And So It Begins

A friend of mine in Israel posted this on Facebook tonight:

“So, it's started. And it has a name. Operation Protective Edge or "צוק איתן". #bringit”

And now, as I write, the planes are in the air, the rockets are flying into Israel, and I am sitting here is safety, holding my breath, waiting, hoping, and wishing there was something I could do. I am waiting for the rockets to be silenced, the sirens to cease their echoes, and the air to once again be still. I am waiting for the updates from friends, hoping that all are safe and not shaken too badly from the latest escalation.

I am waiting for the hatred to be posted to Facebook. The post by supposedly peace loving people who will inevitably condemn the fact that Israel is, once again, defending itself after a prolonged (I think too long) period of attacks against innocent people. It has happened before and I am sure that my friends list will shrink by at least a couple again this time around a well. They can do what they want... I know that I am in the right to support Israel and I don't understand how you can oppose the operation when I keep reading posts like this...

“Soroka hospital moving preemies and baby departments to bomb shelter.”

Undoubtedly there will be heartbreaking stories and even some of the preparations that take place can be hard to read as, from my perspective here in the US, this is something that I do not experience. However, that small part of me, that Israeli part of me, understands the pain, humor, and heartbreak that is woven in the following statement: 

“There's snow days, hurricane days... in Israel we have rocket days. Tomorrow is a rocket day. People in the south check to see if you have school/university tomorrow before you go.”

Of course, the pervasive emotion is anger. Anger at those murderers who served as the catalyst for this escalation, anger at hamas for seeking murder as a resolution, and anger at all those people and countries that hate us just for being who we are and for holding sacred the land which G-d has bestowed upon us. This is our land. How dare you bastardize history to serve your murderous ambitions!

While I am not a proponent of war… bring it! This has got to come to a resolution at some point and turning the other way while you fire rockets at women and children doesn’t seem to be working so… bring it! Mourning the defenseless that you have murdered and calling for the end to the violence obviously falls on deaf ears so… bring it! While Israel and the IDF have showed remarkable restraint in the past and have not occupied the terrorist territories, it is time to put an end to this, it is time to bring it!

*Thank you Laura Ben-David for keeping us all up to date. Stay safe!

 

A Liberal Dose Of Crazy Outside Our Door

I walked out of our apartment today and immediately noticed the car parked in front of me leaving little room for me to walk passed. After mumbling a few choice words about visitors parking in resident spaces and the specific orifice they resemble, I began reading the collage of stickers blanketing the front bumper. As I read this brilliant little snippets of mental flatulence it seemed as though the breeze carried a faint wisp of patchouli. With my curiosity piqued, I had to see what was plastered on the back of this tiny car.

Well, I can’t say that I agreed with everything that was being pitched on this mobile billboard but what really got me is just how blatantly liberal and uncompromising a simple car can be. Additionally, the contrary nature of the views expressed demonstrate a lack of follow through with their own thoughts. While I wish I had also gotten a picture of the front bumper, the basic gist of it was contrary to those stickers on the back… the two that I specifically recall are the pro-choice and supporting the rights of all people.

You read that correctly and probably reacted the same way. The same person that preaches peace and pro-life on the back supports abortion on the front. The same person that supports the rights of all people on the front is happy to strip the individual right to bear arms on the back. It is not even a matter of voicing an opinion it is the fact that they don’t know what opinion they have… there is even a bumper sticker on top of a bumper sticker.

Now I am not a stranger to having things stuck to my car but I am very conservative (in more ways than one) about what I have displayed. I have a couple Masonic symbols on the back of my trunk along with a Philly Friendship Circle magnet, a NRA sticker and college stickers in my back window (on the edges so that my field of view is not obscured) and a Rotary sticker in my back side window. Honestly, I think my little collection is pushing it but this lady (as I found out later that the owner was actually a female hippie) took it to a whole different level.

I can and will stand behind everything that I stick to my car and I feel they are consistent with my views and beliefs… they represent one voice. Many believe that your car says a lot about you and, to a certain extent, I can support that theory. But that isn’t always the case anymore… while Herbie may have been a VW Beetle it is obvious that times have changed, now we have Sybil the Honda Fit. I think that may be the perfect bumper sticker for that little car.

Errands, A Dead Fridge, And Meeting The Police!

Our plans for the 4^th of July consisted of approximately nothing. We had a few errands that we had been putting off but other than that we were going to sleep in, relax, and enjoy the rare weekday together without the worries of work and school constantly splitting our attention. Well, we definitely slept in (at least I did), we had a few relaxing moments, and then we headed out the door to pick up a few things. Nothing exciting, just some clothes and groceries and the day was actually going pretty well as we found  just about everything we needed in one stop rather than two giving us some more time to not run errands.

