I AM NOT AFRAID TO SAY IT

  I am afraid of what it means. And why is it happening? Why here, in America? How has this happened? Why are eyes and ears not hearing not seeing the truth? Why are minds closed to reality yet open to pure fabrication? When and why have hearts turned to stone, and bought into the entire dangerous trash of Mein Kampf?  

WHY AM I AND A MAJORITY OF JEWS TODAY WALKING AROUND DEATHLY FRIGHTENED?

We are not walking around on a set for a movie or TV. We are not watching the transformation of a book into a documentary. Rather, it is that today the USA is setting the stage for a future documentary whose main source of information will be the many books which will be written re The Year the United States of America Turned on Its Jewish Citizens. 

There will also be a plethora of fiction of the same topic turned into films, TV shows, perhaps even a play or two. The mouths and eyes will gape in shock and astonishment. Crocodile tears will roll   down the faces of the audiences.  But it will mean nothing in reality for the Jews will be missing. Chased out, killed, or remaining in hiding, literally and figuratively. 

Can we prevent it? Is it possible today at this point to put a stop to it? Are we brave enough to examine our deeds and misdeeds, our actions and lack of actions which have brought us to this point. How and why have we allowed universities of America to be seized by Muslims, Arabs, and their fellow travelers and watch with approving eyes as they proceeded to inculcate an environment rife with hate towards Israel, towards Jews, especially those who stand up against them, even as they flaunted those Jews determined to show how 'liberal' they were as they consorted with the enemy. The same enemy who at the end of their usefulness would toss them on the same heap of ashes and bones. 

  America, American universities, have been seized by crazed minds. Yet brilliant at the same time, even as Hitler was a mad genius who played those under his influence and rule as virtuosos stroke the keys of the piano. Most frightening is the amount and darkest hate they dredge up from the deepest levels of Hell and the thirst with which it was and is imbibed. 

Looking back over the past decade or so, easily discerned is the pattern, the chilling coldly planned and carried out operation to overwhelm universities and put in place enormous multiple crowds of Quislings, ready to shout full throated cries and chants of hate, of bloody violence and death, and for the destruction of both Israel and their own country, America. An America sucker punched, as it stupidly allowed more and more hate inciting Moslems and Arabs in positions of influence, replacing Jewish professors and others of words of balance and comity. 

We allowed, even encouraged, the hijacking of our children, mortgaged our and their futures at rates impossible to maintain and we were foreclosed.   Our souls. Our democracy. The lives of our Jewish residents, our neighbors, our friends - or were they? Were we, until the valve of virulent, freeing hate was opened, allowed to flow freely within our veins, to corrupt body and soul, to harden hearts and blind eyes. The fields of our nation were sown with seeds of venom, a bumper crop, greedily swallowed by Americans of all classes, even among some Jews willing to show their 'guilt' of being liberal, their 'privilege and entitlement' -huh! Until we were truly 'woke' - up in a strange and       hostile land, frightening beyond belief - yet there it was and here it will remain unless we respond in meaningful, consequential and immediate format.

Why are we not calling out the obvious similarities, the marching in step as huge numbers of identical green tents are planted on campuses round the nation. As chants change as one. The targets chosen long ago. The older 'activists' invaders of campuses, and hijackers of our national ethos. The well-orchestrated technique of informal uniform clothing, face masks and kaffiyehs, rendering mute the individual doubts as all are submerged, drowned, in the overwhelming liberating persona of the 'mob'. We have indeed seen the enemy, seen the whites of their eyes -and they are ourselves and our own children run amok. 

So yes, I am afraid. Very much so. I find myself telling my kids and grandkids to stay away from mobs and crowds. To be deaf to shouts thrown at them. But is that not acquiescence to hate, to the bullies, to the least of society, to the vermin of humanity?  What is the best answer? Must we wish safety even as we go forth onto the fields of battle and survival? If we must then so be it. With guns we own, with knives and bare hands. No more pogroms of eastern Europe and Arab lands. No more sophisticated murder plans of western Europe. Not here either. No displacement and no replacement.  

So yes, we will do what we must if we must, if America and the world do not return to their senses and turn aside, vehemently reject this behavior and   thinking. It is toxic to all, perpetrator and persecuted alike. Time to fix the mess. Return to sanity and acknowledge that time is short, growing ever shorter. Time to disown this awful business, for it sours and corrupts all, endangers all, and consumes all.  The most advantageous time to do this would be - NOW. STAT. ASAP.

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     Yitzy, you be safe and warm in the peace above. Remind One of the agonies of His people once again. And visit again. Any time, sweet boy.

Our love for you is eternal.

Always and forever. Always and forever.

VA AVEC DIEU

  Go with G-d. Many, if not most languages have a saying of similar wording and intent. We say it when we wish one well, particularly when the voyage or undertaking is of great importance. It is of great significance at times of uncertainty and imminent danger. It is a sentiment much thought, wished, heard and voiced at times of great confusion and helplessness, of hopelessness when we see no way out, no ending to the miserable state of the current existence. 

It is when the most powerful thought we have in mind is in tune with the verse from the Book of Lamentations or Eicha, in Hebrew, “Behold and see if there is any pain like my pain."  We are each so wrapped up in our own pain, drowning in our own sorrows, that we cannot see or will not see the pain of others and know that when pain is shared it becomes more amenable to bearing up under its stress.  The pain, the doubt, the uncertainty, the inability to trust in fellow man, leads us to seek and hopefully find a more stable source of hope. That stable source is the Creator who has no beginning and no end but is always. As we say in Hebrew, Haya, Hoveh, V'yiheyeh. He was. He is. He will always be. It is a certainty which will give us strength and assurance that there will be an end to the torment and the misery even though we might not yet see any light at the end of the tunnel. Only darkness ahead.

Yesterday a video was released by the beastly Hamas, which purported to show a hostage, much thinner and dull eyed, in a propaganda video meant only to hurt the hostage's parents, and the nation of Israel within and without the land of Israel. However, we know the use of propaganda and rejoice in viewing the hostage while discounting the rest. We, the people of Israel, mourn with the parents of Hersh. We mourn with all the parents, the husbands, the wives, the children and the families and the friends of those still missing. 

Many households for two nights have placed an empty seat, a place setting, which remained clean and unused, for the Seder was incomplete, members of our family missing. We are one family and strong in our unity, unbroken by the lies of Hamas, the violence at the universities led by paid activists and demonstrators, as once again echoes of violence resound, most shockingly, in our time. We find ourselves in a long tunnel, steeped in a deep darkness, limiting of breath of life, no light visible, no end in sight. But there is an end, there always is and we emerge stronger than ever. We must forge on, till that end is reached. 

 How, though do we generate that inner strength in the worst of situations? How does one keep alive even the smallest kernel of hope as one sits in   darkness unrelieved, starved of food, water, of sun, of human touch other than one of brutality? How? How? We then add to that burden the knowledge that the murderous intent of so many, too many, is revived, refreshed, repackaged, even as the creases and the staleness of the old wrappings remain strong. Even overpowering.

This ugliness has been accompanied with punishing blows, particularly for those of us raised in the western world, the modern world, presumed to have shed the ugliness of that JewHatred, or toned it down to a subtler version. Even if so, it is no longer. It is no longer hidden. It is no longer gentle. No, now it is one blow after another. For me the phrase used within the announcement of a delayed closing date to ask for transfer to a different university which would provide "refuge for Jewish students" well, that struck hard. 

Again? Are we going to live in a time where being a Jew is a hardship unbearable? Are we going to be told that simply walking by, being visibly a Jew, is provocation and one that the world justifies?  Are we to be stripped of our careers, rights, our children to live in a world of no hope, no dreams? Are we once again to be forced to live within delineated lines ghettos resurrected?  Bloodied scapegoats of a vicious world with insatiable appetite for Jewish blood.  

Why and wherefore does that sentence, that sentiment, have any right of existence?  Why are we hearing it again? Why have so many jumped upon that train of blood and hate? Is it never to end? As the old train, battered, leaves the station, must we always be alert to the headlights signaling the arrival of the new train carrying hate new, yet so ancient and recognized deep within our genes? Why more bloodshed only a generation or two removed from the violence of the Holocaust even as the last of the survivors die, with a trembling memory, visceral, as the new train pulls in. 

