darkness in which they were held in exact similar walking skeleton form as those who truly faced genocide. The Holocaust.

No. I don't know. More and more I think that this world is lost. Beyond any point of redemption. Even while I seek the good, and there is much good, I just do not know. Is there enough to at least. cover over a layer of the tangible evil present in this world.

As ever present as it was yesterday.

As ever present as it is today.

And G-d help us, most probably as it will be in the tomorrows.

ONE SIMPLE QUESTION - WITHOUT ANY ANSWER

  There are so many questions in this world which have no answers. Why do some people remain almost absolutely perfect until the day they are called home? Why do some unfortunately suffer from several syndromes or diseases of chronic afflictions which do not give them a moment of peace. Why are some people called upon time and again to stand strong and steady and sturdy, while others flit through life with narrow worry? Is it the errors or the good deeds of a past life? Is it that some are meant to serve as examples, role models in various formats for the benefit of them?? Or to warn them? To open eyes and ears where and when needed? Is it random? No purpose at all, merely chance?  Or is it that some are so good, too good for this world and are called to get their rewards early, sparing them the agonies and disturbances of human life on this planet? Have they been sent here on a mission and once accomplished, freed from the tethers binding us to earth?

The whole sad sack of questions and lack of knowledge besiege us every day. From all directions. At times unforeseen consequences arise, and we are gob smacked. It is at precisely in those strained and troubling times that we are lost. The ugliness of corruption. The nauseating stink of swamps of hate, vicious and cruel, inundating the land. Can we find ourselves?

We call out for advice. For help and support. Alone is a state of being neither supportive nor conducive of an outlook of hope. Of anything good. We seek paths out of the morass in which we find ourselves. Maps which are already written. Maps we will, must, write ourselves. At times, unfortunately, those maps never become reality. And we find ourselves floundering, in uncertainty, pessimism, and confusion. We cry out. Is there no end to all this?

Today, I believe this is the state of the world. I do not believe we have as of yet discovered any cure.  The acidity and ugliness of hate continue to eat away at the hater and the hated. It is astonishing how many people wallow in its ugliness, so filled are they with the negativity, the desire to do harm to others, to find scapegoats for their woes, of their own doing, or as a result of the actions of others. However, the hate is never directed to where it belongs, and underlying issues never get resolved. 

At present the world is drowning in a wave of hate such as we have not seen, perhaps, since the Middle Ages. That was the time when the entire roster of nations hated my people. Every country. Viral. Toxic. So many bloody expulsions. So many false accusations. So much of the evil desire to restrict them in every facet of life. During WWII there was an unspeakable presence of a desire to exterminate the Jewish nation, but it did not blacken the souls of all nations, though its presence in even one nation was and is anathema. 

We thought things had gotten better. That while JewHatred, Anti Semitism at its worst, always remained, much of the world had simmered down. If not voluntarily finding the errors of their ways, they were forced into it by others. And Jews prospered throughout the world. For themselves and for the nations in which they resided, and even for people in other nations. So useful were their contributions, in science, literature, all the Arts, Medicine, Inventions, in fact in all fields of life.  

Unfortunately, two years and two months ago we found those cells of blemish on the souls of mankind. A modern-day reinvention of the horrid times of the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages. The haters of the Jewish people, the deniers of a State of Israel, all jumped on the bandwagon, spewing filth and hate from their mouths without end. Seeking Jewish people out wherever they are. Blowing them up. Attacking them, setting fire to them. Challenging their every belief. Their very core of life. Denying them humanity. And denying them any right to hope for a positive, hopeful, contributory future.

Somehow, people were ready to hate. Perhaps because it is a sick world, suffused with that desire and readiness, and they found a tried-and-true victim. Tried and true targets for their hate. The Jews. Once again. The shock was enormous. Accused of killing our own. Accused of genocide. When we are the only nation which protects civilians in the area of war. To the best of their ability. Above and beyond any other actions by any other nations.   What foe brings in food for the enemy, despite all the lies and denial the world buys. Continues to give them medical help by taking them within their own borders. This nation, the target of a bloody massacre the likes of which should have shocked the world into a true understanding of the situation, is then held to double standards of impossibility and denied the right to defend themselves, to deny any possibility of a repeat performance. Israel is the nation   accused of war crimes. Even when the world is rife over ripe, overflowing with war crimes. Including here in the United States. Just now revealed as part of Trump's supposed war on drugs, which, as usual, has gone overboard.

For that matter, this nation and other nations of the Western world have convinced themselves that all immigrants are dangerous, drug ridden, drug sellers, all meaning to rape the new nation they invade. Yet even within the fever of hate rising, every nation denied the reality that among their people there are devils who live to wreak harm, even death, on others. Never would they have people within their own nation who would glory, revel in brutality and inhumanity! How blind!  

Well, we were mistaken, were we not? The sickness of the soul evidently has taken strong root within all of us. If we think this will not be, it already is. We have glommed onto the claim.  We demonize immigrants who wish to find a life for themselves and their families, to build a future, to grow their new nation. Are there crooks among them? Of course, and they should be dealt with as should the crooks of the native born. In fact, data has proven that the native born are more likely to commit crimes than the immigrants.

However, at present we have demonized the immigrants. Refused to fix our system so as to weed out those inimical to the nation. Instead, we criminalize all, condemn all, rip families apart. Destroy communities. Children come home and find no parents. Parents find the schools have been raided and the location of their child is unknown.   

We praise incompetence and ignorance at present. We take huge giant steps backwards. Discarding all that we have learned, all that we know.  Accept as OK for families, for children, to go hungry.  People work but lose their homes anyway. Children fall ill and die from diseases which have been eradicated. until we brought them back via our stupidity.  

And we wonder why? Why is it that these people anti a good world, a world of fairness and justice. Of compassion and understanding, why is it that these people manage to thrive? They beat down upon others. They are Beasts within their evil, partake joyously in prejudice and if it is unfettered, even sanctioned JewHatred, so much the better. 

