tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77880073355685040662024-02-13T17:37:28.452-05:00Stranger'z ViewMatys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-85912632522454240002024-02-13T17:30:00.002-05:002024-02-13T17:35:14.054-05:00Gaza - Final Solution?<p> <b> B-H</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Let me tell you a little bit of my background…</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I was born and raised in a country of peculiar history.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Country which lost its independents for long, being taken by several
empires over the time.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">A nation which survived only thanks to its literature and preservation of
its once glorious history. People who were designated to be messiah for the
nations by their most important bards, a prophet almost to their natives.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Downtrodden people whose several attempts to regain their independence
were crushed in bloody persecutions and oppression.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Then a miracle happened, it was maybe more a right alignment of
historical context and lobbying activities of the proponents of this new
country than something supernatural; but who can tell me where natural ends and
“super” begins.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Already before it happened the troops began to form, later to become a
regular army.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The fights happened but with the support from the western governments the
country was formed, and its administration formed as well.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">A new era began for the once downtrodden nation, the second republic.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Technically democratic country but there were those “others” around. They
were there for a long time, but their language and religion were different from
ours. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The nation was trying to unify, as the people who formed it grew up in
different countries. The obstacle of the “others” around was a thorn in that
attempt.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Some proposed their integration, but others opted for separation. The
second option prevailed, and the “others” soon became second-class citizens, in
the country, in the cities and towns in which they were living for generations.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">There was also danger looking from abroad. The countries around were not
friendly and from the very beginning, our nation had to fight the wars for
independence.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">We won and extended our territory. Territory came with more of the
“others” and that added to the problem of the enemies from within.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">But as all the new nations gained their independence in those times, the
phenomenon was not completely unique but rather… I would say common, the nation
has built a strong army and its identity around the military forces.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Soldier was the best in the nation, elite units of the army its cream of
the cream.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The might of the army was cherished and shown in public. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The media were informing people about the buildup of the army and
patriotic books were written and read.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The military parade was in style in those days. So, the army paraded in
big and small towns.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Soldiers were carrying their polished weapons, rumbling on the pavement
was the shining from oil military heavy equipment in full display for the
masses to admire.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">And the masses admired the military and its might, its discipline and
aligned with its movement’s marching troops. The heroes to be, the man able to
defend the land and defeat the enemies.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The military songs were sung by the troops and catchy melodies and
phrases were known to the general public. Even the “others” were using those
melodies in their circles as the music doesn’t recognize the borders.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The spirit of love for the land was uplifted and willingness to spill the
blood for the country for the state for the soil was generated. In fact, it was
cultivated to be the highest value of the nation. G-d Himself ascribed this
parcel of land to be a homeland.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Periodically, the military parade was a major event in the life of the
city or town, an entertainment in the times when mass media were limited to the
written word as the radio was not available yet for the masses. It was besides
the street performer and traveling theater perhaps only visual entertainment
available, in small towns the only entertainment.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">You can imagine what kind of impact did it have on the populus,
especially boys of all ages.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">All of them wanted to be one day like those mostly admired which they
were watching now holding their fathers by hands.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">For those who preferred integrating of the “others” to the general
society, the enlistment of the “others” youth to the army was the greatest toll
to achieve it. Several years of strong discipline and straight nationalistic
brainwash was granting that integration.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">For those who opposed integration, for they saw the very existence of the
“others” as the element of disintegration for the nation, they sought all kinds
of obstacles in that process and proposed rather mass emigration of the
strangers. Voluntary emigration of course, as they considered themselves to be
civilized and moral people.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Either way, periodic and quite often military parades were preparatory
tools for achieving national goals.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">So Janek (Yanek) and Franek were standing on the sidewalk watching the
marching soldiers while holding their kids by hand. Just above them on the
porches Piotrek and Valenty were watching as well, also with their families.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">But “others” were also coming. Moishe with his sons, and Yitschok holding
his offspring.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Not comprehending that the parade has the same impact on their kids as it
has on the kids of his Polish neighbors.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Yeah! If you still didn’t realize which country I was talking about till
now, it was Poland, and if you got a filling that some other place looks like
copy and paste…yeah, perhaps it was copied and pasted.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I was born much later but lived with the people who told me about life in
previous generations.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I spoke to the older Poles as well as interviewed many Polish Jews
describing that reality portrayed by me above. You can make your own work and
find not only written words on the subject but also pictographic material. You
may also find that the spirit of nationalism and militarism was for decades a
dominating philosophy in Europe. Polish military parades were not the first
marching through the streets of Shtetelach.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">When Zionist agitators came to cities and the towns, it was now easy for
them to capture attention and raise the imagination of the Jewish youth to
their new nationalist gospel.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">They promised not only the land but building it exactly in the model
known to the young generation of Jews in Poland and other central European
countries. Nationalistic society, built around its military and might with the
“others” just being there to be soon treated the same and worse than Jewish
population in Europe just before. Ideology born among many of the same
ideologies where blood and soil were superior to everything else.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">It sometimes seems that the Zionist state is a parody of the other
nationalistic country in central Europe. With their constant push for
“Lebensraum”, and their “drang nach osten”, the similarities are staggering. It
would be a parody if it would be somehow diminished to their mighty predecessor
of Nazi Germany, but at this moment it is on the same level or worse, it is
only European fascism which survived longer than any other fascist country
where it originated.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Yes, there are no gas chambers for the Palestinian people, those who
think that Nazism began only after the Wannsee conference, know nothing about
history and quite frankly, they have no heart in their chest.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I don’t care what some of the readers of this essay will say or think
about me.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Beezras Hashem I laid down my beliefs over the years on this blog and
other places.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I proved my faithfulness to Hashem, His Toira and His people in a way
rare in this generation. Whoever knows me closer, knows it.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">But I can’t stay silent when my people are going amok and even mad, and
when my people are going mad, we all will pay the price for it. Just read the
Prophets, just read the Sages ZT’L.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I can’t keep quiet now, when the original nationalistic secular ideology,
by design of its originators, is mixed with messianic frenzy, dulling the
conscience formed by thousands of years of study of morality and ethics. When
once more in our history we got lost for putting our hope in something else
than HBH or even worse, using Him as subservient to murderous ideology, turning
Almighty G-d into national getchke.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I joined Children of Yisrael on the promise that as rav S.R. Hirsch puts
it – It is law which gives me citizenship and not citizenship gives me the
rights.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">And as a Jew I have this right, to cry when I can’t hold my voice and my
tears longer.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">To all those who will use Talmudic statements about the ger who sides
with the enemies only because he feels alliance with them, listen to me.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Way before I became formally a Jew, I came to the conclusion that human
life is a superior value. In fact, it has more value than anything else in this
earthly existence.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">More than your prosperity, more than the country and soil. Is it that
radical?</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">It wasn’t to the Uvois (Avot) it wasn’t to the holy man of our people.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">If you want deeper understanding of value of human life according to
Toira, and if commandment not to kill is not enough, please find it in the
essay of rav Dessler on topic of suicide, very good explanation among the other
explanations. Bezras Hashem I will try to come back to this topic, why life is
superior to anything else, in some future too.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I was glad to get out of the poisonous mindset which was forced on my
brain from the time of my childhood. I was happy to break the chains of
patriotic mind where the value lies in killing and sacrificing your life and
your wellbeing for the idea of the country.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">If you think that in the Jewish religion, I’m just looking for
confirmation for my preconceived convictions, please mind – Around the same
time in my live I came to conclusion that fundamental powers of human body,
lurking to be used in any circumstances possible, should be limited to the
setup of the family. Namely that our sexual life must happen only between
husband and wife. And yes, I also found it later in The Book and amongst the
people living by this Book. But it was preconceived as well. Why? It is part of
the story of my personal relationship with Boire Oilom.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Despite the most vicious antisemitism of the people which I grew up
among, B-H I was able to clarify what is right and what is wrong. I was able to
sharpen my sense of Tzedakah and Mishpat, pretty much on my own but with
amazing guidance from HBH.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">With that Divine guidance I found people who valued life like no other
nation in the world.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">People who as per words of Rav Hirsch - didn’t have human blood on their
hands for some eighteen hundred years. Too many times paying for this moral
high with their blood and blood of their children. Using allowed by Law
self-defense only when it was feasible but not waging war against any nation as
it is prohibited and matter of the oath – a covenant with G-d, imposed on the
nation after the last revolt and recorded in the Talmud.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">With G-d’s guidance I joined the people who gave the world the Law and
conscience; and even though this Law is calling for capital punishment it was
rarely used already more than two thousand years ago. People of Yisruel, whose
judges made every possible effort to save the life even though it was obvious
to them that the criminal was guilty of crime.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">People whose ancient kings were evaluated not by pails of dead bodies but
by their loyalty to the Law. Even the one who inspired mankind in his
everlasting poetry was criticized by the prophet for spilling human blood –
Duvid Hameilech.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">It took all of my youth to search and find the people of Tzedakah and
Mishpat and I learned and solidified my conviction in the framework of the
Halacha. Circumstances were not favorable, but I joined the holy people of
Yisruel and was adopted by them. All of them are my people – those in Mea
Sheurim or Monsey and those in Givatayim or Varanasi. All of them are my
beloved brothers and sisters.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">It tears my heart apart, I’m bleeding and crying through the sleepless
nights, seeing my people where too many of them are now.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">It is not only a matter of stealing other peoples’ belongings in
nationalistic madness, it is not only constant bloodshed and harm to the
wellbeing and dignity of other people to build and maintain the state. It is
also dehumanization of the others; the same what Europeans did to Jews over
millennia culminating in extermination of Holocaust. And as the wise man says -
dehumanization of others dehumanizes us at least equally. Violence just
follows.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Now grotesque and unprecedented violence. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">If anyone wants to understand why I use those words and this language I
will send you not far, just read my other essays. It will help to understand my
Mekoros – the sources – the spiritual one.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">For most of my life I have been thinking that religion makes a person
better than spiritual indifference.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I will not go into the debate about what caused the wars and bloodshed in
the past as I’m fully aware of how emotional issues of our beliefs can be used
and misused by the rulers and politicians of this world. Not time for it now.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">I was in believe that religion brings to life values otherwise not
present in person's conscience. And yes, I’m aware that an agnostic can have
moral convictions putting him sometimes in better position in moral ranking
than someone declaring himself as a religious person.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">But I struggle with this notion these days. What if indeed someone
commits crimes from his love to the Supreme or superior values as he or she
understands them.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Toira is clear to me on this matter but obviously not to all my
coreligionists.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Should I tell them - drop your religion if it tells you to kill, to
steal, to mistreat, to make widows and orphans, to treat humans as cattle or
even subjects, to support almost all the atrocities which we experienced in our
history? And then to lie about it in public while the world is watching and
seeing through those lies? Using all kinds of deceit, pressure and machinations
to defend this obvious to all crime? Should I tell them to drop it and rather
become a nonbeliever if it saves a life?</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">And why is this crime and lies obvious to all? Because besides the
natural, Divinely imprinted sense of justice, we thought them “right and
wrong”. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">To those who will come to me with usual lines and talking points, please
don’t gaslight me with “self-defense” and Amalek and all the other rubbish.