I have no answers and frankly often, too often of late, I can find no germ of hope of emerging unscathed from this new storm of violence. This new storm, so powerfully strengthened by modern techniques and capabilities, is even more shocking as it was reborn via the educated and sent down to the uneducated, and forces were joined to revitalize and reterrorize, an evil synergy of virulent hate. Have we not learned our lesson? Have we not yet learned to discern the difference between truth and lies? Have we not yet shed the animalistic tendencies and temptations within the human being? If not, why not? I can only sadly shake my head. However, along with that shake of my head comes the defiance. No, I am not a fool. I know that. there is not very much that a lady of almost 76 years can do to fight the behemoth of this toxicity swiftly enveloping us. However, I can raise my voice. However, I can write my blog. However, I can wear my symbols of Judaism, of my pride in being a Jew. However, I too can wear symbols of defiance. I too can wear T shirts. I too can shout and chant. I too can assume an ugly face. 

But why must we do this? Where is a positive bottom line at the end of this all? Why are wiser heads of the world not pounding through to the stone heads of the haters that besides being so egregiously wrong, there is no end gain here. Nothing positive. Nothing boding good for any. Harm is wreaked to all.  

No answer other than to turn, to return, to the lessons of history and find that difficult as it is to believe, similar episodes of insanity have been beaten back before, albeit the cost unacceptably high. To KNOW, that the Creator, a tad absent minded of late, will remember, do His job, and we will emerge the stronger for it.  Must it be this way? The answer, I believe, will be found on the other side. Till then, patience, even in a huge ugly field of doubt. For encouragement I borrow the wise words of the Ramban, a scholar of old, presented by a scholar of modern times, Rabbi, Rav Aaron L. Lopiansky. 

“We are like the dead thinking that our bones are dried out. We will then be brought up from all the nations as the offering to Hashem (G-d). The nations will be aggrieved when they recognize the honor bestowed upon us. We will see the vengeance of Hashem. He will pull us up and we will live before Him.”

I know this is true, was the one awed and strengthened by an event this holiday. Read on and  see what it was.

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Yitzy, thank you. As we stood in casual conversation, I happened to look down and there I saw a pattern of footsteps of small feet, originating by the door and walking closer to us. These steps were profoundly beautiful, prisms of color. As we gazed at them, instinctively, I remarked, "Yitzy. He is here." The very next day, disappointment, as no footsteps were evident. Then they were. Only this time there were longer ones accompanying the smaller ones, even more beautiful. Interpretation? I leave to you. I do know mine. 

Yitzy, loved your visit. Hope you found the afikomen. 

Always and forever. Always and forever. 

Va avec Dieu. All of us. 

     

AND POOF! ALL GONE

 And no more? How does this happen? Ia there a special saying, a magic phrase, or is it a matter of will. Like a child whose world revolves around himself, there are supposed leaders around the world who believe their words are magic, and nothing is unless they deem it so. Their Word, unchallengeable, is the word. Hence, if they deny or negate, well, there it is.

There is something which is held close to my heart and it cuts deep into my heart and soul, makes me question my sanity, for though I know the truth, the horror of the reality, apparently others are immune to this truth. Far worse, this self-conferred denial is highly contagious and ensures that the pathways of their minds and their flow of their words are corrupted, black and reeking of gangrene of the soul.

 These ugly perversions go far in strengthening the power and seductiveness of their words. The leaders of nations, global organizations, the peoples of the world to a great degree, buy it all, so much easier on the conscience, as egregious and violence inciting lies become accepted as truths. The self-centered heads of nations subscribe to the infantile point of view - out of sight, out of mind, off of mind. 

However, there are those who refuse to bow the head to these instigators of hate and instead issue clarion calls for a return to sanity, a repudiation of the ever-strengthening echoes of the genocidal intents of the Holocaust. To disremember is to be comfortable - until another Emile Zola calls out in powerful, penetrating voice, unable to be ignored. "J'ACCUSE!" roared at France, at the world. 

We can stand against the burgeoning growth of vicious hate. We can refuse to go along, stand strong against this ugliness which stinks of bloody hatred. The first step is to stand strong, to roar back with full throated cries - of truth, of anguish, of furious reminders of their complicity in this ongoing worsening crisis. 

So - a few truths. Israel was attacked on Oct7, directed  at communities who were at the forefront of advocating closer ties with Palestinian communities - and acted accordingly. In vicious perfidious return they were slaughtered, raped, brutalized, burned, tortured, kidnapped, killed in captivity - as the world stood silent, a well learned lesson on how to ignore truth re the murdering of Jews.

Nor was that brutality an isolated attack as over 370 were slaughtered and hundreds more massively wounded at Nova music festival. Hunted, chased, as prey, brutalized, raped, slaughtered, and kidnapped - there to die, alone, in the dark, starved, and beaten, tormented body and soul. Echoes of past pogroms, of the Holocaust, bloodily real, in our own land. Once again denied the right to exist, to live. At all. 

 Deep silence after a few squeaks of crocodile tears. Then, textbook pattern, the Jews, the victims of yet another pogrom, a repeat of Holocaust goals, were blamed for this, accused of perpetrating this massacre upon their own people, and in a blink of an eye, the victims became the oppressors, and the beasts became victims. Yet again, the world stood by, complicit in the outrage. Israel, 'given permission' to do what a nation attacked must do, was then hamstrung in combat, in goals, called out even as they were way above any other army in treatment of so-called civilians, who were neither civilians nor 'innocent'. Go home.  Forget the wounded, the killed, the butchered of the 30 communities attacked. 

The hostages? Who? Again? Oh, right. How many? Oh, for sure, less now. We will get around to them. When? Soon. A bit later. First pull out, cede your victory to the 'militant' Hamas, accept the guilt being shifted onto you, the lies going unchallenged, as the 'dead'   were recycled, as truth was submerged under hourly heaps of trash. Cede defeat. Be realistic and prepare for already promised further Oct 7s.       

And the hostages? Who? What say? Again? Thought we had settled this, acquainted you with realpolitik, far more important than a few written off hostages. Maybe some time in the future. The families? The nation?  Suck it up? That is your answer? Suck it up!!!, write off, as a business loss?    Move on? If ignored long enough, it will go away? A known fact, so we should fuss less? 

Most emphatically - NO and NO and NO.

And while on the topic, we will not allow our fellow Jews to be threatened, to face real chance of bloodshed, to feel the chill of fear run down the spine. We will not allow for Jews to be isolated, attacked   threatened with death, even via rockets of Hamas, to have the well-practiced and rehearsed chants of hate shouted at them.  

It is time for all to stand tall. To stand strong, to stand determined. To fend off this storm of hate. We must recognize true criminality and threat. We must disallow the assumed approval and permission to spew forth with his tainted garbage. We must insist upon law enforcement doing its proper job, along with strong consequences. Hatred and its acidic consequences must be understood and made real. If not, we are all in the shade of a rather ugly dripping blood umbrella. 

Hatred, a rerun of JewHatred  should be anathema to any decent person. If more incentive is needed understand that hate expands. Only grows stronger. It must be fought wherever it is, found and   acknowledged wherever it is. Ignorance is neither bliss nor approved. It does not go away. That is a fact. That is real. That is the truth. The only thing that would be long gone should this be ignored, will be an entire nation of people and all the rest to follow into the bloody maw. of an ever-hungry beastly insatiable hatred. 

It is upon us, Jew and non Jew, to stand tall, strong and determined to fend off this ever-growing possibility. Violence must be met with full power of the law. Those who instigate violence, those who advocate hate and murder, bloodshed, must face the consequences and the consequences must be real.  These are not innocent children. nor teens or young adults sowing their oats. These are actually co-opted individuals, crowds who know not what they do, are carried along with the others and do not fully fathom the violence, the horror they are promulgating and enabling. Time to get serious and stop the soft treatment. No more playing games. These are indeed the "times that try men's souls" -women too. Times when the only thing that works is a stern meaningful consequence and we have been extremely neglectful of that understanding and application. Protest is one thing. Advocating for the death of others, for Jews in particular, for chanting for actual death - of a person, of one's own country - not a joke, but quite serious. And real. Feel it. Acknowledge it. Fight it.  ============================------

 Yitzy, tonight is the first night of Pesach, Passover. We celebrate our liberation from slavery, but will that liberation remain with us. To be alive today is tough. Personally, the year has been tough. As a Jew it has been very tough as well. As a hopefully decent person, it has been disheartening. 

