WAZE FOR LIFE

 Personally, it makes a no never mind for me whether we use Waze or GPS or any format which gives us directions as to how to arrive safely and in good time to the destination we desired. And to understand at the same time that it is OK if a segment of direction is a bit astray and we venture into new areas, provided that these new areas have something to contribute to our life rather than imperil it. At present that is not the case. Not at all.

That is why we check the directions and peruse the route suggested before we actually set out on our journey. We prefer to avoid areas of possible strife and trouble. We prefer to take the roads which are not cutting edge cliff ones or unpaved or rutted by time and enmity, of an uncaring attitude. We prefer to avoid the troubles. But too often we do not understand that in order to understand that possibility of danger and peril we must delve into the why it exists and the ways in which we can eliminate that peril. Unfortunately, that is not the case and we remain mired in a world posing danger seen and unseen. Foreseen and unforeseen.

In doing so we are actually cutting our own throat. We are diminishing the quality of our lives and the lives of others who would benefit from intermixing, from the sharing of commonalities and the understanding of differences. Richness in life comes from reaching out into new areas of interest, into possible areas of accomplishment which had never been expected. Sharing does not mean emulating oneself in a forced repression of that which is different, but rather an understanding and an advantage which provides an understanding is rather important if we are to keep this cockeyed wobbly world of ours on a steady and maintainable route, one which allows for the glories of it to be revealed and shared with all of humanity.

Unfortunately, we have gone way in the polar opposite direction. We hoard discoveries. We hide them in cupboards of government and poor intellectual thinking. We do not accept realization that to place a piece of this world in eminent danger is to place the pieces of their world in as much danger, perhaps even more. We seek out that which separates us rather than that which unites us. Instead of solving the equations for possible, profitable, positive solutions we throw in quirks, additions and ginned up conditions out of nowhere, hence making solving that equation just about impossible. 

And we are all the worse off for that situation.

I do not believe I am a non-seeing Pollyana whose vision of what could be, should be, somehow magically transforms in one's mind to what is reality. Forcing that misconception only leads to misunderstandings unable to be resolved by any other means other than war. We humans have too many flaws within us that we all share and it will be difficult indeed to try to mesh those flaws into a repairable net which encompasses all of humanity. A net which creates a womb of safety and from which we all feel safe to exercise our minds to not only think beyond the box but go out of that box and find new positivity, new solutions to the negatives of life. Of all, not only our own but of the rest of the world as well.

Yet I wonder if this is possible. I wonder if there is any new or repairable app which will help us weave our ways into the log jams of humanity. Aiding those refusing to see the way out and the way we then find each other and create new routes and new destinations. Think about a world that could be and should be, if only. If only.

And I pick up a daily newspaper or magazine, articles that have been highlighted, so as to catch more eyes and settle more attention upon them and the despair rises up. It permeates every breath we take, as we wonder if that is the real truth out there.  Why do we all deny that which is glaringly present, that which would make our world so much better in so many ways?

Why is it that we must always find groups that somehow differ in style, in thinking and take those differences that we often have managed to create and exaggerate and use them as hammers to drive deeply and viciously and/or stupidly into the differences within society rather than find the willpower, the knowledge and the ability to close those gaps? Why do we not actually discover the powers we have within ourselves to better the human condition? Why do we instead use these very same attributes and turn them into deficits?

I certainly cannot speak for anyone other than myself. But I ask, why do we not look around and see the truth? Why are we so opposed to it? I just read of a big festival for movies highlighting both the differences and the similarities of people assigned to the bubble of "gay” and the people outside that bubble. Why have we not yet acknowledged the identical angst as people of all bubbles attempt to find a good place for themselves. A place where they can share life with friends and family and loved ones, partners to make a life together. 

Why do we not see that all the bubbles of the world contain all the peoples of the world, and we all have the same assets and liabilities, the same flaws and positive traits. Prone to making similar errors in life and dreaming of the same as we all do. No matter the bubble into which we have been placed, with or without our consent. What would be, could be and should be, if, instead of outlining and demeaning those who are different from us in some conceivable area, we accepted those differences and accentuated the similarities within.

My enemy across the border or over the sea also has similar dreams. Why is it impossible for us and for them to acknowledge that we all have people we love being placed into eminent danger even to the point of death. Do we find the death of an enemy more satisfying to us, more enriching of our lives than watching with open and happy eyes the progress of our children, of our own lives? Why is it that within our own flaws along with the flaws contained within the others, we cannot find that point wherein we can eliminate those flaws, minimize them, allowing for link up and an end, a stop to the slaughter and bloodshed. To disappear the fear which pervades our life. The fear which precludes our thinking of all that would enhance life for all of humanity rather than that which restricts it.

No, I am not suggesting we all go out and Jew and Muslim hug each other and think that is all that is needed. Nor am I suggesting that the targets of hate of the Squad donate funds to them. Nor am I suggesting thinking that all Americans and Chinese, and all Russians and Ukrainians, will find the commonalities and dismiss the separations overnight. That would be a miracle highly desired, but I doubt that possibility will ever arise.

It will take time, a great deal of time and I am not so stupid as to think that there will not be further bloodshed and more battles. It is within the nature of mankind, but why cannot we educate, and think, and talk of the better, more positive aspirations and abilities of humanity and set goals in that direction, rather than continue to use the broken roads we already have traversed so many, many times?

Meyer Rothschild sang his plaintive plea "In My Own Lifetime". The movie Exodus caught the imagination and the emotions of the world. Yet today, those emotions are foregone, deposited somewhere in the trash heap of humanity, where all good ideas and possibilities are discarded.  

The names are interchangeable. The goals of domination are the same. Inevitable conflict and vicious opposition are glaring. Why do persist in taking the broken ways rather that the new ones outlined clearly, merely demanding that we have the courage to begin at the start and prepare for the miles ahead, difficult, yet rewarding, if only we make the effort and are ready to begin again and maintain course until the changes become permanent.

If only. 

If only Waze and GPS would work better. If only the paper maps of old would have been clearer in highlighting the areas fraught with danger, steering us clear of peril.

Yesterday Today Tomorrow

If only.

If only we were more agile and astute in knowing where to step forward, where to retreat and where to find alternate passages bringing us closer to the best we could be.

If only we would understand that each and every one of us, in one degree or another, share the same goals, the same ambitions, the same love of family, the same sense of sacrifice, willing to be exploited if there is a positive outcome.

Yesterday I had occasion to meet a young Arab man who proudly showed me the picture of his 4-month-old little beautiful baby boy as I shared with him the picture of my beautiful little baby boy great-grandson, also 4 months old.

A beautiful dream if these two little, beautiful baby boys, these innocent little beings, were able to grow up to be best buddies. Or business partners. Whatever can come of a positive relationship.

It is the job of adults who must enable that dream to become reality.

One day.

And always to remember

We are AM.

Always and forever.

BANQUETS AND SUCH

 We all know about those rubber chicken dinners called banquets we 'must' attend because they are in support of organizations we ourselves support or are honoring a friend or family member. We hope that our efforts have been worthwhile and simply suck up the annoyance and the burden as it is an intimate part of our lives as people living in a community and more particularly, as Jews living all over the world and especially in Israel, our eternal homeland.

However, banquets have another purpose in life. I believe this use of the term banquets is the best I have seen and a message of warning to those who believe they are immune to the consequences of their actions. It originates from Robert Louis Stevenson.

"Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences."

We so often go blithely through life thinking we are free as a bird, no thoughts of consequences unpleasant - at least till we are on the other side of life wherein we are supposed to have a "din v'chesbon", an evaluation of our assets and liabilities of the soul. There it is expected to be the place where we pay the bills outstanding, the balances due, the consequences of and for what we have done or not done in our lives on this earth. Truthfully, the exact consequences are unknown, as no one has been there and come back to tell us. 