Anyone who knows anything about Zionist ideology from its inception, knows that
conquer control and expulsion of indigenous population from Palestine was part
of that ideology. There were few exceptions where some Zionists proposed
peaceful inhabitation and collaboration with indigenous and neighboring people,
like Martin Buber, but ultimately even he, a major European philosopher, was
marginalized and ostracized by Zionist establishment. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">There are sources to learn from. Not from late apologists of that
ideology but from its early writers and ideologists of Zionism. Don’t be
afraid. Their writings will not make you worse than now if you already support
any actions of the Zionist state.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">If you believe that any of those actions are pleasant to your god, I
think I can say it – leave him and first became human as Rav Hirsch says here:</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #322e00; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">“Now, had Scripture not told us here that Avraham was
ninety nine old when the covenant of Milah - which is the founding covenant of
Judaism - was established with him, we would have thought that all of Avraham's
virtues, of which we have learned until now, were the result of the covenant
established with him in his youth, and that the </span><span style="color: #322700; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">whole flowering of this covenant
consisted in these virtues. In fact, however, they all preceded the covenant of
Milah. The full attainment of purely humane virtues preceded the mitzvah stated
here:</span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"> וֶהְיֵ֥ה תָמִֽים . <span style="color: #322700;">The covenant of Avraham is a higher perfection of the
humane virtues. The inference is twofold: On the one hand, "Be a mensch, a
decent human being, before you attempt to be a Jew." First acquire all the
humane virtues; only then can you become a Jew. On the other hand, you are not
yet a Jew if you have reached only the level attained by Avraham until this
point. A person who is compassionate, forgiving, and benevolent qualities
demonstrated by Avraham until this point is merely the embodiment</span><span style="color: #242200;"> </span><span style="color: #2d2400;">of the ideal
Noachide.</span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;">”<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Then you can begin to regain your status as a Jew. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Following this essay, I quote more and at length commentaries from
Hirsch’s Chumash.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Some may say that His opinions are his and there are plenty of
commentaries explaining those issues in different light. It is true that we
have a principle of Ailu Ve Ailu. But in my simple understanding, one Ailu can
usually be reconciled with another Ailu. And then there are opinions which were
never accepted but nevertheless recorded and there are opinions which are
straight ‘outside” - heretical.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Hirsch’s Hashkafa is exceptional in its clarity and fully able to
reconcile with all Divrey Chazal as far as I know.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">But for argument’s sake, hypothetically; let’s say that what he writes
below is something out of range, some ideas that can’t be taken seriously,
because other logical constructs based on Scriptures and Divrey Chazal present
to us opposite ideas. For it is true that this Holy Book served dictators and
murderers to justify their atrocities all over history. Some say it is like a
fiddle which you can take and play any melody you wish to. It is true that
pasukim can be taken, twisted, moved around, taken out of context and made into
some scriptural Frankenstein to provide support for every possible sin under
the sun. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Ultimately, how someone uses the Toira, tells more about the person than
Toira itself.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">But if anyone, anybody, no matter how big or small will present to me
“logic” opposite to that below, I will rather stay “wrong” with Hirsch than
“right” even if it is with majority.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Genesis chapter 12</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Aptos; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Aptos; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #242200;">“</span><span style="color: #242200;">Avraham appears merely as an
individual who is told: "Go your own way, dare to be alone." In verse
2-</span><span style="color: #242200;"> </span><span style="color: #242200;">וְאֶֽעֶשְׂךָ֙ לְג֣וֹי
גָּד֔וֹל</span><span style="color: #242200;">
the nation already</span><span style="color: #242200;"> appears, but not yet in the context of interaction with
other nations.</span><span style="color: #242200;"> </span><span style="color: #242200;">Then, verse 3</span><span style="color: #242200;"> – </span><span style="color: #242200;">וַאֲבָֽרְכָה֙</span><span style="color: #242200;"> </span><span style="color: #242200;">shows Israel in its relationship with other nations: The
blessing of Avraham is made dependent on others blessing him, and there are
also those who dare to curse him.</span></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #242200;">Avraham's task was to isolate himself, to walk
alone with God. The second stage was the creation of a nation out of this
Avraham. It was destined to become apparent that the existence of this nation
is a second act of creation by God in history, and toward this end it was
necessary that Israel become a nation only by way of Golus (exile) and Geirus
(homelessness), without a homeland. Had Israel, from the very beginning,
dwelled in its own land, its creation would not have appeared as</span> <span style="color: #242200;">אֶצְבַּ֥ע אֱלֹהִֽים</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" style="color: #242200; mso-bidi-language: HE;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span><span style="color: #242200;">or as </span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" style="color: #242200; mso-bidi-language: HE;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span lang="HE">מעשה ה'</span></span><span style="color: #242200;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #242200;">וַאֲגַדְּלָ֖ה שְׁמֶ֑ךָ "And I wish to make
your name great." Scripture does not say: "I will make your name
great." God can bless people and nations, but He can only wish that they
will attain moral virtue and that their deeds will be exemplary, for that
depends on their faithfulness to the Divine Law. Similarly, Scripture does not say</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="color: #242200; mso-bidi-language: HE;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> והיית ברכה </span><span style="color: #242200;">or</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" style="color: #242200; mso-bidi-language: HE;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> <span lang="HE">ותהיה ברכה </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="color: #242200;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span>"And
you will be a blessing"<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span>but, rather: " וֶהְיֵ֖ה
בְּרָכָֽה "Become a blessing." These two Hebrew words capsulize the
whole moral mission on whose accomplishment the fulfillment of God's own wish
depends: "I wish to your name great; therefore, you, become a blessing! I
wish to make of you a nation that will be a beacon to the nations, a nation to
which the others need only look in order to become aware of their own tasks.
And the task that is assigned to you as distinct from the aspirations of all
other nations - is: to <i>become</i> a blessing!" Everyone aspires, not</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" style="color: #242200; mso-bidi-language: HE;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> <span lang="HE">להיות
ברכה</span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="HE" style="color: #242200;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span> </span><span style="color: #242200;">but </span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="color: #242200; mso-bidi-language: HE;">להיות ברוכים</span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="HE" style="color: #242200;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span> </span><span style="color: #242200;">to be blessed. This</span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" style="color: #242200; mso-bidi-language: HE;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span> </span><span style="color: #242200;">is the
aspiration of every person and especially of every nation. </span><span style="color: #cc0000;">Honesty,
humanity, and love are duties incumbent upon the individual, but are regarded
as folly in relations between nations and are viewed as unimportant by
statesmen and politicians. Individuals are imprisoned and hanged for the crimes
of fraud and murder, but countries murder and defraud on a grand scale, and
those who murder and defraud "in the interest of the state" are
decorated and rewarded.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Not like these is the portion of Avraham. The
nation of Avraham is to have no national politics and no national economics.
The One Who guaranteed its national welfare does not need to allocate funds,
form coalitions, or conclude treaties. At His command are rain and sunshine,
strength and life, power and victory. אִם־בְּחֻקֹּתַ֖י תֵּלֵ֑כוּ then all will
go well. In the midst of a world where mankind's stated aim is וְנַֽעֲשֶׂה־לָּ֖נוּ
שֵׁ֑ם and its ambition is to increase its power and extend its domain no matter
what the cost, the nation of Avraham is in private and public life to heed only
one call: to be a Blessing. Its life is to be devoted to the Divine aims of
bringing harmony to mankind and to the world and restoring man to his former
glory.</span><span style="color: #242200;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p><span style="color: #242200; font-family: inherit;"><b>Then God will grant this nation His blessing for
a life of dynamic action. Its name will become prominent among the nations, so
that they, too, should be educated to these same aspirations: וַאֲבָ֣רֶכְךָ֔
וַאֲגַדְּלָ֖ה שְׁמֶ֑ךָ<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #242200; font-family: inherit;"><b>This second stage of Jewish history, the
creation of a nation out of Avraham, was to have become a reality in ארץ ישראל.