We need help from Above, to remain strong, to trust and believe. To know He has our backs.  Please convey that to the  Big Guy and urge Him to aid the people of His earth.

Love you. 

Alway and forever. Always and forever.

---------------------------------------------------------  And again, I wish all a wonderful holiday, time for friends and family.

I will return with more postings on Thursday morning.

Would it not be wonderful if we could awaken that morning and read of the release of ALL the hostages, alive or dead and the surrender of Hamas.  Halevai.   If only.

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LONELY? OUT OF PLACE? LONGNG FOR WHAT NEVER WAS?

"Some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not."  W. Somerset Maugham. The Moon and Sixpence   

A feeling of loneliness pervades all, being the only one out there fighting the good fight. Then the rare moments where one can at least try to collect one's thoughts, only to discover you actually have forgotten why you are fighting, what you are fighting for.  Simply vanished. Caught up in the winds of war, but yet the battle goes on and you remain alone. 

I believe that today we are in the midst of such a time. So many of us, have these feelings of being lost, wandering in a land of confusion. Not really sure how we got here in the first place. And what about what was before? Was it the dream place that we seemed to remember or have we called it golden in our minds, forgetting the tarnish that had been there. Are we in fact as Maugham says. overwhelmed by a feeling of being out of place, transported somehow to another time?  All simply appears wrong, and in frantic desire, a driving need, the lonely one finds other lonely ones and suddenly, there is an emergent synergy which bodes well for no one.

 When we seek the impossible, in an ever-growing useless, frustrating search, with efforts bearing naught other than disappointment, another side of "the impossible dream" emerges.  The seekers, the true Quixotes, are joined with others who have other motivations and goal. Positive energies are usurped, twisted, and vulnerable minds are hijacked, wheeled along by the evil-minded power seeking worst elements of humanity.  Thus begins the vicious dangerous game of societal tug o' war, a game most vicious, bloody and of great consequence.  

Building upon the frustrated energies and unattainable goals of the original seekers, the lonely combatants, the worst emerges, shreds the implicit compacts of society, revitalizes the worst of canards and prejudices of the past, and exponentially engenders an impetus of rancid negativity and danger, huge peril to humanity as a whole and certainly for those who become the targets and scapegoats of the frustration of an impossible search. The impossible dream is mashed and trashed, resulting in a cloud of pure ugliness and venom. 

And here we are today. Here we were so many yesterdays, and here we will be again, in the present and future, ever worse, more intense in hate and bloodlust, impelled forward/backwards by voices of evil who prey upon the minds, souls and bodies of the needy, those seeking to be with others, whatever the cost, who accept that progression is regression. Add in those who find personal advantage in chaos, sprinkle in those desirous of anomie, and top it all off with vicious power and wealth seeking false leaders and a vicious eddy results.

 We end in a vacuum within society as the authorities prove to be incompetent. To that, we add in the bewilderment of other layers of authority, and the grief and bewilderment of parents, their hard work and sacrifice spurned, spat upon, even as the spoilers continue to expect, even demand, financial support as they wreak havoc.

 Now enter those who have been waiting patiently, instigating constantly, willing and able to wreck society and create a need for someone, anyone, to control and harness the winds within that vacuum. A devolving society needs someone  to create order out of chaos, to set aside the vacuum. In that desperation all is discarded. Democracy. Civil rights. The humanity of humanity. Welcome the dictators. Welcome oppression, repression, hopelessness and despair, coupled with a growing element of helplessness, victims of their own errors, grown impotent to reverse the powers now in control.   

It is a time pf death to the dream and death to the dreamers. Certainly, there is a constant search for any willing to risk dreaming again. Worst of all is the ease with which society returns to the feral level, the turn to indulgence of mortal scapegoating. These scapegoats provide relief for the rulers and allow the oppressed to feel superior to someone, and wallow in their blood. Voila. Here we are today. The traditional ever useful scapegoat: the nation of Jews. And the modern reincarnation of their ancient homeland, Israel. 

The inability of authorities to see forward, to predict the violence, the growing intensity of hate within these supposed protests is awful. Is it due to a motive, a goal, or is it accidental, an exhibition of incompetence and blindness?  It is clear that these protests are directed by some overhead power or organization.   There is no way to deny that as the chants and the tactics emerge nationwide, as the planning goes nationwide. As the level of violence grows nationwide. This does not happen spontaneously. This happens out of the mulch of hate. It begins and ends with a replication of millennial hatred directed at Jews.  

How can we as a society remain blind to what we have allowed? How can we as a society deny the inevitability of a chaotic, desperate future inimical to the survival of humankind. Certainly not in any positive manner. How can we as a society disavow our responsibilities as the adults and allow our kids to run wild. I have always been a social liberal. I believe that our actions must be inclusive of the needs of humanity without distinguishing based on false statements and differences. Yet today I am afraid to claim that name.  The motivation has been trashed, perverted, its beauty submerged in ugliness.

It has allowed an emergence and growth of a vile, toxic prejudice from minority groups now flexing their muscle. These minorities, actually vast majorities of the world's population, continue to claim the rights of a victim. Yes, there remain inequities, but progress has been made, giant steps taken, and inequities aren't limited to one group, but actually devolve upon all segments of society, even as we strive to progress and improve.  

Why then do we have majorities, false minorities, engaging in vicious blood seeking, blood curdling chants of extermination and dehumanization. These chants resound in the air, poisoning every breath. Why, once again, are Jews being felled by hordes of creatures, caricatures of human beings, of fanged teeth and unsheathed claws? Why has it become fashionable to demean Israel, to attack Jews, to isolate and restrict them, even to where they can and cannot live or  even walk!  Again!!  In 2024! Claiming to be advanced, civilized, even as ancient tropes of hate and superstition find a climate, fertile and encouraging to an emergent repowered hatred directed against Jews throughout the world and Israel as a Jewish nation. Apparently, that fact is anathema. Too goddamn bad! 

The haters scream and kill and plunder. They continue to hold their own people as shields.  They continue to kill their own children and celebrate their deaths. Perverse indeed. They take pride in the barbaric treatment they have inflicted upon the hostages brutally ripped from their lives as Hamas wages war against infants and elderly, the ill and the wounded. Such heroes!!  

I remind them, the world, we have overcome more powerful than you. We have survived great empires. 

We are here.

So it has and will be for all time. One day, the Lord will reach down with His hands and take us home.

Until then, whatever your worst is, it is futile against the power of the Almighty.   

Am Yisroel Chai.

 We live forever.  

  I do hope that one day we can all be understanding of the differences and the similarities of humanity of all mankind. Only then shall we have peace. True peace.

"He will set up an ensign for the nations. and will assemble the dispersed. of Israel and gather together the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth."  Isaiah II:12 

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Yitzy, my grandson. The good Lord has already reached down and taken you home. I read recently that every soul from time of birth, the purer they are the more they long to go home. Would that you had not been so pure and would have been able to stay with us far longer than you did. Perhaps even as we mourn, as we miss you so, you are home - safe, loved, treasured.  

We down here also treasure and love you. We miss you. Our hearts ache. Our tears continue to fall. Chag Kasher V'sameach.  

Always and forever. Always. and forever.     

GNARLY, DUDE.

  Gnarly is one of those words of which I wrote the other day. It has two meanings diametrically opposed to each other. One definition means something twisted, difficult. The second means excellent as in "That's a gnarly looking, car". What is our choice of definition these days. Or can we make positive constructive use of both? Gnarly question. And what about the response?

Actually, both definitions are alive and well, thriving even.  On the one hand it is truly a twisted difficult threatening scene of life today. A university in New York where Jewish life and          influence abound and cannot be separated from the threads of life of this city, part and parcel of its very being, when that university and others turn on their Jewish students, allow violence and threats to them, against them proliferate, and cannot find it within their core to stand up against this egregious dangerous outrage, well, what is left to say or do? Society has now broken, cracked, visibly, audibly, and is on a most dangerous path predictive of a most horrendous future.    

Protest is fine. Protest is part of the American tradition. The original Patriots of this country protested and threw tea overboard or found roundabouts so as to avoid quite unpopular taxes levied upon them by England. Our early colonists were not bashful nor hesitant to express their approval or dismay with government. The country thrived on that energy. It impelled this country to seek and make and take the right choice, towards progress. Too slow, often delayed. But progress was made.  

