Heating Up to Boiling

Yom rishon, 24 Av 5775.

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Ever take the time to watch a pot of water come to a rolling boil? It starts with tiny bubbles at the bottom of the pot, followed by steam rising from the increasingly noisy and active water, until at last the bubbles are climbing over each other violently. If the pot is quite full, the dangerously hot water can boil over. If you are too close, the burns can be devastating.

The news is daily filled with greater tension and uncertainty, not just for Jews in Israel, but for Jews around the world; and non-Jews are in just as much danger, whether they feel affected by it or not. Some "near the top of the pot" may not yet realize how hot it's getting, but those of us nearest the burner are already feeling extreme heat.

The higher than usual atmospheric temperatures have surely not helped the rising tensions.

The horrific incident of a religiously-dressed Jew murdering a Jewish girl at a Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem, in some mistaken belief that he was fulfilling God's desires, scares me to my core. And if this was God's desire -- which I absolutely do not accept -- I would be even more frightened. Whatever God wants from us in this situation, b'zman hazeh, my teaching by excellent and holy rabbis did not lead me to believe that killing a Jew would solve the problem. I prefer the solution of a rabbi in one Hareidi community in Israel who, when asked what should be our response to the first Erev Shabbat Gay Pride parade ever, said, "Stay home and make Shabbat. That is the best protest."

As if this is not enough, we are surely on the brink of another war with the Arabs, this time, inside our borders. I firmly believe that the suspected "Price Tag" attack that resulted in the death of an 18-month-old Arab and his father from a firebomb attack on their home will prove to have been perpetrated by a rival Arab family. But in the meantime, far too many on both sides of the argument assume that this heinous crime was committed by Jews. I don't know how the laws governing the media work here in Israel. But I know in America you're not supposed to publish headlines without "alleged" or "suspected" until the perpetrator is convicted. We are sometimes our own worst enemies.

Speaking of enemies... How's the whole embracing Iran thing going for ya? I have stayed fairly quiet on this subject, as there are many people more coherent and knowledgeable than I saying much. I will let my beloved Rabbi Menachem Goldberger from the Baltimore synagogue Congregation Tiferes Yisroel speak for me, in a letter he wrote to his Baltimore congregation. Thank you, Rabbi, for your strong words. May many more in our former home country speak out as you have done. In time.

Rabbi Goldberger, before we aged him beyond his years.

Dear Kehilla HaKedosha,                       
Erev Shabbos Parshas Ekev 5775     B"H        

Yesterday Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Senate Democrat, announced that he will vote against the Iran Nuclear deal.  I encourage you to read his statement which is thoughtful, and very thorough.  It's available on line at Yeshiva World News as well as on other sites.  Representative Eliot Engel of New York, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee announced he will vote against the deal as well.

I want to congratulate these men on their brave and courageous stance, under tremendous political pressure from the White House, for voting their conscience and expressing clearly the danger to the world of a wealthy, nuclear Iran, which this treaty would allow.

President Obama, in his speech at American University a few days ago, reached a new low in comparing the "hard liners" in Iran with the Republicans and stating that they found common cause with each other.  I guess that President Obama forgot overnight that he is the one who just snuggled up to the Iranian hard liners and made a deal with them, that the hard liners are not a fringe group but rather the government of Iran lead by their supreme leader, and that he found common cause with them.  I guess he forgot that the people of Iran who tried to overthrow this wicked regime in 2009 were left to themselves as he sat on the sidelines and gave them no US support.   President Obama found no common cause with them.  When he speaks I feel like I'm reading "1984" by George Orwell. 

May Hashem Yisborach, our true help and strength, have compassion on his precious nation Klal Yisroel and watch over us.  May He guide us on the right path and help us to overcome our enemies.

Good Shabbos, Shalom al Yisroel,

Rabbi Menachem Goldberger 

May this particular pot be calmed, somehow, before it boils over and burns everything around it beyond saving. And may Hashem at last decide that it is time for Mashiach, whether we deserve it or not.

Welcome to the club!