There, Israel would live apart from the nations. Not only would Israel be
blessed, but blessing would spring from Israel; Israel would become a source of
blessing וַיִּשְׁכֹּן֩ יִשְׂרָאֵ֨ל בֶּ֤טַח בָּדָד֙ עֵ֣ין יַֽעֲקֹ֔ב (Devarim
33:28). Had we been worthy, all the promises to us that are to be fulfilled at
the end of the days, would have been fulfilled thousands of years ago, and the
whole course of human history would have been radically different.<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #242200;">It appears, though, that this first promise to
Avraham (vv. 1-3) alludes to a third stage. We have already noted that the form
וַאֲגַדְּלָ֖ה is expressive of a wish; for the realization of the second stage
does not depend on God alone. Verse 3 appears to allude to a third stage in
which Avraham's people - its blessing or curse are dependent on man, a stage in
which man has the power to bless them or to curse them. This is the stage of </span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="color: #242200; mso-bidi-language: HE;">גלות</span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="color: #242200;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span> which was decreed to befall this people if they would forget
their mission and seek - like the other nations </span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="color: #242200; mso-bidi-language: HE;">להיות ברוכים</span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="HE" style="color: #242200;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span> </span><span style="color: #242200;">instead of </span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="color: #242200; mso-bidi-language: HE;">להיות ברכה</span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="color: #242200;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #242200;">In the stage of </span><span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="color: #242200; mso-bidi-language: HE;">גלות</span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="HE" style="color: #242200;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span> </span><span style="color: #242200;">the people of Israel are
subject to the nations and dependent on them, for blessing or curse. Of this
stage Avraham is told: וַאֲבָֽרְכָה֙ מְבָ֣רְכֶ֔יךָ. That is to say, those who
bless you and help you, who value your principles and submit to the service of
your God I those will I bless. “<span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></b></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #990000;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span>“Yet
another truth was revealed here to Avraham. He came face to face with a reality
that concerned his people in particular. In the land promised to him as the
future homeland of his people, the first trial he faced was famine, and the
second was war! The land does not, by its very nature, provide material
prosperity and political independence. In both these respects, the land of
Israel is the antithesis of Egypt. The land is dependent on heaven for its
fertility, and its political position is one of dependence; it cannot offer
resistance to a foreign invader. In and of itself, the land of Israel is prone
to famine and political dependence. Since it is situated at the crossroads
where Europe, Asia and Africa meet, all the major wars that have shaken the world
have inflicted severe damage upon it.</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">But precisely for this reason it was chosen.
Had Israel built a holy life on this land, no foe would have dared to approach
its borders. Three times each year the borders of the land would have been left
undefended and vulnerable, yet no one would have covetingly touched the land
(see Shemos 34:24). All the countries of the world would have fought one another
and passed near Israel's land, but no sword would have entered this most
prosperous yet most defenseless of lands</span> <span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">וְנָתַתִּ֤י שָׁלוֹם֙ בָּאָ֔רֶץ וּשְׁכַבְתֶּ֖ם וְאֵ֣ין
מַחֲרִ֑יד וְהִשְׁבַּתִּ֞י חַיָּ֤ה רָעָה֙ מִן־הָאָ֔רֶץ וְחֶ֖רֶב לֹא־תַעֲבֹ֥ר
בְּאַרְצְכֶֽם׃<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">(Vayikra
26:6). Then all the nations of the world would have seen with their own eyes:
"God is there!" God is the stronghold of Zion; His</span> deliverance
stands in place of wall and bulwark <span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none; mso-themecolor: text1;">אֱלֹהִ֥ים
בְּאַרְמְנוֹתֶ֗יהָ נוֹדַ֥ע לְמִשְׂגָּֽב׃</span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> (Tehillim 48:4) </span><span style="color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none; mso-themecolor: text1;">יְשׁוּעָ֥ה
יָשִׁ֖ית חוֹמ֥וֹת וָחֵֽל׃</span><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"> (Yeshayahu 26:1). All the prophets' promises
for the future would have been fulfilled thousands of years </span>ago; Zion
would have shone forth as a light unto the nations, and the peoples would have
said: "Let us go with you, for we have seen that God is with you"
(Zecharyah 8:23).”</span></b><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-9473890585786579812023-06-02T18:18:00.002-04:002023-06-02T18:29:30.212-04:00Scientific Method<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>B-H<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":sr"><div aria-controls=":vg" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":vg" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":sn" itacorner="6,7:1,1,0,0" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 405px;" tabindex="1"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>What is the scientific method?</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>On a daily basis we are flooded with media statements about
what “scientists think about …well, basically everything and anything.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>The impression is given that if scientists say so, it is
undeniable truth.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>We have tests of it in years of Covid and day by day this statement
of mine is less and less controversial.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I mean most of us, until a certain point believed that explanations
given to us by certain groups and individuals were final and even questioning
them was backward and certainly unscientific.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>But I don’t want to talk about Covid. Maybe sometime in the
future.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>What I want to talk about is the perception of science and
science itself.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Of course, this is my and only my view…unless someone wants
to share it.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Let’s start with a basic definition.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I will quote from Wikipedia only at the beginning of the article,
but everyone is welcome to visit and read the rest of it.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>“<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">The scientific method is
an </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empirical_evidence" style="color: blue;" title="Empirical evidence"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">empirical</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> method
for acquiring </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge" style="color: blue;" title="Knowledge"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">knowledge</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> that has characterized the
development of </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science" style="color: blue;" title="Science"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">science</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> since at least the 17th century
(with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method" style="color: blue;" title="History of scientific method"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">history of scientific method</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> for additional detail.) It
involves careful </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observation" style="color: blue;" title="Observation"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">observation</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">, applying rigorous </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skepticism" style="color: blue;" title="Skepticism"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">skepticism</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> about what is observed, given
that </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_science#Observation_inseparable_from_theory" style="color: blue;" title="Philosophy of science"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">cognitive assumptions</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> can distort how one interprets the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception#Process_and_terminology" style="color: blue;" title="Perception"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">observation</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">. It involves formulating </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothesis" style="color: blue;" title="Hypothesis"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">hypotheses</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">, via </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductive_reasoning" style="color: blue;" title="Inductive reasoning"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">induction</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">,
based on such observations; the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testability" style="color: blue;" title="Testability"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">testability</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> of hypotheses, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiment" style="color: blue;" title="Experiment"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">experimental</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> and the measurement-based
statistical testing of </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_reasoning" style="color: blue;" title="Deductive reasoning"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">deductions</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> drawn
from the hypotheses; and refinement (or elimination) of the hypotheses based on
the experimental findings. These are <i>principles</i> of the
scientific method, as distinguished from a definitive series of steps
applicable to all scientific enterprises.”</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Love this definition. Especially the
part where it says that our “cognitive assumption can distort how one
interprets the observation”.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>But what if many and not one is under
the spell of cognitive assumption? What if bias is a fundamental byproduct of the
world view, and any seemingly contradictory idea is not allowed to penetrate
the mind presuming itself as independent and unbiased?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>What if scientific observation cannot be
objectively interpreted?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>What if the peer review system is
compromised and those who participate share the world view skewing cognitive
powers into cognitive assumptions?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>What if people engaged in research, livelihood
depend on conforming into narrative?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>What if narrative is a self-serving tool to
maintain conscience dormant?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>What if “science” becomes a “beautiful
idea of design without Desinger”?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>I will not answer those questions one by
one, but instead will present a few examples where Proven scientific observation
contradicts so called scientific hypothesis. No number of people or peer review
can convince me about something which is proven by using scientific method as
impossible.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Let’s start with the entropy.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">A</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">gain, beginning of the
article from Wikipedia:</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">“Entropy is a </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science" style="color: blue;" title="Science"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">scientific</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> concept, <u>as well as a measurable physical property</u>, that is
most commonly associated with a state of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty.
The term and the concept are used in diverse fields, from </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_thermodynamics" style="color: blue;" title="Classical thermodynamics"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">classical
thermodynamics</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">, where it was first recognized, to the
microscopic description of nature in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_physics" style="color: blue;" title="Statistical physics"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">statistical
physics</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">, and to the principles of </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_theory" style="color: blue;" title="Information theory"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">information
theory</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">. It has found far-ranging applications in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemistry" style="color: blue;" title="Chemistry"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">chemistry</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> and </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics" style="color: blue;" title="Physics"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">physics</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">, in biological systems and their relation to life, in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmology" style="color: blue;" title="Cosmology"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">cosmology</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">, economics, sociology, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_science" style="color: blue;" title="Atmospheric science"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">weather
science</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change" style="color: blue;" title="Climate change"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">climate change</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">, and </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_system" style="color: blue;" title="Information system"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">information
systems</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"> including the transmission of information in
telecommunication.”</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Everything made out of matter falls apart. From biological
forms to single atoms becoming overtime sub-particles of energy. </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>That is in closed as well as in open systems.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>The only scenario where matter becomes more complex is the
process of life and due to the life process.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Once the force of life departs from the organism, entropy begins.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Over time, what was once a living organism becomes simple matter
and ultimately energy.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>I will not shlep you true equations and mathematics, it is
not my level.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>There are plenty of mathematicians and physicists explaining
the issue. Some of them are capable of doing it for the layman as me, where it could
be understood and paralleled with empirical observation.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Entropy is what we observe in life, this is what we observe
in the laboratory.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Yet, in the galaxy far far away, we are told, something
opposite is happening.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Cosmic dust forms the celestial bodies. Molecules spontaneously
congregate to form planets, stars and galaxies.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>This is how the world has become.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Can it be observed?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Well, certainly we observe that the world exists. Therefore,
if it doesn’t exist in its form forever as it is believed for the last few decades
again, there must be force in the universe causing the simple to become
complex.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>What we observe is only the opposite process. That’s right,
that’s where the leap of faith is coming into play.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>We observe ‘complex’ falling into ‘simple’, yet we are told
to accept the idea that somehow ‘simple’ becomes ‘complex’ by a spontaneous
process of unknown source and laws.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Convenient. As long as we can say that design designed itself
without Designer.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Any other suggestion is a tabu. </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Isn’t tabu a religious term though?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Another example:</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">“Pasteur was responsible for <u>disproving the doctrine
of </u></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_generation" style="color: blue;" title="Spontaneous generation"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">spontaneous generation</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">. Under the auspices of the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Academy_of_Sciences" style="color: blue;" title="French Academy of Sciences"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration-line: none;">French
Academy of Sciences</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;">, his experiment demonstrated that in
sterilized and sealed flasks, nothing ever developed; conversely, in sterilized
but open flasks, microorganisms could grow.”(Wikipedia)</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>In other words – abiogenesis is impossible.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Louis Pasteur – Great mind, great scientist, great in saving
lives of millions of people using vaccines and medical inventions without which
people were dying in young age from multiple diseases.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>It was him who discovered methods to save those lives. It
happened by using scientific methods.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>One of his great achievements was proving behind any shadow
of doubt, that life doesn’t generate spontaneously from inorganic matter.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>No peer review is needed for this, by now, axiom. Done. No one
with a healthy mind would deny this truth. Not because it is a matter of opinion
or belief but precisely it is a proven fact of nature.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Yet it is told to us that in our close galaxy, in fact on our
planet, life began precisely in the way disproved by Pasteur’s experiments and
science since.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Again, science shows one thing, but “scientific hypothesis”
tells us something opposite.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>And now a story from my favored anti Darwinian mathematician – David
Berlinski. But before the story I will quote from another book – “The Origin of
Speeches” by Isaac E. Mozeson:</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>“Any studies considered anti-Darwinian will guarantee no
tenure or employment according to the strict code of Academic Freedom.”</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>To learn more about “academic freedom” please google “David
Berlinski”.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Now the promised story by David Berlinski – from “The Deniable
Darwin”</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>“Postscript: On the Derivation of Ulysses from Don Quixote
IMAGINE THIS STORY BEING told to me by Jorge Luis Borges one evening in a
Buenos Aires cafe. His voice dry and infinitely ironic, the aging, nearly blind
literary master observes that "the Ulysses," mistakenly attributed to
the Irish-man James Joyce, is in fact derived from "the Quixote." I
raise my eyebrows. Borges pauses to sip discreetly at the bitter coffee our
waiter has placed in front of him, guiding his hands to the saucer. "The
details of the remarkable series of events in question may be found at the
University of Leiden," he says. "They were conveyed to me by the
Freemason Alejandro Ferri in Montevideo." Borges wipes his thin lips with
a linen handkerchief that he has withdrawn from his breast pocket. "Asyou
know," he continues, "the original handwritten text of the Quixote
was given to an order of French Cistercians in the autumn of 1576." I hold
up my hand to signify to our waiter that no further service is needed.