There has always been dissonance and dissidence in this nation. A wave of newcomers heeding the clarion call of "Send these, the tempest torn to me,” often met with prejudice and antagonism, for many reasons, but it eventually quieted down. Newcomers settled in, made their way up the ladders of opportunity to be found in this country. 

 However, America, as a nation, began to evidence the terrible actuality: America lost part of itself, and we are continuing along that terrible path. The impetus to do good, to achieve that good and to share it with others struggled to survive. 

Where are we now? Do we wish to remain? Is that a proper choice? Or should we rather pick up our shovels and quickly dig a secure path out of where we are now.  A Jewish ex-football player said this. "The hate that is out there for Jews, for everyone. The antisemitism, it's gnarly right now, and it's pretty hurtful,"

An understatement. Peruse the statistics, the thousandfold increase in threats and activities of antisemitism, now more aptly named JewHatred.  Acts of threats, arson and murder. Terror at universities, so much so that some turn to Zoom rather than chance the gauntlets of hate on campus. It is ugly, made uglier by professors who are a disgrace to all educators and by administrations eschewing their duties. It is truly a gnarly situation in every sense of the negative definition. Totally  twisted and perverted.

The actions on campus are not individual, but aee organized and funded, words implanted, by some hidden organization of wealth of money and toxicity. It is as a parade of Robotrons loaded with identical programs, buttons started, and sent off to wreak havoc and hate at assigned destinations.  The reek rises to the air we breathe. Its shouts of death to Israel and death to America deafen us.

“I like to be in America. OK by me in America.” So sang Anita and her friends. Can we? I do not think so - too frightening and uncertain these days.   Gnarly, twisted ugly roots of hate revived. What kind of Americans are we? What kind of American are you? What kind of American am I? Can we all share a definition?  Is it not possible? This is a beautiful concept of a country, so why can we not all benefit from that beauty and bounty?     

"There's a lot of hate going on in other places. War is terrible on so many levels. It's a sad time, like I said. The one thankful thing you have is we're not experiencing that here in our country. War is brutal, war is disgusting."

I believe that the above statement is somewhat lacking. We do have that hate here. We do have that rising acceptance, even approval and encouragement of violent expression of that  hatred.  At the end, though, I believe, I must so believe, that we can come to our senses and talk rather than hate, reason rather than threat.   

Which gnarly are we going to choose. 

Gnarly posit is it not?

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Yitzy, no doubt about your definition choice. It is only the good, the b\beautiful, the wonderful.

As you were, as you will always remain.

Always and forever. Always and forever.

    

        

ESCARGOT/SNAILS RESPONDING/ATTACKING - SAME DIFFERENCE?

   Another? The two different pronunciations of Target - with a hard G or with a soft G, as if it were the name of a classier French mercantile establishment. Is there really any difference or are the pronunciations more telling of the inner thoughts of people. Joke and yet not so jokey! Today's title refers to a Pepper and Salt pithy cartoon re the times of today to found daily in the Wall Street Journal. This particular one presented two snails in conversation with one saying he preferred "escargot' to snails, as it sounded more elegant, classier than snail, the only difference is the price on the menu! 

 Other two-word pairings appear to be similar, yet are not, and carry within a grave difference. One's choice is often quite revealing of the motivation and bias of the speaker and the audience as well. It behooves all to pay careful attention to the choices made. This dichotomy applies as well to two definition words or terms, hiding the more harmful, quite often used incorrectly, within the other definition.

An example: the second pair of the title. Are the rude, crazed mobs of supposed mere "pro Palestinians" responding and to what exactly or are they attacking and undermining a basic right of free speech? Is advocating for genocide of the Jewish people, a response or an attack? Are their blockades, illegal, greatly harmful to the nation responses or attacks? Or are these claimed "responses" merely hiding the attacks they are? The consequences, the results, must be in measure appropriate to the truth of the transgression.  

 Similarly, we have the Iranian "response" or "attack"? The attempt to somehow minimize the truth. A 300+ missile attack upon Israel, aimed indiscriminably, is to be defined truthfully as an attack rather than as they claim, a mere 'response' as they claim, Follow the thread of the import of the words and find the truth. 

  This is then to be followed by a related two definition term - appropriate. Was Iran appropriate in its 'response'? Or was it way over the top? Certainly. if tables were turned, and Israel had sent over that huge wave of rockets as a 'response' the world would have shrieked to the heavens at the inappropriateness of the 'attack' by Israel perpetrated on the 'innocent' people there. Once there is a beginning of misuse of terms, it does not end, certainly not easily. It is a useful political tool, so why disuse? It certainly works for the enemies of Israel, for the haters of Jews does it not?! And as an aside, it works for Putin as well, as he fills the airwaves of his tortured nation with his lies re the invasion of Ukraine.

Hostages.  People in agony, deserted and abandoned by the world. Or are they mere bargaining tools to be swapped, traded as baseball cards among schoolboys. 30:1. 50:1. 30 terrorist bloodstained murderers for the body of a 9-month-old? Is that where the world is now? Apparently so, as blame is placed on the shoulders of Israel, refusing to make that 'deal', that business transaction, when actually it is Hamas, Sinwar, using his 'hondler' skills quite well. He is encouraged in his bargaining by the attitudes of the world and the ever-increasing defamation of Israel, increasingly abandoned by the world. Indeed, the mark of Cain should rightfully be placed upon the foreheads of those nations.  

 Until the hostages, dead or alive, are all accounted for, returned, the nation cannot heal itself. cannot move on. The wounds are deep, over 50 Nova massacre survivors committing suicide, along with many others, the depth, the pain, the loss too great. The ugliness, as despite testimony of victims and eyewitnesses, of videos of the animals of Oct7, of the use of sexual depravity as a weapon of war, the world denied it all and remained silent, unless accusing the witnesses, the victims, of telling huge lies.

 Once again. there's denial of tragedies perpetrated upon the Jews. The Holocaust remains still denied by too many. October 7 is denied or blamed   placed at the feet of Israel, claiming they themselves did it! Where the hell does this end? And do not think that others are immune to this hatred. Simply look around the world. From the gulags of Russia to the prisons of China. On to the streets of Haiti to the fields of Sudan. From the refugee camps of the Rohingya to the imprisonment of women, their murder, in Afghanistan and Iran. To current America, where antisemitism is a growth industry, and has morphed into toxic JewHatred,  with highly successful campaigns to isolate Jews and Israel, and forbid them any and all arenas of life. Where chants of death - to Israel, to Jews, to America are heard in ever growing volume. With alarming success and frightening acquiescence and complicity of people who know better but are now enjoying wallowing in the muck and mud, the stinking fens of hate and violence.       

      We must stand up to hate, to violence. We must understand that war is useless in the long run. Other than to provide the basis for yet another war. And that war will provide a basis for the next war. And on and on and on. Wars. Hate. Ugliness of soul and mind. Bloody indifference. Silence. Violence.  

We are refusing to see and accept the truth. We are refusing to acknowledge our faults and our myriad lacks. Can we learn to overcome our deficits and accentuate the positives? Can we turn aside the hate that generates evil? Can we avoid the temptations to return to old, rotten pathways? 

Or are these pipe dreams? These pipe dreams had better begin to evolve or we are indeed lost. Through our own faults we will lose ourselves. We will lose our planet. We will lose it all. Can we in fact turn the tide? Do we actually have within us that strength and determination? I would love to think so, and at times I believe we can, but great, huge, ugly, towering clouds of doubt appear. Somehow, we must change -drastically and soon. Very soon. 

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Yitzy, sweet boy, there were never any doubts as to where you stood on morality, on proper behavior, and especially your faith in the ultimate goodness and possibilities of humanity to see the truth and veer towards it. Faith that we could all work together.

We need huge dollops of that optimism.  Send some our way, please.

In the meanwhile, you are sorely missed and greatly loved.

Always and forever. Always and forever.

  

    

      

THE LANGUAGE MAYBE?

  Pardon me if I am in error but perhaps the entire quagmire of Gaza, the bloody, beastly attack aimed at civilians of Israeli communities on a double holy day for Jews, and the ugly ongoing consequences is totally the result of the failure to discover a shared language. We  cannot understand because we cannot truly communicate. 

Puzzled, are you, as there are definitely those who actually can speak the same language? Yes, but it is the underlayer of the words spoken which defeat the negotiations, render them impotent. Seemingly impatient nations of the world, having had their moments in the sun, wish this war over. To that end, they demand the right to make the rules and move the tokens.

