ETERNAL AND ETERNITY

  Both title words have to do with measurement of time, both describing or hinting at eons and eons of    time. There are times though that the connotative meaning takes precedence, underscoring the difference between eternal and eternity.  At times there is no apparent difference; however, there are times when there is much daylight between the two as inferred emphasis enters the game.   

When one says, "OMG, it went on for an eternity," there is often a hint or more than that which tells us the duration was difficult, if not impossible, to endure, its time never ending. An eternity of suffering, of fear, of murder and pillage. On the other hand, there is a reassuring aura around the term eternal. Judaism has a history of an eternity of violence, hate, and bloodshed being inflicted upon it. The situation appears to be hopeless, all survival impossible, an eternity of pain and anguish, of bewilderment as to why this eternity of awfulness has been 'gifted' to the Jewish nation.   

On the other hand, eternal means or carries a better note, inserts an element of 'good' feeling, a sense of   hope and optimism far beyond the realities of a   situation. That situation has been ongoing for an eternity. Somehow, for some unfathomable reason, that eternity of woe is met head-on with a powerful wave of a surety of eternal connection, an agreement, a bargain between the Almighty and His people.  These people are stubborn, gutsy, daring to challenge their Lord over apparent discrepancies in activation and fulfillment of the terms of said pact.  Too often sealed by blood, the people protest, bare anger directed at the CEO of it all.  Answers, alleviation re the coinage of the day, the year, the decade, the century, are demanded. The people punch way above their weight class and do well.  

It all balances out in the long run of an endless eternity of woe via an eternal faith in promises made and promises kept.   The eternity of existential challenge is met by a wave of faith eternal, never ending, challenged, but intact.  Promises made and promises kept, albeit a tad too long delayed at times. Always a bout, at times a gentle sparring, at others a beatdown.  Hope and help come at a very expensive price, but there it is.

A well-known author wrote this:

"... the story of the Jewish people – a small and lonely people, wanderers and beset by inner disloyalty and external persecution – which nevertheless is optimistic and vastly influential in a manner that belies its physical numbers and temporal power...."

Now take an evaluative look around and see the truth of these words. We Jews have a secret weapon: the surety of a valid contract, a prophecy of truth, an assurance that no matter the situation, how much of an eternity it is, the eternal shall conquer, be the decisive winner.  

So yes, we will do what we must to win, to beat back and down these Hamas animals. We will bring home our people. Why? Because we must. Because if we do not, no one else will. No one else will feel their loss nor care. What are a few more dead Jews in the scheme of the entire situation.     Because if we hesitate or give in to pressure for a ceasefire, we are lost. We would have to fight again, this time against a restocked, reenergized Hamas, a never go there option. Their fate is to join the rest of the enemies of Israel, of the Jewish people, who found out that our eternity of woe has an eternal guardian who will finally step in and honor His side of the treaty.

 One soldier said, "We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will be victorious." 

Nor is there any right of others to forgive and forget for us.

I add to that the prayer that we do not suffer too many losses of our people - held captive, members of our defense forces. or our civilian population.    My prayer is that we never, ever, ever go through this again. My prayer is that the world finally, rightfully, recognizes the truth, the historic imperative, our right - this is the land of the Jewish nation. I reiterate -this is the homeland of Israel. Period.

 In the meantime, it is upon us to finally regather and rejoin all of world Jewry. Only together can we raise a mighty fist to our enemies, the creatures of our eternity. The call is loud and urgent. World Jewry has never been more frightened since the Holocaust. Never did I think to see my children, my grandchildren, in a dangerous reality, here, within the United States of America.   

  We are all Jews, all in the same situation, on the same road, no exit ramp providing a way out. We will turn their words and intent of their vow back on themselves, ridding the world of them.        

Together, strong, united and determined, enlightened to the truth, we can beat them down, support Israel and do what we must. 

We will be held within the hands of the Eternal One. The world will learn once again, the eternal truth, that the Eternal One and our treaty with Him are eternal. Period. The timing is not always to our liking, but that is out of our control. But we do know deep inside, an integral part of every atom within, that there is an Eternal Being who does have our back, who will honor our treaty. So it has been and so it will remain.     

WE. ARE. HERE. TO. STAY. We do not intend to disappear. We do not agree to allow the world to determine our fate. 

So remember. And pray.

   HEAL OURSELVES.

• HEAL THE WORLD.

  HEAL YITZY!

  Yitzchak Elimelech ben Chana Sarah

  May he be granted refuah shelaymah bimheyrah beyameinu.

  AMEN. AMEN

  AM YISROEL CHAI.

"May the Omnipresent One have mercy on our brothers the whole House of Israel who are in distress or captivity, whether on sea or land. May He lead them from distress to relief, from darkness to light, and from oppression to redemption, now, swiftly and soon - and let us say: AMEN. 

Always together. Only together.

 

                   

THE SEA, THE SEA, DO NOT FORGET THE SEA

  This is what we hear, know and are told by every talking head in and on media sites. We are told to sit still, ease off the anger, the loss, the fear. Ease off the right to defend oneself and return fire against an invading force, particularly one which ignores "international laws of war" - as if! How does one make laws to rule a situation that by very name and definition is a cessation of law. One hopes there will be some kind of humanity within the warrior code, a Geneva Convention. Too often observed by lips rather than by actual deeds.  