However, there will be definite ones taking place on the physical world of our lives and we are warned not to be so arrogant as to think one is immune from the consequences of our actions. Literature and history are realms of consequences coming back to bite one in sensitive places, and so many of these effects are presented as warnings, or as lessons to be internalized within and for those in similar situation. Banquets are notoriously effective in relaying the truths to those who would deny it.

Queen Esther gathered her wits and knew there would be consequences, quite probably of great harm to her and her people, but still, she "screwed her courage to the sticking point" and went to the King's feast in a brave attempt to save her people. There indeed were consequences. Positive ones for our people and certainly negative ones for Haman and sons and his acolytes as they earned the permanent consequence of death. 

One might have hoped that the message would be taken but unfortunately, its lesson was minimized and further banquets were required. That nothing is for nothing and something is always for something, is a precept of life we must understand. Shakespeare understood that as can be seen in the visit of the ghost of Banquo to Macbeth at a royal feast.

The lessons about banquets and feasts and feeding people, from Abraham and the three angels all the way through to Daniel when the warning was written on the wall (giving rise to the saying that the words are written on the wall), the consequences clearly resultant from that which came before. Even in our times, 2026, how many speeches are given which contain threats due to what came before or that which is now, and that which might come tomorrow. Yet the ties and the knots of common sense and wisdom often come undone and all that remains are the knots of anger and hate giving rise to more ugliness. So much of the time conveyed to us at times of 'feasting, rubber chicken dinners and the like. Too often with nothing good to eat, no good thoughts to think, and no path to positive achievement to be seen.  

Why is it that only the wiser elements of society, and I am not talking about economic divisions, but rather of those with the willingness and capability to actually delve into matters deeper than the surface. To indeed find answers, to find questions that need to be asked and then find the answers to them. And why is it when those who raise the alarms, blow the whistles calling attention to the issues, are ignored. The ears of the rest of the world deaf to them. Their hearts locked tight even as their souls blacken daily and the ugly consequences, or the absence of good consequences, are glaringly in our faces.

The worst takes place when the momentum of the negativity speeds up and we actually buy into it. We accept the poisoned words spewed out. Hate served along with every course; the sour aromas inhaled along with the tainted air of the room dyed deeply with the hatred to be found in these words.  The words and thoughts and actions of hate. 

The consequences are clear. The negativity, the hatred, the bigotry, and all the harm incumbent upon their definition and activation, even unto violence and death are 'generously' shared with those who will walk along that path of hatred and bloodshed. Words are mouthed with nothing behind them but a vacuum of truth and honesty and a nest of welcome for the ugly of souls. Acts of violence are perpetrated mostly upon the chief target, in this case, and too often throughout history, the people of the nation of Jews. Pathetic words are mouthed concerning combating these types of hatreds, even perhaps going to the point of supposedly assigning some funds to combat it. Out of their split tongues at the very same moment come the very same words which have in truth incited, through the centuries, the very JewHatred they claim to be combating.

Mamdani and his accomplices along with those of the Jewish nation who cannot see past the nose on their face and join with the enemies. They think that they are immune to the Hatred wafting through the air, smacking the objects of the hatred. Falling for, agreeing with, the demand to be the "accepted” Jew. To amputate an integral part of their body and soul. To bear and even laugh with the snide Jewish   jokes. To support stereotype characters of Jewish people. To deny the unity of the Jewish people. To deny vigorously their support of Israel as our indigenous homeland, from the first Jew, Abraham, to the newest newborn. To deny peoplehood when something good arises but to fall in with dirty claims of peoplehood when something negative happens. To do as they wish, when they wish, without consequence.

We all know that consequences are an immutable part of the human condition. Nothing done or undone goes unnoticed. There is no 'scott free' of consequences. Be it in this world or in the world to come. In life, or in life after death, to deny that is to deny a Truth never to be erased.

Yes, there will be a banquet for us all. Some of us will have sirloin steak while others will have undercooked chicken. Where would you rather be? What would you desire on your plate? And what will you say when beneath your dinner plate lies a list of the payments due, even overdue, And the deadline already passed.

Yesterday Today Tomorrow

It makes for a no, never mind outlook on life. We know that consequences and their respective feasts will always be there and hide as one might, those consequences will find the ones meant to be the recipients of them, good and bad, serious or inconsequential.

And we know always that as the Lord is our Protector we will never be defeated.

WE  ARE  AM.

AM YISROEL

THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL

LANETZACH

FOREVER

AM YISROEL CHAI.

WORDS OF TRUTH, FROM THE HEART TO THE HEARTS

 Please that the bold print is my addition.

 Many there are of those who wish to twist and even deny a history, as we find in Obama's obscene speech. Many who support Israel, all Jews, often do so in well-meaning words but they are dry and do not catch nor transmit the true depth of feeling within this 'topic'. It too often misses the target and falls by the wayside.  

Read the words below spoken by Noa Tishby at an October 7th memorial. The mere fact that we have to have a memorial in the year 2026 is frightening and embarrassing and deadly. Read the words below. Simple. No heavy philosophical words that no one understands. Just plain language that speaks to the heart. An issue in an excellent presentation. Pass the speech on to those who hate, and to our people as well who need some clarification and words of truth. There are some will finally hear the truth and act accordingly. 

"On the third anniversary of Oct. 7, Noa Tishby delivered a speech at the memorial event at the Saban Theatre. Here is her introduction, followed by the speech. 

This speech is my honest look at where we are as a Jewish community. We’ve spent three years grappling with the aftermath of Oct. 7, and it has left a mark on us. I see Jews who are hurting, tired, and unsure of themselves, and I wanted to explain how we got here. That’s why it’s so important that we remember who we are. We are Am. And nobody else gets to tell us otherwise."

---

"Good evening. Thank you, StandWithUs, thank you, Soroka Hospital, and thank you for the incredible doctors that are present here with us, Dr. Abd Abu Ganim and Dr. Zvi Perry. You were there on Oct. 7, at Soroka. You took care of the wounded and the dead, you embody for us what love and coexistence is and what the future of the Middle East looks like.

Three years. Three years since the worst day in the history of the State of Israel and the bloodiest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Tonight, we honor the memory of those slaughtered on Oct. 7 and those who have fallen since. We will never forget them, or the broken hearts of the families who mourn them.

We remember, even in a world where far too many seem determined to forget, or to twist the truth of that day and everything that followed upside down.

In addition to the evil and barbarism of Hamas, something else was unleashed that day. Terrorists were still slaughtering their way through southern Israel when Jews around the world were hit with a barrage of hatred so seething, so violent, it caught many by surprise.

And as the years went by since that horrific day the hatred and the danger got worse. I want to unpack it.

Within hours of the massacre, we saw organized demonstrations, student groups, NGOs and social media accounts blaming Israel for the attack, immediately accusing Israel of genocide, and calling kidnapping Holocaust survivors a matter of “context.” We heard chants to “Free Palestine,” “by all means necessary,” “from the river to the sea,” and even calls to “gas the Jews.”

This hate was preplanned. It was the product of a deliberate campaign, decades in the making, that brought together a bizarre range of social and political movements, aided and abetted by Islamist states and groups, over one cause: destroying the Jewish state.

After the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Israel’s enemies realized that they would not be able to take it down militarily. So they shifted their strategy to geopolitics and started playing a long game, creating a worldwide campaign to delegitimize Israel’s existence.

An entire infrastructure of anti-Israel, antisemitic, antizionist hate had been built over decades. A powerful propaganda ecosystem was primed and ready to be activated.

By the time Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, many in academia, media and post-colonial studies all over the Western world already knew who to blame. For every evil.

It was simple for them. Israel is an apartheid state, the last bastion of colonialism. The Jews, or “Zionists,” are agents of evil, and the Palestinians are the perfect underdogs, without any agency of their own, and immune to any moral scrutiny.

