This is recited at every Bris, as a Jewish infant boy is welcomed into the nation. It reminds us and G-d that we have an agreement, to abide by the laws of the Torah and in return we will be blessed, become numerous, and have our own land. But perhaps it is really a foretelling of the blood that will be spilt, the blood that will invade the home of every Jew, the blood that never seems to end.
If I would have written this post last nite, the screen would have gone up in flames. Again. Again, Jews are praying. Again, the synagogue is invaded. Again, Jewish blood is spilt. A woman goes down and her husband and daughter are now bereft. An eight year old girl is wounded. The Rabbi is speaking, is shot in the hand, yet continues, urging the congregation to remain strong. How many times are we to see this, to read of this, to hear how the adults threw themselves over the bodies of the children, protecting them at the possible cost of their own lives, and once again we think of the brutality with which Hitler and his henchmen killed the Jewish children, inventing new methods, each more barbaric than the other.
In Job, G-d states that he will revenge the blood spilt. He reminds us of the importance of blood when he demands of Cain an answer to the question of hearing the blood of his brother calling out? And we must remain strong as it appears that most of the world forgets that we are all brothers, we all bleed the same red blood, and the spilling of blood only leads to more shedding of blood and solves nothing. Nothing at all.
I am angry. I am frightened. I am bewildered. And I am desperate in many ways. How long, Dear Lord, how long must your people suffer this constant attack on them? How do I answer fifth generation American kids when they approach me in confusion, in fright, in worry, and ask me if we are now going to leave the country, move elsewhere, perhaps to Israel? But why is it, that Jews who are citizens in so many countries are doubted, are maligned, chased and killed?
It happens when anti Semitism is allowed to flourish, from both sides of the political spectrum. It seems that to be an accepted Progressive, one must repeat all the memes and tropes of anti Semitism. It seems that one must argue that to be anti Zionist, to oppose a Jewish state, to make believe that these are not all anti Semitic, makes one more progressive than any other who does not say that. Such is the twisted logic of hatred and this is not all.
Look to the other end of the spectrum, the alt right, the extreme right wing, and yet, today one does not even have to go that far to the right to this solid blocks of anti Semitism, vicious enough to encourage the hate and even push and urge the haters into bloody action.
What do we do when in one weekend we have Trump trying to state that when he said there were "fine people" on both sides, he really meant the people who came to Charlottesville to protect the statue of Robert E Lee!!!!! I guess the slaughtered woman was collateral damage?!
And then we have the bastion of liberalism, the NY Times, the paper I read every day, the one that has kept up the pressure on Trump, and what do they do? They go ahead and publish, world wide, a most anti Semitic and vicious political cartoon and then try to erase it from the media, from the airwaves, and apologize for it as a mistake! It could have come direct from one of Hitler's propaganda machines and served as an illustration of his horrendous writings.
What is going on? Why is it okay, again, to spill Jewish blood? Why is it okay, again, to invade the sanctuaries of the Jewish nation and desecrate them with blood spilled in hate and anger? Why is it okay to hate so viciously. I know that African Americans speak of the "talk" they give to their children, especially boys, but let me remind all out there that we have been giving the talk to our children from time immemorial. We have given them the lecture on staying inconspicuous, on obeying the rules. To their credit, there were many Jewish kids and adults who challenged the standards of a society that needed change, but always, always and forever, there is that constant fear, fear of the knife, the gun, the bomb, the fire, the hate, the hate, the hate.
You see, we are not deemed white by the race haters. We are deemed white by others because that is what they see, not knowing that we Jews come in all colors!! We have no "white privilege" and have struggled and are still struggling over quotas, open and secret, even as we, the minority, are never considered a minority. We do not want it for we are willing to work hard and have done so for lo these thousands of years, picking ourselves up, starting over again, and doing the best we can, all the while building families, and a future for these families and for the Jewish people.
But a warning to the haters. We know that obedience to hate, of not fighting against it, is not the way to go any longer. We are stronger now for all our experiences. We are stronger now and know we all have to stand together and those who do not yet realize this, well, one day....
I hate this. I hate this with a passion. I hate that we emphasize the differences, disrespect the differences, hate the differences, rather than find the commonality. I hate that we allow the haters to dominate, that we do not speak up against them. I am so tired of hearing of one more atrocity, more Jews killed for the "crime" of being Jewish, of the fear we have for our kids every damn time they walk out the door.
So what do we pray? Should we ask G-d to protect and avenge His people? Should we ask Him to spill their blood as they spill ours? Or do we better pray for wisdom and guidance as to how to change this situation? I know what I would have said last nite. This morning, well, this morning, I am in a quandary, with heart and mind challenging each other. Why must this be? Enough!!!Lord G-d, enough.
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