Far too often these days, there is a reversion to the worst of old battle. Women, children, old and young, combatant and non, are fair prey. Rape is again a weapon of war. Slaughter and butchery prevail even as savagery is prized. Animalistic tendencies break through, with hate setting a path of red to follow, of fire and blood. With intent to kill any which way, the more savage, cruel, bizarre, unthinkable, the better. Restrain yourself, Israel. Allow the nations of the world to engage in quarterbacking your existence and exactly how that is to be. This dubious privilege is unique to Israel, only and always Israel. This is our battle. 

Article 7 of the Hamas charter says it best:

“The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: “O Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.”. 

 This is what propels them, but the lies beneath are ignored. “By the end of 1948, a newly formed Israel had claimed 78% of the land of historic Palestine.".  Israel took the miniscule ground offered, the Arabs not, and five - FIVE- Arab armies invaded the struggling baby of a nation even as it absorbed survivors of another plan to kill the Jews. Even as they were told to flee by their religious leaders, to make way for the conquering armies. Note that those who remained are full citizens and participants in every institution and tier of economy within Israel.  One more little tidbit. There is NO, NEVER WAS, historic land of Palestine, a name chosen by the Brits in a misreading of a long extinct nation and willy-nilly, Philistine became Palestinian and aged rapidly. Thus continued the already decades old slaughter of Jews. What did change was the rhetoric and the demands and goals. It used to be that the ambition was "from the river to the sea" Judenrein - simply kill any Jew here or there and of course eliminate the State of Israel and so it continues. 

On and on. We wonder if a reset is possible. Will this horror ever end. Not while Hamas is called militant even as they left behind butchered babies. They have co-opted college students and professors nationwide, who spew words of horror and hate, lies bathed in the blood of innocents, true innocents, slaughtered on a beautiful Shabbat. What follows are the elegant heartfelt words of one, Dara Horn, who captures the truth of the situation.  Then follows an incomplete list of the young, butchered victims of Hamas savages on that lovely Shabbat morning. These names are given to volunteers who will say the traditional thirty days of kaddish, a prayer for the dead. Why? Because there is no one left to recite that prayer, as the rest of the family were victims of the ugly rain of death upon them. Wiped out. An entire family. Again, and again and again AND AGAIN!  Note a complete precise information re the names of these new martyrs, is not always there, but G-d will certainly know those details, the identity of these young victims of hate, and will welcome them with comforting arms. And they will know eternal peace and reunite with their families. Please read the article, and then peruse the list of some, some, of the dead.  How many more and how many among the 239 verified captives.  How many more? How many!!! 

Read and weep. I did. So should you. 

So should everyone. 

Why Jews Cannot Stop Shaking Right Now  

There is a reason so many Jews cannot stop shaking right now. The concept of intergenerational trauma doesn’t begin to describe the dark place into which this month’s attack plunged Jewish communities around the world.

On Oct. 7, a Jewish holiday, Hamas terrorists went house to house in southern Israel murdering and abducting children and grandparents, pulling them from their beds, displaying victims’ dead bodies online, in a massacre of at least 1,400 people. In at least one instance, terrorists were reported to have uploaded a video of the murder of one victim to her own social media account for her family to discover.

The feeling of deep dread that these atrocities stirred in Jews was horribly familiar. This is what Jewish history has all too often looked like: not civilians tragically killed in war but civilians publicly targeted, tortured and murdered, with the crimes put on public display. Accounts of past crowd-pleasing killings are folded into Jewish tradition; every Yom Kippur, we recount the public torture and execution of rabbis by their Roman oppressors in a packed second-century stadium. Those ancient stories are consistent with the experiences of the more immediate ancestors of nearly every Jew alive today.

I’m not even talking about the Holocaust, which several of last week’s oldest escapees and victims also endured. (Far more Jews were killed on Oct. 7 than on Kristallnacht.) No, I’m thinking of the Farhud pogrom in 1941 Baghdad, a two-day rampage in which hundreds of Jews were raped, tortured and murdered. I’m thinking of the pogroms of 1918 to 1921 in Ukraine, in which an estimated 100,000 Jews were slaughtered in organized massacres reminiscent of this month’s attack.

I’m thinking of the lynching of Leo Frank in Georgia in 1915, after which the delighted crowd’s snapshots of Frank’s body were made into postcards mailed around the country and pieces of his clothing were sold as souvenirs. I’m thinking of how many of the earliest books off Europe’s first printing presses were about the executions of Jews accused of blood libel and of a 11th-century massacre of thousands of Jews in Islamic Spain encouraged by a poem calling for Jewish blood and of the paintings and illuminated manuscripts showing Jews who were burned alive by the Spanish Inquisition and during the Black Death — all crowd-pleasing events celebrated in popular media and art.

Even ancient Romans celebrated their destruction of Judea by issuing commemorative coins featuring a bound Jewish woman and inscribed with the words “Judaea capta.” The humiliation and murder of Jews have always made a great meme.

Many American Jews, like Jews around the world, are descendants of those who survived. Our ancestors, in one way or another, were the ones who either made lucky decisions or barely made it out alive from Lodz and Kyiv and Aleppo and Tehran.

