Before I write of the ugliness facing us as Jews, as people among other people, as a nation among other nations, as members of the world, here is Yitzy news. After a rough week of everyday chemo and bad side effects, Yitzy dug deep down and regenerated his good spirits, his optimism. That and his courage, his faith, and that wonderful grin buoyed all around him. And went to shul (synagogue). Please keep up the prayers and then wishes. They help. We know that.
And back to the world. The trial(s) will go on, no matter what, the objecting will go on no matter what. Actually, hell is already here and as for high water - well, I refer you to the pictures of the killer floods, the destructive floods from around the world. Now we have the extremely difficult assignment of dealing with the hell and the high water and the vicious hope killing words and deeds of too many, suffused with anger and hate. Truthfully, not sure if anything will work at this time.
Thousands of years ago Abraham tried desperately to bargain with G-d about Sodom and Gomorrah and its planned destruction due to the rampant misbehavior of the inhabitants, their embrace via thought, words and deeds, of all that was evil. For the sake of 'x' number of good people might the cities, the people within, be saved? The numbers went down and down, so few, if any, were to be found. The result is well known. Today, all these millennia later we are just about at the same point.
With closed eyes stick a pin in anywhere on a map of the world. There you will find a situation rife with danger, stinking of evils and wrongdoing and the ingratitude of humans. We turn on each other with impulses worse than a rabid animal. We fight and scheme against each other as only one human can do to another. Why is that? Why have we in our selfishness and willfulness refused to heed the myriad warning calls and set this planet on a gravely serious road leading only to extinction - at least for humans?
This beautiful world was gifted to us along with the responsibility of being rulers, wise and compassionate, and so flagrantly, wantonly have we trashed it that scientists have declared that of nine categories of boundaries necessary to maintain, for life to be sustainable on this earth, we have violated four of them, with the rest not far behind. Oh, the benefits of human abilities and genius! The work before us will be back breaking, possibly too late, but we must at least understand and try to do better, to be at least the minimum of the good necessary to save our Sodom and Gomorrah equivalents. Possibly a hail Mary, but what alternative other than death or worse do we have?
It is not for the sake of the elderly, for far too often we have certainly done our worst rather than our best. Nor is it for the in-between generation too engrossed in selfish ambitions and dreams of worldly goods and comforts, of huge houses, for they too have neglected their responsibilities. No, it is for the young and those to come, that we must, must try, strive to reform and reformulate our goals, our aims, our necessities, for what else have we to actually leave behind as a legacy. Without a viable world we leave only immutable death, disaster and failure, a tainted legacy of shame.
The calendar period now facing us is one of great introspection and evaluation for Jews, though all else are invited to join in. It is a yearly accounting of where we stand, the health of our morals, the quality of our thinking and doing. The quality of our soul. As a nation and as an individual. Have we truly demonstrated over the past year that we have understood and undertaken the reformation needed from last year to this new year? We dig deep and confess, admit our failures as a nation and as an individual. And recite a chilling list of modalities of death awaiting the unrepentant, the irremediable sinner, or the one going home, finally, after a life replete with good deeds and a drive to do better - certainly morally.
(The paragraphs which follow are ostensibly re Israel though the problems are similar throughout the world, and in particular for me, America, even the increasingly fascistic state I live in, Florida.)
The nation of Israel is in the throes of a civil war, not yet devolved into physical combat, too close for comfort, but morally, deciding whether we will continue as a Jewish democratically oriented nation, true to historical imperatives and rights, or will we lose ourselves in a battle of religious rules and regulations imposed on others, of its inhabitants driven out by fellow Jews, a nation no longer capable of defending itself from enemies without and within. Where tolerance from more secular loses ground? Where the ultra- conservative religious attempt to impose their vision upon all others. Are we to become a Jewish Afghanistan where the status and safety of women are no better than the cat or dog of the street or even less?
Here are two statements just made, telling all that we have so seriously fallen off the track, forgotten all we have learned before, all that bitter experience should have taught us.
“Just a quick reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed in false narratives!,” he (Trump) wrote on Truth Social on Sunday,"
“This time we are seeing protests against Israel by people aligned with the PLO and Iran,” said Netanyahu, adding that “nothing surprises me.” (Nor me, unfortunately)
We have dangerously forgotten that which we learn in our cribs, that all Jews are responsible for each other. That we are to be a nation of constant questions and growth, constant evaluation, constant adjusting to life conditions and necessities. That we are enjoined to tolerate each other for we are one family albeit we live in the Diaspora or the Land of Israel. We are one. We feel together, grow together and die together.
We have lost our way. We have forgotten the warning that we have more to fear from enemies within than without. We have bitterly learned as well that supposed 'friends' will turn on us - no matter how hard they try to hide, the truth will always out. I refer you back to those two statements.
This battle within, for the soul, for the direction of a nation is not one only in the Jewish world, for it is a choice facing nation after nation. Democracy is gravely threatened. Problems of universal commonality are being ignored in the face of nationalism and old hatreds risen again. It is a choice and decision of great consequence the world must make. G-d help, us should the wrong one win.
President Herzog of Israel said, "the political leadership must show “courage and responsibility to get us out of this crisis.” “This is a moment of truth for the political system,” (and, I believe, for the citizens as well.)
A Rabbi, 60 years ago, said in his sermon for Rosh Hashanah - equally valid today, “These are terrible times and it’s time to stand up and be counted. It’s time to do so. it’s time to pay the price whether it’s in personal safety and security. … Are you ready to pay the price because if you’re not, God help this (city).” (We can easily substitute any nation or the world for city, the meaning and the warning are the same.)