About four hours passed and we were starting to figure out what we wanted for a late dinner when the day took a turn in an unfavorable direction. As my wife was sitting down with a bowl of cereal and I was rummaging around on the top shelf, I noticed an inordinate amount of heat radiating from the sides of the refrigerator. Just as I noticed the lack of cold air, my wife got my attention saying that the new milk tasted sour. Well, crap, I guess the holiday isn’t going to end as smoothly as it began.

So, it was time to repack the groceries and take them to my parents’ house so everything wouldn’t be wasted. With my parents in Pittsburgh for the weekend, it was going to be a very quick trip to unload, put away, and get back to the apartment. However, what would have been an uneventful stop just a few months ago was a bit more complicated this time around. With the roads clear and the fireworks lighting up the newly dark sky in the distance, I was calling and texting trying to figure out the new security code needed to get into the house. Additionally, when we arrived, the key in my pocket that was supposed to work didn’t and I had to scramble to find the spare (which also didn’t work in the right lock).

With all the searching and fumbling around with the locks the alarm was blaring by the time I got in the house and I knew that we would soon be having a couple of visitors. The alarm had long since been turned off and I just finished putting the food away when I saw the bright beams of two flashlights making their way to the back door. It was time to have a brief conversation with the Radnor Police Department. After explaining the situation, showing them my driver’s license, and chatting for a bit we all left the house and drove up the street.

And now we are left with trying to get the fridge repaired (always an interesting conversation with the management and maintenance) and finding the time to be there when the service needs to be done. That is a whole different conversation, issue, and blog post altogether. But, for now, we got everything done and we managed to get back to the apartment before the throngs of people flooded onto the streets. I was just glad that we still had two more days left in the weekend!

Embrace The Change Brought About By A Simple Declaration

Sorry to disappoint but this is not what it is all about.

Today we celebrate a moment in our history that impacts all of us. The signing of the Declaration of Independence is one of the most pivotal moments in history that ha rippled throughout the world and across generations. What began as an act of treason is now celebrated as a moment when the people rose up against an oppressive government. Today is the day when we celebrate the power of a nation fed up with an overreaching nobility taking a stand, reclaiming their rights, and declaring their independence.

On this day we also remember those who have fought for the ideas and ideals embraced those many summers ago in Philadelphia. It has taken the blood of too many good men to ensure the thriving vitality of the tree of liberty and yet those lives lost are too often forgotten during this time of celebration. And it is those lives that we disgrace when we slowly strip the people of the rights that we fought so hard for and sacrificed so much to secure. While history does not change the perspective and lens used to view that which shaped the world can sometimes cast a drunken delirium on the current status of the nation.

Too often people forget that we fought for freedom. We fought to ensure that the people maintain their rights. We were given the ability to pursue happiness not the guarantee of all life’s pleasures. We brought about change that shifted the power from the powerful to the people. We all have rights.

We now find ourselves in a situation when entitlement and an overreaching government are once again trying to dominate our daily lives. The freedoms that we once fought for and cherished are now be questioned and deemed radical and dangerous. The independence and individuality that we once enjoyed is now seen as rebellious and racist. The thing that we once had to work hard for and earn are now preached to be that which everyone should have regardless of the effort and deservingness of the individual.

We cannot be given everything nor expect to be given anything. We are one nation of many people with individual rights. We each have to embrace those rights, decide for ourselves whether we are going to exercise certain rights, and respect the decisions of others as to whether or not they will embrace the freedoms that those rights provide. It took tremendous acts of defiance to secure those rights and found this nation and it took courage to defend those rights. Now we must remember those men who stood before us and let their legacy fuel the bravery we need now to exercise our rights.

Avoiding Work, Relaxing, And A Summer Storm

Soaked streets, a down tree, and a light that is actually still working.

Well, this is the final short week of a month long string and, as is common place when I don’t have a specific event to attend or place to go, I had no idea what to do with myself. I got out of bed only slightly later than I normally would on a Thursday morning and while the weather started off sunny and humid the forecast showed some troublesome signs in the afternoon. If I stayed in the apartment I would do nothing but work and knowing that the day was going to be cut a little short with the weather moving up the coast, I had no other choice than to get in the car and drive.

Even with all the travel that I have already done this year, it is a different experience being behind the wheel without having to be somewhere at a specific time or having an event or place that you have to go. It is the ever-present cliché of the freedom of the road that allows me to relax, get lost, explore, and maybe find a few places that I have never been, see a few things that I had never seen, and discover some new destinations for a future weekend trip. And throughout the wandering and weaving between towns and the coasting down the highway, I didn’t check my mail at all… exactly the way I wanted to spend the morning.