"Curiously enough, for none of the brothers could read Spanish, the Order was
charged by the Papal Nuncio, Ho yo dos Monterrey (a man of great refinement and
implacable will), with the responsibility for copying the Quixote, the printing
press having then gained no currency in the wilderness of what is now known as
the department of Auvergne. Un-able to speak or read Spanish, a language they
not unreasonably detested, the brothers copied the Quixote over and over again,
re-creating the text hut, of course, compromising it as well, and so
inadvertently discovering the true nature of authorship. Thus they created
Fernando Lor's Los Hombres d'Estado in 1585 by means of a singular series of
copying errors, and then in 1654 Juan Luis Samorza's remarkable epistolary
novel Po;- Favor by the same means, and then in 1685, the errors having
accumulated sufficiently to change Spanish into French, Moliere's Le Bourgeois
Gentilhomme, their copying continuous and indefatigable, the work handed down
from generation to generation as a sacred but secret trust, so that in time the
brothers of the monastery, known only to members of the Bourbon house and,
rumor has it, the Englishman and psychic Conan Doyle, copied into creation
Stendhal's The Red and the Black and Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and then as a
result of a particularly significant series of errors, in which French changed
into Russian, Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Anna Karenina. Late in the
last decade of the nineteenth century there suddenly emerged, in English, Oscar
Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, and then the brothers, their numbers
reduced by an infectious disease of mysterious origin, finally copied the
Ulysses into creation in 1902, the manuscript lying neglected for almost
thirteen years and then mysteriously making its way to Paris in 1915, just
months before the British attack on the Somme, a circumstance whose
significance remains to be determined." I sit there, amazed at what Borges
has recounted. "Is it your under-standing, then," I ask, "that
every novel in the West was created in this way?" "Of course,"
replies Borges imperturbably. Then he adds: "Although every novel is
derived directly from another novel, there is really only one novel, the
Quixote."</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>I love this story written by a mathematician and told by a
famous writer. </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>No one would believe it is true. No scientific method needed
or used. Just plain observation and simple analysis. We KNOW that this story
CAN NOT be true.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Yet, mathematically speaking, the DNA of Ameba is millions of
times more complex than all of those wonderful works of literature, but we are
being told that DNA code wrote itself and by serious of mistakes in process of
slow transformation become Darwin and his believers.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>O woe to me, man of no faith!</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>I just can’t.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Is not that I need a Designer in the equation of life. Life
is screaming His Name and His love!</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b> </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Now we will talk a little bit about history.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Unlike Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and even Biology, History
is as my wife calls it more research than science.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Indeed, the only conclusions based on partial observation
which History is, cannot be treated the same way as science per se. </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Jewish people are observers of history, preservers of history and significant actors of history.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Our sages received and developed tools of strict preservation
of what they received from previous generations. They admit that some of the content
was lost in the turbulence of the Jewish history, but this is precisely why in
many crucial moments of this history, the Law and its context i.e. history, was
preserved in the written form.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Jews used the alphabet earlier than any other nation in the world.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>But this again is not what is being said by people who dress themselves
in the attires of science.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Comes Gretz and Wellhausen, and with desiring eyes and
thirsty ears they are welcomed with every idiocy printed with their names
undersigned.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>And then, they have thousands of imitators and followers.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Needless to say, most of them possess limited skills in
Hebrew language and methodology.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Not to mention ideological bias. </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Bias. Why does it all come to bias?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Why in all those subjects there is seemingly one underlying
ideology?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Why it seems to be that big part of what is considered to be
a science which undeniably enriched humanity as Pasteur himself is responsible
for saving and extending lives of millions if not billions of people; why so
many scientists spending so much time trying to disprove Jewish history and
worldview, or at least weaken it or compromise?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Who decided and when and why, that science must be atheistic?
</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Like acceptance of the idea of Creation by the Creator would make
penicillin or smartphone impossible to be invented.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Science and scientific method were not atheistic from its beginnings
in 17<sup>th</sup> century, it became so only in the second half of 18 century.
This historical fact alone shows that exclusion of Creation from “science” has
nothing to do with Science. It was ideological bias rather which caused the ongoing
war of “science” against Creation.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>But why?</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>I think I found the answer.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>I think it is quite obvious, if you are honest to your heart.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>And no, I will not conclude this essay with my own conviction
which anyhow may be apparent.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>I will leave by giving you freedom of your own analysis.</b></span></p></div></div>Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-5442622508299277532023-06-02T11:47:00.004-04:002023-06-02T18:45:43.723-04:00Jews in Ghetto<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKsRdUHEKjvbAGUciZvw6T4vXmj9Tx5Iaelhafb-M7dAZhu_u2OlBKtTNsmbt6QgQFL8OOixUcH9fFu9C4FLRGKd3z4pNKmBmCTkaBfqmsOEWgEHoMqU8v7WmbEPpnkq5EtxrKHONz9K84zXc_yi7BcwJOvZoyKLLn47MXKe12FUYkN_IxKjzUgWoclg/s840/Angels.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="840" height="373" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKsRdUHEKjvbAGUciZvw6T4vXmj9Tx5Iaelhafb-M7dAZhu_u2OlBKtTNsmbt6QgQFL8OOixUcH9fFu9C4FLRGKd3z4pNKmBmCTkaBfqmsOEWgEHoMqU8v7WmbEPpnkq5EtxrKHONz9K84zXc_yi7BcwJOvZoyKLLn47MXKe12FUYkN_IxKjzUgWoclg/w514-h373/Angels.jpeg" width="514" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"> <b> </b><b>B-H<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<div class="Ar Au Ao" id=":sr"><div aria-controls=":vg" aria-label="Message Body" aria-multiline="true" aria-owns=":vg" class="Am Al editable LW-avf tS-tW tS-tY" g_editable="true" hidefocus="true" id=":sn" itacorner="6,7:1,1,0,0" role="textbox" spellcheck="false" style="direction: ltr; min-height: 405px;" tabindex="1"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>A few days ago, on May 16 this year or 25<sup>th</sup> of
Iyar, or 40<sup>th</sup> day of Sfira count, I turned 57. My Hebrew birthday
was just a day after my astronomical, i.e. when earth was more or less in the
same position on its orbit around the sun when on the day when I was born.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>While I was scrolling down the Polish newspaper as I usually
do to acquire information possibly from many sources and perspectives, I saw an article commemorating the last day of the Warsaw Ghetto.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>There were few pictures from the infamous chronicle of Jurgen
Stroop, nazi officer responsible for Ghetto liquidation, as well as a reminder of
basic facts about Ghetto itself and uprising by remaining inhabitants of the Ghetto.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Most of the pictures are known, not to say iconic in historiography
of the Holocaust and WWII.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Including a picture which I saw many times before, a group of
Hassidic Jews standing in the front of the nazi soldiers.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I saw this picture in the books, in press articles and film
documentaries, what I didn’t know, or I didn't comprehend was the fact that this
picture was made on, or just before May 16 1943.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>It struck my entire being. Thoughts about these Yiden were
holding on to me longer than day, almost obsessive thoughts.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Hasisdic Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto at the very time of its
last days. When the entire population of the initial almost half million Jews congregated
or rather gripped in a small part of the city of Warszawa, was gone. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Three hundred thousand of them trough gas chambers and body
burning stoves and pits of Treblinka death camp. One of the major branches of
nazi death industrial complex.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I think I described my discovery of Holocaust in my book, but
since it is unavailable, I will shortly describe it now.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Growing up in seventies Poland was a childhood bliss.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>We were not taught or told about the large Jewish population
sharing the same land for over a thousand years, probably from the time before
Poland joined Europe by accepting Christianity as any official religion in
year 966. I was born exactly 1000 years later.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>For some half of this time Jews constituted 8 to 10% of the entire Polish population.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Considering that 70 or 75 percent of this population were serfs
or de facto slaves, 10 was rather significant. Significant economically and
culturally.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>We didn’t learn those facts in history or any other lessons.