For diaspora Jews, the recent attacks were not distant overseas events. As was true in ancient times, the ties between global Jewish communities and Israel are concrete, specific, intimate and personal. My New Jersey Jewish Federation has institutional ties with the southern Israeli town of Ofakim and its surrounding communities, sharing annual home stays with a place whose death toll from the attacks already exceeds that of the notorious Kishinev pogrom of 1903, in which 49 Jews were murdered. Millions of American Jews, not to mention Jews in Britain, France, Australia and elsewhere, have friends and relatives in Israel. Even if Hamas hadn’t made it clear that it sees all Jews as targets, our connection is personal and all too real.

We spent days desperately scrolling to learn who among our acquaintances was dead, maimed or captive, connecting American hostages’ families with State Department contacts, attending panic-stricken online briefings and pooling resources and supplies for victims — all while fighting obtuse official statements from our own towns, schools, companies and universities that refused to mention the words “Israel” or “Jews” in referring to the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, lest some antisemite take offense at the existence of either.

We have tried to get our children off social media, shielding them from images of the violence. We’ve held mass fasts, recited psalms and sung ancient prayers for the rescue of captives. And as we gather by the thousands despite our many contradictory opinions and despite the extra security required for our gatherings even here, we have returned to the words of our ancestors that have carried us through thousands of years: Be strong and courageous. Choose life.

Many of us were physically carrying those words during the weekend of the attack, celebrating Simhat Torah, a joyous holiday when congregations dance with Torah scrolls, read the Torah’s final words and then scroll back to the beginning to start the book again.

As a child, I found this baffling. Why read the same story over and over, when we already know what happens? As an adult, I know that while the story doesn’t change, we do. What defines Jewish life is not history’s litany of horror but the Jewish people’s creative resilience in the face of it. In the wake of many catastrophes over millenniums, we have wrestled with God and one another, reinvented our traditions, revived our language, rebuilt our communities and found new meanings in our old stories of freedom and responsibility, each story animated by the improbable and unwavering belief that people can change.

Right now many of us feel trapped in this old, old story, doom-scrolling through images with terrible outcomes. But in our grief, I remind myself that each year as we finish the reading of the Torah, we immediately, at that very moment — and at the moment of this newest, oldest horror — scroll back to the story of creation and the invention of universal human dignity. We recall, once again, that every human is made in the divine image.

The story continues; we begin again.

Fwd: Fw: re THIS IS A LIST OF BABIES AND CHILDREN THAT PERISHED AL KIDDUSH HASHEM

say kaddish for 30 days or more for those babies and children that may have no families left to say kaddish. don't worry about exact names YOU'RE SAYING FOR GROUPS  HASHEM KNOWS THE NAMES