On Oct. 8, 33 Harvard student groups signed a letter that they “hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” That’s not a normal response when terrorists have massacred and kidnapped young people at a music festival and murdered families in their homes. It’s a moral inversion.

At that point in time, many people could still see reality clearly: Hamas committed a despicable atrocity, Israel was attacked and, like any other country in its place, would have to fight back and fight back hard. But as the war in Gaza continued, many people got confused. The country attacked became portrayed as the aggressor.

And the same people who on Oct. 7 refused to call Hamas terrorists now demand that we call the war that followed a “genocide.”

So let me say this clearly: There is no genocide in Gaza. There has been a war in Gaza that Israel did not choose but was forced to fight. Is war ugly? Yes. Do innocent civilians who have suffered deserve our compassion? Yes. Have mistakes been made? Most likely, and they should be investigated. Does that constitute a genocide? Absolutely not, and saying it over and over again will not make it a reality.

This abuse of language is not rational or moral: it is becoming the latest in a long line of purity tests: call it a genocide or get harassed, attacked and canceled. Once again, like so many times in history, Jews are being pushed out of the public sphere.

We cannot become confused. Not about this lie and not about the other lies they tell about us.

We need to remember who we are. On Oct. 7, many Jews around the world were jolted into remembering. Even if they had never set foot in Israel, they felt the attack was happening to them. They knew it. But since that day, and as this war that was forced on us continued, many Jews got confused. They started believing the lies, the genocide lie, and again forgot who they are.

So here is a reminder. The Jews, we are not a religion. We have a religion.

Like the author Dara Horn says, “It’s not complicated, it’s just old. Jews are a joinable tribal group with a shared history, homeland and culture. That’s a whole sentence in English. But in Hebrew, it’s just two letters: Am. We are Am Yisrael.”

They will tell you that they love Jews, it’s just Zionism that they hate. They will tell you that if you call the war a genocide, call Israel evil and agree that it should be destroyed, only then, as a Jew, you will be accepted. They will tell you that they love Jews individually, they just don’t like us in a group. But we are a group. We are a people. We are Am.

Throughout history, Jews have been told that we will be accepted as individuals if only we renounce the reality of who we actually are, and throughout history, some Jews have gone along with it. Some are going along with it now.

This isn’t about whether Israel is perfect, no country is. It isn’t about whether you can criticize its government – you can, and we do.

But that is not what the antizionist hate movement is asking you to do. What they demand is that you separate yourself from your people, your history and your land. They are asking you to define your Jewish identity on THEIR terms and not your own. But who are they to tell us who we are? It is up to us to remember who we are.

Do not get confused. Do not internalize the hate. They want to shame you into saying what they want you to say and being who they want you to be, but that is not who you are. That is not who we are.

We are Jews. We are a people with an indigenous homeland in the Land of Israel. Always have been and always will be.

We have stood against tyrannies for millennia and outlived them all, and we will outlive the current tyranny as well, whether it’s Hamas terrorists, their keffiyeh-wearing fans on college campuses or their supporters running or holding office. As long as we remember who we are, they will never win.

Stay strong. Be proud. Be AM Israel.

And Am Yisrael Chai."

ENOCHIAN

  Are you now scratching your head wondering what the title means? Well, before I undertook to finally read an old novel written by Dan Brown I also was confused. Basically, it is what some call it - the "angelic tongue", a  language that was 'discovered' in Prague in 1583 by two English Mystics. It was a language in which angels conversed with each other. Moreover, when in a mood to share, they did so with special humans as they transferred wisdom from one realm to another.

Can you imagine having a problem, divine or otherwise, and being able to turn to some special people who had the ability, the gift, perhaps the curse, of being able to talk with the beings on high. Only one intermediary level between humans and the Lord? Personally, I would be extremely frightened, and I certainly wouldn't want that responsibility, nor the 'gift' for certainly there would be many out there who would claim witchcraft. Charlatan. Challenger of any and all recognized religions. Whatever negative applicative would be out there front and center. For sure not an easy life. I believe we can see that when we read of the Prophets and the doubts and troubles laid upon them even as they were transmitting the words of the Lord to the people down below.

On the other hand, think what it could mean, what it would mean, if humans were gifted with the power of angelic language as angelic words were transferred from the mouth of one to the ears of another. Surely there would be at least a temporary halt to the nastiness that we often find in conversations and challenges from one side to another among human discourse. 

Think what it would mean if elections were conducted in an atmosphere of shared responsibility and commitment. Not to themselves and their positions but to all the others for which they hold responsibility. All the inhabitants of their lands and among the rest of the world as well, for the decisions and actions and words of humanity too often have consequences of such evil durability that we never know, nor realize that due to these actions and deeds and thoughts and words spoken, we have closed doors too many times on possibilities of hope and righteousness. In our arrogance and thoughtlessness, in our blindness, in our disability of refusing to see points of commonality, we mire ourselves deeper into enmity and conceit as we ride roughshod over the good and rush headlong into combat via words and deeds arising from those words. We cavalierly toss away so many possibilities to engage together to repair the conditions of mankind.

Surely, if we spoke Enochian and were able to put aside all that divides humanity, the gathering ugliness from the words of humans designed to challenge, to threaten, to rally the troops. To immerse them in a swamp of bloodlust, drowning all possibilities of protection against the inundation of minds and souls of the combatants.

Perhaps it would be placing the bar too high, impossible to attain as we learn of the battles between Angels or the jealousies of the gods of Greece and Rome. Perhaps we humans actually are meant to teach the angels and take them with us and together, we will share in the goodness and reject the evil, the violence, the many wars fought due to selfishness and greed.  

Brick by brick, we will dismantle the walls between humans and replace them with bricks with the purpose of building not walls of separation but rather walls outlining new and wide pathways for humanity to tread, for angels to add to the graces and the beauty and together build a world much better than that world in which we now reside. That world constantly under clouds of possible, even imminent threats of destruction.  Where humans deny the humanity of other humans.  

We need to find, even create, those bricks meant to help the creation of a new world, a better world where humans can thrive and advance together with all of mankind rather than separately, bashing all those claimed as enemies. Even as they too struggle with the same thoughts and needs Most important is that we find leaders who are devoted to rebuild to remake this world gifted to us by the One on High. The very world which we have twisted and demeaned perhaps so much so that the "angelic language" cannot pierce the walls of hate that Humanity has built, separating us all.

Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Perhaps we can create our own Enochian language. A language which will have no words of war and hate, of conflict and destruction. Only words and processes leading to good and fair solutions to the problems which afflict mankind, even though we ourelves built those problems with malice at heart, ideas which would create pathways to the dismantling of broken edged walls and replacing them with ones of beauty, allowing for the parts to return to a whole, as it was meant to be. To walk together as a unit rather than as divisions designed to fight wars. 

A world designed to foster life and creativity rather than bloodshed and destruction.

Enochian.

       

AND HOW ABOUT THAT!

   It never fails. Just about every time you think you've got to an understanding of an issue, of a situation, out of left field or right, comes an event or a statement which informs you of how much you don't know. In other words, you are gobsmacked, sometimes for the better, and sometimes simply impossible to understand in any reasonable manner. It cannot be and yet, it is. And so, as usual, we must take it as it comes and squeeze all that we can from it. All that benefits us, that helps us, even perhaps revealing before us some new paths, some new hopes upon which we can build.

It is no surprise to anyone right now that to be Jewish, to think in positive manner about your obligations as a Jewish friend, neighbor, is perhaps at the nadir in living as a Jew at this point in history. Traditional enemies of long-time standing have joined with once upon a time friends, once even allies. In other words, the climate for Jew and Jewish, for Zionist beliefs, is not necessarily the best of times, even as it is also at the peak of good relations.