We didn’t know about it at all, not my generation.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>WWII was a fresh and traumatic memory for the nation. Almost
every family lost someone in the war, or somebody was wounded or enslaved by
nazis.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>In my personal case, my maternal grandfather was shot in the
chest, but the bullet stuck in the thick ID booklet in the pocket. He was
showing us the picture of mother Mary which he was carrying in this booklet,
with some confused message since he was a believing member of communist party
and self-declared atheist.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>My paternal grandfather was killed with his two brothers in the Mauthausen
concentration camp.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>We didn’t know that there was a specific group of people
living with us, which experienced the opposite statistic. If one of the members
of the family survived the War, it would have been a phenomenon.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>If there were more than one member or even siblings or married
couple, it was a miracle.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I was 19 years old when I learned about Holocaust. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>For a few years I was already a student of the Bible, at the
same age I also became a member of the council of my religious denomination, the youngest
clergyman in the country.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>At the time I knew already that the nation of the Bible was
sharing the land with a population considering itself indigenous, Slavic Polls. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I didn’t know how this coexistence ended.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>In 1985, French filmmaker Claude Lanzman made a documentary
“Shoah”.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>His final version was 9 hours long.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Polish state TV disclosed two hours of experts from the film in
order to show that the film is anti-Polish for in hours of interviews with survivors,
perpetrators, collaborators and heroes, there were some parts of the
documentary indicating collaboration of some Polish individuals or groups with
German nazis.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>The Polish nation is still struggling with this topic, and I
will not digress there in this essay.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>The whole 9 hours of the film was shown in a few bigger
cities for the journalists with clear intention. Since they were not
independent journalists publishing in Poland in the papers of
political underground, it was expected from them that after seeing the full
documentary they would uphold the narrative of hate towards the Polish nation. Hate
generated by Jewish influence groups.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I got the ticket and went to see it myself. I was obviously
not a journalist, and I don’t remember what trick I used to get this ticket.
But after three days of projection in the journalist club, me and then my fiancé,
we were only teenagers in the country which got awareness of horrors which
happened on this land, horrors unprecedented in the history of the planet.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>People smarter and more eloquent than me already wrote why
this particular event spikes out from all the bloodshed, killing, suffering and
tears of millions of people, annihilated by other creatures seemingly looking
like themselves.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Never before, a nation which was at the time the most advanced
scientifically, culturally, philosophically, theologically, decided and executed the idea of building a death industry with its accounting, transportation,
laboratories and killing devices. Never before human ingenuity was used so
efficiently in the process of killing other people.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Most of them Jewish.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>For thousands of years being a Jew was a submission to the
word of Torah, to the Sinaitic revelation.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>The level of observance was different in different times and
in different groups of Jews.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>But some two hundred years ago, a new ideology began to
dominate the thought of European intelligentsia, the ideology of “nation”.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>It may be a noble idea to be connected by genes, language
and common land perhaps. But this is not what makes our people a nation.
If we think that what connects us is blood, culture and perhaps land, it comes
up on us the way we think.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Yes, I know, I digressed…</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>It was a “Shoah” documentary which opened the topic of the
Jews in Poland.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>For another few years Poland was under communist regime and
censorship, but the conversation became more public.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>In the few following years Jews were rediscovered as a part of Polish history, and it was not a negative rediscovery.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>The younger generation of Polls was more ready to accept
part of the guilt of sometimes open collaboration of some people but more often
unthreatened inaction of the vast majority. When I was already living in the US,
nationalist movement reemerged in some mild and sometimes even extreme forms. Curiously
allying itself with the Israeli government and Zionist ideology.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>But back then, in the second half of 80thies some books on Jewish
topics were printed.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Holocaust was definitely not the issue which directed me
towards my few years later decision to become a Jew.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>That process began way earlier, and my sole desire was to
connect to Supreme One. Relationship by means as it was described and expressed
in His Revelation.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>But discovering the fact and the magnitude of the Holocaust,
especially the fact that it happened in the land of my youth and ancestry,
could not be ignored by any intellectually curious and sensitive person.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I read everything on the topic. I read everything on the
topic of the Warsaw Ghetto. Warsaw was not my city, but I was familiar with her.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I think the first book on the Ghetto topic was the diary of Henryk
Makower, doctor of the Ghetto Jewish Police. After that, every memoir, diary,
interview and finally the chronicle of the Ghetto by Jurgen Stroop. The last
one was without the pictures or if there were pictures, I don’t remember them.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Most of the material was written by non-practicing Jews including
Marek Edelman, one of the leaders of the Ghetto uprising still living in Poland until
his death in 2009.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I studied the maps and timelines. Got all what was available
but only a small part of that reality of the Ghetto as it is impossible to
grasp the horror of what happened there.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Then came the Ghetto picture album. One picture says more
than a thousand words. And there were hundreds of pictures. Many of them made by
Nazis themselves, many of them part of antisemitic propaganda shown to German
and other populations to justify ghetto enclosures.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>The walls always need justification, bridges are self-explanatory.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>It was clear to me, it was clear to many professional
historians and sociologists, Nazis have a plan and that plan was based on
social philosophy – We are all animals – Jews too.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>The Jewish claim of an angelic, spiritual component of human
beings must be proven wrong.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Jewish claim of communication from and with the Supreme must be
shattered.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Darwin provided the initial tools to eliminate the idea of the Supreme
Creator and Designer.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>From the very beginning it was openly declared that Darwin provided
humanity with “beautiful idea of design without the Designer”.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Existence of the Jews was the last obstacle on the path of achieving
the route to freedom without guilt and moral obligation. As it is written in “Main
Kampf”, Jews caused two scars on humanity – One on the male organ, indicating
moral purity, and one in the form of conscience – where underprivileged, week,
pure and sick must be helped and not eliminated from existence or at least from
the view.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Nazi propaganda was trying to prove just that. We are just a higher form of randomly developed animals, the fittest or stronger prevails and
dominates, ultimately eliminating the week. This is the law of nature, and
elimination of the parasitic element is the only right thing to do. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Jews are not only animals like us but to prove that we are
the supreme race, it is necessary to eliminate them and their ideology from the conscience of mankind.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Numerous propaganda films were made in order to prove nazi
ideology right, and Jews deserving their end. One of them was shut in May of
1942. Just two months after the Van Zee conference where nazi establishment decided
about Endlosung – the final solution – killing all the Jews. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>The Nazi filmmakers came to the Warsaw Ghetto to document the
inhumanity of its inhabitants.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I will not go into many details of the film, but the movie was
showing people in the Ghetto as immoral and animalistic in their behavior. Some of
the takes were staged and some were documenting moral degradation which
actually happened within the walls of Ghetto.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>If you deny humans breathing, in order to survive that human
will do or say anything to gasp some air. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>You can rename that torture and call it “enhanced
interrogation technique” but it doesn’t change the fact that denying basic
instinct of breathing makes person act against rational part of human nature.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Nazis used our second instinct of life, our need for food.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Using a cruel method of denying food for the Ghetto population,
they were able to stage horrible scenes for their propaganda film which in
any other time Jews would rather deny themselves life than succumb to behavior
opposing thousands of years shaped conscience.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Nazis succeeded, or that’s what they thought so.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Other inhabitants of Ghetto were justifying their fall for
witnessing horrors of daily survival and death there. Ghetto can indeed undermine
if not totally destroy the awareness of being a human or a Jew.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Film was made in May when Gas chambers were already under
construction in Treblinka and other places. The transports from Ghetto began on
Tisha beAv, 22 July of 1942.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Through the summer some three hundred thousand of Jews were transported
to Treblinka.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Adolf Eichmann Y-SH, was responsible for the logistics of
transportations. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>In their vicious perfidy, Nazis seceded the task of organizing
the quotas of people by the Judenrat, Ghetto government. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>The Head of the Judenrat, Adam Czerniakow, swallowed a cyanide
pill upon learning what was required from him.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>His successor was already more collaborative.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>In the very first wave of transports, all the “unproductive “element
of society were sent to gas chambers. All the sick, week, old, to young to work
and what we call “kley Koidesh”</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Members of the Yeshivos, faculty and students, rabbis, true
leaders of the nation and their wives and children.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>If any of them was able to prove that he could be productive
or have usable skill, survived a little bit longer, as long as the Third Reich
needed him.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>A handful of them didn’t register with Judenrat and consequently
did not receive food rations.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>It was calculated by the Ghetto organizers that food ration
was not sufficient for survival, without them the unregistered Jew was entering the realm of impossibility, in some cases for a few years.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>By the beginning of Fall of 1942, officially 35000 Jews were
still in the Ghetto. They were slave workers of the “shops” manufacturing for
the Nazi military.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>However, there are estimates that an additional 20 to 25
thousand of Jews were “illegals” in the Ghetto.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>They survived another Winter and a few months of Spring.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I’m familiar with the “smuggling economy” during the time when the Ghetto was still inhabited by most of the prisoners. But organizing food for
those “illegal’ Jews, when the Ghetto was limited in its territory and almost empty,
was nothing less than superhuman effort in order to provide, to share the food
with them.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>On April 19, the first day of Passover, the Ghetto Uprising
began.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I will not analyze or share my thoughts on the fact of the
uprising itself as it is out of the scope of what I want to point out in this essay.