In many of the prayers and the ethos of the religions of the world we all say that the good are rewarded and the evil are punished. Now return to the beginning of the posting. Questions without answers. Answers to explain to us, to make us understand, if possible. Why does evil persist? Must we have evil if we are to know good? Why can we not bask in the shelter and love of the LORD, by whatever name He, the LORD, is called? Why can he not be our Father rather than a cruel Master, a King demanding that which is not possible. Certainly not at this time.

I have no answers to these questions. I don't believe there ever were answers that truly satisfied the needs of the one who questioned.  

 Certainly not in our Yesterdays. 

Not at all in our Todays.

One can hope for our Tomorrows.

Maybe.

I would not bet on it.

Sorry

 Traveling today and tomorrow  See you on Friday

PEACE BE UNTO YOU

  I would venture to say, be bold enough to say, that most of us are a bunch of mealy-mouthed superficial talkers who never think things through. Never to grasp and understand the truth of what is being said and/or demanded. If this is the status quo, to shake hands and then wipe them against one's pants to eliminate the touch of the enemy; to  mouth the words of peace and wishes for peace, all the while knowing that the fighting will recommence as soon as all are back in their redoubts, well, what the hell! Why are we wasting all our time in spewing forth words of falsehood and lies which serve to disguise our true intentions and the actions forthcoming, for just that little bit longer. All to give our armies, all our forces that edge which might mean the difference between victory or defeat.

 Too many of us deny or ignore, the fact that there is, there are, no winners in war. The loss on and to both sides, the time, energy, and people all represent misspent minds and funds. The excruciating and forever wounds remain, echo down through history, twisted and turned to serve the needs of nations, even of groups within those entities. In reality, there are no winners in a war, and to think otherwise is to lie to oneself. 

 If one cannot fathom that in reality, who persist in recalling victories of importance in the annals of mankind, think again. The ever roiling of the world with cries urging slaughter; the shouts of ironic claims of victory, even as their land lies about them in huge piles of rubble, and the loss of humanity blatant in the empty streets and at family tables. These are facts hammering down upon us for decades or longer after the supposed peace treaty is signed to end it. 

It is at that point that our foresight disappears. All we see before us are the opportunities to wreak revenge upon our foes. To "get” them for all that they have brought upon us with their belligerency and their refusal to compromise - as we see it, not as they see it, nor as we all should see it. 

  For the truth of that, for the true realities of end of war, all one must do is hark back to England at the end of World War Two. At the end of the war, much of the world lay crumbled and England was among the worst. The hardships which remained after World War One, the "war to end all wars" - not so as one could actually point to the success and truth of that mantra, remained. The hardships and rationing and loss of people, of infrastructure were increased and compounded by the consequences of being a 'winner' in WWII. For many, many years, during, in between and after, even in some cases, until today, England was permanently changed and suffered hardships as if defeated, rather than as one of the nations claiming victory and the rewards of that victory. 

Winners and losers confused in reality, and alliances constantly shifting. Certainly not a new phenomenon in the history of humanity and certainly something we have never been able to internalize and understand and rebuild our priorities accordingly.

We all are the losers in a war. We see only our anger and our desire for revenge. At times, many times, that revenge, that intense desire to 'get' someone, something, eats away at us, for so barbaric have been our enemies, so evil, that justice demands their punishment be deep and lasting.  We forget that we must leave room for those doves carrying the olive branches to enter, freshen the air and cleanse our minds of all that is negative, all that will only serve to lead to the next war and the next and the next and the next. 

 Somehow, somewhere we must be able to look within ourselves, within our nations, and find the true peace makers, the true thinkers who know how to balance the needs of the victors along with the needs of the defeated if we are to avoid further war. Further defeat for us all. 

If we had understood that principle at the ends of so many wars, we could have avoided the horrors and consequences of those wars we need not have allowed to grow into ugly clouds, darkening the entire world for so many years. Over and over again. Then only to refight those same wars with bits and pieces of change meaning nothing. Only increased bloodletting, more anger and acidity among the nations of the world, and intensifying the negatives of humanity and its greed, always trying to one up the other. Understand how we could have avoided World War Two if we had ended World War One the way it should have been and if we would have avoided compounding the consequences by allowing incompetent statesmen to usher us further into a war which then had nowhere to go, other than having to be fought. Think of the world we could be living in at present if we had averted the horrors, the incomprehensible horrors, of World War Two. 

I am neither a peacenik nor a warmonger. In the Bible in the Old Testament we have been instructed to understand the difference between wars which must be fought, no other choice, or those fought only to accumulate wealth, and might There were different rules and different consequences. I understand that; I know that wars must be fought against those who would wreak havoc. Massacre all before them, in the most barbaric manners, and   we might be forced to do so again and again and again, never to end. But I also feel that if we stuff up our ears and close our eyes to the entire reality, we will never dig our way out from the deep abyss and chaos of war.

In the Bible in  Genesis 23:43 "And he said, Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them."

  And in the Book of Judges 19:20  "And the old man said, Peace be with thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street."     

 we learn of the impetus to peace. Willing it, to gift it, to those we meet. Peace be unto you. We say Shalom.  Salaam. Why we continue to say those words and to profess belief in them when all the while we are fingering the weapons behind us, at the ready o wound and slash? Why and wherefore can we not find people capable of understanding, capable of engendering a world where war is not the first, last and always road to follow, to venture into and upon, always with terrible consequences. Even the New Testament, in Luke 24:36 "And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you". reminds us, calls upon us, to know that peace be unto you is what we need to profess and to uphold.

I honor all our brave soldiers, our people who have set aside their own personal needs, left their families and defend their nation. I honor all who knew we had reached the point of no return, no other possibility other than to do what must be done and who then did it at great cost to themselves and to the world. But the necessity was such that it had to be fought.

Would only that we could have avoided that necessity in fair and justified manner. Would that we had devoted those energies, those minds, those funds that drive, to the wishes of peace be unto you. To me and mine as well.

One day we will learn. One day, perhaps, we will study history and wonder what had gone wrong. Why did humanity perpetually choose the wrong fork in the road, fallen off the proper pathways through life? Why have we almost continuously taken the wrong fork, the many wrong forks and   roads? Where was the understanding that we humans are indeed capable of using and implementing?  