Such a contradictory state of being. How can we be at the worst of times and yet also, at the best of times? It is always a good thing to know exactly where you are, where you stand with others. Where you stand with your people and where you stand with your G-d. It is good to know who truly your friends are or are they instead only fair-weather ones and in foul weather manage to turn away, deny any good connections and even intensify the negative possibilities.  

Recently I have read some interesting thoughts which have led me to think that perhaps all is not as bad as we think it is, as it could be. In fact, as it was in the past, though I am not denying the horrors of the past three years since October 7. I am not denying the rampant and ugly growth of Anti Semitism and the virulent JewHatrred that appears to be inundating the minds and souls and thoughts of too many people on this earth.

What I am saying is that we do have friends where we thought not. We do have people who will claim positive relationships, boast of the Jewish nation and what it has given to the world. We have people, who have come to Israel to march on our streets and support Zionism, the right of the Jewish people to live in Israel, to support Israel, and that idea that Israel is ours by right, by tradition, and straight from the words of the Lord. These are the people who now sign on to sites with a belief in Zionism, though they are not Jewish.

It is in the more unreal expectation of Jews as abnormal people, of perfection. But they have no more or less faults and virtues than other inhabitants on this earth. Their burden is to be a role model as a nation and as a people, whole and individually. It has led to many troubling moments in history. Held to a different standard, a double standard with no break given for any error in judgment, no step taken without being examined, undergoing powerful scrutiny. So many times, overwhelmingly critical and unaccepting of what took place. And why.

So many times bringing down hell on earth upon the Jews, snide comments, accusations. Jews have gone through many such times of terror, of expulsion, temporary and/or meant to be everlasting, softened only by needs of a nation for the advice and contributions the Jewish nation brought forth for them. It mattered not the country, nor the century or should I say, centuries. For no reasoning other than this. It all came down to one fact: that Jews are not welcome. 

All the canards down through the ages, constantly bombarded with accusations of dual loyalty, of attempts to bring down the nation in which they reside. It all boils down to that accusation. All else is merely secondary, attached to the interaction, to false and deadly accusation. When acted upon, of course, along with it come the "fringe" benefits - the acquisition of the combined wealth from the Jewish people within their nation and any other nation in which they reside. In the literature of history, fiction and nonfiction alike, many are the pages of description of how the enemies of the Jewish people ransacked their homes and businesses. Ripped jewelry from their necks and fingers and did anything and everything in order to appropriate or more likely misappropriate that which they desired.

We all know of the expulsion from Spain in 1492. We all know the history of the Holocaust wherein Jews were robbed of anything and everything they owned, including their own selves. (even as the haters deny it). However, many of us do not know all the other expulsions throughout history in many nations and are all within underlying "religious justification" - as if! the legend of the "Wandering Jew" condemned to wander the Earth until the 2nd coming, as punishment for harassing Jesus on his way to crucifixion. That accusation and guilt have been passed on and hung around the necks of Jews around the world and down through the years. It has never been fully retracted and hence, unfortunately, remains alive and well. 

England originated that horrific blood libel of 1144. The same blood libel that afflicted Mendel Ballis centuries later.

England burning alive Jews in the Tower of York.

England, expelling all of its Jews in 1290 in obedience to the commands of Edward II.

France - 1182, 1306, 1394. The miserable event of the Dreyfus affair wherein the accusation of dual loyalty rang loud and clear. French cops enthusiastically rounded up Jews in France to send them off to death. Vichy France which did not exactly provide haven for French Jews and other refugees on the run.

Various expulsions from German states and principalities, forced to find refuge in another state, which eventually expelled them too.

There are many more such atrocities, but there is no room to tag them all.Once we might have thought that all the above was ancient history. Yes, to be learned from and not to repeat and yet here we are, all over again, even to the point of enmity and hatred rising again with exponential force and speed. Jews living in Canada, in France, in Denmark, in Norway, in Iceland, in America are now asking themselves the eternal Jewish question. Where do we go now?   Why is this happening all over again? Why is Jew hatred in global manner supported and encouraged by supposed members and leaders of NGOS who seem to find their only justification for life, for existence, is to prosecute and persecute Jews as their most favorite target.

These are eternal questions for the Jewish people. I wish the answer would be equally as eternal, in  welcome, in recognition and acceptance as a nation of people only wishing to live in peace. Not desiring the lands of others, not desiring the wealth of others, but merely to live life in justice, in harmony and unity with all the peoples of the world. We have all been gifted with this world and we have most assuredly not been thankful enough for it. We have distressed it. We have abused it. We have even ignored its needs in the name of our own, leading to disaster for all.

When will the peoples of the world understand that none of us, nothing in this world, lives in a vacuum? What happens in one side of the world will eventually have an effect upon the other side. As long as we deny that, as long as we refuse to accept that and understand its inevitability, we will be living with the wrong goals, the wrong ambitions and the wrong behaviors. Our roads traveled will take us in the wrong direction and leave us at destinations which we should never approach. Certainly not if we were all of one sane mind and understanding of the Truth of our existence.

Yesterday Today Tomorrow

It appears that we never learn. Not from the past, not from the present, and not for the future too, as foretold by our times.

It is all on us. Every single one of us. To see through the fog to the basic truths of life and not pick and choose as befits our desires, for upon that road remains only disaster.

SAYS WHO?

   Any source of news in print or online, on podcast, wherever, seems to be choosing to pass on news that is news only in their eyes and compromised by falsehoods. Anything which will convince its patrons to walk with them rather than seek out, if possible, a more nonpartisan source. Mind you that it is not only the purveyors of the news who promote this kind of misbehavior, but also those who patronize it, those who seek out it out. Clicking over and over again until they find the news that suits their taste.

Moreover, it has been found over the centuries that the better speaker, not necessarily the truth speaker, will be the one who carries the audience. Adding insult to injury, much of what it is contained in the words of those more talented orators are far from the truth. The truth would not be pleasing to the ears of those listening, to the ears and mindsets of those who devalue the truth and support the words crafted to attract and sooth, to confuse and to induce them to follow the wrong Pied Piper.

And it works. Too well. And for too long. 

Why does nobody form a union of brilliant minds dedicated to the truth rather than to opinions? Leaving behind their personal preferences or wishes of what would be, what should be. Why can they not come to an agreement actually defined and understandable in manner? What motivates humans? Do they have the wherewithal to create, or must they merely understand what is created, has been created for them and live together in a comfortable plane of compromise, understanding and acceptance. Can we not live a good life based on that which was created and then branch out with thoughts and processes emanating from that initial tree of creation and find a unity within? Room within for all? 

We know there is a possibility. We know because we have engaged in both sides of that argument.  Proof of that arises from within my life and yours and is both secular and religious in manner and application. Daily, we pick up a book, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and it matters not. Whatever it is the author has created from his mind, the minds of his readers will interpret as they wish. As they find meaning within that connects to their individual selves. As new creation grows from the initial creation.   

There is another side to creation. The Lord G-d has created a world for us to live upon, to improve upon, even as we improve ourselves. Sadly, we have been seriously lacking in fulfilling that task. From those very clear explications, we messed up. We interpreted using the arrogance of mankind. We remained willfully blind to the truths within. Instead of following the words and profound truths and thoughts of the creator, of taking lesson and meaning from all that was relayed to us, via this initial creation, we decided to become the creators ourselves, thinking we had to leave the original words to others as we chose new ones for ourselves. 

The initially created words set upon us the responsibility to grow these words and to create from them the bloom of new creations, positive in tone and intent and meaning. We, humanity, did so many times as we sought for justice and rights for all, for a society which benefitted its population rather than oppressed it. Those who interpreted the words correctly, tried and strived to imbue their new creations, the branches of the initial one, with intelligence and compassion, with honor and respect to all living beings. 