</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>I started this writing with the picture, and I will end with
the picture.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>The same group of the holy Tzadikim, nothing less than Maluchim
- angels in human form, showing once more to the forces of evil, that those
forces can never uproot the Toira from the people of Toira.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Those who for years hid, preserved who they were in conditions
of hell.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Those who at the risk of their own lives, provided those
Talmidei Chachamim with sustenance.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>There are dark places in human history, there are dark
times.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>It disturbs my being every time when I think about those
places and times.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>So much evil…</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>But the Warsaw Ghetto in a sense is the darkest of them.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, Chelmno…these places as
Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, Armenia, Cambodia, Ruanda…the list is endless; those places
and times signifies physical murder of humans by other humans.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Ghetto, its dehumanization and demoralization signify
something else.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>It was attempted to uproot Divine from the human, to reduce
angelic Potential to physics or chemistry, surely to biology of what the perpetrators
imagined of what human is.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>The Nazis in the picture see angels and they are not bowing.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><b>Perhaps it requires first to be at least a human to
recognize Divine.</b></p></div></div><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNW2Mzih511VjWLZU2epX_Iz9vJFzG8laRtxNZWPxwUdumEX5SGWiDaf7wE3nPPrwSv9kdOdz7sqfu9mpChyrWlfIZmccbIGqGnUNqPh7qCkF9x3yskyEtcACw1sAwblg9w3D8ZHqb2HKrdHlZuzknbnzKcQUcYxYHVL6hsHIaWedTd--iaeXu5fUSg/s1800/Maluchim.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1170" data-original-width="1800" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNW2Mzih511VjWLZU2epX_Iz9vJFzG8laRtxNZWPxwUdumEX5SGWiDaf7wE3nPPrwSv9kdOdz7sqfu9mpChyrWlfIZmccbIGqGnUNqPh7qCkF9x3yskyEtcACw1sAwblg9w3D8ZHqb2HKrdHlZuzknbnzKcQUcYxYHVL6hsHIaWedTd--iaeXu5fUSg/w510-h330/Maluchim.jpeg" width="510" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #333333;">Religious Jews captured by the SS during the Warsaw ghetto
uprising. The original German caption reads: "Jewish rabbis."</span><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="color: #333333;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />
<span style="background: white;">From left to right are Rabbi Lipa Kaplan, Eliyahu
Levin (son of Rabbi Hersh Henoch of Bedzin), Mendel Alter (son of Rabbi
Nechemya Alter); Yankel Levin (son of Rabbi Mottel Levin of Lodz and grandson
of the rabbi of Bedzin), unknown and Rabbi Heschel Rappaport, a Gerer Chassid
and mentor to young Chassidim.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial Narrow",sans-serif" style="color: #4a4a4a; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Photo Credit<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.5in;"><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration,
College Park<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://jewishaction.com/holocaust/the-warsaw-ghetto-an-eyewitness-account/">https://jewishaction.com/holocaust/the-warsaw-ghetto-an-eyewitness-account/</a><o:p></o:p></p><p><br /></p>Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-38623920099003995172022-09-08T00:08:00.005-04:002022-09-08T00:11:33.094-04:00Gorbatchev<p><b> B-H</b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Mikhail
Gorbachev has many </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">zchusim</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> but there is one more which can be added to the
list. If not for my desire to write </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">chesped</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> for him my above essays
would still sit in the folder of my computer.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Last time, I
think, I wrote <i>chespaidim</i> on political figures, for Vaclav Havel and Kim
Ir Sen who departed on the same week.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>I have no
illusions; I don’t think there is anybody these days waiting for my essays or
being curious what Matys Weiser thinks about events. It was maybe the case 10
or so years ago when I was really active, and not only on this blog. Today I
still write occasionally but many times it ages unread in the folders of my
computer for months or years. <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>So now I have
this strong impulse to deal with a significant period of my life due to the passing
of the ex-leader of the Soviet Union, once I opened my blog, there are some
more material to be published. And I think those essays are much more important
than one which I’m going to share now. Enjoy.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>I grew up in
communist Poland in 70’s and 80’s.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>The world at
first was pretty stagnant around me for the first 10 years of my life. Or
rather at the age of 4, I was not aware of political events taking place in the
Polish dockyards. 41 people were killed, over 1,000 injured in strikes against
the government. The Polish government of Party Leader Gomulka collapsed as the
result of riots and strikes. 10 years under the First Secretary of Polish United
Labor Party (Communists) Edward Gierek began.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>I have said many
times in my writings that my political awareness awaked in 1976, when I was 10
years old. Another wave of social unrest took place in Poland. I was old enough
to understand that the ruling party may be united but not to the benefit of the
exploited working class. Just the opposite: Communist elites installed
themselves as the owners of means of production, running basically what Prof.
Noam Chomsky calls “State Capitalism”.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Then in 1980
Gierek’s government was changed in an unprecedented wave of strikes and as a result
of the formation of an independent workers union “Solidarnosc” or Solidarity.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>18 months
later the Polish army was deployed on Polish streets. A State of War was
declared by Communists in Poland against its own population. A year and half,
when for the first time in generations people could breathe freedom, was ending
with the tanks on the streets of the cities and forcibly entering factories on
strike.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>The Solidarity
opposition was arrested, or a few managed to go to hiding, some of them for
years.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>I was 15
then but had my share in participating and even organizing some small-scale
protests.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Then my
spiritual evolution began and few years later my participation in politics
ended and interest in it dwindled. <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>One thing
was constant during all those years of my growth – Leonid Brezhnev in the Kremlin.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>It is
impossible for someone growing up in that part of Europe under Soviet influence
not to remember his bushy eyebrows, slower and slower speeches and multiple microphones
which we firmly believed were serving him with oxygen as he barely stood at the
podium towards his older years. Of course, his age and deteriorating health
were topic of an endless number of jokes, as humor is the strongest defensive
weapon for a conquered or controlled population.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>He passed
away or was murdered at the order of the head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, who replaced
him as the head of the country. It didn’t change much for the rest of inhabitants
of 12 time zones from Vladivostok to the Laba River. Andropov was old himself
and by taking the position of the leader of the Communist party he preserved
the system for another few years between himself and the Stalinist Konstantin Chernenko.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>When Chernenko
passed away in 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev was chosen as the head of the Communist
party in the Soviet Union and as such the de facto head of the country. <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>He was
considered to be a reformist within the Soviet Communist party, but at the time,
no one, not even Gorbachev himself, dreamed that reforms would permanently end
the Soviet system in just few years.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>Because this
is what happened just a little bit over a year after beginning of Gorbachev’s
tenure:<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>At 21:02 the evening of 28 April, a 20-second announcement
was read in the TV news program <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vremya" title="Vremya"><span style="color: #0645ad;">Vremya</span></a></i>: "There has been an accident
at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. One of the nuclear reactors was damaged.
The effects of the accident are being remedied. Assistance has been provided
for any affected people. An investigative commission has been set up.”<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>At the time, I was serving a 2-year term as a janitor in the
military hospital due to the my refusal to be drafted into the army. Working in
the pediatric clinic I was preparing a mixture of berry juice and iodine to
prevent the possible development of cancer as our territory was also affected
by the nuclear cloud. <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>I don’t know what Tversky’s did here or in heaven if anything,
but cracks had opened in one of the most restrictive empires in the history of the
mankind, cracks which began to crumble in Polish stockyard but were patched by
brute force in 1981 and 82 with the tanks on the streets., Those patches could
not survive the nuclear explosion in the town of Chernobyl.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Communists were still trying to hide the real size of the catastrophe
but soon the era of <i>Glasnost</i>, openness, began as the reformist Gorbachev
understood that not this and not anything after the Chernobyl fallout could be hidden
anymore.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Perestroika</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">, reconstruction, was another Russian word heard in the
background of the events of Chernobyl.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>What supposed to be little more than cosmetic changes in the
Soviet system, because of Chernobyl, <i>Glasnost</i>, and another wave of
strikes in Poland, Gorbachev initiated what ended in total collapse of the
Soviet Union and Soviet system.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>In spring of 1988 workers in Poland strike again. They issued
their usual call for social democratic changes with an additional demand to release
the opposition members from jail. <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>In early summer, Polish Communists reached out to some
opposition leaders in the country through the mediation of the Catholic Church,
<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>In the fall of the same year, the Round Table was convened
and negotiations ended in early spring of the following year with a partial
return to Democracy and a free market economy.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>This time neither the Polish Opposition nor the Polish Communists
were afraid of “brotherly” intervention from “beloved” nation in the East.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>On 4<sup>th</sup> of June 1989 the first partially free
election took place in the Communist block with the result of filling all
allowed spots in Polish parliament by the members of Solidarity movement. <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Communists understood that they had no legitimacy
representing the population not only of Poland but of other countries of the
Soviet bloc, including the Soviet Union itself.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Gorbachev, who from reforms turned to supervisor of the dismantling
an empire guilty of the taking of tens of millions of human lives.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>The day of the Polish election was also the day when the Communist
party of China decided to smash protesters in Tiananmen square, many of them
burned alive with flame throwers.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Would Gorbachev choose the Chinese path of defending the system?