Yom rishon, 6 Nisan 5770.

I have to get over to Ramat Shlomo to visit friends who have lived there for many years, not realizing that they were living in "East Jerusalem."  (Thank G-d that President Obama and Ban Ki-moon have clarified matters for them; otherwise they might have thought forever that they were living in a Northeastern Hareidi Jewish community for the last 15 years.  Or maybe there has been some kind of tectonic shift over time?  Perhaps with all of the global warming, the community has actually shifted eastward???)

 
Anyway, I have to drop by and give the Mommy of the family her Settler/Obstacle to Peace Kit, to induct her into the club.  We spoke about it on the phone today.

"Me?  An 'Obstacle to Peace'?  I can't believe it!  I've always wanted to be a settler," she fairly sang.

"Well, sometimes we can't move to the settlements -- so the settlements move to us," I said, paraphrasing Bacon.  (She's a literary type; and I thought she would like it if I tried to sound well-read.  After all, not just anybody should go about conferring prestigious awards.)

My friend is very fair-minded.  "You really should be giving them out to the people in Tel Aviv," she said.

"Don't worry.  They will get theirs.  Right now, the Tel Avivians are in denial, and don't realize they are settlers."

"Eventually, an American President and a UN Secretary-General will come to their rescue, too, and clear things up for them," she said, ever mindful of the future of all of our holy people.

"We can only pray," I said.  (Remember, I told you she is Hareidi.)  Then we chatted about the imminence of Moshiach, in these extremely hafuch times, when right is wrong, up is down, and the good guys wear the black hats.  (Or the kipot serugot, as the case may be...)

The Official Settler/Obstacle to Peace Kit

The bracelet says: "The Land of Israel for the Nation of Israel."

 This is the kit I will be presenting to my dear friend, Jewish sister, and now fellow settler.  The authentic Gush Etzion parsley -- just as in fancy restaurants -- is only for show.

May we experience together the coming of Moshiach, speedily and in our days, when things that just don't make any sense finally do.

Haveil Havalim #261 -- the best of the Israeli/Jewish blogosphere -- is live at Jack's place.  By the way, Jack seems to get stuck hosting this a lot.  Even if you are a budding blogger, take my word for it:  it's not as difficult as it seems to be a host; Jack will help you; and lots of people who never would have seen your blog drop by for a visit.  FEAR NOT.

Glossary:
Obstacle to Peace: what the media constantly call people who live in Biblical Israel
Settler: a term that used to be something the world was proud of, referring to people who risked malaria to drain swamps to turn completely empty, neglected land in Israel into thriving farm collectives; recently used by the media to refer pejoratively to people who now live in those precise areas
Moshiach: Messiah
Hafuch: upside-down
Kipot serugot: knitted skull caps, usually indicating a fierce love of G-d, His Nation, and His Land

It's all about the children.

Yom shlishi, 21 Av 5769.

Here are two visuals I had to share with my readers, pictures being worth oodles of words and all.  One is very topical and Jewish:

Dearest Flamers:  Please don't waste both of our time by remarking to me that Obama isn't the first US President to suggest that Jews give up their homes.  I know that this problem has been growing for at least the last four administrations; and it hasn't mattered from which side of the aisle the President stepped up to the podium.  And there is no point in sharing the other well-known fact that Israeli Prime Ministers have cared far too much about US Presidential opinion, also over several administrations.  But now is when the excellent graphic artist, Aharon Shevo, produced this impressive piece of work.  Ya gotta admit he hit the coffin nail right on the head.
[Hat tip to Jameel ]

The second visual I want to share is a two minute video that has nothing to do with Israel, and nothing particular to do with being Jewish.  It has everything to do with heading back to school, with the division of labor in most families, and with the special relationship my sons have always had with their father.

Briefly:  Many years ago, I heard a dvar Torah from Rabbi Moshe Meir Weiss in which he taught that prayer is the ultimate life insurance policy.  If you want your spouse to live a long life, remind your Tatte B'Shomayim that you can't live without him.  This sounded reasonable to me; and I thought that I would increase our life insurance by adding insurers.  Thus I requested that my sons daven for both of their parents to live to be really old, because Ema gets us places on time, and Abba is fun.  (I suspect that I convinced them to daven harder for Abba with that technique; but that served my selfish purposes just fine.)