It was certainly not there yesterday.

Not really here today as well.

As for tomorrow, we can only hope and strive.

May the good Lord bless us with that wisdom and strength, that innate knowledge that we can improve and indeed must improve.

When all the people of the world will wish each other - 

Peace be unto you.

SPLIT PERSONALITIES

 I have the answer. Or at least part of it. Last night I was part of a wonderful study session regarding two of the foremothers, Rachel and Leah and some of what they represented, as we looked back and look forward into our history. It actually explains some of that which has kept us from going forward in orderly manner and at the same time, explains why, despite all the barricades and snafus along the road- We. Are. Here. and here we will remain until time immemorial when the good Lord Above decides that enough is enough and it is time for the 'be'at Hamoshiach', the coming of the Messiah. Whatever the time, whatever the circumstances, it will have been more than enough time.

According to some commentators, who, (and via my own take on this matter), throughout the centuries, intensely studied the Bible, the Old Testament and Prophets, believed the world was kind of left broken and changed for all time via the transgression of Adam, the first man on Earth. Instead of glorying in his goodness and cleanliness, having never defied the Lord, he (and his wife) took the wrong fork in the road. This misstep of his was a misstep for the generations to come. Instead of one whole entire blessedly clean soul, humanity, for the most part, then became burdened via a dichotomy. We can call it good and evil or the high road and the low road, even temptation and resistance. But whatever it is called. it left humans weaker, imperfect, facing a more challenging status, standing, and positive achievement in the world.

It appears to me that the Soul, the pure and the tainted, did usher in a new and changed world. It is the world where the one segment can be in combat, behave in oppositional manner with the other segment. Battling for power and influence, for domination, intensely at times and less intensely at other times. It is only when we understand that the two segments must be reunited, must be made to mesh together, work cooperatively with each other, that the best of the Lord's creation, the best lives we can lead, will appear before us in all of its possibilities and blessings. When will that be? I have no answer to that. Quite frankly, I do not believe the Lord has one either, so complicated, confusing, irritating and contradictory are the beings which followed Adam and Eve.

Abraham and Lot, his nephew, going separate ways, underlying principles and motivations not coinciding. Isaac and Yishmael, Jacob and Esau. Even Isaac and his beloved wife, Rivka, who chose different sons. Abraham and Sarah with depth and intensity and belief varying at times. The 12 sons of Jacob and their brotherly strife advancing to the point of selling a brother into slavery. Finally, we come to Rachel and Leah, the one representing ever forward movement, ever seeking more, how to move the nation forward, how to be better, stronger in our faith. The other, emphasizing and understanding and acceptance of the current, whatever the current situation is. and build within it. Know the importance and the strength of unity and cohesion.

However, it is only when these competing segments of Soul discover, manufacture, the keys which will open the locks and the doors separating them, that the nation of the Lord and the population of the world, for all creations are of His hands, in the Lord  find peace. We will claim the purity of soul which we were meant to be endowed with, from the very beginning of time.

We were supposed to learn to mesh the permanent power of the sun and the ever-changing appearance of the moon, cooperating rather than competing, working together rather than driving nails to separate. It is when we understand the importance of the Torah, the Bible and value the wisdom of our Prophets sent to us to help us, to guide us, along with the insights of our commentators. When we open ourselves up to all the light and all the glory of Hashem, then and only then, can we even begin to approach the elevated standards and achievements of the Biblical figures. 

Only then will we understand the mercy of the Lord Above who knows His human creations can go astray, must understand their violations, but  He is also our Father on high,  a Father who understands that it is easier and better to convince with love and soft touch rather than with a hammer on the head, and bring those who stray from the fold back. Welcomed with open arms. Even the best among us commits an offense in our lifetime, but it is to the credit of those who have indeed gone astray to understand and acknowledge what they have done and take proper steps to ameliorate the harm.

At times the name we have been given or earned as Am Kishei Oref, a nation, basically, of stubborn stiff-necked people has carried us through with that combination. Varying at times, as needed, with the steady, ever seeking, segment of soul and the steadiness of our people in their faith in the Torah,  in their celebrations and commemorations, combined with the agility and defiance, the ability to change into the personality that is needed at that time. This meshing of the two has kept us together, made it known and recognized that we are in fact and deed, one nation, Am Echad, and one Fate. And of course, there was always, along with us, that helping Hand from above. So much so that even in the moments where the Upstairs Neighbor was not paying as much attention as he should have been doing, we were able to call upon our own strengths and fill the gap until such time as Heaven came knocking on our door.

Look around now at our people and I wonder. Will we ever learn that lesson? Will we ever understand what we are doing wrong and take all steps necessary to correct our gait? Learn how to walk together? Learn how to face our enemies together, both of within and without, and roundly and soundly defeat them? Have we scorched the land behind us? So much so that there is no possibility of such a thing happening? Have we so 'enemitized and alienated' ourselves, each from the other, so that we truly cannot see clearly through those obscuring mists? 

Or is there another hint here, both frightening and elating at the same time? It frightens me, but its promise of finality holds out such hope of forgiveness and defeat of enemy, that we skim over the tough part and peer only into the future time, one of grace, unity, joy and a worldwide recognition and acceptance of Hashem as the one and true G-d. 

For all.

Our errors will be made clear to us and forgiven at the same time and there will be a union of the two separated segments of our soul, never to be apart and/or in conflict again.

First to arrive will be Mashiach ben Yosef, the Messiah from the House of Yosef, Joseph. He will lead the battle against Gog and Magog, horrific enemies of the Jewish people, and will be victorious. When that is done, then will come Mashiah from the House of David, the true Messiah for which we have been waiting, ever since Adam led us astray, to lose our perfection, now to unite us, with brotherhood and peace, love and justice and we will be whole once again.   Whole and healed for always. One people of the world worshipping he true God.

It was true yesterday, true into our todays, and G-d willing, well into the permanence of our tomorrows.

THE CONFUSION OF LIFE

  Why is that life can be great and down in the dumps at one and the same time? Life can be like the best carry-on, with the most advanced wheels gliding over the biggest curbs, the roughest cobblestones, yet meets its waterloo at a tiny, almost invisible minor crack in an otherwise smooth pavement. 