<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>In the past Communist regimes didn’t hesitate to invade countries
or even carpet bomb their own villages for refusing to give up their land to the
Communists. The starvation of millions of Ukrainians was within the pattern of
their understanding of the Marxist “dictature of the Proletariat”.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>But he didn’t. <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>He managed to release country by country and republic by
republic to take their own path for the future.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>And it wasn’t only because of the weakness of the crumbling
economy. Empires in such situations are worse, more dangerous for their
populations than those disassembling in a peaceful manner. In fact, I can’t
really recall any instance of an Empire being dismantled without the cost of
significant loss of population in civil wars, independence wars or the collapse
of the administration.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Living as young man under the Communist system, as all
citizens of my country, we didn’t expect the system to end in our lifetime, much
less almost without the spill of human blood in “Communist proportions”.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>But it ended.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Mikhail Gorbachev is hated by many Russians. We are
witnessing an attempt to restore at least partially the Russian empire. But for
all the nations previously conquered and controlled by the Tzar or the First
Secretary of the Party, Gorbachev will remain a hero.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>Hashem should bring more rulers as him in the
path to complete <i>Geula</i> leading to the days of <i>Mashiych Tzidkayni</i>.</b></span>Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-45965603128640695492022-09-08T00:05:00.001-04:002022-09-08T00:05:24.560-04:00Do not kill.<p> <b> B-H</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Do not kill.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="he"><span style="mso-bidi-language: HE;"><b>וְאַ֨ךְ אֶת־דִּמְכֶ֤ם
לְנַפְשֹֽׁתֵיכֶם֙ אֶדְרֹ֔שׁ מִיַּ֥ד כָּל־חַיָּ֖ה אֶדְרְשֶׁ֑נּוּ וּמִיַּ֣ד
הָֽאָדָ֗ם מִיַּד֙ אִ֣ישׁ אָחִ֔יו אֶדְרֹ֖שׁ אֶת־נֶ֥פֶשׁ הָֽאָדָֽם׃ <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="en"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><b>But for your own
life-blood I will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of
man, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every man for that of
his fellow man! <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="he"><span style="mso-bidi-language: HE;"><b>שֹׁפֵךְ֙ דַּ֣ם הָֽאָדָ֔ם
בָּֽאָדָ֖ם דָּמ֣וֹ יִשָּׁפֵ֑ךְ כִּ֚י בְּצֶ֣לֶם אֱלֹהִ֔ים עָשָׂ֖ה אֶת־הָאָדָֽם׃ <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="en"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><b>Whoever sheds the blood
of man, By man shall his blood be shed; For in His image Did God make man. <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="he"><span style="mso-bidi-language: HE;"><b>וְאַתֶּ֖ם פְּר֣וּ וּרְב֑וּ
שִׁרְצ֥וּ <a name="_Hlk63701839">בָאָ֖רֶץ</a> וּ<a name="_Hlk63701929">רְבוּ</a>־<a name="_Hlk63701983">בָֽהּ</a>׃ (ס) <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="en"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><b>Be fertile, then, and
increase; abound on the earth and increase on it.”<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Both Onkelos and Rashi explain these verses as a statement
from Hashem that He will impose justice on a person who killed another person
in a situation where a Bays Din is unable (due to insufficient witnesses or
other halachic restrictions) to sentence the killer to death. In the second
verse there is a commandment to bring the killer to justice and sentence him to
death. Only a Bais Din, a Chalachic court with an unbroken chain of Smicha –
can sentence a person or persons to death. This is the interpretation of
Onkelos and Rashi.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Rabeinu Bahya writes:<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">
“The Torah continues ומיד האדם, “and from the human being, etc.” This refers to
instances where there are witnesses to the murder. In other words: man must
judge murder when there are witnesses, whereas G-d will judge the murderer when
there is no evidence which is admissible in a human tribunal.” “שופך דם האדם באדם
דמו ישפך” when someone spills the blood of a human being his own blood is to be
spilled by a human being.” The word באדם, means: “before a human tribunal.”
There have to be witnesses who can testify. If so, the guilty person is subject
to execution. This is also the thrust of the Targum’s translation: דישוד דמא דאינשא
בסהדין על מימר דיינא דמיה יתשד, Onkelos clearly translates the word באדם as “in
the presence of witnesses.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Radak: “ ומיד
האדם, if man kills man, G’d reserves the right to exact retribution from him
either in this life or in the hereafter.”<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Chizkiuni explains why the punishment for killing a person should
be done by the court:</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> “
עשה את האדם, He appointed man on earth to be judge so that fellow man would be
deterred from committing sins and crimes.”</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Rav Miller also points to the necessity of action from the
human court <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“because failure
to react to a sin causes one to became apathetic to sin.”</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Even a human corpse has an aspect of Divine image but only a
living person is close to G-d in his/her potential. When this potential is made
impossible by the action of another man, that man also loses completely his Tzeilem
Elokim – resemblance to G-d. See Sfrono: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“It
is this “divine attribute” of man that makes him sufficiently important for his
Creator to demand an accounting from those who destroy that divine image by
killing a human being.”</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Ramban quotes the Sages from Buve Kamma 91b that a person
who commits suicide is also accountable for murder as he ends that potential
given to him/her. See also Bechor Shor. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>The consequence of this act is obviously not physical death.
Chizkiuni on this topic: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“The
passage is intended as an answer to people who deny that G-d operates vis a vis
man through a system of reward and punishment, i.e. reward after the body has
died and punishment after the body has died, and who therefore see in suicide a
way of avoiding being held responsible for their actions on earth. Clearly a
system of reward and punishment, unless it included posthumous reward and
punishment, would be meaningless, and would not act as deterrent not to sin.”</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Further, Ramban writes that the consequence for killing applies
to Noachides and Jews in the same way <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“In
court or by the Hand of Heaven”.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>In a fascinating commentary on this pusik, Baal Haturim
derives the meaning of the verse from the word <span style="mso-bidi-language: HE;">וְאַ֨ךְ</span> – “<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">However,
any form of self-harming is prohibited in this statement, including harmful
speech</span>!”<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>If this is a case in regard to person himself, obviously any
form of violence, physical or even verbal toward other person is <a style="mso-comment-date: 20210209T1350; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-reference: ML_1;">prohibited</a>.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Alshich, who lived not long after Baal Haturim, comments on
this pusik: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“The person who
embarrasses his fellow man to the extent that he blanches, causes the Tzelem
Elokim (Divine Image) to be impaired, and is therefore himself guilty of death,
though he has not actually killed anyone at all.”</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>And a final comment on the pusik <span style="mso-bidi-language: HE;">שֹׁפֵךְ֙ דַּ֣ם</span> comes from Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch:<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“The whole
value of our being human rests on our associating, not bodies with bodies, but
spirits with kindred spirits and recognizing such spirit in every human being.
The life, the Nefesh of every human being is entrusted to the care of every
other human being. And if, through the guilt of a human being, a human soul
departs from this world earlier than God, who had placed it here, had willed
it, then God misses it here and is <a style="mso-comment-date: 20210209T1355; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-reference: ML_2;">Doresh Midoi</a></span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> – (Exact in measure). Every tiny
minute of the earthly existence of even the most miserable human being is
sacred to God, and whosoever shortens his own or anybody else's life by one
second is responsible to God.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>For the last of the three psukim quoted at the beginning of
this essay we will share only one comment in continuation of the spirit of the
above quotations from the commentaries of the Sages. Also from Rav Hirsch:<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“Inasmuch
as here the procreation and propagation of the human race have this designation
added, the term would represent a swarm of the most manifold different kinds of
men. It would accordingly be a description of a diversity and infinite variety
of human races, and moreover בָאָ֖רֶץ<i> </i>on the earth, and by the earth,
under the influences of the differences of the various lands. And not only </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-language: HE;">שִׁרְצ֥וּ בָאָ֖רֶץ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> but also </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-language: HE;">רְבוּ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> - the whole physical, moral and
intellectual education equally </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-bidi-language: HE;">בָֽהּ</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">
under the same influences. (…)Noachian mankind is given the mission to spread
over the whole world, and under the most diverse conditions and influences of
climate and physical nature of the countries, to become Men and develop the one
common real character of Man; a diversity and a multiplicity which appeared to
us in the above connection as God's new plan for the education of mankind, to
avoid the necessity for any fresh total catastrophe. The diversity is to
balance the deficiency and so pave the way to progress to the goal. Hence say
our sages on this sentence "God has provided the most differing zones and
climates with a special dispensation", (or perhaps more literally : The
general covenant of God with mankind is spread over the most diverse districts)
— -Blessed be God, Who has given every country an attraction to its
inhabitants", and they point out how every race feels at ease in its
homeland even under the most inhospitable circumstances, and the most
unfriendly districts affect their sons with home-sickness when they are away
from them, and in strange lands disturbs their spiritual development. Man, who
thinks he is master of the land is, in many ways, in his innermost self, in his
mind, feelings, understanding and speech, mastered by his native land, and this
variety of countries has a purpose. Everywhere a man can conduct himself as a
human being, everywhere be happy, everywhere pure human qualities can be
developed in people. Only no man may judge others by his own standards. That is
why, at the end of this new conditioning of the world and mankind it says:
"diversify your-selves on the earth and multiply yourselves on it, by it,
in it, with it etc.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>Martin Buber in his essays, “I and Thou” but especially “The face
of the other,” points out that the greatest challenge for a human being is to recognize
another human as such. The more different the “other” is, the more difficult it
is for us to recognize Godliness in that person. Diversity among people creates
a natural obstacle in making connection, and if turned to the “Other Side” it
may cause animosity leading in extreme cases to murder. <o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>It is precisely that natural factor which national leaders can exploit
to cause a group of young people from one nation to kill people from different
nation, religion, or so-called race. In Rav Hirsch’s words, diversity was
instituted for precisely the opposite reason. Variety within the human race, in
his words, is the vehicle for moral and spiritual growth. More so, it is
actually the prime vehicle to connect to Hashem by recognizing the “other” as
reflection (Tzeilem Elokim) of the ultimate “Other”.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>Even fact that humanity was created in two forms has precisely the
same reason. By recognizing the Divine in our spouse, we are ready perform the
ultimate service of Hashem (“Garden of Peace” – Rav Shalom Arush).<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>We can clearly see that Buberian philosophy was not developed in
vacuum, as a German philosopher and Biblical Scholar he was familiar with
writings of Rav Hirsch.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>It is not only Rav Hirsch who describes the goal of
humanity, the essence of struggle through the history in those terms. In
further essays B-H we will look in the writings of the Nuvim (Prophets) and
even to some of our daily prayers. But already at this moment we have an