Please take a couple of minutes to enjoy this adorable Kevin Nalts production.  It will remind you why women stay busy with long lists of activities.  How else can fathers successfully instruct their progeny in new and ingenious ways to puncture perfectly functional membranes?
[Hat tip to Rabbi Shlomo Skinner and HIS insurer, Lisa]




May we share more happy pictures than sad ones.

It's not about the Holocaust, Mr. President.

Yom chamishi, 26 Sivan 5769.

The following poem is reprinted with permission from the author, Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo.  Please see more of his very thoughtful and uplifting essays at his website, The David Cardozo Academy: Jewish Education for a Complex World.  In a world I could affect, I would ask President Obama to sit quietly with his Secretary of State and listen deeply to a reading of this poem, read with all the feeling it engenders by one of my many dear Baltimore friends whose hearts weep with a desire to live in the Jewish homeland.  Would the message be heard?  I cannot know.  But I know that you, dear reader, will hear it.
 

To President Barack Obama

I am a Jew.
I stand at the Western Wall.

How long do I stand here?
Nearly 4000 years,
since the days of my grandfather Abraham
when he nearly sacrificed his son
at Mount Moriah.

I see the Wall with its frozen tears,
and passing clouds with many sighs.
I read millions of names:
Born
in Egypt, Babylon, Rome, Poland,
Spain, Hungary, America and South Africa.

But that was only in a dream.
In reality
we Jews were all born in Israel, and then exiled by Titus.
Although most of us began our childhoods
in foreign countries,
we merely camped in these places, but never dwelled in them.

And at the end of our lives,
Though our tombstones may stand in Exile,
our bodies are buried in the dust of Israel.

***

The return to Zion is unprecedented.
It is sui generis.
The State of Israel is a surprise,
a shock,
for it is the story of a nation in exile
which never had to return because it never left.
It lifted its Holy Land from its native soil,
transformed it into a portable homeland,
carrying it to all corners
of the earth,
only to replant it again in its native land
when the students of Titus can no longer prevent it from doing so.

***
Mr. President,

Israel was not built on the ashes of Auschwitz.
It is founded on the Bible,
a divine text rooted in the Jewish experience of nearly 4000 years.
A Heilsgeschichte, a Redemptive History
for all of mankind.

Israel was not created because of the Holocaust,
but rather despite the Holocaust.

***

Jerusalem

Only the Jews, for thousands of years, prayed and continue to pray for its rebuilding.

No other people.

Only the Jews mourn its destruction of nearly two thousand years ago.

No other nation.

It is only they who weep, sitting on the floor on the date of the Temple's desecration
in the month of Av, year after year.

No other people.

It is only they who for two thousand years break a glass under the marriage canopy, an expression of sorrow for Jerusalem.
(How many millions of glasses were broken throughout exile?)

No other nation.

It is only the Jews who for thousands of years build their houses but leave a part of the wall unplastered because of the loss of their Temple.

No other people.

It is only Jewish women who do not wear all their jewelry at once, in deference to the destruction of the House of God.

No other women.

And it is only the Jews who cover their dead with the dust of the land of Israel even when they bring their dear ones to their final resting place outside the land of Israel.

No other burial society.


Neither Titus' offspring,
nor Saladin's descendants,
nor Godfrey of Bouillon, the crusader, nor his children,
ever mourned, prayed or buried their dead in the Earth of the Holy Land.

This, dear President, you must learn.

For without this knowledge,
there will be no way to make peace.

@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@%@

Thank you, Rabbi, for making it as clear as it can be.  May the Borei Olam cause that these words be heard by all Jewish hearts -- for, at the end of the day, these are the only hearts that matter.  Once we know that these concepts are true, then Hashem will turn the hearts of our enemies, and even the hearts of our friends.