This is apparently the first cousin of the high and low points of life where you can be flying on a high and smack right dab straight into a steel pole.  Instead of remaining in that high moment, that moment of triumph, of joy, a satisfaction of self-pride, you find yourself down in the dumps. Upset with yourself, at yourself and with the world at large. You have no idea how  or why this happened. All you can do is try to regain some kind of even plane and be able to move on with life. Not always so easy to do and in fact, not always successful. 

I find that the best things to do at that moment in time is to sit oneself down and take a piece of paper or boot up the computer, use your phone and make a list. Compare the importance, the intensity, and the consequences good and bad and wind it all down. Condense it all. Be honest in approach. Generally, one will find a manageable issue emerging, controllable, where once you had thought the sky was indeed falling and your life was over.

People will advise you to avoid the moments that upset you or punctures the balloon attached to you, the one which kept you flying high and in forward movement. However, one cannot live life that way, for attempting to put oneself in a bubble, shielded from all negativity and concern, will, inevitably flatten and deflate and take the flavor out of those high moments of success and achievement. There must be a comparison and contrast if one is to be able to distinguish between these moments and the emotions connected. Without that, one would be living in a flat, gray, gloomy world void of all that is life, of all that makes us humans rather than automatons or serfs forbidden to have or act upon personal needs, to fulfill goals and meet challenges particular to oneself.  

My life at present is fulfilling. At this time I cannot find the words to fully transmit the joy, the pride, and the confusion in which I find myself at present. Put aside any and all health issues, thankful for medical advances and wonderful doctors, which have enabled me to carry on and live a full life. I find most amazing is that at this point in time when life can, would, and even should slow down a bit, more than a bit, I find myself a jet setter, balancing life in two very different countries and cultures. Two very different social circles and contrasting prioritizations. Yet, at the same time I am fulfilling a dream. Literally a lifetime dream once almost fulfilled but shut down by life circumstances of the time, only to be fulfilled unexpectedly and, I must admit, with great trepidation.

How would it be possible to mesh these lives How can I explain to people who questioned this change in life? That at this point in time it was doable. It is doable and hopefully it remains doable long into the future. That is, if my strength, physically, emotionally, along with my financial strength, allows for it. Most important of all is that we do this as a team, for after 58 years of marriage, to 120 shared years, I cannot see doing  it any other way. Frankly, I would rather it were possible to remain in one country, but that is impossible. There are powerful ties binding us to both and for as long as possible those tethers will remain intact and attached, giving us both joy and agita, overlapping, meshing and competing.

In one world I live in my birth nation, a nation which once filled me with pride, patriotism and a sense of belonging. I felt I had a home and security, a certainty for a good life, a future for our descendants. I trusted the government and its players though now with a bit more cynicism as I grew older and wiser in the ways of the world. But still, I was able to hang on to many pollyannish, idealistic, hopes and dreams and views even as my disappointments became more numerous and slowly more serious in consequence. Until ...

Until at times I feel that I must scrape the bottom of the dish. Squeeze it in order to get any discernible sense of belonging, of welcome, of optimism. Slowly, then at ever faster pace and fever, the base of life weakened. It began to seep, to ooze, out holes, cracks, ever wider and longer of concerning consequences. That wall of security and certainty that had once encompassed me and my mine, me and my people- Jewish Americans, American Jews - wherever one placed the stress was now almost out of existence or promise. In fact, it has grown to not matter at all, for at present, the strident voices of JewHatred have grown in tempo and viciousness.  Calling for the death, the extermination of all that is Jewish or related to that  term and its adherents, including Israel and our constant dream thru the millennia   to return, to join with those already, always, there, to live within its borders,  to fulfill our forever practice of Zionism, an integral part of our religion, a return to our indigenous ancestral land. Zion. Tziyon.  

Growing ever more frightened, seeing a diminishing return on our patriotism, our weakening hopes for a future for all, we remembered our dream and it grew ever stronger and seemingly possible. To make Aliyah, to go up to that land, our forever dream now faded, suddenly with a glowing color.  Now not a dream but a necessity, for security, for knowing I am welcomed and wanted. A place where it will be my privilege to keep certain commandments unavailable to me when outside the Land.

A dream became a reality and one day we found ourselves walking off a plane and almost immediately given citizenship papers, with a government and a people who welcomed us, immigrants welcomed, with privileges and a huge cohort of people able and willing and directed to smooth out the wrinkles and bumps of change and adjustment.  

In one nation I retain my native and, my always, or supposed to be, country of birth and acceptance and welcome. That welcome is freezing over; it's warmth diminishing day by day. JewHatred has become normalized, even encouraged, borders of propriety seriously, already, endangered.   Yet, I remain a citizen hopeful that it will return to what is supposed to be, which once tried to be. But a nation at present in the throes of dissolution, JewHaters in top echelons of government, growing in number. A President most manifestly in his personal throes of dementia who, until now, has been good for Israel but who is also notoriously known for his quick veers and changes of policy - what now. wither goes hope. 

He is at present also a definite threat to the ethos of America as a democracy, as a strong leader of the free world, as a nation of immigrants, each group contributing to the whole. His government is riddled with corruption and the sourness of it is palpable. The government is replete with people of incompetence, with people who care not for the people they are supposed to serve. They are in positions of power and grow this tumor upon our nation, with no end in sight. It makes lies of my past, the heroism of my grandparents, and the lives and values of my parents, along with the hope she gave me for a future, for my children and their children and their children as well. These are the ties and the hopes for which we keep our citizenship, not giving up on this country. We return to our extended families down to the great-grandchildren and meet up with old friends. To reconnect to an America as it once was.  

Israel is a nation of special people, where people must be tough, have to survive in hostile environments. But at the same time they are soft, gentle and caring. What other country takes in their enemies if they are ill. It is a nation held to double standards unfair and impossible to attain and maintain. It is a nation claimed to practice apartheid even as they absorb refugees from all countries of the world: from Burma, from India, from Ethiopia, from Europe, from America, from parts of Asia, from the Arab lands expelled, brutalized. It matters not, for this is the home and haven of and for all Jews.  