Those who did not, created and imposed their own false creations as an overlay to the true and original ones. Hence, they thereby diminished within the minds of all the truth of that original Creator and His creations. The first line of the Bible "In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth." It does not say that he did so with the idea in mind of a stasis of disorder, crime and bloodshed. He rather allowed for new branches, new ideas, new creations stemming from the original, hewing close to it in its intent and goals.

Humanity, being overfull of hubris and self-importance, decided they cannot mesh all the thoughts within one theme. They claim a mammoth abyss which precludes the ability, the desire, with which to comprehend and build to greater depths and heights and widths all that could be found and brought to life. Ideas of creation which would infuse the original Creation with the gifts of new levels of creation, in thought and deeds.

One of the very first things we must do to improve the state of life upon this planet is to emphasize its glories rather than its apparent flaws and try as hard as one can. To find the point where differing ideas actually meet and touch and set forth new blooms, leading to creations which will enhance the original one and allow us to understand its possibilities and probabilities of proper and noble ideas rather than for self-glory and enhancement of one's own wealth. 

If we are to do that, we must explore further the meaning and the manifestations of human consciousness. We must find ways wherein those who are supporters of one theory as opposed to another, learn to delve deeper, to understand better and actually see within their own mind the unity that can be found in these seemingly opposing theories. It can be done. Yes, sometimes with great difficulty, but available, even new ones which had never before made themselves known to us, rise to the surface.

Read some of the following quotes which I assure you come from very different sources and see if and where you can find the possibilities, at least a way to start trying to work together to improve the situation and conditions of mankind, the lives of all including oneself.

"Coincidence is G-d's way of staying anonymous"

"With our thoughts we create the world."

"Whatever you ask for in prayers it will be yours."

"You have the power of G-d."

"Everything is created twice; first in the mind and then in reality"

"Everything you can imagine is real"

Yesterday, today, tomorrow.

For all eternity.

Thinking within the minds of man and woman is a good thing. As long as we understand where the energy, the power to create new blooms according to truth and the best part of humankind originally arise.

Says who?

All of us.

But only with the truth.

V'ACHSHAV? AND NOW?

  So, in fact, what do we expect of the world today? Will there be a strong and unbreakable link between the current events and the events that will be taking place in the near future? Is there something now wherein I can actually have some effect in a positive manner on the fate of the world and its inhabitants?  Or is it the case of "farfallen"? No use. What will be will be. We will have to remain here in a stasis, unable truly to have any effect upon this troubled world of ours. Is the only thing left for us to do in any kind of positive and penetrating effect is the deepening of the depth of our fears? In our turning to our Creator and pleading in sincere manner, in sincere repentance and thusly to effect change upon the future spreading itself out before our very eyes.

Is this what we have to see? Is this what we must know deep inside the veins and arteries and sinews of our bodies and minds? To truly understand that we are the determiners of our own fate? That our Lord above acts as a recording secretary and mathematician who frequently adds up the summary of all that we have done and spoken? Who then takes on the difficult task to decide whether we have crossed a line of no return or in fact does there remain a single, small, narrow, rocky path back to where we should be, to what we should be, to all that the world should be.  

The responsibility of what will be the inevitable non-returnable non-reversible state of the here and now does not reside only upon the shoulders of one or two, or thousands of a particular state of mind in body, biological, physical, and political. It is an onus of duty which devolves upon the world.

 It calls for an understanding and acceptance that we now, via our actions and words, in our understanding of the power of the individual and the masses, internalize the ability and the duty to never give up, and move forth, both individually and en-masse, to never give up. This we learn from Avraham Avinu who challenges the Lord on His decision to destroy sinful cities. Perhaps, Abraham  thought, there are enough of the few to overcome the faults of the many and hence inject a new possibility of new and better futures for all. Of all.

 Whether we are successful or not is not the point. The point is never to throw our hands up in the air and say there was no other way. There was no other fate. We are to be doomed to wither away on the poisons we have sowed. There remains that possibility of the Lord who not only records, but who also understands and forgives and allows for yet another chance to do the right thing. To live in the right as we are meant to do. In fact, just as a few good deeds can redeem an individual, so too can the few righteous people among evil doers. It need not necessarily mean the redemption of all, but even the few can reseed and revive the barren earth. Revive the greenery that must be part of every person's life. 

This wondering and questioning, the seeking of the answer to what now, devolves not only upon the leaders of nations but also upon the individuals of those nations. If there is enough resistance to evil plans, to selfish policies, to harmful mindsets, possibilities of redemption can arise. But there is also the question, v'achshav, which lingers in the air. When something happens in the life of an individual, causing one to stop, to take the time to think and understand the meaning of what has happened, we must hear the knocking on the door and react and behave accordingly.

Sometimes we human beings lose our way. We realize we are now offroad. Groping in the dark. Tripping on the pebbles and rocks. Falling into   holes of the roadway. We're wondering in that darkness in those frightening moments whether we have indeed reached the point of too little, too late? We send up our pleading words to the heavens above and beg for forgiveness. We make promises to do better, to be better, but even within those moments we also know the frailty of humans and try though we might, fight as hard as we can, we will inevitably fail and fall down once again in the darkness. But we also hang our hopes that enough of us, our individual self, will be better. Will learn from the moments of fright, at least enough to rethink, reevaluate and rebuild in the "what now”.

The past few days, even a few weeks, have been a tad frightening for me and for family with me. It was a painful time for me, both physically and emotionally. Nor is it over yet, as lasting effects will remain for some time. However, at one point, thinking the worst was happening, I had to think long and hard about the "and what now" in my life. There have been dismaying changes, backwards steps taken, but I am determined to come back, if not better, than at least approaching it and always on the way forwards.

I am extremely grateful for the care and concern and aid I have been given and the chance to at least improve myself.

Yesterday, today, tomorrow.

We are always facing challenges. The question is, will we be able to meet the challenges, better ourselves, and better the world around us. To create not only a good v'achshav, but also a hopeful positive Atid - future in as best a manner as we can.

SSE YOU SOON

 Due to medical reasons, I have not posted in a few days. I hope to start posting shortly

THE NAME GAME

  

 Sounds like an interesting title, does it not? However, it is far more than that. The names are etched deeply within the hearts and souls of all right thinkers around the world. Neither is it a game. Only the games of the violence of the Roman Empire and their gladiator system of entertainment play equally, even over the top with 'deadly games'. Certainly, those of the same barbaric lines of thought and 'justification' call out in blood-soaked tongue and guttural voices of hate urging its continuance. Unfortunately, there are too many of the same bent and hence the consequential championing of the worst of the worst sins of modern society grows exponentially with barely a voice being raised against these bloody games.

None of the names involved are names of those who willingly participated. Who took upon themselves the consequences of involvement within such a horror that has plagued mankind for millennia. The only way it has changed is in the number of names etched permanently into the flesh and blood of their friends, rheir families, those who were 'accused' of the same crime - which in actuality was truly a crime, only in its continual and permanent ingathering of the names of the innocents who bore those names.

There were many nations and peoples of this world who have been subjected to horrors of deadly threats of annihilation, of detachment from the roles of humanity, but no other has been a source of horror and a refuge for the ugly, continuously, down through the ages with rarely a voice raised in protest. No aid promised nor provided. It has become one of the most reliable of the crimes of   humanity. 

Even more terrifying are the cheers and support and participation it receives from growing hordes of humankind apparently needful of exercising the worst of their traits, the lowest of the low of humankind. I do not believe that we are approaching this matter properly as we try to display our 'humanity' before and to a disbelieving and uncaring world. The convinced are just not willing to hear the truth of the words of those few who oppose the horror. The willful, engendering and enabling of such as has been wreaked upon fellow human beings. 