 Aryeh Alexander Sandler, the late 5-year-old

The late Gabriel Issachar Sandler, 3 years old
The late Daniel Aryeh Wiplich, 16 years old
The late Elad Fogel, 4 years old
The late Hadas Vogel is three months old
The late Yoav Fogel, 10 years old
The late Yonatan Palmer, one year old
The late Shlomo Nativ, 13 years old
The late Segev Paniel Avihil, 15 years old
Yonatan Yitzhak Elder, 16 years old
Yondav Chaim Hirshfeld, 18 years old
The late Naria Cohen, 15 years old
The late Yohai Lifshitz, 18 years old
The late Avraham David Mozes, 16 years old
The late Roy Aharon Roth, 18 years old
The late Eliyahu Pinchas Ashari, 18 years old
The late Mazel Zaribi, 15 years old
The late Daniel Waltz, 16 years old
The late Amir Naim, 17 years old
Shaked Lasker, the late 16-year-old
The late Omer Menashe Pisakhov, 8 years old
Ella Aboxis, the late 17-year-old
The late Rachel Hali ben Abu, 16 years old
The late Oz Israel ben Meir, 14 years old
The late Nofer Horvitz, 16 years old
The late Avihai Levi, 16 years old
The late Aviad Yehuda Mansour, 15 years old
The late Yuval Abba, 4 years old
The late Afik Ohion Zahavi, 3 years old
The late Lior Azoulai, 18 years old
The late Aviel Yitzhak Atch, 3 years old
Two-year-old Dorit from the late Binsan movie
The late Roni Sarah Hatuel, 6 years old
The late Merav Rachel Hatuel is two years old
The late Hila Esther Hatuel, 10 years old
The late Hadar Simcha Hatuel, 9 years old
Son Jonathan Zuckerman, 18 years old
The late Lior Liorinka Niv, 3 years old
The late Gilad Giladi Niv, 11 years old
The late Avraham Shaked is one year old
The late Tomer Almog, 9 years old
The late Habib Dadon, 16 years old
The late Benjamin Bergman, 15 years old
The late Avraham Bar-Or, 12 years old
The late Shmuel Zargari, one year old
Noya Zar, the late Aviv, one year old
Liran Zer Aviv, the late 4-year-old
The late Erez Gizro Hershkowitz, 18 years old
The late Tom Hershko, 15 years old
The late Daniel Harosh, 16 years old
The late Shmuel Taubenfeld, one year old
The late Moran Menachem, 17 years old
The late Yuval Mandelwitz, 13 years old
The late Abigail Lytle, 14 years old
The late Noam Leibovitz, 7 years old
The late Tehila Natanzan, 3 years old
The late Elisheva Meshulami, 16 years old
The late Elizabeth Liz Katzman, 19 years old
Asaf Blondi Tzur Zollinger, the late 17-year-old
The late Smeder Firstetter, 16 years old
The late Asaf Steyer, 10 years old
The late Issachar Dov Reinitz, 9 years old
The late Tal Kerman, 17 years old
The late Shani Avitzedek Abutzadeka, 16 years old
The late Asnat Abramov, 16 years old
Matan Ohion, the late 5-year-old
The late Noam Levi Ohion, 4 years old
The late Yael Ohana, 11 years old
The late Orly Ophir, 15 years old
The late Noa Orbach, 18 years old
The late Dvir Anter, 14 years old
Yaakov Avraham Eliyahu, the late one year old
The late Lidor Ilan, 11 years old
The late Oriya Ilan is one year old
The late Gal Eisenman, 5 years old
Gilila Bugla, 11 years old
The late Hodia Hudish Asraf, 13 years old
The late Noy Enter, 12 years old
The late Shubal Zion Dickstein, 9 years old
The late Elmer Dzbrailov, 16 years old
The late Adi Dahan, 17 years old
Jonathan Gamaliel, 16 years old
The late Hadar Hershkovitz, 14 years old
The late Rachel Gila Teller, 16 years old
The late Gabriel Hoter, 17 years old
The late Shmuel Ephraim Yerushalmi, 17 years old
Atara Livna, 15 years old
The late Racheli Hali Levy, 17 years old
The late Shiraz Nimhad, 6 years old
The late Shaul Nimhad, 15 years old
The late Liran Nimhad is 3 years old
The late Avraham Eliyahu Nicham, 16 years old
Baruch Asher Zvi Markus, 18 years old
Her father, the late Malka, is one year old
The late Nehmi'a Amar, 15 years old
The late Linoi Serousi, 14 years old
Avraham Yosef Haim Seton, the late 17-year-old
The late Gaston Parfi Parfinial, 15 years old
The late Ilan Perlman, 8 years old
Aharon Mordechai Eric Krugliak, 18 years old
The late Sinai Kenan is one year old
The late Tal Tzvi Tlik Kurzweil, 18 years old
The late Ran Koren, 18 years old
The late Gal Koren, 14 years old
Asaf Moshe Tzafira, 18 years old
Avraham Nere' Shebo, deceased, 16 years old
Avishai Yosef Shabo, deceased, 5 years old
The late Keren Shatsky, 14 years old
The late Nathaniel Riahi, 17 years old
The late Erez Shlomo Rond, 18 years old
The late Ofer Ron, 18 years old
The late Yafit Rabivo is 14 years old
The late Daniel Bat-El Shafi, 5 years old
The late Adi Sheeran, 17 years old
Sara Tafarat Shilon, deceased, one year old
The late Gilad Stiglitz, 14 years old
Zvi Yaakov Yisrael Shabu Zal, 12 years old
The late Hadas Turgeman, 14 years old
The late Michael Sherashevsky, 16 years old
The late Assaf Avitan, 15 years old
The late Irina Usadchi, 18 years old
The late Yosef Ish-Ran, 14 years old
The late Yossi Elezra, 18 years old
The late Yuri Goshchin, 18 years old
The late Marina Berkovski, 17 years old
Shoshana Rachel Shushi ben Yishai Zalvat 16
The late Adam Weinstein, 14 years old
Yaakov Israel Danino, deceased, 17 years old
Genia Keren Dorfman, the late 16-year-old
The late Ido Cohen, 18 years old
The late Maria Tagiltsev, 14 years old
The late Tamar Messengisar, 8 years old
The late Jacob Kobi Mendel, 13 years old
The late Aliza Malka, 16 years old
The late Mariana Medvedenko, 16 years old
The late Naftali Ben-Zion Lantzakron, 13 years old
The late Ronen Landau, 17 years old
The late Alexey Lupalo, 17 years old
The late Raya Sahivashordar, 14 years old
Hamda Bracha Sahivashurdar, the late two-year-old
Avraham Yitzchak Sahivashordar, the late 4-year-old
The late Irina Nepomniaschi, 16 years old
The late Yelena Nalimov, 18 years old
The late Yulia Nalimov, 16 years old
The late Avraham Nachman Avrom Nitzani, 18 years old
The late Shalhav Tahiya Pess is one year old
The late Yair Amar, 13 years old
The late Yulia Yael Skalianik, 15 years old
The late Michal Sara Raziel, 16 years old
The late Malka Hana Malki Roth, 15 years old
The late Eliran Rosenberg, 14 years old
The late Simona Rodin, 18 years old
The late Menashe Mani Regev, 14 years old
The late Katrina Arias, 15 years old
Anya Eniota Kazachkov, 16 years old
The late Golan Turgeman, 15 years old
The late Yochaved Shoshan, 10 years old
Yehuda, who is one year old
The late Ofir Rahum, 17 years old
The late Gil-Ad Sha'er, 16 years old
The late Naftali Frankel, 16 years old
The late Adele Beaton, 4 years old

HASHEM YISMOR  ALEYHEM. 

 G-D WILL WATCH OVER THEM

BDE

SHOULD HAVE TAKEN CALCULUS!!

 Math outside of algebra, was never a favorite of mine. Never even came close. Language Arts and History were champs in my book and so it has remained. Good thing too, as at least I can understand the truth beneath the heap of crap overlaying the reality of current situations, here and in Israel as well. My math is apparently skewed big time, as numbers seem to be of little value or have any true analysis of meaning. Numbers that are not uniformly verified, more obvious on one side than the other. All the while my poor math challenged brain remains addled as my attempts to understand and interpret properly never quite fit the presented narrative.