Where else can one find a people always in a hurry, always running late, but will stop to gently lift, then gently land, a person who needs help getting on or off a bus or a train or a curb. A nation with strangers who will stop to ask if you need help walking up or down the stairs, carrying bundles that appeared to be too heavy and too many. I know that for a fact as I have personally been the beneficiary of such kind deeds.  Where the children grow up strong and confident, patriotic, with love for their land, and sure of their lives even as their parents, siblings go to war, for they know they are safe in those hands, encircled by their love.  

We were welcomed into a most wonderful community, young and vibrant with some of the most brilliant people I have ever met. It is a place where the voices of children playing outside ring out happy, free, unafraid.  It is a community where doors are open to new friends as are the arms of the adults and the children living within. 

 It is a nation of One People. Do they argue amongst themselves? For sure. Jews argue. Fact. But they are a family. One. Fact. It is a nation plagued by violent and vicious barbaric enemies. It is a nation held to double standards unachievable. And even if achieved, unmaintainable. It is a nation held out as a chosen target of the entire world. So it has been through the millennia, from the past to the present, and most probably well into the future. 

But we do not succumb to our enemies. We defeat, we outlive those empires so strong and mighty who wished to destroy us. We are family, no matter how far we are separated, how far we are scattered over the globe. We are confident in our survival. So often challenged in that belief with the reality of its ugliness. But we know that our Lord is with us. Through thick and thin, always to return to our aid in the darkest moments of our history.

 Israel is a nation ruled by a corrupt government as is America. They both are plagued by incompetent, uncaring, selfish 'leaders' who mock that title. Two nations which must mend the rents within the fabric of Nationhood.  I am confident that Israel will do exactly that, though not without aggravation and family disagreements.  However, when push comes to shove, they all believe and know the necessity of this state and set aside in the name of unity and survival. At present it is probably one of the worst times for this nation, but I am confident that it will come to its senses. Remember this nation's importance. A life necessity for us and all the people of our blood. 

The United States is a bit more complicated. There is no one family there any longer. Xenophobia, anti-immigrant fever has been ramped up to the highest level. We have forgotten our history. We have forgotten that but for the Lord and our brave ancestors we would be elsewhere or not be at all. It is a nation that has lost its spine. It is a nation that is no longer connected. We have become tribes in warfare. We are disremembering that we are, at least supposed to be, the United States of America.

Both nations need a hero and a true leader. The ranks of our government are now overflowing with crap. Unless we do so and quickly the future grows dimmer.

Both nations must return to what they were and to what they aspired to be. If we lose that motivation and understanding, we will be lost ourselves.

These are my people. These are my nations, good and bad, both troubled at present.

My dream. My nightmare.

Highs and lows.

Life.

So it has been, so it is, and so it will most likely be.

Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

For as long as G-d gives me and the world strength to do so.  

WHAT TO WRITE?

  Most mornings I have a pretty good idea as to what should be the goal or aim of the new posting. Generally, it derives from the day before events or thoughts or even what I pick up in the time before I write. Other times it simply is there, in my head, awaiting a good time to expand upon, and then I just roll with it. What amazes me at times is how often I intend to write about topic x and end up way off on a tangent which emerges as my writing progresses.

 However, coming as a shock to me and quite a number of other people I appear to be having a hopefully minor spat of a variety of writer's block.  Maybe that is not the correct term for I can write, but the question is, what is the topic to be? What is uppermost in my mind? And utmost in importance, most demanding of attention. Unfortunately, the answer is that there are so many topics which demand addressing. So many topics of concern but to paraphrase, "these are the times that try my soul”. There is so much wrong in this world, so much so that even when one tries one's darndest to remain optimistic, the light rather than the dark, the clear outlines rather than shadows, are just nigh on to impossible to visualize in the current reality. So overwhelming is the negative. So bleak is the outlook. So distant is the time and place wherein one can realistically believe, think, hope that redemption is at hand. The human race will improve rather than deconstruct. And life will go on as hopefully G-d meant it to be. Or did He?

The question arises here as to what exactly was in G-d's mind when He created humanity. Humankind. Were they meant to be a race of creatures who would always seek the positive, to advance in truly progressive manner not the subversion which that word has taken on at present? Were they to be a creature more than an animal walking on two legs, a creation that could walk ever higher? Leading straight to the Lord and His idea of the perfect representation of His best goals in mind at that time of creation?

But exactly how was that new creature of higher level to know all this? Was it to be etched in his mind and his soul? How deep would the etching be? How intensively would it be stressed and practiced? Would it be the same in each and every representation of humanity? Could the approach be the same in and to all or would it demand individualization? I believe that until we actually bumble our way to the answer's humanity will never be able to penetrate through to the higher levels, the ultimate goals. What would be the methods by which we would be motivated to struggle hard to make our way past blockades and pain and be able to find the good, the light, within the dark? 

I am not sure about that because is there a benefit if someone has to struggle, to be hurt, to have loved ones be killed or die before that time? Is this truly what is needed in order to push someone to a higher level? Is that how one is supposed to exist in order to prove one's recognition of the ultimate goals and motivations of our creation? I don't know. I can't really assimilate that into my understanding, for as a parent of three children, as a grandparent, as a great grandparent, I cannot see the point in inflicting harm, laying trouble or danger upon any of them in order to teach a lesson. Whatever that means.

Well, I guess I have a topic upon which I have touched before, but it still rings bells in my mind and pulls the rope for moments of doubt and questioning. But is not that what we are supposed to do as people, as humans fraught with inner innate flaws, ever so prone to erroneous steps? Is that not how we prove our worthiness? Is our understanding the point of our creation or at least our attempts to reach that understanding? Actually, honestly, to me, the idea of 100 percent achievement of that goal is nigh unto to impossible. I believe that perhaps a handful of truly blessed saintly people can fully assimilate that into their core and accept and understand the challenge and carry through. Most of us though, simply cannot get there, even with or despite intense heartfelt labor in that direction. Perhaps a crisis of such level and intensity, would perforce push us willingly or unwillingly onto that level - is not a welcome thought.