Unfortunately, at the cost of much spilled blood, harm to the nation, and swaths of infrastructure damage, all our efforts to gain friends and shed   "allies" who give haven to those who wish to slaughter us have been grossly unsuccessful. More costly are the results of that lack of insight into the twisted minds of those arrayed before us in bloody enmity armed with ghastly plans which too often have come to fruition at great cost to us as a people, as a family.

Once upon a time, hoping, praying, we could actually find some of our traditional enemies and from those rejoicing in refreshed ancient memes of hate, we, once and again, as always, found only disappointment and a feeling that we are facing   enemies who bring down mountains upon us and all we have to fight and defend ourselves are pebbles and unreliable 'friends' who have no understanding of the meaning of true friendship.  

Furthermore, so sorry and sad to say, we have wasted much valuable time, energy and funds, squandered the blood which too often was considered to be the unavoidable cost of our maintenance of independence and recognition. Then there are those who mistakenly believe that there are enough likeminded who wish for peace and buy into their apparently false fronts. 

Once upon a time I had a hope that this path might   succeed, even against all odds, but always the realities, the blood, the cries of the bereft and the wounded, that a true peace, a peace trustworthy in every aspect is nigh unto impossible. The ways and manners of thoughts and thinking, the values of the societies are too distant to ever reach a true and solid accommodation. 

Now, I believe, along with many others that a peace can be achieved only via unity within our own people and a true understanding to the depths of their every sinew and bone, that peace will come only and always, when we are strong, in every which way it matters when dealing with hostile and neighboring nations.

 It can be a peace, making room for, if not amiable, then acceptable relationship, and a definite knowledge that peace must prevail and the   consequences of attempts to overthrow that peace will be met with iron gloves sans the velvet glove coverings. That way has come and gone, long ago  proven to be inadequate and unsuccessful in maintaining peace. 

The following paragraphs will be statements made by others or numbers that I thought relevant to the posting.

Yesterday

Today

Tomorrow

One day the truth will be clear, and the way will be clear, and we truly will have a time when nation shall not lift up a sword against another nation and the power of these weapons will imbue creations of metal made to improve the lives of all people on this earth.

And the truth of the promises will be evident to all whether they wish to see and hear the truth or not.

The nation will finally understand the importance of unity, of brotherhood, and the power of the many promises that G-d has made along with the fulfillment of our duties as well. To obey the laws of our Torah, to be a light unto the nations of the world.

JewHatred does not disappear, whether there are Jews in the neighborhood or not. The absent Jew is just as good a target as a real Jew. We know it and we must act accordingly - with strength and knowing that we will survive. Always.

"There is no difference between Hamas and Fatah."

"A few years ago I met a Palestinian. During a conversation regarding peace between our people, this was his response. He looked at me calmly and said: You Israelis are strong now. The USA is your bigdaddy. But I want you to know that the moment we feel you're weak-we'll come in and slaughter you all."

"For years we have tried to convince ourselves that the other side are people who think like us and that if we just gave them a better life and a state of their own, everything will work out. We tried the carrot   approach...on Oct7 it all blew up in ouIf we want to live in our country with security and have even a semblance of good neighborliness with the Palestinians, then we must be exceptionally strong. 

Militarily, diplomatically, politically. And above all we must project a unified nation to those who surround us.

The Palestinian side must be weak. And remained weakened.

Arab citizens of Israel ... have a choice. Be part of this country or you belong on the other side of the fence."

Truth in every word.

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE

  Once again we were right. It was not, as presented, "a minor altercation" between two pilots. The crazed copilot had somehow become radicalized and had decided to take this plane down, drilling down through the sky to the ground, for ultimate destruction. Yet another tragedy in the making with not even seconds to spare, no quiet contemplation of what to do, how to react. No, it was spinning and descending with fatal results guaranteed.

But that did not end with the crazed co-pilot succeeding. It took four brave and desperate souls aboard to take immediate, instinctual steps to save their lives, their families, and the passengers aboard. maskless junction. Deliberately timed to mesh with horrible memories which took place on October 7th and 8th and 9th and 10th -and continuing on until today. 

However, then and now, despite the righteous and natural responses of a people tired of being denied a right to live and thrive, butchered at the whim of hating crazed murderers of blackened souls, we received not accolades for bravery, not offers of aid, but rather curses and blame and massive truth denial. 

Once again, into the pool of blackened souls who had received their just dues, came new arrivals reeking of new yet ancient old as time itself, the same old, same old hate, the same old justification of the dastardly goals and deeds. Along with them, were the blood soaked pens of those of the media who tried to play this down. Not a hijacking, merely a personal spat between two pilots which evidently took a wrong turn. 

The world glommed onto this fake news, not really undeserved, they feel, as once again, the attacked are downplayed, any truth is quite difficult to discern among the gross falsehoods and now the wonder is whether the real underpinnings, the whys and hows, the enablers and the funders, all the characters will be publicly named and brought to justice. Or, more likely, to be given haven, lionized, and rewarded. Already there is the reluctance of Saudi Arabia to cooperate openly with Israel in the investigation.   

 There were no shouts and screams and calls for revenge. What was seen instead were the people, individually and in groups, gathering together. To pray for the return of the passengers, back to the arms of those awaiting them. No rifles displayed and shot. No, the words were those of concern, of love, and of silence in the face of yet again another display of bloody hate directed at the Jewish nation. 

The same at the return, only this time the voices were in prayers of gratitude and joy. Spontaneous song and dance erupted throughout the land. Gratitude for their safety and rescue. Thanks that yet again, another hero of the nation appeared at the right time and did what was necessary for survival.

What will the world learn from this event? What will they take to heart? For the future, what can we distill from the almost tragic event?  

Yesterday

Today

Tomorrow

 Will it ever end?

But until such time, we will continue to trust in the Lord and the guidance He provides.

WHO ARE WE? WHO SAYS SO?

  Those are the key questions and the even more key answers that we must find for ourselves - if we can. The most important result that emerges from such an introspective examination into our souls should be, would be, if we are honest in our conclusions - the truths that should provide structural and emotional support of ourselves. It should be answers, or at least directional answers on a map of our true being. True thoughts without hedging even if their honesty proves to be uncomfortable. In fact, if that is the case, we must be able to reach back inside and more closely define perhaps what we had thought was true but was no longer true or remains even more affixed to us than we had thought - or had admitted.

Another important fact that that comes into play in this matter is how much of that self-evaluation is caused by the inclusion, or exclusion, of the opinions of others. Do you accept their definition of you or their boundary lines into which you must remain and crossing those boundary lines will not be acceptable to masses of other people.

In fact this self-introspective evaluation is something that not only one nor two or thousands of our people should be doing for all of the people of the Jewish nation and the world, must look deep within and deside who indeed we are. In an aside, most of the population of the world is seriously lacking in the truth of who they are. Too much of their thinking and behavior are driven by the whims and thoughts of others. 

Even as they know they must, for their own sake, and for the sake of the world in general, think for themselves, who they are and what they wish to be, it is simply too easy to give others one's own self. To make the hard choices. Easier if we cede that privilege and responsibility. Let others pick up the slack and opine those opinions.

What we call people of the world must to do to is to look and delve deep within ourselves and find that last piece of Independence. That little piece that cringes with every false step one takes. With every principle abandoned. Every ideal, every bit of idealistic soul with which one is born, and we ignore or are immune to the knowing, feeling, of a slow fadeout and absorption into the cacophony of life.

We become deaf to the little voice within which tries to remind us of the proper way of life. It is uncomfortable. It's challenging and it brings upon us limitations which we would rather not have. So who exactly are you? Who exactly am I? Who exactly are our people? That question is most difficult to answer and even more difficult to pry honestly out of rather reluctant people, of those who would rather forgo that effort. Too uncomfortable, perhaps too unsafe, for the lifestyle which one has chosen to live.