First of all, the numbers game. Israel has some chutzpah as it refuses to play the 'game' vis a vis the rules of terrorists, of Jew haters, of those who sympathize, to the tune of an increase of 130% of attacks, verbal and physical. Who vehemently, viciously, are both implicit and complicit in the increasingly hostile attitude and atmosphere on college campuses. Once again, Jews are unwelcome in the 'vaunted ivory towers' of higher education. Choice presented: be non-Jewish or be willing to turn on your own people, turn backs to truth and justice.  

So - first correction necessary in this bizarre world of subjective math. Jews, Israelis, their supporters, must die in equal numbers to the claimed, non-verified, numbers of death among their terrorists and/or adherents of various degrees of complicitly.  So how, in my math addled brain that does not quite ring true. How does one equate truth with lies, told by an organization of horror known to be egregious liars, unwilling, unable, to meet and recognize the truth if it were presented to them on a silver platter.

NO, most emphatically so, this will not be, No textbook other than perverted ones, would accept such skewed thinking and rotten bloodthirsty reasoning and justification. When one side wages an unwelcome, unasked for war, with concerns re the fate of noncombatants and their soldiers, juxtaposed re the battle morality or lack thereof of the opposing side, well, the math is skewed again, I guess. The ugliness of the opponent which claims numbers in this bizarre numbers game, then seeks to balance the budget of life. They roll out in sneak attack, accompanied by the "innocent" Palestinians who join in the revelries of success. Such bravery in their fierce battles against those fearsome infants, toddlers, preteens, the elderly, the noncombatants whose only thoughts are to   protect their children, their elderly parents from being stolen or burned alive or decapitated or raped, beaten, whatever nasty, nasty plans of indulgent fantasy can be actualized.  

So much bloodshed. The gleeful tones of Al...u Akbar pollute the air reeking of the coppery odor of spilled blood.   Shivers of terror among those hiding, awaiting rescue -or death- or captivity - hiding from butchery, wondering how the hell and when their kibbutz was sent back in time and place, to the bloody pogroms of Eastern Europe, of the slaughter and genocide of the Nazis and their enthusiastic collaborators. When? And why?  

Always there, bright in the eyes and minds and hearts of the people of Israel, of those who care, are the captives, their families and friends, too many still uncertain as to the fate of their loved ones. As Israel verifies names, the numbers of captives rise.  Hamas, the animals, take great joy in teasing the Israelis, claiming hostages are with others, including those kidnapped by individuals, who grabbed their personal, portable bank account, a get out of jail free card. 

Hamas knows it is to their benefit to keep the uncertainty hyped. They can make outrageous   demands, keep some back for a rainy day, definitely not return soldiers, and for sure, keep the little ones whose memories are short and voila! New Moslems, new foes of Israel. or use some captives to demand release of killers in prison in Israel, all the better to recycle them to wreak more horror and bloodshed. Been there, done that and cannot do it again.       

How and why has the world discounted the meaning, the cause, the force, the emotion, the promise and the vow, behind "Never Again?

We. Have. Not.

We most definitely have not.

Can we stop this rather dumb and deadly number game. All deaths are tragic particularly if some sense could have been injected into rather brainless skulls. Somehow, I am sure that will never happen.

It will also never happen that we give over our people to even out the numbers for the satisfaction of others.  

Never!! Never!! NEVER!! 

And for those of you who have an inexplicable inability to declare terrorism as terrorism, or babble nonsense that terrorism begins and is defined by its start date!! Well, there is a nice warm place for you to visit. You might then learn not to be afraid to call it as it is-and no ridiculous ignorant statement that Judaism says that is so!! Ignorant professor. Cowardly professor, afraid to call it as it is and condemn terrorism. And yes, it matters if it is the Jews who were targeted for that terrorism.  

Folks, can this be defeated if we all get together and oppose it? I am so uncertain now, seeing an ancient hatred renewed and a generation climbing into power suffused with this ugliness. Whose liberal viewpoints are skewed, akin with that skewed math.   

This is America. I hope.

 Hope seeps out.   

IS IT REAL?

  There is a palpable sense, an odor, of evil these days. It suffuses the very air we breathe. It surrounds us, encloses us within a circle of fear, a cloud of despair and confusion. Wherefore, why, when have things changed so that I must now worry in existential terms. Why do I now have to remind my kids to be safe, to be alert, to pay attention, to keep it low key, to avoid confrontation. If trouble arises, do not play hero and get to a person or place of safety and security. To remember that things are replaceable, people not. Leave the luggage and take the hand of your loved one and get thee gone to a place of safety, or relatively so.  

Then I pinch myself, check that I am awake, not caught up in the throes of one of those awful so real nightmares that even upon awakening, there is a definite moment of unsureness, as to where one is in actuality.  Real? Dream? Life? Not? Was it a nightmare arising from reality, an awful reality, one we had so foolishly, wishfully, thought gone, dead, consigned to the backroom closet where the worst of mankind's errors were consigned, to rot forever, never to return.       