By the time I stopped the car to get out and stretch much of the morning had already passed and lunch time was knocking at my empty stomach. With the stiffness having evaporated from my joints, it was time to head back and figure out where I was going to meet my wife for a mid-day meal. We finally settled on meeting in King of Prussia with a couple of hours afterward to spend together before we, once again, went our separate ways… my wife had to get to her grad class and I had to continue my attempt to relaxing during this rare day off.

By this time I had glanced at my work email but, with only a few minor things to address, it was not a hindrance to my time away from the office. While the limited time at the range could have gone better (I need more consistent practice), it was nice to just stand around and chat about anything and everything that didn’t involve work. With night riding across the sky on the back of dark clouds, I pointed the car toward home, drove through the squalls of a sudden summer storm, and picked up dinner for my wife and me to enjoy together after a full day and probably one of my more successful non-working days.

Another Half Year Down

You don’t have to look at the calendar to realize that it’s July. For the first time this year the sweat was flowing freely down the faces of anyone who stepped outside for more than a couple of minutes. The immediate chill and relaxation upon opening the door to the office building is something that is unique to summer and if often the highlight of the morning commute. And, for the first time in three years, I have been able to enjoy the heat of the day and sleep wrapped in the cool of the night.

It seems that it was a mere few weeks since I last wrote about the resolutions and the recap of the previous things checked off the list. That is not what this blog is about, not today, not this summer. There are too many great things that have happened so far this year some that I previously listed as goals and resolutions while others just happened, surfacing in the flow of life. I have been too focused on lists at times to truly embrace the greatness of this world and the gift of life that we have all been given.

This year has been one of tremendous personal satisfaction and, thankfully, stability. While it has been far from perfect, there are few things that I would go back and change. I couldn’t tell you any particular instance that comes to mind as I can’t recall the moments to which I reference. I have made a point to forget that which prevents me from keeping my eyes looking forward. While I am not always successful in this endeavor, I am making the effort and I am definitely better off for doing so.

And one of the tools that has allowed me to do this is this blog. This is why you will occasionally read the rants or the recounting of days that may have been led astray. Writing these things down allows me to forget. Words and photos are things that live in the past. Once a picture is taken or a word is written it is immediately thrown into the past. It was captured. It was written. Only the sentence that I construct at this very moment is a piece of the present. All other thoughts and actions have already happened and been recorded.

It has been a great year so far and one that I am happy to forget. All those moments are within me, stored in my mind and influencing my current direction, but they are not cognizant thoughts that dominate my every moment. Each of us have in our own mind the greatest story ever told which only ends when we can no longer remember who we are and what we have done. This year has been great thus far and I look forward to continuing to write the story of my life in the following days, months, years, and for the rest of my life. And the best part of this story is that no matter how much I try to plan or anticipate I have no idea what is going to be on the next page.

When Prayers Go Unanswered

Ever since the news reported their disappearance, we have been hoping, praying, and some pleading for the safe return of Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, 16, the three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped on June 12. Yesterday, all those words that each of us kept repeating seemed to fall short as reports quickly spread that those three boys were found murdered with the last whispers of one of the victims recorded by a phone call placed to 100, Israel’s emergency hotline. “They’ve kidnapped me.”

This national and international tragedy came to a tearful conclusion today… while difficult for me to express, the first line I read in a Times of Israel article today perfectly captured that whish we are all experiencing:

“Despite frantic prayers and more than two weeks of desperate searching, the saga of the three kidnapped boys ended Tuesday with the mourner’s kaddish, the traditional prayer for the dead, with three families clasped in prayer and an entire country standing behind them.”

I heard the news, debates, and questions on the radio all morning and watched as the news streamed across my screen all day but until I read my email this evening I wasn’t even sure I would be writing this post (I encourage you to read the email pasted below from Rabbis Shraga Sherman & Mendy Cohen of Chabad of the Main Line). There are few words that can be said at this time that mean anything. It may be difficult for some to understand, and I have had to explain it a few times, but our connection to Israel is not just to a piece of land. We are one with Israel in body, mind, heart, and soul. No matter where we are in this world or where we are in life, we are one. These are our boys.

Unfortunately, as we still mourn we know that soon we will be defending ourselves to the same people that now offer their condolences because we are allowed to mourn and suffer tragedy but we are not allowed to fight back and defend ourselves against future tragedy. It is this constant back and forth of the emotional pendulum that also binds us together but, right now, we mourn. We silently remember ‘our boys’ and ask that our renewed prayers are heeded… let them be the last.

B"H

Shalom,

Yesterday, we all heard the tragic news from Israel. There are few words. Only grief. Sadness. Pain. For 18 days, the Jewish world was so united. We became one family. Our differences and labels of affiliations were pushed to the side. These 3 boys united us. They made us one. Eyal, Gilad and Naftali became our sons... our brothers... No, we never met them but they were OURS... We prayed, we cried, we demanded, we posted - BRING OUR BOYS HOME! It was OUR boys. The power of this unity deserved a different ending. Deserved a reunion of the Jewish world with their boys. Deserved an all night/all day dancing session at the Western Wall celebrating their safe return to their new large family, the family of Klal Yisroel. But it was not meant to be...

