Weird. Last night was weird. Around 3:00 AM as a glance at the clock showed me, I looked upwards through a skylight and saw to my horror hordes of missiles falling down directly upon us. The sirens, so many, so loud, were deafening. I began to shout. I called out the names of my kids and my husband. Of my grandchildren. I became frantic when I didn't hear anything, when I looked at the bed beside me and saw no one in there, only crumpled blankets. I fought my way to a standing position. Shouting. Where are you? Why don't you answer? Where are you? And then I felt arms hold me and a calm voice. reassuring me that it was a dream, only a dream. It was not real. Finally, sanity and an acceptance. It was a dream. But seriously, was it only a dream? Was this dream's reality so difficult to imagine becoming a true reality in life existent on this bewildered bedraggled planet of ours?
The answer unfortunately is that this possibility is ever more a growing possibility. Moreover, unfortunately, the odds of its probability increase daily. We cannot deny this when one day we have the Weitzman Institute horrifically damaged, gone all the possibilities within of cures, of advancements, of betterment of life for all. Gone in a moment. Then Soroka Hospital, deliberately targeted with multiple missiles, and only due to the just completed evacuation of that building was a nightmare of fatalities avoided. Closer to home, was my cousin who is a doctor there, thankfully safe. Todah La'el. The larger question is can we assure ourselves that people of Israel, Jews round the world, that we are indeed safe in a permanent kind of safety.
The world of Jews today is such that I don't believe we have ever been in such a time of great uncertainty of existential continuity. There were ancient days of notorious attempts, but never the capability. Of more recent times: the Holocaust, the War for Independence, the Yom Kippur War, The Intifada, October 7th, and the well-publicized venomous speech and threats of Khoumeni and his allies, meshing oh so well with the silence, even the condemnation, of our supposed allies and friends, our supporters not so supportive.
Now in the brightness of morning I close my eyes against the glare of the sun but cannot close eyes, ears, mind and emotions to the truth of the day. We, Israel and all Jews, are under attack. We can try to explain it away. We can try to diminish its effect. We can try to avoid thinking of awful possibilities of the end of days. The situation remains the same. We are under attack. We will do what we must to survive and more, to be conclusively the victor in this existential war. So, it has always been and so it will continue to be. We, the people of Israel, the Jews worldwide, always come back to the same truth. Their God is strong Their faith is strong. He will not desert us in this time of need, though aid is not always as soon as we wish. G-d willing, we will never have more moments of reality upon we base nightmares so terribly real, so actually possible.
Too many of our fellow Jews these days are so wrapped up in their liberal bona fides that they have forgotten that old but true maxim. Charity begins at home. Take care of our own, of ourselves, as a must if we are to be capable of doing so for others. When push comes to shove, when it is a question of survival or extinction, which I believe we are living these moments right now, we can no longer stand in lines and protest only for others. We must remember that if we are to stand in support of others, we must first stand in support of ourselves, ensure that we will be there to stand up for others who need our help. But first we stand up for ourselves, the only thing that makes sense in this rather unsensible world of ours.
All the while now we must ask ourselves where are those with whom we stood? Where are those for whom we took the hits on the head and the ugly verbiage directed at us? Where are they? The answer is, they are nowhere near us. Or on the other side. The answer is antisemitism was never gone, merely underground, chomping at the bit, to spring out as toxic as ever. Eager to burst out of its holding cell and permeate the world once again with its ugliness, with its direct threats to the continued existence of the people of Israel, the Jewish nation.
I am assured of our safety and survival as I hear a huge wave of jets flys over on its way to wage war against the enemies of Israel, the defilers of the name of G-d. These jets, their pilots, their mechanics, the entire people of Israel and supporters without the borders, are doing G-d's work. They are defending this:
"Right-wingers, center people, left-wingers, religious, traditional, secular, Tel Aviv, periphery people - one glue connects them all: they believe in Israeli liberal democracy and its products. the glory of Israel Jewish, democratic, liberal, security power, hi-tech power, power of excellence, of entrepreneurship at the highest levels possible!"
When we understand that fact, its truth, we, the Jewish people and righteous people of the world will ditch hypocrisy by the side of the road, there to rot to nonexistence. Then we can be more positively assured of the fact that, even as we call out from the depths of our despair, that the ears of the Lord will be attuned to our voices.
Bottom line, folks. Bottom lines cannot be ignored. While we can never understand the ugliness and the savagery remaining in this world in the year 2025, the fact remains that it is here, and no amount of wishful thinking can change that reality. Why we cannot figure out how to address and cure its virulence is due to faults within ourselves. We must spurn the lowest levels of mankind and seek to reach the higher levels where talk and compromise are the solutions rather than the shedding of blood. Will such a time ever come to be? You certainly do not want my take on that.
What I do feel emphatically so is that when we turn our eyes once again to the true source of aid and hope, of justice, when we do not rely solely on our own inventions of waging war, when we are wise enough to choose and follow true leaders, when we lose our arrogance, then and only then will we see true bottom lines and clear paths of escape from the pools of quicksand in which we now stand.
I close this posting with the words I read today in an essay I found true to the theme of the meshing of eternal truth - our yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows strung together on an endless chain. I hope you find it as inspirational and fortifying as I did.
"Being brave doesn’t mean we are not afraid. It means we keep showing up: at synagogue, on social media, at the Shabbat table, in the face of the world’s confusion and hate.
“We are defending something very precious for the world. That is Judaism.”
And that is why I will not hide.
I am a Jew.
Proudly. Publicly. Bravely."
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