So how do we prove our worthiness to the Lord G-d Above, our Master, our King our Father, our Creator? I guess we need to simply try to be the best we can, and then some. To take the higher path, rather than the low. To account for benefits in the most unselfish manner and hence achieve and attain higher levels, ever nearer to the ideal. But even then “we are only human" and can only do the best we can but actually, how do we know what the best we can actually is? For that I have no answer. I don't even have a clue as to what steps to take, what keys to find to open the door, even a window for entry.

 Is it a hopeless task with which we have been unfairly burdened? No matter how hard we strive. No matter how intense our efforts. Again, no clue. There are times I feel optimistic. There are good signs, good vibes, emanating from at least a decent portion of humanity. But there are times, oh, so many, too many times where all we see is evidence of the rot within, of the greed and selfishness, of the lack of self-control. These negatives are too often possessive of a human being, and in turn dispossess them of all or most of that which is right. Along with all incentive to veer to the right and light.

Why is it that for millennia we have not progressed any further than the present? Why is it that we still have to expend countless dollars, time and power of mind to the creation of new, more deadly weapons? Why have we not yet learned as the Borg would say to the members of the Enterprise, "resistance is futile" and understand that the only true way to a better life for all is righteous, justified, justifiable, compromise. We all give a little and take a little. That would engender a Golden Age for mankind, as near as we can get. A true Golden Age rather than the limited Renaissances of Earth where there were vast gaps in the gold plating. Not so much for the Jews, was it? Not so much for the peasants, was it? Not with so much for those who were and are independent with deeper thoughts upsetting the status quo.

Instead of where we should be, we remain on the rather hideous level of discrimination, of xenophobia, of self-loathing, of careless thought and even more careless actions. We waste time on falsehood and fakery rather than on eternal truths and benefits for all. I guess that would be a utopia, which has so far proven to be impossible to achieve, at least on this plane of existence. But “wouldn't it be loverly” if we could and would strive to attain those goals, to get closer to it than we have come before. But leave out the hurt, the harm, the hate, the hostility mistakenly applied in the quest for higher levels.

At this moment in time, I am not optimistic about such achievements. Not when there are nations on this planet who think the only way to progress is to steal from others, to be aggressive in application of dangerous goals and motivations, the constant upgrade in the installation of hate and fear amongst those we oppose for whatever reason we think of. Simply create a victimhood for one group and for sure there will be enthusiastic believers and practitioners. 

When people starve while others engage in gluttony. When people decide that the other group does not deserve to live, for else can there be an elite group? How could one feel superior? When one group engages in barbaric manner and wreaks havoc and pain upon others. When we encourage excess while there is huge lacking in this world. When we discourage the idealistic and encourage and praise monetary accumulation achieved at    great cost to others and to oneself, as our souls and hearts harden. Is this truly the reality we wish to strengthen, even intensify, and make permanent? If so, we are doing a great job. Much to our shame.

Can we, you and I, improve ourselves? Can we show decisively to the Lord Above that we are deserving of His love as a Father more than we deserve his castigations as Master and Ruler? Can we highlight our progress, downplay our regression, and actually put an end to it? These are questions we all need to be asking ourselves. There are times needful of long moments of critical contemplation, understanding and implementation. 

We must choose which side to champion? That of the Dark Angels who rebelled against the Lord or those of the Good Angels, the ones who appeal to the best within us. Even Jacob wrestled with the Angels. Can we hope to do no more or no less? Can we truly wrestle and choose between the two angels within? At this point in time, it is more of an individual's choice, rather than a choice en-masse or of large groups. Even those who might have begun with altruistic motivations in mind too often tend to go astray and take the wrong fork in the road and find it impossible to retrace steps and redo that which never should have been done in the first place.

I believe at this point only with the cooperation of the ones who have gone before us, now sitting there, relaxing on the sofas of Heaven, chatting away, fretting as they look down upon their descendants, wondering how they can contribute to their improvement, to clear their foggy thinking and thoughts, only then can we have a hope of positive movement. Our grandparents, our great-grandparents, down the line, surely, they have advice to give. Those who went before their time, as my grandson, Yitzy, taken, too pure for this world, surely, he and those like him can beseech the Lord, who deemed it necessary for them to return to Him, to do better for those who remain on Earth.

I believe it is only with the conjunction of the two, the understanding what good can do, that we can find that which will impel us into a truly important comprehension of when and where and how and why we were and are led astray. When the willpower from Above and Below, here on Earth, conjoin, perhaps we can take strides in the right direction. Perhaps some will say too little, too late but we have to start somewhere. 

Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

 All contained kernels of hope, bright and optimistic, just as they also contained black, dark and rotted kernels boding no good for any of us, individually or together. We must amass the former and lose the latter. Then we will be able to look back on yesterday, live today, and plan for a beneficial positive, enlightened lit up golden tomorrow.

A gal can dream, can she not?!

DROR

 Dror is home, returned to his family, his nation and will receive proper burial and honors. A man slaughtered in the vicious massacre perpetrated by Hamas upon Israel, his wife killed and he, his body, (a bizarre and barbaric form of currency for Hamas) and two of his children, 14 and 17, were taken hostage into Gaza. He has been held until now, while his two children were released in an earlier hostage blackmail event.  All this time waiting to know if they were orphans, as the fate of Dror was not known.  Now they know.

The world mouths platitudes calling for the hostages to be released- that is, if they remember that there were hostages remaining. Dead and alive, dying. However, most of the calls were for Israel to put down their swords, give up their positions and slink back as if defeated across the border into Israel. There to await what? 

Well, we all know the ultimate goals of the killers of the terrorist groups, even the governments and the people of numerous Arab and Muslim countries. For the Jews to have been allowed to return to their indigenous and ancestral homeland, and to be wildly successful in every which way, manner and form was, and is, and most probably will always be, anathema straight to the very core of their being.