We are left heartbroken... numb... in grief... and angry...

First, we must mourn. There is a need for us to realize it is okay to cry and mourn the loss of a loved one... it is beyond words of consoling... it is real pain and tears... We lost 3 children... 3 brothers... As those families are now sitting shiva, we too feel that the deep sense of loss and the love we have for these children and their families.

It is only after we mourn that we will need to deal with our anger. The united Jewish family will have to stand strong and give the Land of Israel the support they will need and deserve.

Today is also the 20th yahrtzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, On the anniversary of a tzadik’s passing, all the light that he planted in this world—his teachings, good deeds, and everything in which he invested his life and being—all this shines brightly, so that anyone connected to him can receive blessings of life, happiness and wisdom. Today more than ever the world needs the comfort, the insight and the fortitude which the Rebbe taught us.

I have pasted below an article just released by Rabbi Jonathan Sachs, very well said…

Just as we mourn together today, so may we very soon celebrate together. May there be many Simchos by all of us, with the ultimate Simcha, the coming of Moshiach. May it already take place.

Rabbis Shraga Sherman & Mendy Cohen

P.S. - There will be a Farbrengen this evening at 9:15 p.m. (Chabad of the Main Line, 625 Montgomery Ave, Merion) marking the Rebbe’s 20th Yahrtzeit. It is a good time for us to be together and hear words of strength and inspiration. Please join us.

In memoriam Eyal, Gilad and Naftali from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

This past Shabbat we read the parsha of Chukkat with its almost incomprehensible commandment of the red heifer whose mixed with "living water" purified those who had been in contact with death so that they could enter the Mishkan, symbolic home of the glory of God. Almost incomprehensible, but not entirely so.

The mitzvah of the parah adumah, the red heifer, was a protest against the religions of the ancient world that glorified death. Death for the Egyptians was the realm of the spirits and the gods. The pyramids were places where, it was believed, the spirit of the dead Pharaoh ascended to heaven and joined the immortals.

The single most striking thing about the Torah and Tanakh in general is its almost total silence on life after death. We believe in it profoundly. We believe in olam haba (the world to come), Gan Eden (paradise), and techiyat hametim (the resurrection of the dead). Yet Tanakh speaks about these things only sparingly and by allusion. Why so?

Because too intense a focus on heaven is capable of justifying every kind of evil on earth. There was a time when Jews were burned at the stake, so their murderers said, in order to save their immortal souls. Every injustice on earth, every act of violence, even suicide bombings, can be theoretically defended on the grounds that true justice is reserved for life after death.

Against this Judaism protests with every sinew of its soul, every fibre of its faith. Life is sacred. Death defiles. God is the God of life to be found only by consecrating life. Even King David was told by God that he would not be permitted to build the Temple because dam larov shafachta, "you have shed much blood."

Judaism is supremely a religion of life. That is the logic of the Torah's principle that those who have had even the slightest contact with death need purification before they may enter sacred space. The parah adumah, the rite of the red heifer, delivered this message in the most dramatic possible way. It said, in effect, that everything that lives - even a heifer that never bore the yoke, even red, the color of blood which is the symbol of life - may one day turn to ash, but that ash must be dissolved in the waters of life. God lives in life. God must never be associated with death.

Eyal, Gilad and Naftali were killed by people who believed in death. Too often in the past Jews were victims of people who practiced hate in the name of the God of love, cruelty in the name of the God of compassion, and murder in the name of the God of life. It is shocking to the very depths of humanity that this still continues to this day.

Never was there a more pointed contrast than, on the one hand, these young men who dedicated their lives to study and to peace, and on the other the revelation that other young men, even from Europe, have become radicalized into violence in the name of God and are now committing murder in His name. That is the difference between a culture of life and one of death, and this has become the battle of our time, not only in Israel but in Syria, in Iraq, in Nigeria and elsewhere. Whole societies are being torn to shreds by people practicing violence in the name of God.

Against this we must never forget the simple truth that those who begin by practicing violence against their enemies end by committing it against their fellow believers. The verdict of history is that cultures that worship death, die, while those that sanctify life, live on. That is why Judaism survives while the great empires that sought its destruction were themselves destroyed.

Our tears go out to the families of Eyal, Gilad and Naftali. We are with them in grief. We will neither forget the young victims nor what they lived for: the right that everyone on earth should enjoy, to live a life of faith without fear.

Bila hamavet lanetzach: "May He destroy death forever, and may the Lord God wipe away the tears from all faces." May the God of life, in whose image we are, teach all humanity to serve Him by sanctifying life.