Somehow, we continue to make the same mistake, over and over again, penalties and costs adding up, mounting, growing, without foreseeable end.
Finally, here is the interpreted version of a poem, written by Rabbi Avi Weiss, to the people of Israel, to Jews round the world, in fact, relevant to all people on the face of this earth. As you read it think of the message I send with each posting - the need for unity and togetherness.
A pintele Yid A lonely Jew A vulnerable Jew A pintele yud A lone mark A tiny Hebrew letter A yud aside another A Jew beside an other Evokes the Name of God In unity, God sees It is good Unity is never uniformity Uniformity is uni form Crushing other views Unity is uni tied, united Despite differences Dear dear God Help us to know that Am Yisrael is more than The Nation of Israel We are Family And the test of family Is not how we love When we agree But how we love When we disagree May we be careful with our words For while a word is a word And a deed is a deed Words we say Can lead to harmful, fatal deeds May we not question The motives of the other – But instead Listen to the other Learn from the other Sing and dance The Psalmist’s dream “Behold how beautiful how sweet Sisters and brothers Together.” Illuminate the Hasidic vision: Every Yid has a single light That begins and ends But together, our lights fuse Endless, eternal With You In unity As family In togetherness With light forever Help us, help us declare: I am a kitzoni — an extremist Jew. Not on the right, not on the left, But an extremist in Loving Other Jews. Ahavat Yisrael | אַ פִּינְטֶעלֶע יִיד יְהוּדִי בּוֹדֵד יְהוּדִי שַׁבְרִירִי א פינטעלע יו”ד סִימָן בּוֹדֵד אוֹת עִבְרִית זְעִירָה נִצֶּבֶת יו”ד בְּצַד יו”ד עוֹמֵד יְהוּדִי בְּצַד אָחִיו וּפוֹרֵץ שֵׁם הָאֱ־לֹהִים בְּאַחְדוּת, וַיַּרְא אֱ־לֹהִים כִּי טוֹב אַחְדוּת לְעוֹלָם אֵינֶנָּה אֲחִידוּת כִּי הָאֲחִידוּת הִיא רִסּוּק שֶׁל דֵּעוֹת אֲחֵרוֹת אַךְ אַחְדוּת הִיא חַיֵּי יַחַד לַמְרוֹת כָּל הַהֶבְדֵּלִים הוֹ, אֱ־לֹהִים הַיָּקָר סַיַּע לָנוּ לְהַכִּיר שֶׁעַם יִשְׂרָאֵל הוּא יוֹתֵר מֵעַם, שֶׁכֻּלָּנוּ בְּנֵי מִשְׁפָּחָה אַחַת וּמִשְׁפָּחָה נִבְחֶנֶת לֹא רַק בְּאַהֲבָתָהּ כְּשֶׁכֻּלָּהּ בְּדֵעָה אַחַת אֶלָּא כֵּיצַד הִיא אוֹהֶבֶת כְּשֶׁאֵין בְּקִרְבָּהּ הַסְכָּמָה נַקְפִּיד עַל מוֹצָא שְׂפָתֵינוּ כִּי בְּעוֹד מִלָּה הִיא מִלָּה וּמַעֲשֶׂה הוּא מַעֲשֶׂה דְּבָרִים הַיּוֹצְאִים מִן הַפֶּה עֲלוּלִים לְהָבִיא לְתוֹצָאוֹת נוֹרָאוֹת, אֲיֻמּוֹת לֹא נְעַרְעֵר עַל מְנִיעָיו שֶׁל הָאַחֵר אַדְּרַבָּא – נַאֲזִין אֶל הָאַחֵר נִלְמַד מִן הָאַחֵר נִרְקֹד וְנָשִׁיר אֶת חֲזוֹנוֹ שֶׁל הַמְּשׁוֹרֵר “הִנֵּה מַה טּוֹב וּמַה נָּעִים שֶׁבֶת אַחִים גַּם יַחַד” הָאֵר אֶת חֲזוֹנָהּ שֶׁל הַחֲסִידוּת: לְכָל יְהוּדִי אוֹר מְיֻחָד מִשֶּׁלּוֹ הַנִּדְלָק וְדוֹעֵךְ אַךְ יַחְדָּיו, מִתְמַזְּגִים אוֹרוֹתֵינוּ בְּלֹא קֵץ, לְעוֹלָמִים עִמְּךָ בְּאַחְדוּת כְּמִשְׁפָּחָה יַחְדָּיו בְּאוֹר נִצְחִי עֲזֹר לָנוּ, עֲזֹר לָנוּ לְהַכְרִיז כִּי “יְהוּדִי קִיצוֹנִי” אֲנִי לֹא לְיָמִין אוֹ לִשְׂמֹאל אֶלָּא קִיצוֹנִי, קִיצוֹנִי בְּאַהֲבַת אַחַי הַיְּהוּדִים אַהֲבַת יִשְׂרָאֵל |
Only together, only in unity.
Tomorrow.
And together.
Together. Only and always together.
Together, always together.
Together, united for good.
Together.
Together.
We can heal the nation.
HEAL THE WORLD.
HEAL YITZY!
Yitzchak Elimelech ben Chana Sarah
May he be granted refuah shelaymah bimheyrah beyameinu.
AMEN. AMEN
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