 Surprise!  Not working. The languages used are incompatible and merely give rise to more nonunderstanding, more frustration, more anger, more violence and loss of life. We are the living embodiments of a replication of the Tower of Babel where languages shattered the unity of goals. Unable to communicate in any meaningful manner, the world devolved into what we now have in our own times, and, in fact, have had over the millennia. The refusal, the failure, to find a shared language enabled the wars which followed. 

One of the consequences of this gap between nations was the usurpation of power by stronger nations. They demanded to set the rules, choose a language and set the tactics. The nations directly involved were to be pawns, moved around at the mercy of the overlords. No chance of having their voices heard, their words understood. And so, the bloodletting does not end as the wars of incompatibility continue. 

 We remain with the language barrier, one bult up and around with egregious lies as tactic of war, with violations of the rather oxymoronic rules of war.     Differing tactics are put into play and the nations of the world are confused. and almost inevitably come down on the wrong side of the issue for too long a time until enlightenment finally descends upon them. The results? Hamas is a militant group, not terrorists. They are fighting for their people over whom they rule. They follow all protocol related to prisoners of war, treat all humanely. 

Too many bought these lies, not understanding, not wanting to understand the truth beneath those words. Fooled willingly by these egregious tactical lies, they bought it, hook, line and sinker. No concession of any kind. No hostages and anyway, we have no idea where any are or even the life-or-death status of them. But for sure, wherever they are, or were, they were treated as guests! So sorry. Or not. The hostages faded into the woodwork, no words of shared understanding available with which to convey the dire need, the aches of their families, the grief of their nation.

Finally, after months, the truth is beginning to emerge and find acceptance. Even as Israel was pressured to concede defeat and never mind the truth and   justification of Israel, Finally, Hamas is being called out as the spoiler.  Still too little, so very late. But at least a glimmer of understanding, albeit too late for so many.

"U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller called out Hamas for its lack of cooperation with the hostage and ceasefire deal.  it is Hamas right now that is the barrier and the obstacle to a ceasefire in Gaza.”

 More words of lies. The supposed imminent famine, the humanitarian crises. No dehydrated or starving people to be seen. Hospitals are trashed. But this is a result of the fact that Hamas hid within these hospitals. One must go with the enemy is - not where we wish it to be, if they are not there. Iran attacked, of 300 plus missiles - drone ballistic and cruise - merely “symbolic". Israel must cede the right and responsibility of any nation to repay in kind those who would stand against it and act against it. Silly me and all of us who think that Israel has the rights, the equal rights, of every other nation in the world. But no, they are told to suck it up. 

We Jews are resilient. We will continue. We will trust the Lord to remember His people and the promises made to them. Until then we will take our responsibility seriously, to be a light unto the nations of the world. As we contribute research and benefits to them. And through all time we strive for, long for, peace.  And so next week we will sit down to the first seder of Passover. We remember our liberation from slavery and our unification as a nation, always under attack, but always remaining, never to have our light extinguished.

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Just as the light of your life, the glow of your eyes, the warmth of your hugs, will also never be extinguished. Forever they are with us.  

Always and forever. Always and forever. 

At this time, I wish all of my readers and supporters, a Chag Kasher v'Sameach - a happy holiday and may it signal a turn for the better within our individual lives and the life of our people and homeland. 

And may the Lord see to a return to sanity among all the nations of the world, including our precious United States of America. 

May we all learn the shared language of love, respect and peace.   

I'M STUCK!" - IN THE STATE OF STUCKEDNESS

  For sure, in so many ways. We are stuck in ruts so deep that exit is not possible. We are enmeshed deeply in the fetid swamps of the state of 'stuckedness', unable, and/or unwilling to put forth the determination necessary to enable that exit.    Perhaps we have grown to like it here, prefer the dank air over the challenging fresh air above. Perhaps we prefer to avoid the emotional strain of being responsible for ourselves. Instead, we have become human buffalo herds, following our flawed leaders wherever they go, even unto death. We have ceded our thinking powers, allowed them to atrophy into uselessness, a reminder of what once was, but no longer is.

This state requires a multifaceted entry fee: our souls. Our compassion. Our innate sense of right and wrong.  A death of joy. A subjugation to the forces of evil and oppression. We breathe better, we mistakenly feel, when we are unburdened of the onus of making decisions. We let go of courage, of determination, of the yearning to be free of oppression and suppression. We forget the brave protesters of Russia, of Tiananmen Square, of the crowds of Hong Kong demand their independence. We set aside the American rebels in the colonies.   We deny the bravery of Jews leaving behind the slaughterhouse of Europe, rebuilding and defending their ancient homeland.

We shed the Don Quixote within and raise to prominence the sniveling qualities of the sycophant Smees who enable the Hooks in our societies. We lose incentive and initiative, shed courage and honor and our backbones fail to support us, having degenerated to the point of obsolescence. In short, we lose our way and cannot find our way back. Worse is that we do not wish to retrace and correct. Too much bother. Too much effort.  

        We are what we have become. A nation where mobs now take over the streets of our cities, blocking the byways and highways, and corroding the arteries of our lives. Chants of hate, threats and acts of violence. Hypocritical, claiming anti-war sentiment until they cheer war waged upon those they dislike. The worst of humanity has risen to the top of the scum of the polluted waters now covering the lands of the earth. Extremes of society, from the demented white power supremacists to extremists reportedly aiming to correct inequities of society, to the retrogressive progressives of the left, now claim guardianship of the world. 

They make demands way beyond our ability to pay or any desire to pay. And so, we remain in the land of stuckedness. In traffic we refuse to detangle. Bottom line? We are in the red, liabilities negating assets. Hatred abounds, a real growth industry.    

We are stuck because we have lost our way. We have lost our backbone. Our spines are broken. No strength to stand up, proud and strong, attuned to    truth. We need to say loud and clear - I will not remain stuck. No, I will not allow you to block my way. No, I will not allow you to spew forth poison. No more.   

The world must resist this stuck disease. If we cannot move on we will end up moving backwards into a world where we should definitely not be.        We have spun off our axis and tumbled into those ruts full of entrapping quicksand. Stuck in a place where we simply do not wish to be. Only we can rescue ourselves. Time to unstick ourselves. Time to grab our legs and lift them high above the muck in which we are stuck.  And despite bare feet despite the pains of readjusting society. We must refuse to be stuck any longer.

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Yitzy, we are getting so close to Passover and your voice grows ever louder in our ears, deafening in its silence. Chag Sameach, my little golden boy. Our joy is dimmed as we miss you so much.

We will miss you 

 Always and forever. Always and forever.

     

PROPHECY OR WARNING?

   Actually, thinking about it, there need be no choice necessary between the two terms of the title. In fact, they are unfortunately quite compatible, nary a scintilla of space between them. If in fact we refuse to heed the warning, the prophecy will become the reality. Inevitably. 

This dire statement comes from the powerful emotions raised by the movie Civil War. These emotions pierce one's soul. At the conclusion of the movie, sans a traditional Hollywood wrap up ending, the viewer is left hanging, wondering, stunned actually as the possibilities and probabilities have become very clear, very near. 

I know that personally, I was stunned, remained in my seat, as did many others. No chitchat to be heard. Silence. As the credits rolled, the background to them began as fuzzy, barely there. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, it began to darken until the darkness was overwhelming, sharp, cutting to the quick. The understanding, the import was delivered to those who would see. 

No little scene followed the credits, as is common these days, for what would that scene show? Further ugliness? Further warning? If we are stupid, dense and/or stubborn enough to such a degree that we do not take this warning seriously, an arrow shot directly into the heart and soul, well, the wound will be profound.  

Think about it. Is this the mindset of our nation today? Are we waiting at the station, listlessly and hopelessly, waiting for ...what - for the rain of blood and violence we have wrung from the heavens?  For the loss of America, its dream, its once upon a time promise negated, dissolved in the powerful acid of hate and a dysfunctional society? What will we have done to and by ourselves?

 Hold our world, our behavior up to the light. See through to the truth. We have willingly, even enthusiastically, ceded our souls to the mobs. We have embraced oxymoronic behavior, where progressive actually is regressive, where leaders are weak, flawed, beyond possibility of redemption. Yet we follow, as did the children with the Pied Piper, seduced by the veneer of his seductive music. 