All those chanting beasts calling for "Liberation” of a Palestine which never existed until so declared by the UN in 1947, have missed the boat. The foes they have targeted, the Israeli army, all Israelis and by willful extension all Jews round the world, have been calling for freedom only for themselves. This is easily seen in their own countries where sect and manner of observance are costly to the freedom of the "inhabitants within".  

Much to the contrary are the calls for Dror, for Freedom, as called for within our own books. Here are a few places wherein we can find our references to the establishment of freedom within our world, a world where freedom is a universal concept and right, of value, worthy of effort to earn its keep.  

Leviticus 25:10 "And you shall proclaim dror (freedom) throughout the land and for all the inhabitants."

Jeremiah 34:8, 15, 17 (2x), Isaiah 61:1 and Ezekiel 46:17. 

Several times mentioned in our books - from the Bible to the prophets, a strong and emphasized point of our history, our religion, our very being, an intricate part of the definition of us as Jews. In the  name and cause of our freedom, we have been forced into the status of unwilling participant in constant wars, waged against us with the goal of removing any idea of freedom from within the Jewish nation.  

However, Dror, is a concept, a reality, a necessity we will not, indeed cannot, deny. We have been unfortunately, too often, the victim of declared loss of freedom for our people. We have been confined in places of residence. We have been denied the freedom to choose the clothing we wear. The careers we wish to pursue. Even the choice when to marry and have children, or worse, to have our children kidnapped, to be killed or raised as members of another religion. 

These are elementary, basic rights of freedom for all. Yet, nobody, at least very few, saw anything wrong in the denial of these basic rights of freedom to those who differed from them in some manner, major or minor, and more so, to the people of the Jewish nation. All the while discounting and disregarding contributions of the Jewish nation to the world. From the very first Jew to the Jews of all generations, and most probably, if able to, into the future. 

The world looks on, sheds a few crocodile tears, and then unleashes their own weapons, literal and figurative, against us. A quest to deny us that Dror, that freedom so important, allowing for us to be true to our religion, it's demands, precepts, the very heart and core, to return to the land of Zion, G-d given and promised, lived in and died for, over the many centuries. Today, the nation states of the world and their 'inhabitants within' perceive Israel to be in the crosshairs of her enemies and happily jump on board, allowing the ugliness of their eternal Hate, their dark forever JewHatred to resurface and do its worst. 

This will not be allowed to continue, to go unchallenged. Been there, done that before, a place, a condition, to which we will never return. No matter how deeply our enemies wish it to be so. If anything has taught us the importance, the merit, the necessity of combating any and all present and future attempts to contradict that solemn oath to ourselves, to Jews round the world, it has been this latest atrocity of Oct7 and its unbearable and profane aftermaths.

No more will we allow the world to force us to restraint, to stand by as our enemies build up their power until they are ready to attack us and where we will be on the defense, in adverse circumstances. Fair is the return of that strategy to the enemies within the world. If one such is on the surface of this earth, or beneath, still breathing and plotting, we will find you, wherever you hide and cower and finish you and your bloody plans for good. Finito.

Dror, returned to his family, and the power of his last name, Or, light, will always be with us, reminding us of the paths we must take if we are to avoid those which are imposed upon us.

We must keep our freedom intact, resist all attempts and wars waged to deprive us of that. We must keep the light shining upon us all, the light sent by the Lord Above to remind us of His presence and eternal promise to His Children.

Always.

Yesterday.

Today.

Tomorrow.

Dror, may you rest in eternal peace under the shelter of our Lord.

May your memory be for a blessing.

DONUTS AND HOLES AND HOPE VS. DESPAIR

  As do most people, I go up and down on the line connecting despair and pessimism to the other end of hope and optimism. I much prefer the latter end of it all; however, life does not always allow for such, in realistic life and manner. One must admit that one cannot live totally in a 100% pollyannish world, where all is good, nothing bad, the birds are trilling, and the roses are blooming. It just isn't that way. It never was. It is not, and it never will be, even in the best of times. In fact, Charles Dickens had it right in his iconic opening to A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." A world composed of battling extremes. 

And as such, particularly in the past two years, appearing unlikely to abate soon, if ever, is today. It could actually be our best of times for these times have allowed for Jews to have a golden expansion of room to breathe, where the children can and will grow up to have careers of their own, families of their own, and G-d will have been good to us.

However, inevitably, we have found ourselves in yet another revolution of the cycles of history. Repetitive in nature it is not unexpected. However, I, and many others, do so wish that the repetition would be of the golden cycles, of the optimistic and positive cycles rather than ones where the clouds crowd around us to the point of almost smothering us for good or signaling an horrific cycle of long duration and intensity arriving at our doorsteps.       

We are back again at a crisis of Anti Semitism emanating from people who must Hate in order to breathe, who live to Hate and thrive in it. They have a laser focus on their traditional target, Jews. The toxin spewing mouths and perverted minds are unfortunately contagious to the nth degree, hence what begins in one country or two countries spreads rapidly with a bloom of poisonous growth spreading to all nations even when there is no Jewish population there at all. Today, it is a strong returning echo on the sonar measuring the risks to and of civilization. The beeps are rising. Hour after hour. Growing in intensity and violence.

So how does one move out of darkness. Not in one great leap, that is for sure. Nor in a totality of change, leaving all the black behind and leaving all the bright ahead. The world is simply not like that.   I highly doubt whether it could even change 100 percent, even in the best of times, which was our time. In addition, as posted yesterday in my blog, humans have built in error magnets and are perforce prone to, or at least likely to, commit some error or another in their lifetime. Sometimes there's a minor consequence and at other times, consequences horrific to contemplate. Most normal people wish to remain somewhere in the middle, being neither too demanding of what they cannot give nor too forgiving of what they should not have done. Most of us are pretty much right there in the center.

It is at that point, where rational, logical, livable compromise with life circumstances comes into play. It is when the hole in the doughnut, that emptiness, shrinks to a manageable size and the doughnut cake around remains soft, tasty and ever so delicious. That period of time is a blessing to humanity. It certainly is a blessing to the people of the Jewish nation and most certainly to me, to all my people round the world, and to the blessed State of Israel. 

