BORROWED TIME

 Peter and Paul are notorious misfits when it comes to finances. One is robbed to pay off debts to the other and back again.  Apparently, they lack proper financial understanding and planning and go ignorant into the financial world, basing faulty decisions upon their rather shaky base. Certainly, they are the worse for their neglect and ignorance for their financial record remains with them, forever, in this day of permanent records held by various social media sites. Nothing is forgiven nor forgotten, and history can be dragged up years after offenses or errors, even if remedied and atoned.  Even reparations and compensation do not erase the original offense, by accident or on purpose.

Peter and Paul, these incompetents, are always and forever now on borrowed time. Someone somewhere somehow will dig up the dirt and toss it into the air and watch for its landing areas. Their borrowed time had run out, as it always does, and ugly consequences ensue. However, there is one more thing we must understand when it comes to borrowed time. It is more generally inclusive, referring to all areas fraught with danger and exposure. Right? Wrong? Are some errors or purposeful deeds forgivable or not?  Can forgiveness and/or repentance be valid? What if all do not wish to forgive? Does that then negate the feelings of others?

These are questions that in Talmudic reference are designated as "tay- kooh". A question forever, with no firm definitive decision. An extremely pertinent example of "borrowed time" relevant to a critical existential situation, with no true atonement possible, is the evil hostage plot within and beneath Gaza.  There is no forgiving, no remediation, no atonement possible as the consequences are severe and permanent. Direct from the council room of the Devil, these rabid wolves in human skin, hold every decent person on this planet hostage, as the ending becomes ever darker, immutable, soaked in the evil, poisonous and corrosive acid from the arteries of Satan himself. This is borrowed time at its worst.    A good ending for them? Between zero and none. Negative.   

Unfortunately, there is a plentiful folder of further instances of borrowed time referring to Jews round the world, all time running out, borrowed time situations. In the game of Beat the Clock, that clock is beating us.  Rising vicious antisemitism, part of a long-term plan wherein huge amounts of money was injected into the universities, sympathetic professors, Moslems and not, were placed in positions of influence and voila! The huge demonstrations, the rising level of violence, of harassment and intimidation, of major interference in the daily lives of residents of cities nationwide, and what next? I fear what awaits, possibly to the point of open warfare and puppets and fools of Hamas and Iran wage open warfare against Jews and supporters. Not a pretty picture. Certainly not reassuring.

In the words of a Canadian official, after a bombing of a Jewish place of business, a fire, and ugly, devastating words of hate, reminiscent of Nazi Germany, this is what is happening. " This is the  tipping point,” ... “This is not graffiti on a bus shelter. This is not lawful protest protected by constitutional right. This is a criminal act. It is violent, it is targeted, it is organized"   We Jews have   been spitting into the wind concerning the frightening acts of hate, its cruel intents growing in strength and boldness, even as the world remains blind, or apathetic, or actively joining in. Even when the Jew hatred is acknowledged, it comes with a tail of islamophobia. There is nothing to compare in the amount and depth of these two nasty topics. I wish them no harm if they leave me and mine alone, cease their poisonous invective and incitement, and behave the way people of good intent and positive nature are meant to do, to be. 

We Jews are in a perilous position, America, once our biggest supporter, recognizing our value to the country, to the world, keeping in mind the recent history of planned extermination and the realities of the Middle East, well, she is now wavering. Under pressure from promoted supporters and advocates of Jew hatred, of abandonment of Israel, of buying into the falsehoods of 'colonialism', of 'white elitism' - and ain't  that a sad ironic bitter joke, well, we are losing our adherent, our backup, our go to friend. The winds are shifting. Once assured friends are slowly morphing into enemies and detractors, while others who now support Israel are lacking depth in their support and devotion. A lack of understanding of the situation, of the twists and turns of the Arab mind, their values incompatible with much of western values, compounds the problem. 

A political situation, a campaign for presidency and other seats within the government remain as big, strong elephants in the room. One says he is a supporter, but truly, the only thing or idea he supports is his own seat of power, the chance to be 'dictatorial', to lock up detractors. Increased insane invective, his spouting of the words of Hitler, with 'blood poisoning' and barely disguised mantras are frightening, as is the possibility of a man indicted 91 times, a man who incited rebellion against   the nation he was sworn to protect and defend, wants once again IN. A criminal who wants, claims, immunity from the law. 

Not good, my friends, not good. Understand the consequences, the statement it makes to the world. Understand the peril it poses for Israel with the head of the chief Israel supporter a clearly insane person, more deserving and so needful of incarceration within the walls of an institution for the criminally insane than in a seat of power.     Woe upon America and woe upon Israel. Woe upon the Jews and woe upon the peoples of earth.

While there are many contributing causes leading up to our present mess, there are far fewer paths   out. I am nowhere near that pay grade, but still, I wish all the big shots would hear and see and feel and know the angst, the tension, the blatant palpable fear and despair in all those of lesser pay grades, those discounted within the creation of policies.  We know that either we wake up or well, the rest of that sentence is clear as glass.  

Yitzy, perhaps you are the better for not being here, though your absence has left a huge gap behind, never ever to be filled. Perhaps your goodness, your intelligence, your care for others would have led us to an answer, a path out of this mess. And perhaps this is exactly what G-d wished to deny us, at least at present. Whatever the reason, the oh so wrong results, your death, is part and parcel of my daily arguments with G-d. 

But know, my sweet boy, that you are so truly missed, so loved, and we send you the heaps and heaps of love and kisses coming your way.

And know the fund for the writing of a Torah in your name is in touching distance of the goal. Your last wish fulfilled.