The American people have turned on each other in the movie, as we are so busy doing today. A nation fractured and are these fractures too deep to bridge? Have the monsters within climbed to the top and found welcome in and with us? Follow the words and visuals of the movie; catch the verbal and pictorial reminders of mass murder. Mention of Dachau. The mass graves where bodies are tumbled in as bundles of used clothing and sprinkled with lime.  

Callous shells are the only way to survive -until the shell cracks under the pressure of what is, what cannot be denied or remain unseen, unfelt, any longer. The demands of humanity within force their way out and the shell cracks. with consequences, with irony of good going unrecognized and unappreciated, or rewarded with death.

  Is this powerful movie a warning to us, a last chance, or is it too late and the movie is a prophecy unstoppable. Who is able to answer? Who could lead us, save us?  The timing is critical. The time, if any remains, is limited.

See the movie. Understand what has been left unwritten. See the movie. Understand the message--------------------------------------------------------------

Yitzy, prod our loved ones up there to help mankind to survive. To give us a chance to do better.    Keep history ongoing. A difficult task, but we are left alone and weak and needy. Will the Heavens abandon us?  

So deeply do we miss you. More than words can convey. In our hearts -

Always and forever, Always and forever.

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  No, no finger slip, no practice keyboarding. "The title is the computer algorithm hash translation of "Time is an illusion"." (Albert Einstein) Time is of great importance at present while simultaneously of very little importance. We squander time when it is of most immediate necessity and value and drag it out when speed is of the essence. Moreover, we expend our efforts in the time we have on the wrong things, giving values to that which actually has no value in the long run. Furthermore, if we achieve in the temporal world we inhabit, we pat ourselves on the back, congratulating ourselves on our achievements.

Wrong, foolish, dangerous. By doing so, by ignoring the myriad warnings, even real-time events, we have left the doors and windows open to entry of terrible harm, even destruction or fate unknown. It is woe upon us for shoving aside the lessons of history, in particular our history, that of the Jewish people.  In Proverbs 28:20 we read: "A faithful man will abound with blessings, but he who makes haste to be rich will not go unpunished." 

The nations of the world, the individuals of the world, have, for the most part valued and strived for temporal wealth, in monetary and power amassment. The results are ugly, a deadly morass of violence and bloodshed, spiked with toxic hatred, and we are drowning within. Have we gone down for the third time already, or perhaps we have a wisp of a chance, a second or two, to fend off the inevitable should we continue in our arrogant stupidity and denial of the clear consequences and remain on the present path of humanity. 

What is the matter with us? How do we justify the picking and choosing of our attention and attenuation of misery? How is it that we are blind to the horror within Haiti, a constant state? How do we justify our 99.999% indifference to the ugly deadly fate of the Rohingya, the Uigurs? The cries of the terrified kidnapped children of Nigeria? The ever-weakening cries of woe and pleas for rescue from the brutalized hostages of the beasts of Hamas?    Why is it tolerated, to have so many homeless, hungry, hopeless, and ill people, distraught families, here, in America, once a land of welcome to immigrants, to refugees, as we built a nation together? How? Why? Why?   

Apparently, the only source of unity for the world is the nation in the family of nations chosen for the role and arrows shot at the targeted child. Only this small country, the contributor of so much to the world is forbidden to defend itself and its citizens.    When it does, as is its right and duty, it is deluged by the hypocritical shouts of openly criminal and rogue nations of the world, condemned, held to singular unattainable standards, even as it goes far and above all other nations besieged, in existential threat, with citizens held in brutal captivity, dying in darkness, despair and pain. 

Forever, Israel, Jews around the world, are targets of murderous intent. Why? Ony G-d can answer and presently His mailbox is full, with no room for more. Yet there, in the heavens above, there is a glimmer of hope, of respite, though for how long and in what form, what strength, we do not know.    Our faith and trust in that comes from our history, and from the words of our texts reminding and assuring us that while the criminal nation of Iran boasts of a four-direction attack, its missiles, over 300, were as chaff to the wind as our aid came from a far more superior direction - that of the heavens.  

Our faith in the permanence of that aid is also to be found in the words of our texts. We read and believe. 'The words and plans of the enemies of Israel will come to naught at the end of it all. For G-d is with us, though he tarries at times. We must do our best to keep that aid, that interest going, that we are worthy of investment. How? By doing right, by pursuing justice, by resisting evil and false values. This injunction is upon all of humanity, not merely Israel. If we do right, there is no weapon made in the depths of Hell which can defeat us.   None. 

Robert Heinlein stated, "A generation which ignores history has no past and no future." Yet a wise person also stated that " We must speak from the scar, not the wound." Difficult, particularly when the wound is deep, still seeping, fresh with the pain and the memories. Still, worth a try or two.

I close today's blog with words of wisdom of Aguste Rodin. Think on them. 

"The main thing is

To Be Moved,

To Love, 

To Hope,

To Tremble,

 To Live."

-----------------------------------------------------------Yitzy,

How we wish that you had lived, to bring to the world all that you possessed within. A gift granted and then taken. We cry - always.

Always and forever. Always and forever.

TILT!! GAME OVER!

 Are we in fact at a point of tilt in our lives, nothing left to allow for either defensive or offensive maneuvers? No way out, no detour available. All cupboards bare, all think tanks non thinking.      Nothing left. Where do we go from here? Do we shake the machine trying to get it back on track? Do we check pockets for just a few more tokens enabling more play, more time to undo the done?    Or do we shrug shoulders, turn away and say, "Well, we did our best, gave it our all. Can't do any more. Whatever happens - happens."

 These are the very same players who have been at the arcades for far too long, imposed their Knuckleheaded theories on society and pushed the game to Tilt! status. The same group now say the game is over. Those who have instigated, roiled the world to such a degree, that no alternatives, no paths out of this mess could be found. A morass of stupidity and evil. Knucklehead theory. Knucklehead stupidity. Knucklehead hate. Knucklehead instigation. Knucklehead denial.

Biden and cohort swore to have Israel's back. "We stand with Israel" was the cry.  A faithful ally. Israel has the right to defend itself. Tears and hugs on October 7. But on October 8th already a change. The weather was shifting. The winds were changing direction. No more tailwinds but headwinds growing stronger by the day. Gale force against Israel. Statements of support now came prepackaged with preconditions and limitations and threats - or else. How to wage war. When to stop.  When to shift to aggressor role as desired by the world. When to cede defeat and accept blame. When to KNOW the hostages were abandoned, of no importance, mere collateral damage to be written off. Though not the 'innocent' civilians of Gaza, who sheltered Hamas and captives, cheered their abasement and abuse, who shielded the terrorists. Bottom line: defend with limitations dangerous and ineffective and risk the lives of your citizen soldiers. Dim the memory of Hamas and its brutal butchery in its attack upon civilians, no hold barred. Who stole human beings with evil intentions, disappearing them from life. Hamas is to blame, but never mind that.

Today there is another pandemic, one of acceptable reenergized, fashionable, virulent antisemitism morphed almost instantaneously into severe acidic life-threatening JewHatred. Now the entire world is suffering with the malady of hate, vicious and vile and directed at the Jews of Israel and the entire body of world Jewry.   

To be a Jew today is frightening and more so to be an American Jew for we are not used to such open animosity, the real death threats and chants, and the determination to isolate Jews until they disappear from every facet of life, public and private. Both extremes of political thought have embraced JewHatred and each other in their accursed campaign against Jews. Open season.          Israel's back? Hell, they do not even have the backs of their own citizens of Jewish descent.     

It is frightening these days to be a Jew, in Israel and any nation of the world. The factor of fear is the same. Jews, Israel, are being blamed for rampant acts of violence round the world. Verbal attacks have given way to physical, even existential level.     All the while the nations of the world, guilty of crimes against humanity of their own, rail threats at Israel as they promise aid AFTER Iran attacks.  After the barn door has been left wide open already. Why not, right!?  As useless as a punctured balloon.       

   The hostages, many feared dead, have been written off by our fickle allies, disappeared from   their radar screens, a mere business loss, in the minds of the Knuckleheads running the show. In fact, they have been disappeared for the second time, barely mentioned, if at all, their importance in a 'deal' with the Devil downgraded to no importance at all.         