Why then does the nightmare feel so achingly, bone rattling real? Because it is. Because it is. Taking on more substance by the second. No longer the stuff of nightmares but rather the stuff of horrific once unthinkable daymares, lived out, in, through. Again. Once again. Growing in intensity, propelled by great pulses of bloodlust, released ancient -not so ancient -tropes and memes of hate, palpable, reeking, and deadly. It is mob behavior of mammoth proportion, emanating from a world and its inhabitants we had thought certainly far more enlightened than they now reveal themselves to be. Foolish us. Dangerously foolish us. 

Again, to again live in a world outlined by wishful thinking. That if we were to think hard enough, clap hands in a mighty display of belief   in the ultimate goodness of humanity, in the forever power and presence of a Tinkerbel, and magical fairy dust that all would be okay. Finally, we were safe, home, accepted, even admired in some quarters. That we  had reliable, true friends who shared our values and hopes. Who had our backs, protected our 'six'.  

Now these selfsame 'friends' have uncloaked, revealed their inner ugliness. Intense. Frightening.  Faces of those who now wallow in bloody thoughts, in dreams of violence and bloodshed, of chasing, capturing the enemy - me, my family, my friends - the 9 month old baby kidnapped, the 3-year-old  twins, the elderly peace activist, the father defending his family, the teenager celebrating music and love. We, them, us, are the enemy? Those who wish to defend fellow Jews, to defend a homeland are killed for it, brutally, savagely.  Bitter, deadly hate. 

That hate, of the deadly pogroms, the rapes, the kidnapping, the slaughter, the butchery and viciousness has been reborn, repurposed and has spread its seeds of violence throughout a rather fertile world as well as in my land of birth, America, my homeland, or so I thought until I have been shown otherwise.      

I have etched on my eyes scenes of Jewish college kids chased into the library at Cooper Uhion, calling out pleas to 'let us in", to barricade themselves in a room, their lives in actual danger.    Reminiscent of older scenes of Jews hiding from perpetrators of hate and murder, be it in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, France with Dreyfus, Hitlerian violence, and the silence of a world. Of rampages against Jews in the lands of Arabia. Ugly vignettes of history repeating themselves. 

All driven, consumed by unleashed seemingly societal approved bloodlust, an explosion of hate,  the values of the Purge movies of rage, translated into real life. Here? In America? In institutes of higher learning where once liberals fought the  enemy of all -race hatred? Here, in America? Where Jews helped finance the American Revolution? Where fellow Jews fought for and died for the country. Where they had and still do, served in its governments, contributed to society - doctors, teachers, researchers? Here, in America? My America? The America I had once confidently thought to be a good place for the next generations? What is to say to a frightened daughter? Or to a grandchild not understanding why this is happening, why so much anger and hatred, bloodlust overwhelming. Why? 

Sadly, I have no answers for it is illogical. It is a vicious growth industry useful for despots, but it will, does, always, consume the perpetrator as well as the target. It is self-defeating. Where are the leaders to fight this, to educate those in need of enlightenment?   

Nowhere, these days, certainly not within the recent clown show in the House, which elected as a leader a man who wished to overthrow our government and is now two heartbeats away from the Oval Office. His policies are retrograde in the worst manner, his only redeeming factor his support of Israel. However, if he claims G-d spoke to him and told him to back off-answer, please. The direction of the tattered GOP is not encouraging at all. This nation faces a dire future unless something is done, quickly and wisely. Only if the nation holds together in the middle, and the flanks remain strong and steady. A dire outlook be one Jewish or not! 

We need help. lt will come from those who retain sanity; we have faith that our non-Jewish friends  will stand with us, by us and   love us  as we love them.

So we hope and we pray. And we depend on the gracious aid from Above, albeit it a tad late in coming.  Perhaps we deserve that in this  world of  ours.

Hashem yishmor aleinue - G-d will watch over us, and once again the haters will be defeated.

But when, dear Lord, when?

Please, I beg of you, my friends, remain together in prayers for Yitzy. He is having a difficult week, some very strong chemo. My heart breaks for hm, and I so wish I could take on his pain, be it on me, rather than on an amazing13 year old who retains his wide grin and sunny outlook, and an optimistic viewpoint, a strong faith in G-d, and an amazing connection to the flora and fauna around. Including  snakes. Yuck! 

• HEAL YITZY!

  Yitzchak Elimelech ben Chana Sarah

  May he be granted refuah shelaymah bimheyrah beyameinu.

  AMEN. AMEN

  AM YISROEL CHAI.

"May the Omnipresent One have mercy on our brothers the whole House of Israel who are in distress or captivity, whether on sea or land. May He lead them from distress to relief, from darkness to light, and from oppression to redemption, now, swiftly and soon - and let us say: AMEN. 

AND THE BLAME GAME GOES ON

 At times I think we all, pre-birth, pass through a tunnel of possibilities.   Some average, some not, some awful, while others sing of beauty and glory. Others are poised on brinks, edges, a multitude of them, each having a future left open for discovery, interpretation, and adaptation. At that moment we come face to face with a major tenet of Judaism, one contradictory in nature, never truly understood nor explained, at least not to my satisfaction and clear understanding. 

The tenet: Man has free choice, makes his own decisions, opts for a choice, one or another of those presented, always having the opportunity to unmake and remake choices, hence consequences. Too often humanity makes the grossly wrong, misinformed, misshapen one. Then there is that look of puzzlement, confusion, as to how the hell we got here. These are the times when ugliness comes home to roost, lies at the feet of the perpetrator or crushes the shoulders of one who will have to bear the burdens of results. Most collapse under the weight, unable to withstand the ugliness, the hopelessness, the gore which far too often, are the consequential results.  

