In today's world it is far easier to find the bad and the ugly than to find the good. However, there is always some good, even if in miniscule portions. Laughter, the ability to find humor in dire situations is of great importance, crucial for survival. However, before we get to the good and the laughter, we first must traverse the remaining landscapes of bad and ugly, even of evil. It must also be kept in mind that sometimes the disconnects ae muted and the three states are tangled inseparably.
Such is the current situation. Jews worldwide rejoice in the deaths of our prominent enemies, those who seek our death to the last Jew. Along with that comes the waiting - revenge attacks, but not knowing the when. Unnerving. Nor do these deaths bring about critical needs and goals as the release of all living hostages and the return of the bodies of those brutally slaughtered during captivity. Nor does the war or wars cease. What we do accumulate is more martyrs, more Jewish blood and more enmity or apathy from the world.
If we look back over the millennia of Jewish history there is always the tragic, mixed with the joyful. Weddings and babies and pogroms and violence. Holidays and death. Always the twain shall meet. Moments of joy always with an overlay of tears. Always. the blood stains, always air suffused with the aroma of copper. We question why this duality? Perhaps it gave the Jews unusually strong spines and determination that no one other than the Creator can wipe us out. Actually, I am wrong, for we, the Jewish people, have the power to do that to ourselves. If we refuse to understand the very core of that belief within our national and religious ethos then we are doomed,
There is a rather ironic semiserious statement. It runs like this: when it's good for the Jews, it's bad for the Jews; when it's bad for the Jews, it's good for the Jews. Paradoxical statement. How can one and the same thing be? Absolutely diametrically opposed meanings. When life is good for the Jews, when they are accepted, when they thrive and prosper, when they become as one with the general population, they lose the separate and distinct which makes them different, able to identify and survive. Times of seeming ease of assimilation diminish the identification and interests which are part and parcel of being Jewish. That is bad for the Jews because we forget who we are, where we have come from and what is always there awaiting us, just around the corner, across the street, round the bend. Always there. Just beneath the surface. Always popping up here or there, raising an ugly frightening presence. Never ever gone. Its reappearance is even more startling when the assimilation is strong.
On the other hand, when it is bad for the Jews, when the hatred is open, blatant, vicious and violent, intent on its purpose of delineating the other, of their separation and dehumanizing, that it is good for the Jews They are forced to remember who they are. They are forced to remember their roots in their history. They are forced to remember that they have strength within, fallow until necessary to be plowed and reaped, the crop being the returned and reinvigorated racial, genetic, memories - pride and courage and determination and identification as a Jew. To be part and parcel of something bigger than oneself. A recognition and a reunion of souls. Stronger in knowing who we are and where we came from what makes us - us.
It is at those times. that we mostly turn to one of two paths as we struggle for survival not only of body but of soul as well. Physical and spiritual and cultural defiance. We refuse to go away silently and paradoxically our identity flourishes. So, it is good for the Jew, as a nation, as a people, as a proud integral part of the history and future of mankind.
It makes me angry, and people will not be pleased with me for saying this, but so be. Anger and fear at the conspicuous blatant consumption so prevalent in many Jewish neighborhoods. What must those entering these neighborhoods think? Ancient tropes of hate come to the fore. Justified or not. Wrong or right. The facts of reality are there. At some point it all catches up to us. The hate of millennia logical or not, arise and emotions rule the day. Take a look around. Feel chills yet? There is nothing wrong with living comfortably. Far from it. But I believe over the top is dangerous.
Also agitating and leaving behind a bad taste is the recent trend of articles and books of know it alls who have lived a life barely cognizant or connected. to a Jewish life. They have lived as suburban Jews of the Friday night football games, or as children of sophisticated urban Jews. future. One such book was written by a Millennial Jew who predicted an inevitable fading away of Jews and Jewish life here in America. No cataclysmic event. Merely an inevitable total assimilation into the population at large.
Many of these pontificators have never actually lived a life with deep Jewish roots. They know not what they speak, for they have not lived it, not experienced it. I have. And so have many others. For 6 American generations we have not lost the connection nor diminished its importance and relevancy to us. There is no reason why it will not continue into the future.
We are Americans. We are Jews. There is no contradiction. Only from those who hate us. Inevitably, people turn in the face of this growing unstable society to one of two paths: that of hiding, and that of proud defiance, keeping openly Jewish lives and openly American lives at one and the same time. The choice is an individual choice. Some will switch back and forth. But it is clearly. not right, in fact it is very wrong to predict an inevitable end of Jews by the end this century. Hell. The world might not exist by that time.
The time to finish this posting has run out. Time to get moving to catch this ungodly early flight. However, it will be completed with one or two more posts and definitely speak of the good, the bad, the ugly and even the funny. Be assured that we do not exempt general life in America as it is today, for the material is rich indeed.
Stay tuned.
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