I do not know where we go from here. My head, my heart, my soul, my bones are shrieking to the world, to G-d. The knuckle headedness of false leaders has led us to this ugly level. They and their deluded followers went straight into the arcade machines. So hard, so fast that the machines had no alternative other than to cry out tilt. Flashing lights, horns beeping, din emanating from their depths - all for naught. Tilt - end of game. Are there more tokens enabling more game playing time?    None. Nothing left to be done other than to walk away in defeat. Tilt for all involved or not for we share the same earth, the same ultimate fate, to the point of tilt. The tilt will be not only for your targets but for you as well. We have poisoned our own world.  Aren't we proud!  We walk neck high through acid and are burned. We spew forth poison and then wonder why the very air is polluted.       

There is no way one can avoid consequences of one's behavior. Nor the thoughts which encouraged and invented and promulgated the actions based upon perverted thoughts. Though consequences might be delayed, they definitely do show up. and oftentimes they are so severe there is no conquering them. Certainly not without great cost. Great bloodshed. and a realization afterwards that what the hell did we just do? At some point this vicious game goes tilt!  Nothing left to shoot. No more blinking lights. No more tweets and whistles. No more honking horns. No more loud music. No more anything. Only scarred, ugly landscape left behind. Left behind too are the books of culture. The music of beauty. The best of humanity.   

Humanity still has some time left for them to think and to put aside those knuckleheads who have endangered us and assume our rightful responsibilities. Place them squarely on our shoulders and fix the world. Tikkun Olam - the repair of the world. It's not a question of what we want, but rather what we must do. If we do not - well, look at the title.

We ignored the noisy warnings of the machines. We were quickly running out of tokens, the only link to sense, succumbing to Knucklehead theory and life.  The growing silence was profound that it deafened us.  The results were awful. The Knuckleheads and their Knuckleheaded theories and the inevitable knuckleheaded consequences came swiftly, one after the other, a deadly train - but we allowed it free passage and no red lights.    

Where do we go from here? Only the good Lord knows, and He ain't speaking. He is now incommunicado. This silence is more deafening than the Knucklehead one. Well on its way to a permanent one - nobody knows other than the one who has wielded the knife to the lines of communication. Are we worthy of being saved? Have we not crossed the line? Have we not encouraged the sound of tilt to resound through the lands of the world? Are we not responsible and are we not liable for the consequences? Frightening thought. Frightening fact. Frightening reality. No      matter where we live, or think, or what name we call our God, no matter if we deny God, the game is the same. No escape. No delusions. We, humanity, are the culprits who forced the game to go tilt. We have allowed the Knuckleheads to rise to the surface. The scum of the earth. Finally, we hit the end - tilt, tilt said the machine. I don't know what is next. I don't think anybody knows. We have allowed this, brought it down upon us. Now we wait on tenterhooks. Our guiding patterns are weak, many false. We need much homework to bring pattern discernment and value to the proper level.

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Yitzy, you had such an eye, a talent. to discern patterns, even as a toddler Your beautiful eyes were able to see through the confusion and find the truth. You made it through difficult games (and yes, full disclosure, beat me when you were five!). You made it through tough mazes. Would that your eyes were here today for you could have helped the world to discover the pattern we need to follow. 

But you are not here. Only in our memories. But always in our memories.  

 Always and forever. Always and forever.    

DIDJA? DIDJA! WELCOME TO KNUCKLEHEADS II dIDJA I

  Well, didja? Didja really think that we were done with the world of the Knuckleheads. Sadly, unfortunately, we are not, for these Knucklehead lands continue to proliferate, and that population grows out of control. When has it ever been the case that an attacked nation is to be   censored for fighting back, fighting to maintain its very existence? Not only for themselves, but for world Jewry. The cause is clear. The root of the fear is clear. The necessity. and urgency of what must be done is clear. Yet all is consumed by the Nacht und Nebel of war, where right is ignored and the wrong overpowers all. The land of the Knuckleheads.  

Times are strange; events and actions are difficult to understand or predict. How can one think logically in a world ruled by illogic? How can a thinking sane mind function in Knucklehead land with perverted agendas? Only in such a world are the victimized, the invaded, pressured to pull defeat from the mouth of victory. To place themselves again in existential threat. To abandon their kidnapped, brutalized citizens along with their grieving families, forever to remain so. Why the pressure upon Israel to be defeated even as Hamas and Sinwar play the Knuckleheads like a virtuoso on the piano. Expected, demanded to take care of the supposed noncombatants, the very same who cheered the captured and the slaughter. Who strolled into Israel on a pleasure jaunt, a treasure trove of things and people, all to be traded at will.    "Innocent"! Not on a bet!! Welcome to Knucklehead land.  

Why? Because that is the way of life and society in Knucklehead world. Corrupt, ugly, hopeless. The media of the world reflects all this ugliness and threat. Comic books, manga and anime, serious literature and thrillers. Tomes of analysis. TV and streaming channels. Movies. It matters not; the reek of corruption overpowers all. 

We present as a world divided, incapable of meeting the challenge upon us. To right the wrong.  To ensure safety and continued existence for the peoples of the world. We, humanity, have failed.    The divisive lines grow deeper, wider. Shredded.     In crisis. We need to decide on our future. Is it to be the world of Knuckleheads, where truth counts for naught or is deemed a crime? Or is it to be a future built upon the dreams and wishes of humanity of the true progress earned? Can we understand deep within our marrow that we are one, that humanity is one and we have been gifted with one planet. Ours to treasure or ours to destroy and aren't we doing so well in the second choice!!   

 Once upon a time in a land now far away, I was an optimist. Once upon a time I spoke of an idealism. A dream achieved. War obsolete. Hatred defeated.     No more the need to look over both shoulders at one and the same time. No longer to fear for our children. Once such were my hopes and dreams. Once. I look back now, and I wonder. What the hell happened?  

We became too self-involved and forgot others. We allowed the building of a Knucklehead wall and came up hard against it. Their voices grew louder, ever more strident and growing in numbers. Voices of the opposed grew weak, lower in volume and certainly fewer in numbers. We allowed the better world to be dissolved in the acid spewing forth from the Knuckleheads. We have reaped what we have sown - or neglected to sow.  Deeper, darker instincts of humanity crawled forth into the light and darkened the world.  And we continue to     blunder ever more backwards into a darker, uglier, more violent world. 

America was a strong and proud ally, to be trusted. Today it turns on its head and has grown a skin of cowardice. It kowtows and bows to the aggressors and deserts the aggrieved. Mayhem around the world is ignored and an ancient hatred and victim are revived. Again. Always again. Most probably today and tomorrow and the day after and the week after and the month after that.   

Where is my place? The place of Jew in this horrid new world. Attempts to wall us off from society, to shut down our voices, to stop our very breath, are growing. Frightening. What is the future to be for us. Will we be allowed a future? The shining faces of our young and the sounds of their tinkles of laughter now fill me with angst.         

It is incumbent upon us to fight these Knuckleheads and remind ourselves that we are better than this. We can achieve victory if we internalize that thought and are consistent in refusing to back down. Those who choose to sit on the fence and absorb the pain and discomfort must now make a choice. No neutrality in the fight between Good and Evil. It is impossible to remain neutral. Silence is acquiescence to Evil. We must find our own inner integrity and do what must be done.  

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Yitzy, the holiday of Pesach, Passover, is almost upon us. You enjoyed it so, the most enthusiastic and wide awake one at the table. You glowed, brighter than the candles. Brighter than the electric lights. Your glow came from a powerful internal source. We will miss the glow and the room will be the darker for its absence. We have lost that light, we have lost you, though you always remain with us in our longing for you and our memories of you and our thoughts of you. We miss you so much, Yitzy.

 Always and forever. Always and forever.   

     

 

ANY ALLERGIES?

Actually, yes, I certainly do. I have a severe allergy to any and all stinging insects. I also have an allergy to the adhesive on the back of tape. However, the greatest allergy I have is the one that   doctors cannot address. Worse, it is an allergy intensified by the times and the society in which I live. No escape.

 The allergy is a strong reaction to stupid, sick- minded, unable to be educated, moronic knuckleheads who persist in unseeing the seen, unhearing the heard and continuing on a most destructive path. They, their followers and proponents, their enablers, are destructive to and of themselves and society as a whole. How do we stop the stupidity, this dangerous ignorance, this denial of reality and truth?