 Some take a stand, make a decision and stay strong in the face of consequences of those actions. Those Jews who stand at the dais castigating their family within the Jewish people, debasing and  disavowing the State of Israel, choosing to separate themselves from the body politic of Jews and Judaism, from the various themes of life which run through it - well, the time will come for all of us to truly evaluate our lives and face the judgment that awaits all of us.

At times we do not have to wait too long for that judgment. Within our lifetime, here on this surface of the Earth, our turning our backs on others that are of our own will face demands of recompense in the now. The souls that are abandoned alongside, in muddy, dirty, smelly trenches will make themselves seem and felt and heard at most in opportune times. These people will come upon the hard truths of life.

One who turns on one's own is never once again to be part of the whole. Memory forbids that to happen. These memories are of lifelong trauma, not only about our lives, but the lives of generations of the Jewish people. It is a trauma of genealogy. The fact that we are indeed one of the Jewish people and how much we deny it, will return almost immediately upon hearing of tragedies reminiscent of those rained upon the Jewish people over the millennia. 

This morning as the world awoke, the chills took off. They reverberated in our minds and hearts, down our spines. What we heard was a replay from the hijackings of planes and the loss of life and the kidnapping of people some decades ago, and only a mere blink of an eye ago. It is a chill of the spine that breaks our hearts at the same time. 

We raise our voices to the Heavens Above and say, ad matai, until when, when, when will You hear the voices, the cries, see the blood spilled, hear the voices of Your people? When will You declare it  Enough, but not enough in the sense that we are indeed worthy of most severe consequence, but rather the enough of seeing others beat down on Your People? 

Today's event did not end as the tragedy we had feared; how much more of this can we take? How much more of events and the sinful inhumane behavior of all those who have declared us as unworthy of naught but that? Our heads and our stomachs a roil and and a broil with what could be, what has been and might be down the block or around the corner.

Worse and growing even more so, is the behavior of the world deeming us as 'others', of not worthy of our peoplehood, our nationhood, our beliefs, our very existence. But we will stand no more for this.   There is no difference between the swords of the Crusades and the knifes of the terrorists or the missiles of our enemies.  

We know our history. We know our responsibilities. We know that we must pay attention to those within who are as bad, as dangerous, perhaps even more so, as they trash and deny their own. Themselves.

Their questions and answers are false. 

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.

Amcha! The password of recognition of those in hiding, fighting, the beasts of the Nazis.

Amcha = Your nation.

They have denied, forgotten or deliberately so, but the knowledge and the feeling are alive in the hearts of most of us. 

"TWAS BRILLIG ..."

  If you do not remember those iconic two words, they are the first two words of the very first sentence of the most famous nonsensical poem ever, written by Lewis Carroll, "Jabberwocky". To be found in the novel Through the Looking Glass. It is as nonsensical now, as it was then. It just about delineates the level of nonsense within modern day societies, and perhaps it goes even deeper than that. 

Certainly, there are severe consequences, to existential levels, as we insist that nonsense, those contradictions can be made to sync, to satisfy all involved. The current conditions, situations and thoughts of modern-day society actually, perhaps   are even more nonsensical, confusing and meaningless. Yet we persist in trying to make sense of it, to force a sense into it which can never find a comfortable place for it, and in fact, is eventually, sooner than eventually, spit out and added to the heap of failed solutions and ideas of humanity.

For the situation to remain status quo all we must do is nothing. Let the world cook itself in its own juices and then display astonishment and confusion and innocence in laying blame. On anyone, someone, any other than themselves. Certainly, "twas brillig", but Jabberwock, the evil, is slain by a hero and all is well. Is such a hero available to us? Has such a hero been available through the history of mankind? If they were they were certainly far and few between and mostly let go undiscovered and undervalued. Perhaps we never even knew that we were to go searching for such a being and even those who backed such a search, it was so weakly presented that nothing of long-lasting vitality came through.

In scanning the paper this morning and checking on emails ignored over the past couple of days, it hit me as representational of today's world. How its brilliant nonsense rings through as applied to today's times, how similar it is to the surface nonsense of the poem, but without the possibility as it stands right now, for a hero to stand out and actually shake the world by its stubborn neck and bring it to its senses, or at least on the proper road or direction to it. 

I hear in the back of my mind the compelling voice of Bonnie Tyler, raspy and full. Singing out in surety how she needs a hero. One who knows right from wrong. One who is as noble as Don Quixote. One who has the courage to dream the impossible dream and do one's best to get there, or die trying. One who can understand the idealism of possible young heroes as they sing "One Day" or the rather resigned and disappointed voices of those whose lives have seen the challenge, lost the challenge, and sing wistfully of those were the days.

It seems that on the surface, even possibly, hopefully, deep within, that most want those imagined times, those good times, to become true to life, actuality and reality. That which we had thought impossible coming to fruition. A pipe dream of many through the ages. With politicians calling out for peace. However, how do we achieve that when even among the best of us, those who have dedicated at least a part of their lives, a part of their souls, in this search, for a genuine peace are among the whole of humanity which cannot parse the contradictory sentences and thoughts and policies. Those policies that preclude the others and yet both policies must have a play in life of individual states.

One day, that dreamed of one day, will find breath within a heart, strength of character and brains, able to resolve the impossible contradictory espoused policies and find a way through the murky atmosphere, to find, create, a path through to open soft and fair winds for humanity.  

How to reconcile truth with lies tossed about? How do we prove the innate humanity within all, even as they rebel against that thought lest they fall by the wayside, appear weak and tired, worthy of isolation and destruction. How do we break the tainted rope tying people to their worst depths and convince them of the right way and then manifestly, grossly wrong. That which ruins the positive prospects awaiting a righteous people.

Are we supposed to find our own way to the heights or might we get some help from those better than we are, perhaps even from the One Above? Can we reconcile thoughts which challenge our unity? Can Israel remain a Jewish stare, but also a democratic one? Can the followers of Islam ever give up their calls to riot and rampage, to murder and boast fo it, to consider that dying while brutalizing others is a sacred cause? Can the Jews round the Remain tightly within their current states? Or are the facts too devastating? There are difficult questions and answers and the truth must be faced  

These and so many other questions are aloft, awaiting solution and resolution.  Worried. What is the wrong way and what the right? Are we afraid that even the USA has turned its back not only on the Jews of the world, but also on their own? How will we manage to sew together in as seamless manner possible, the entire Jewish people or are we doo These and so many other questions are aloft. The waiting solution and resolution. Worried. What is the wrong way and what the right? Are we afraid that even the USA has turned its back, not only on the Jews of the world, but also on their own? How will we manage to sew together in as seamless manner possible the entire Jewish people? Or are we doomed to always be plagued by the presence of those within who seek only the negative and persist to walk on this ugly path, turning on their own, even as they turn on their people in general.

Yesterday.

Today.

Tomorrow.

Do we not think it is a time for change?

 If not now, then when?  

HABAYTA

  Home. A place where one is always welcomed, looked after. A place of love and cherished memories. Of some more painful but shared with so many others. A place where one is recognized as a member of the family even if one was a stranger a mere second ago. A place where, no matter what your cousin looks like, or language spoken, or some invisible lines distinguishing levels of observance and classification - no matter what - the home is shared, with yes, family squabbles, some large and consequential and others small, usual family nitpicking, but always, Habayta. Always Home. 

The people of the world have long misunderstood the importance of that word. Of the historical and emotional identifying baggage that's tied to it. So closely that it is impossible to separate. No matter how many voices are raised against it in enmity, in confusion, in vile hatred. No matter.

That family of Jews along with those who truly understand and internalize history, who venerate the Bible and the truth of the words within, who have seen its words come alive in modern times, that is the family who knows the essence, the importance and the Truth of its words and its meaning to humanity.  All of humanity. There is reference to the nations of the world, to the 70 nations of the world and the importance of their inclusion at least into the Noahide laws of society and civilization. 