The other side of the tenet now comes into play.   Given freedom to choose, we are also told G-d knows your choice before you do. If so, and if the results will be ugly, the balloons of good fortune, of peace, of goodness lost in the voyage of life, well then why are we not somehow nudged into the right choice, the correct path? Why does G-d not strut His stuff, help the so very challenged creatures of His making, burdened and confused, find their way home, or at least discover and tread that path that can bring them to home base, safe from tormentors and stalkers, safe from those who would wreak existential harm to them. Where is my freedom of choice if it is preprogrammed. Why must I pay the dues forthcoming, if actually I was merely flowing with the current, unable to escape its grip.           

I argued this in class, in private, in high school, college, postgrad, in teachers' rooms, among family, upsetting some who were convinced I was going directly downstairs at the appropriate time. Maybe so - but it is my choice to question, to demand answers, but perhaps it is G-d's responsibility to answer. And act. 

One cannot, should not, create, and then discard the results if they are imperfect. Obviously not the fault of the damaged creation, and why can the creator not  redo, recover, repurpose, reconfigure? Is it to be our fate to indeed be discarded for failure, even as we truly cannot take 100% ownership of deficits within and without, for we did not create ourselves.

And maybe here is the answer that somehow can successfully be meshed together with the other precepts of this theory.  Perhaps we can remake, reconfigure, repurpose ourselves. The deadliest assigned fate can be ameliorated, we are told, by three things: true atonement, prayer from the heart, the soul, and tzedakah, actions of altruism for, towards others. 

We do have an important degree of control over our lives and can initiate changes in decisions, reevaluate ethics and morals which should be guiding our lives. We can relight the smothered lights of candles, chase the darkness away, from the world and from ourselves. It will take hard work, great amounts of seemingly useless toil, despair at seeds that did not thrive. There is no alternative. 

The faults and the flaws, the promising possibilities, are all within our grasp and of our making. G-d cheers us on albeit we do not always win or even hear the cheers. We fall into despair, into a murky soup of pessimism. We lose our momentum, and we must fight against that state of mind. We can make a difference, can demonstrate to ourselves our true strength, moral, physical, and we can make it so.   

We are presently at a time of great peril. Our futures are challenged everyday by a weak confused lost its way GOP, still infected by the virus known as Donald Trump. His incompetence, his criminal ventures, his ugliness of soul, poison the nation, paralyzing it, and only regression is present rather than productivity and forward movement. This retrogression infects the Democratic Party as well, its infamous 'progressives' doing their best to share in the destruction, the dismantling of America, spreading hate and bigoty, particularly a virulent antisemitism. Their supposed progressiveness is actually a return to a terrible past, ugly and soaked with bloodshed. It is truly retrogressive. Our Supreme Court, our entire judiciary system is an ugly blot upon the nation, replete with Justices who now serve as examples par excellence for greed and corruption, for partisanship, for a total vacuum, a huge void, where morals and morality are supposed to reside. 

As a Jew in this rather ugly, rancid, stinking world, I am frightened, more than ever. I am desperate for Israel, my home just as much, perhaps even more so, than America is at present. The angry hurtful, acidic voices of hate raised on college campuses, corrupted by the hate emanating from right and left, from those who do know better, from self-hating, self-immolating young Jews who flock to the enemy, blind to the knives at their backs and throats, a cacophony of vile, toxic hatred. Egged on by false professors, purveyors of hate and antisemitism raised to the nth degree, who call Hamas butchers heroes, who call their savagery, their inhumanity "exhilarating and refreshing".

Once again, I, my people, are hunted, slaughtered, denied any right to exist, to be an independent, sovereign nation whose rights are equal to all nations, with inalienable right to defend itself, to adhere to its morals and values, and certainly determining its own actions, decisions, - no other nations being subject to this. Judged and criticized by countries who openly slaughter for decades.

All efforts to destroy us are doomed to fail, as they have for millennia. We have been persecuted by powerful empires, always a David to the Goliath, but they are gone, and we are here. They come to destroy while we remain to build and rebuild.  

 We always remain. We always survive. We are here to stay until the good Lord calls us home. Until the world realizes and accepts that we will not roll over, not play scapegoat, nor play the name game, the blame game. 

I am a Jew. 

I am an American. 

I am an Israeli. 

I am a human being. 

I do not have much remaining, realistic hopes for a world united in togetherness, in recognition of shared humanity.  

However, we can remain together for those who so need that from us, including my Yitzy. Please keep that going. He is almost at the point of evaluation, scans, etc. We hope and pray for good results.  We pray, along with you. 

(Please note at the end a list of 16 people who would not support a House resolution to support Israel. Instead, they support lies and bloodshed.  

Get them out of office!! Ther is no place for them within a democracy dedicated to do what is right.)

• HEAL YITZY!

  Yitzchak Elimelech ben Chana Sarah

  May he be granted refuah shelaymah bimheyrah beyameinu.

  AMEN. AMEN

  AM YISROEL CHAI.