 I have no idea other than to maintain efforts to reeducate, to open doorways to sanity and truth, and to fight their dangerous theories and platform planks tooth and nail. Continuously. Until they are no longer the dominators of society. If we choose not to oppose, vigorously, do not respond, do not find a path to negate this, then I believe we, all people, are in peril. Not so much of losing our lives, but of losing our morals and our rights to have a free society. To be able to determine our own lives as long as it does not inflict or conflict with the rights of others. If we sit back and allow others to do our job, then we are dooming ourselves to a life of struggle, of hopelessness, of inequity, of injustice, of stupidity to such a degree that even breathing will prove to be a most challenging activity. The dream and reality of America- gone.   

What is the stupidity to which I refer? Simple.   We have lost sign of a basic truth: society is run on compromises, this way and that, with extreme views and insistence of inclusion, are oppositional to a sane and productive, functioning society. One side cannot always dominate, nor can one remain on the sidelines, claiming neutrality and evenhandedness. By opting out, others will opt themselves in with an agenda, a manifestly unfriendly one, one we most certainly do not care for. History has taught us so.

At present the extremes are predominating in our government and have the loudest voices to shout and over speak. Each extreme demands a society functioning strictly according to their dogma even as they refuse to comprehend or admit that such a society would collapse under its own structural faults and the element of collapse would spread, like an epidemic without cure. The other extreme would also collapse, its structural flaws overwhelming the integrity of its structure.

Inevitably, worse will follow, for policies contrary to their own selves, cannot exist simultaneously. Not in a sure and safe environment. For example, one cannot demand control even as one vows less control. It simply will not work, but the knuckleheads in charge refuse to see and know the truth. At present, both parties are doing exactly that and the electorate is left behind, confused and ever angrier. It is a tinderbox just waiting that one spark.  

The Great Abraham Lincoln warned us that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Why arodies at this present moment. Much to our dismay and certainly lessening the odds of building a good and positive future.

            A government cannot be run strictly according to the views of one point. Opinions and ideas of others must be taken into account. We must look upon the positive to be found. We also cannot jump from one extreme position to another. Nor can we remain on the sidelines, claiming positions of neutrality. One cannot be neutral and be a positive factor in society. In fact, complete neutrality will encourage devastation and destruction. One has to pick one's battles and one must choose to fight the proper battles for the proper causes. If we cannot understand that and act accordingly, then we will   perish in a maelstrom of our own instigation and construction. 

More tomorrow along these lines. Unless events cause a deferral to other topics of concern, Hopefully, my concerns are clear as is the imminent danger unless we act------------------------------------

Yitzy, golden boy, you have left us bereft of your bright smile and sense of optimism. Your presence - and absence- are stronger the nearer we get to the holiday of Pesach and your enjoyment of it.

Miss you so. Love you so.

 Always and forever. Always and forever

 

WHERE OR WHEN

  The title once again comes from an old song (can't help showing my age, huh!). It is one of those plaintive old songs, longing for a return to what was, but the doubt remains re that possibility. Hence, the title. Today, our tired, disillusioned world knows what follows. Even should that love return, it will never be as pure, simple, clear and clean as it once was. One can try to go back, but backwards does not really work well. 

Mark Twain had one of his characters say that one must go forward, for backwards is basically not an option.  However, that forward direction is too often blocked by those who insist upon the values of a troglodyte to be adopted as our own, hugged tight within and without, an ugliness which gains power with every misstep of society. To go forward in that misshapen society is, actually, to go backwards. It is self-contradictory, self-destructive and infinitely harmful with no positive aspect whatsoever.

Today we live in such a world. Getting worse every day, compounding its errors every day. So where do we stop? Where in fact can we start? Is there a possibility any more to redirect the world - to redefine its good and bad impulses?  To go forward by taking a brief change in direction, sifting the past, discarding the remnant chaff hanging on, and delaying our forward movement on our new path.

Unfortunately, today, too many of us have taken giant steps, leaps actually, backwards, embracing its foulness and propensity for evil. Giving in to wicked impulses is fun - for the moment. The    memory of that moment of indulgence, the high it imparted to us overpowers the thoughts of the consequences inevitably to follow. 

Society becomes addicted to the wrong, to the evil, to the selfish, and their magnetic pull tows us right back to where we were when we first went wrong in a major overwhelming manner. At that point, we willingly entered a phase of stasis, which prevented us from moving forward, from self-evaluation and truth seeking. Unknown are the concepts of honesty and honor.   

Is it possible that we regain our senses and our moral backbone? Is it possible that we have enough grit within to afford a true deep dive. into our conscience, recognize where we went wrong? Can we come to understand. where and when there will be a possibility. of goodness ahead of us. However, the where with the when is not automatic and needs hard work and consistent forward movement. At this point in time I am not quite sure that anybody, at least the majority of society wishes to give up its newfound freedom of indulgence in evil and hate. Its ugliness is visible within Gaza and its lines of temptation for the world, for their indulgence in JewHatred buoyed by their false accusations and denial of rights for Israel to defend itself and rescue their kidnapped citizens. 

How do we stop this? How do we stop a snowball from ruling rolling down the hill at ever faster speed? I damn well wish I knew. I really do. All that I do know now for certain is that if fear were able to be quantified it would overflow the tube of measurement. The world has moved backwards, dived headlong into the bog, an evil smelling swamp with an overwhelming miasma of negativity and hate.  

Society hides remnants of goodness deep within us and joins in lustily with those who champion the retro society. We are now well within. For the Jewish people this retro leap is of grave danger. Rampant antisemitism has morphed into toxic JewHatred. Chanting, shouting, acting out, their objective an open goal of genocide. Even as they pervert the truth and reverse the roles, claiming the status of victims - despite their aggression and initiation of this war and their continued holding of the captives and the brutality of the treatment afforded them. Endangering their own, they have failed in responsibility of a government, to benefit the citizens rather than prepare their certain death. 

Somehow, they have managed to persuade the world of the righteousness of their murderous desires. The world without great difficulty and slim reluctance, if any, at all, jumped right into that swamp, splashing all who stood around. The vapors and water drops flew an ever-widening evil eddy in the air of the world. A toxic air, a polluted air. Yet embraced by so many willing to forgo true truth, honor, justice in their acquiescence and surrender to evil and the momentary pleasure it imparts to those who practice it.    

The original aggression is forgotten. They debased demeaned, belittled, and perverted all into an assertion that Israel itself perpetrated the horror upon their own citizens. The gall! The numbers game is played. and the numbers of Israelis dead wound. disappeared have now lessened day by day by day. The original numbers are almost nowhere to be found. 

This takes place at the same time as the numbers emanating from Gaza are stretched into infinity, pulled out of the air. Dangers are exaggerated, even invented. Manifestly false, clear to seeing eyes and open minds, yet the world jumps for Hamas, empowering their openly and reiterated statement    of genocidal intent for the Jewish people, in Israel and round the world. It pleases the world to believe and act upon the accusations thrust at Israel, to accuse them of genocidal intent. Deny them the right to defend themselves, to ensure the safety of their citizens. In fact, the safety of every single Jew upon this planet. Why? Because hatred is a strong emotion and legitimizes brutal. vicious, beastly behavior emanating from it, and legitimized its consequences.  

The fact that antisemitism has been alive and. unfortunately well, a consistent part of the mesh of   the fabric of humanity, does not make it right. Nor does it entitle nations of the world to deny Israel its own nation, its own state, a haven, a refuge, for every oppressed Jew on the planet. And a source of pride for every Jew, and a determination to defend it even as Israel defends us.

     We Jews know from time immemorial that the land of Israel. is our homeland. Thus we have been promised. And thus we have lived. And though exiled from it, denied it we know the truth. The return to Zion is part and parcel of the Jewish religion, to be found within the marrow of every single Jew. We always return. We have always prayed for its return, and we live its return. Jews round the world must now and always stand tall and proud.  Flaunt that Judaism, embrace it and do not be afraid to do so. Do not hang your head. Do not bend low. 

We are the nation of Israel. We walk proudly with the righteous of the world who join us. We stand firm against hate not only of Jews, but of hate directed against any and all who are deemed 'other'. One day, one day ..... Where or when that day is not for me to say. I cannot say for I have no idea and actually very little hope of seeing it in my own time. Where has it gone? When did it disappear? Can we find another where or when. this time a lasting one? As stated, not a clue, only a yearning.

Yitzy, sweet boy, perhaps if you had lived, if science had been quicker, you could have grown up to save this ugly world. Maybe.

 But it was not to be.

You are missed and loved. By so many.

Always and forever. Always and forever.