Unfortunately, however, at present, the doughnut hole has expanded so that the surrounding sweet cake of the donut, whatever flavor one chose, has shrunk to a barely there amount. Optimism has gone the way of all living things. We must grasp any and all opportunity now around us, to create more batter for the doughnut, more support from those who understand history, from those who understand righteousness, from those who would turn aside from the Hate, condemn violence, brutal indescribable and seemingly endless. Those who would engage in pushback even if their main motivation was for the benefit of themselves; It matters not, only the results.

I am not sure exactly where on this spectrum I am    as of this moment. I kind of swing back and forth, sometimes more to the left, of despair, sometimes more to the right, of optimism. What I do know for sure is that it is an insecure environment. Those among us who grew up like me with grandparents who came here, young, alone but optimistic,  ready to build a life for their children, my parents, American born, American raised and educated in both the secular and the religious world, and me and my siblings, totally American, totally Jewish in outlook and observances, but also totally American in feeling of patriotism and pride at being an American. Possessing a knowing feeling that perhaps it is the right moment in history for us, and we have surpassed the ugliness which took place just years before my birth.

That certainty is gone. That disappointment is huge and oftentimes cancels out the remaining moments of optimism and hope. What else is one to say when our houses of prayer, our schools and institutions are attacked. When now our people are not only threatened, but are actually struck down, again, here in America, our Goldene Medinah, and round the world. How are we to explain this to our children? Or to our grandchildren who for the most part also lived in that bubble of security which is now leaky, very much so, diminishing the certainty of goodness, of right to live, of a future, in our nation.

Our nation has become all nations of the world. Mamdani, a vicious JewHater as mayor to be in the most Jewish city and environment outside of Israel. England once again a bastion of fierce JewHatred,  the time wheel of history reverting to a time when hundreds of Jews were burned in the Tower of York. When Edward II exiled them for many a century. When Ireland engages in the most blasphemous in your face, anti Semitism, poking into places where they clearly do not belong. The Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, the list is endless. It seems the more nations that join, the more other nations are tempted to hop onto the same bandwagon and enjoy their 'fun'.  

I did like, however, this piece I came across from one of the sites that I patronize. Read it and hopefully you will like it as well. If so, perhaps it will give you a little perk, a bit of a boost to climb from the cellar and do your best to reach the ceiling or at least near it in approach.

Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow,

We must make them better. There is no other choice.

Hope in a Hopeless World

A psychologist friend and I concluded that the world must be either hell or a mental institution. We found that there is too much beauty and goodness in the world for it to be hell, so we determined that it must be a mental institution.  

What else could possibly explain the fact that people and nations repeat the same grievous mistakes with catastrophic consequences for centuries? Vanity, glory-seeking, jealousy, hatred, violence, selfishness – did any of this make anybody better off in the long term? It certainly did not make the world a better place.

The only rational response to this sad history must be to become a cynical recluse and turn one’s back on the world. The problem is: What about all of that beauty and goodness? Good family and friends, humor, love … OK, so cynical recluse may not be a good response after all.

Maybe, then, enjoy all those wonderful, uplifting experiences and forget about all the horrors of the world. But it’s so difficult to ignore what is in the news, spreading its venom in social media, issues discussed everywhere by virtually everyone. Hot topics that impose themselves on you, fracture social relationships and invade the mind like an assault on your nervous system. Stop the world; I want to get off.

How do you navigate these choppy waters? How to be hopeful in a hopeless world? How to be happy and fulfilled and at ease, recognizing the good and acknowledging the bad?

Philosophers, theologians, psychologists throughout history have proposed innumerable formulae, thoughts and remedies with no discernable effect. Religion has its ideals, rules and laws, admonishments, prophets and sages. So, how’s that worked out? There have been many good people inspired and uplifted by those lofty ideals and even some bad people changed. But the world, dear reader, this minuscule planet in an infinitely vast universe remains tragically imperfect.

Wait. Perhaps it is possible to state that there has been change for the better, no matter how small. Ancient history consisted of tribes and clans and perpetual clashes and wars. That state of affairs started at the beginning of recorded time and persists today, but much less so. It doesn’t seem that way in dark times when countries fracture internally and again turn on each other, but overall, there is much more awareness of the damage of war and internal division. That may not be enough, and it needs to be learned and relearned, but it is a difference from the past.

Is it enough to instil hope in the future? That depends on the individual. It comes down to a choice. Some see the donut; some see the hole. The worldwide surging of antisemitism gives serious pause to thoughts of a world moving toward moral progress. “Blame the Jews and all will be well” is a tragic sign of the world in distress. A strong Israel reborn and dedicated to survival is a heartening reality after 2,000 years of impotence. America and China playing a dangerous game of chicken is deeply worrisome and a sabre-rattling wannabe tsar in Russia is a true threat to world stability, but Europe is united and dedicated to surviving intact. 

For every encouraging thought and for every negative one, there is a “yes, but…” That means that the matter is not settled. 

Anthropologist Margaret Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a thigh bone that had been broken and then healed. In the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that is healed means that someone stayed with the one who fell and tended to the person. Helping someone else through difficulty, she said, is when civilization starts.

Margaret Mead’s insight into what constitutes civilization is reflected in Jewish thinking. The Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote: “If you see what needs to be repaired and how to repair it, then you have found a piece of the world that God has left you to complete. But if you only see what is wrong and ugly in the world, then it is you yourself that needs repair.” The Rebbe understood that the world’s humanity is not global, but local, and each person has the power and the duty to contribute in his or her own way.

The world may seem like a mental institution or simply overwhelmingly disturbing, but discerning people need to accept the fact that life requires the ability to sustain contradictions: Yes, there is much evil, but there is much good. Yes, the mob is destructive and many leaders incompetent, corrupt or worse, but the individual has responsibility and agency. Each person is a world. There is much to bemoan and much to celebrate. The key is to live honorably, inspire others and not lose faith. Each act of reaching out to help or comfort another, each kindness tendered, each act of generosity is a life-enhancing, redemptive act. 

Life is not a balance sheet; it is a balancing act.

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Dr. Paul Socken is Distinguished Professor Emeritus and founder of the Jewish Studies program at the University of Waterloo