"May the Omnipresent One have mercy on our brothers the whole House of Israel who are in distress or captivity, whether on sea or land. May He lead them from distress to relief, from darkness to light, and from oppression to redemption, now, swiftly and soon - and let us say: AMEN. 

Here are the 10 lawmakers who voted against the resolution:

• Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York
• Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri
• Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana
• Rep. Al Green of Texas
• Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania
• Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York
• Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota
• Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois
• Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan

And here are the 6 lawmakers who voted "present:"

• Rep. Greg Casar of Texas
• Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas
• Rep. Chuy Garcia of Illinois
• Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington
• Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts
• Rep. Nydia Velázquez of New York

KAYLI, KAYLI, LAMAH, LAMAH AZAVTANI

 My G-d, my G-d, why, why have you abandoned us? The cries of parents bereft of children, of children left orphans, of elderly abused. A film clip of a young boy, only two months after graduating from high school, inducted into national service and left to guard a tense border. Someone, many  someones, who should have known better, will have to answer for these grievous offenses, but that is for later. If there is indeed a later. 

Now we deal with a clip showing that manchild with bound hands raised over his face, eyes wide with terror, trying to defend himself, knowing his fate is etched in stone. A short brutal one or a dragged out possibly forever captivity. Life as he knew it, as his weeping mother knows it, begging him to stay strong. The heartrending scenes of a mourning nation struck dumb, cut to the quick, as the "oppressors" - civilians, entire families wiped out from youngest to oldest, even those ripped from the womb that sheltered them. 

Yes, such guilty colonizers daring to try to live a life within their nation, reaching out to their neighbors, now viciously, brutally cut down and the world? Damn the world, again and again and again, tenfold, a thousandfold, as we see the textbook replay of the standard reaction to an attack of manifest brutality against Israelis, Jews. Same old, same old. 

First the crocodile tears, as they hold tear inducing onions to their eyes. Sympathy expressed in trite meaningless words, accompanied by condemnation of the victims and excuses and rationalization for the attacker, the perpetrator(s) terrorist, usually misnamed 'militant', or worse, an 'activist'. Along with that are the inevitable rising cat's chorus of oh, so concerned other nations who now cry for 'innocents' caught in the crossfires of hate. The 'innocent' civilians. No. what are you thinking! 

Not the innocents slaughtered at prayer, in bed, on the street, at tables, in safe rooms so not safe. No, these are the same innocents who joined Hamas in the attack, in its brutality, who took their 'own' private hostage and their location - no one other than their loved ones care. I curse the animals in human skin who participated in the horror and apologies to true animals for they are far more human than them. They cheer the death of their  children as they spill the blood of Israelis and give them over to Hamas at a young age to inculcate with hatred and train in the ways of bloodshed.

Suddenly every two-bit nation of the world chimes in with their two cent opinions, their demands to be filled in on the war plans of Israel - the timing, the phases planned, contingency planning, and of course the constant 'hopeful', voices warning Israel of its lack of capabilities to be successful-so why not capitulate now. Take a 'pause'. Even better a ceasefire of forever duration and surely the Gazans will learn their lesson (exactly how, without consequence is not touched upon.) They will be good boys and girls, promise never to be bad again -even as they again tried to enter Israel, this time via an attack headed by their Frogmen. 

From this attitude of the world the bloodthirsty murderers will internalize the lovely knowledge that indeed, Jewish blood is cheap, of no account, an historical truth.  Those who suffered the awful deaths of family and friends will have to suck it up. Okay, an apology will be included. There ya' go. Good enough and don't make a big deal of it.    

Thus indeed, we learn that slaughter and butchery of men, women, children going about their lives, definitely civilians, does not truly amount to a big deal when they are Israeli and Jewish. And WE must sit quietly by, take it as it comes and accept that when it involves Israel, when it comes to   Jews well, tough bugs. Let's move on. Conflate Jew hatred, the truth under it all, with all other biases, minimize it, and always and forever include islamophobia in the same breath.  

Indeed, as the Israeli Ambassador to the UN     rightfully took its President to task, we ask the world the same thing. Answer the question; look deep into your blackened, Hell seared souls and cold hearts and answer, truthfully. Do you agree with this, give it some element of weight, a wee bit, a tiny bit? Think. Be honest.

“As we meet here today, young babies, children, are held in Gaza. This is beyond imagination. A living nightmare,” Cohen said. “Mr. Secretary General, in what world do you live? Definitely, this is not our world. The UN Secretary-General, who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women, and the elderly, is not fit to lead the UN,”. “I call on him to resign immediately. There is no justification or point in talking to those who show compassion for the most terrible atrocities committed against the citizens of Israel and the Jewish people. There are simply no words.”

 Folks, a friendly warning. Repent, now. The Good  Lord may have been a tad absent or on a vacay of late, but He always returns. Then He gets angry with those who pick on the Jewish nation. He always returns to us. 

Proof - we are here. Oy, ve'avoy, to the tormentor of His People. History has taught us that. 

So yes, we are frightened, in despair, mourning our losses, but still and all determined to do what must be done. Via our own plans and our own bravery and faith. No one else.  No one else.  

Friends, I hesitate to add the name of Yitzy here on the same page of ugliness. He is a boy who is so pure that he shines in his goodness and faith and trust in his Creator. Please keep on with your prayers, for they are working. Let us pray for the elimination of the ugliness of hate from our hearts. 

One day.... yi'heye tov - it will be good.