1492, SO FAR AWAY, YET SO CLOSE

 Columbus had a great year that year, but not all were so lucky. Not at all.  It was a most important and consequential year, but not a great one, certainly not one to wish, or to relive, or to gift to another. In that year in the temporary culmination, a climax of a sick, vile, toxic and  ongoing hatred in the world, following years of persecution and brutality in the Kingdom of Spain, in 1492, and a bare few months later, in Portugal as well, the Jews of both were exiled, even if there was merely a slight suspicion of one being of Judaic origin. 

They were needed by the others to be gone, banished, persecuted and killed, starved and tortured in dungeons, 'courtesy' of the Inquisition, burned alive in auto de feus, courtesy of the loving arms and hearts of the  Catholic Church, poisoned, strangled, as a 'gift'  of 'mercy' if they converted before they were set afire, children kidnapped, and forcibly converted - whatever worked. Whatever made them happy. A great success indeed, for they simultaneously stole the wealth of the persecuted, destroyed much of their own culture, even as they tried to destroy that of the Jews, lost the wisdom of their Jewish advisers, even their adventurous seamen (Columbus?) who 'discovered' the New World and enriched them unbelievably.  But as they were Jews, they were to be hated, killed, and do the best, the very best efforts, of highest hopes, that they do not reappear. 

This endemic, pandemic hatred of the Jewish nation continued, thrived for centuries, as they were denied rights and legitimacy, ramped up in murderous attacks. denied as well, the right to live, to breathe, to be Jews.  The Jews of Spain and Portugal in 1492 scattered - to Italy, the New World, Poland, England, France, Germany, and Russia, even joined their brethren who had remained within their ancient Homeland, once and for always, the State, the Nation, of Israel, the land of the Jews, promised to them by their G-d. There they remained in a minority, or in those countries of Galut, the Diaspora, the Exile, until the same filth arose, their stay became denied, ugly and finally fell victim to physical violence, vitriolic denial of right to live, to exist and then ascended once more to unacceptable and intolerable levels of most hostile manner.

This ugly, miserable, bloody and most blood thirsty phenomenon beyond all sufficient terminology to describe, has continued to this day and is, in fact, in a period of ugly growth once again. People are calling for the death of Jews. Yes, death, not 'merely, to remove them from Israel, or other nations of the world, but to again kill them. Whenever they exist, wherever in existence.  Subterfuge and euphemisms to try to hide that end goal fail, and  it is clear, as clear as a mirror, that after almost a century after the grossest, unable to be described nor believed nor understood massacre of the Holocaust, 6 million Jews slaughtered in most cruel and inhumane manner, never ever having been this critical and brutal before, 2/3 of them slaughtered, how did a repetition of a same ugliness, a same hatred, a same desire to kill, to disappear - reappear. 

From the nations of the West and East, the Moslem lands, of all continents, wherever found, forever, of all time, the goal was to succeed in erasing all Jews, all traces of Judaism and its existence, its glorious contributions to the world at large, in every field of endeavor whatsoever. 

To create a time when Jews could not believe that they would survive, not for a minute, not for a second, not another hour, let alone a year or two years, for 10 years, or to take another breath, enmired so were they in yet another unbelievable horror, a period of ugliness and bloodletting  again, unbelievably, but oh so real, an insane desire, an attempt to rid the world of a nation, a people, who have only done much to better it, to benefit it, to raise the world to a higher level. To once again burn Jews?  To seek them out again? To be killed, to again, fall prey to the most horrendous manners of death? To live a death of such evil, one that shakes an entire body, riddled through with a fear and horror incapable of existence and yet, there it is again,

October 7, 2023. 

Evidently, once again okay, approved of, the burning of babies in ovens, again, to kill little boys and girls, to emulate and even better the Nazis' attempts to disappear entire cities and villages, almost entire nations, with perhaps leaving a remnant 10% of its Jewish population remaining.  

We cannot and will not take this lying down, as a given, accepting it as a deserved and inevitable fate. We have never done that, never been accepting it as such. never have been totally defeated, nor left without hope. Temporarily defeated at times, yes, but we have always come back, defeated those who hoped to disappear us, to make us gone, forever.  We have never lost     our Faith and Trust in our Lord, nor lost Faith in His Promises to us. Throughout the centuries, we have fought for our rights, fought for our land, reminded all His Children of all that those Promises mean to us, to the children of our future, those promises and words and all that we have never forgotten - our land, this Promised Land. We have carried it down over 3000 years - in our history and our prayers, in our literature and our music and songs. Nor will we ever forget, nor ever cease to do so.

We will never forget who we are. We will never forget what the world has done to us. 

We will never forget our right to live, to be free, and that is precisely what we have done throughout the centuries, no matter how horrid the lives we led, no matter how false the promises of others. No matter how cruel the actions pressed against us.

Am Yisrael Chai.

The people of Israel live.

 So it has always been, 

So it will always be.

Lanetzach.

Forever.

We will walk upon the surface of this world, this earth, forever.

 We will endeavor to do our best for it, for ourselves and for our Lord. as we keep faith with each other. Forever.

To bring back, rebuild ourselves, return from the dreadful deeds suffered by the   victims of the terrors of the Inquisition, the unspeakable moments of pogroms, of the unspeakable blistering horrors and Hell of the Holocaust, to relieve its awfulness, and that of a terrible unimaginable October 7th, 2023, of its total unexpectedness, its paramount evil, its work of the Devil, the godawful attempt to make us relive the blistering Hell of the Holocaust,  its grief, its absolute unholiness,  as we once again, were, are, slaughtered, brutalized but still gave of ourselves to help. Picked ourselves up and rebuilt that which he had, have, lost, even as which continues to be lost, even as we continue to hold true to all that we are, all that we were and forever are instructed to be. Know always that if you, the haters, prefer the original 1492, desirous in your sick mind, to duplicate, and to be evil of heart and deed, to repeat them, by all means have at it, for you will be all the worse for it. That is a promise, one based on the Holy Words, Promises, Faith and Trust that we share with our Lord.

Forever and ever.