All are welcome to share in the goodness and celebration of a world finally making or taking the proper turns and decisions in life and avoiding traps and pitfalls awaiting those who deny the very evident truths of life. Who hear the promises of the Lord yet refuse to acknowledge them.

These are the people who's very being seemingly is made of bones and veins and arteries and sinews are soaked in vile stinking juices whose reek permeates the air and does not allow for the freshness of Truth to penetrate. The concept of home as only a person of Jewish descent can understand, can carry within one's very being, can feel within one's heart, is apparently doomed to a forever hostile world, to face off against them. To deny their Home. Their Habayta.

 Even if it takes a long time to get there and has been denied over the millennia. Even if the cost has been and continues to be of most unimaginable depths and heights at one and the same time, that Home is always first and foremost in our hearts, our minds, our very souls. 

Throughout history nations have been denied the place they called their birthplace, but it has not been consistent nor permanent and homes have been returned, retrieved and retaken time and time again. But never has one people been consistently denied the truth of their homeland for all of history. For all of time. From the time of Abraham who had to pay to buy his own land back so that he could bury his wife. To Jewish residents of lands where they were denied a place there and in fact, a  place anywhere on this earth. 

From cutting words to inciting words. Words of true violence to acts of violence, along with demands for official recognition and approval of the morphing of words and thoughts into acts and deeds of such horror that one could not understand how one man can do such things to another. And yet it's continued. Sometimes abating a bit and at other times growing so loud, so overpowering, to a pitch of unimaginable terror, urged deeds of violence beyond any comprehension.  

Once again we are denied the right to be a nation within our homeland. The land which had been promised by G-d Himself. A promise cemented by covenants. By history itself. By the words of the Prophets and the truth of their words, of what would and could be. The promise of goodness and the words of punishment for straying, for disregarding all that had been commanded upon us by the Lord Himself.

The Jews were to be the nation of perhaps the examples of what could happen, of good and bad, if one were to turn away from that we had done so improperly before. Now to choose the right. To turn away from that which was wrong. To accept and live the knowledge that there was an eternal bond between the Creator and His Creations.  

After the centuries of unbelievable bloodshed and the unimaginable, yet so very real terrors of the Shoah, we thought perhaps we were to be allowed to return to our forever home. To have that promised ingathering from the four directions of the world. North to South and East to West.  To rebuild our homeland. To rejuvenate it. To become in deed. In fact. The Land of Milk and Honey. To reclaim it from the desert it had become, from the miasmas of the swamps, and become a vibrant productive member of the nations of the world.  

From the time its most recent reinvigoration as a nation the people of Israel have been fighting,  to ensure its permanence, to serve not merely or only as a home for those within its borders, but always to those without. To those who remain scattered among the more or less hostile nations and peoples of the world. 

Sadly, we faced the truth that for some reason, for no reason at all, the idea of a legitimate functioning actuality of a homeland for the Jews was anathema to be fought. To create long term plans and conspiracies and plots to bring it down. Over and over again.

But this time around, there was a different situation. Perhaps because we Jews were tired, oh so tired in body and soul of the consistent fighting merely to survive, that, no, this time there would be no backing down. This time the mantra was 'we are going to win as we must. This is our land to be shared with others who wish to live in peace and harmony. Always to know that this was to be the rejuvenation of a permanent Jewish homeland. The home of all the Jewish peoples we had rescued from those four corners of the world, the living life of a long ago Promise.' 

We will always win. We knew we had to win. This time there was no other place for us to go. We have no other land no matter what we're temporarily allowed, as a welcoming place. It never remained remain so.

And for so many of us the shock of this virulent, antisemitism, this JewHatred has been a literal shot to the heart. It was made even more clear to us that even when we were clearly the victims of a barbaric attack waged upon innocents, upon people dancing, upon people celebrating the holiday, taking a walk, playing with their children, we were to be denied even that 'status' and were declared to be the aggressors.

 Why? Because we knew we had no other choice and we had to fight hard to impress that point upon those who wish to see us dead, who indeed saw us dead on October 7th and ongoing. No matter how many 'ceasefires' for that hatred never died. Those bullets never ceased to be fired. Those missiles perpetually fell from the skies.

 But now we're home. Our place of refuge was being challenged to its very last breath.

And when 1000 musicians got together in an ancient arena and played the songs, the tune, the words of the forever plea, request, demand of the Jewish people to be home, to be Habayta for once and for always it indeed carried two pleas. 

 One was the plea for the return of the hostages so brutally imprisoned, beaten, raped and tortured, for a return, their return, after such a long time, to their HOME.

But as we watchED with tears in our eyes and as we heard and revoiced and replayed this national anthem there was another Habayta that we were pleading for. To have that Habayta we had been promised so long ago but never been fully given as promised. It was way overdue. Way past time. 

And so, we sang these words, we used our instruments to convey these thoughts, this pleading, and we looked not down to the devil, not in dirge, but in words of determination, of challenge and yes, pleading, as we raised our heads, our eyes, our faces, our hands to the Heavens Above where the ultimate Homeowner resides.      

Always

Yesterday.

Today.

Tomorrow.

Always and forever.

HABAYTA.

NOPE, NOT TODAY.

  Nope. Many times that nope. As I sat down this morning, primed with the thought that came to me during the night, my eyes glanced quickly at the little daily piece of info: time and date. Whoa! How could I have missed the import of that information? Most probably because we are in our Homeland, our place of peace, of history, of nation. Oddly enough, according to the majority of the world, this is exactly the place not to seek peace and certainly note find it. Not in this place on earth which seems to have an affinity for woes of violence and eternal threat and death. 

Well, that is not my problem. That is the problem of those whose thinking is twisted. Whose hate consistently boils within. But for me, this is a place   where a glance out of my window spreads a biblical scene of millennia age in its most recent portrayal. Daily new life in an ancient homeland. Forever facing challenges, forever in dispute, yet forever coming out as the victor. And always   another upcoming holiday providing for thought and appreciation, for searches to keep things as they are, yet always seeing to give rise to ever new moments and hours and days. 

Assurances of even better times to come. And of pride and love and a realization that we, along with our partner, a third of our entity, that we at least can see new branches and growth of family moments, of family achievement, along with the eternal hope that we have passed along principles we have held dear, of goals achievable yet often difficult to maintain. In fact, this family is what we see as the future of an ancient people. Who have held on to       a fabric of belief, of prayer, of values challenging     even as they provide the basis of a life hopefully well and properly lived. 

 So what is it that can drive other thoughts of other blog postings? It is our 59th wedding anniversary. A wedding that remembers what it is that a marriage means, far more than the wedding itself. The wedding lasts for hours, its memories forever, in one way or another. But the marriage is what counts, even if of brief duration, also in one way or another, but aways remaining behind and ahead and with us in so many, many manners. 

Always there are consequences. Always there are moments of confusion and miscalculation as to importance, with the import of some deed or statement vastly underrated as to its eventual place within the history of that marriage, of that family.

Two of the thirds making up this marriage, Gerry and myself, worked very hard to build a proper life with ancient and time-tested values. We took strength from those values, even if the reasoning was not always clear to us at the time. It often took years to fully understand the events of our lives, but always together, always with belief and trust in G-d, and many times with great patience and a building understanding of what indeed has taken place.

So, from two rather young, rather unknowing of what life held for us, what love truly means and entails, set out on a journey, which thanks to our efforts and the oversight of Hashem, we have made it to this point.

59 years of marriage. To 120.   

TOGETHER.

Yesterday.

Today.

Tomorrow.

Thank you, Hashem, and for allowing us to build a future with our children and their children and on down the years.

Amen.

And yes, for those who need to ask, we love each other even more than we did at that beautiful wedding.