obvious question: how in this context can we understand, not the existence of
violence, which comes from corrupted Gevura/Din, as it was explained in the
previous essay, but how it is sanctioned by the governments, historic Jewish
governments in the Holy Land and even by Toira itself. We will not talk about
why violence exists, but rather how it can be used in progress toward a united
humanity under the spiritual guidance of the Jewish people in recognition of
The Creator.</b></p><div style="mso-element: comment-list;"><div style="mso-element: comment;"><div class="msocomtxt" id="_com_2" language="JavaScript">
<!--[if !supportAnnotations]--></div>
<!--[endif]--></div>
</div>Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-60236031218423201392022-09-08T00:03:00.001-04:002022-09-08T00:06:34.924-04:00Corruption of Chesed and Din<p><b> B-H</b></p><p><b>All of the Creation on all of its levels, this in three-dimensional
reality, this in the area of intellect and spirituality, and those levels which
are above our grasp are channeled to us through different channels or Emanations
– Sefirois or Midois, which were revealed to Moishe, the Prophets and the Sages
of blessed memory.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Those Emanations of Divine energies are generally presented
to us in the form of two columns, of which on one side there is <i>Chesed</i> –
Lovingkindness, and the other column is called <i>Gevura</i> (Strength) or <i>Din</i>
(Judgment/Justice).<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>There are other Divine energies within this framework, each of
which can coexist within other energies in some amount. For example, there may
be some amount of <i>Hoid – Glory, </i>or <a style="mso-comment-date: 20210208T1413; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-reference: ML_1;"><i>Netzach</i></a><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span></span><i>
– Eternity, Perseverance</i> in <i>Chesed</i> or <i>Gevura</i>.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Everything we experience in our existence is made up of a combination
of these energies or Emanations. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>There is no other source of existence or other channels
causing reality than those Emanating from The Source.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>If so, how evil is possible?<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>We will not enter the discussion about the originality of
Evil as it is a difficult and broad topic and if someone is interested, I
suggest going straight to the writings and shiurim of Rabbi Akiva Tatz. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Without deeper explanation we will say that source of the
evil is man himself.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>It is a man in whose power is to use and develop those
energies in accordance with the will of the One who provides us with those tools,
but it is also a man who by corrupting the powers provided to him through the
channels of <i>Chesed</i> and <i>Din,</i> restricts the flow of Divine energies,
causing evil to appear.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><a style="mso-comment-date: 20210203T1449; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-reference: ML_4;">The history of mankind begins with the description of the
act of C</a><a style="mso-comment-date: 20210204T1005; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-parent: 2; mso-comment-reference: MW_3;"></a><a style="mso-comment-date: 20210203T1455; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-reference: ML_2;"><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 3;"><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 4;">reation</span></span></a><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 4;">,
followed by certain rules for the created in two forms of man. Creation is
quickly followed by the rebellion of man.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Libraries of books were written on this topic, as it is the
most potent one and every <a style="mso-comment-date: 20210203T1451; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-reference: ML_5;">touch of the quill </a>on
the scroll of Toira often contains coded meanings understood by Carriers of the
<i>Toira Shbealpe</i> – the oral tradition.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Since most of those teachings are in the area of Kabalistic
tradition, I have no expertise in the character of the first sin beyond the
general idea that it was sin within the area of promiscuity.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Michtav mi Eliachu explains topic of promiscuity in his
comment on parsha <i>Lech Lechu</i>. Rav Dessler based this idea on Seifer Baal
Shem Toiv and the verse from the Chumash itself (Vaikru 20:17).<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;">“A person
whose main quality is C<a style="mso-comment-date: 20210208T1420; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-reference: ML_6;">hesed</a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"> is in danger that, he may spend
more money than he can afford. Then, he will borrow from others and spend it in
turn. Eventually it will be found that his excessive desire to do Chesed was
counterproductive, for it led him to cause others loss because he could not
repay his debts. There is also the possibility that he will eventually "be
merciful to the cruel," leading to "cruelty to the merciful," as
we find in the example of Shaul Ha-melech. There is also another more insidious
danger that, by becoming accustomed to acceding to everyone's requests, he may
then come to accede to the demands of the yetzer hara. This is why certain
forbidden marriages are referred to as Chesed (The whole institution of
marriage is, of course, a great Chesed. Through it, people bestow a great
bounty on mankind by allowing a new generation to emerge. But when this
deviates from the bounds set down by Creator, by a person acting simply to
gratify his desires or by way of sin, God forbid, then it is called "the Chesed
of defilement.") Such is the lot of Chesed, which is not limited by the
quality of Gevura.” (Strive for Truth)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>The <i>aveira</i> – sin in the pusik, one of many <i>aveiros</i>
in category of <i>Giluy Arayos</i>, as well as other possible <i>aveiros</i> of
which Rav Dessler provides examples, are defiled or corrupted forms of <i>Middas
Chesed</i>.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>The very second <i>aveira</i> in the history of man, is act
of violence resulting in death of Hevel, one of the first two sons.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Vilna Gaon in his Saifer(…) says that even anger is a corrupted
form of <i>Din</i>. It is needless to say that violence is nothing, but anger
brought to its extreme level. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Violence on individual level is expressed as anger,
stealing, harm, jealousy, physical and verbal abuse and many many other forms. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Then there is social violence, in which personal anger
coming from the overgrown egos of political maniacs throws groups or entire
nations into violence. “Hunters of tongue,” as Nimrod and Eisav are described,
can manipulate societies to conquer, to suppress, to humiliate, to control by
force, surveillance, or social engineering; to kill and to be killed. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Violence is corrupted form of Gevura/Din, and that action of
violence is always presented by them as Din - justice. There is action and
presentation which perhaps could be considered corruption of Truth – (Emes/Tiferes/Rachamim).<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>It is true that Justice itself may sometimes appear as an
act of violence…sometimes. But even the greatest acts of violence committed by
the man in his history are always presented as an act of Justice.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>B-H, this corrupted form of <i>Din</i> was, and I-H will be
a topic of many of my essays.</b></p><div style="mso-element: comment-list;"><div style="mso-element: comment;"><div class="msocomtxt" id="_com_6" language="JavaScript">
<!--[if !supportAnnotations]--></div>
<!--[endif]--></div>
</div>Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-32709514894836074912021-02-05T11:49:00.001-05:002021-02-05T11:54:00.279-05:00Mizbeah - Altar<p> <span style="font-family: times;"> B-H</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Among many ways to categorize Mitzvois – Biblical commandments,
that of differentiating them between those regarding a person’s relationship to
Creator and those regarding person to person relationships is probably one of
the most known.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="he"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i>Ben Adam le Mukoim</i> and <i>Ben Adam le haveiro</i> are clearly
visible in <i>Atzeres Hadibres</i> – the Ten Commandments.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="he"><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> אָֽנֹכִ֖י֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֧ר הוֹצֵאתִ֛יךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם
מִבֵּ֣֥ית עֲבָדִֽ֑ים<span>׃ </span></span><span style="font-family: times;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="en"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">“I the LORD am your God
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage”</span><span style="font-family: times;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="en"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The
first Mitzva of the <a style="mso-comment-date: 20210203T1414; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-reference: ML_1;">ten</a><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span></span> instructs us
to act as a free people and free individuals. This <a style="mso-comment-date: 20210203T1416; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-reference: ML_2;">along with the </a>following
four commandments including <i>Kuvoid le Aim ve Av</i> are categorized by
Chazal as those setting our relationship with G-d.<span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="en"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The
following five commandments clearly regulate our relationships with our fellow
humans.<span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The parsha Mishputim following the Ten Commandments continues
in setting detailed regulations of human behavior toward others. Only at the
end of the sequence are Yomim Toivim listed, but the argument can be brought
that even those commandments are more human-centered than focused on our
Creator. The rest of the commandments of the Parsha are clearly <i>Ben Adam le
haveiro</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">But there are few lines right between Ten Commandments and
following parsha which, after the excitement of reading the text written on the
<i>Luchois HaBris</i> – Tablets of Covenant, we might be paying less attention
to. This is commandment of building Earth Altar – Mizbeah. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">That insert clearly interrupts the flow of continuity
between second part of the Ten commandments and the detailed laws of human interactions.
It sticks there like a giant “BUT” – You should do all those commandments BUT
under these conditions, or being restricted by these conditions or setting these
as principals when you are doing the rest of the commandments, t<a style="mso-comment-date: 20210204T1534; mso-comment-parent: 3; mso-comment-reference: ML_5;"></a><a style="mso-comment-date: 20210204T1044; mso-comment-parent: 3; mso-comment-reference: MW_4;"></a><a style="mso-comment-date: 20210203T1423; mso-comment-reference: ML_3;"><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 4;"><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 5;">hose listed on the Tablets as well as those following in Parshas Mishputim.</span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Rav Hirsh notice that three commandments following the Ten
from the<i> Luchois</i> are in fact rephrased commandments from the <i>Luchois</i>
itself. For these three commandments we must rather give up our earthly
existence than break them in any form.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="he"><span style="mso-bidi-language: HE;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">לֹ֥א תַעֲשׂ֖וּן אִתִּ֑י אֱלֹ֤הֵי
כֶ֙סֶף֙ וֵאלֹהֵ֣י זָהָ֔ב לֹ֥א תַעֲשׂ֖וּ לָכֶֽם׃ </span><span style="font-family: times;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="en"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">“With Me, therefore, you
shall not make any gods of silver, nor shall you make for yourselves any gods
of gold”</span><span style="font-family: times;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">This is clearly a rephrase of the commandment prohibiting
any form of idolatry.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But then a really strange thing happens. Hashem gives the commandment
of building the Altar or rather certain details of how the altar has to be
constructed and operated. Specifically, there are two details.</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="he"><span style="mso-bidi-language: HE;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">מִזְבַּ֣ח אֲדָמָה֮ תַּעֲשֶׂה־לִּי֒
וְזָבַחְתָּ֣ עָלָ֗יו אֶת־עֹלֹתֶ֙יךָ֙ וְאֶת־שְׁלָמֶ֔יךָ אֶת־צֹֽאנְךָ֖
וְאֶת־בְּקָרֶ֑ךָ בְּכָל־הַמָּקוֹם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אַזְכִּ֣יר אֶת־שְׁמִ֔י אָב֥וֹא
אֵלֶ֖יךָ וּבֵרַכְתִּֽיךָ׃ <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="en"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">“Make for Me an altar of
earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your sacrifices of
well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to
be mentioned I will come to you and bless you. <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="he"><span style="mso-bidi-language: HE;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">וְאִם־מִזְבַּ֤ח אֲבָנִים֙
תַּֽעֲשֶׂה־לִּ֔י לֹֽא־תִבְנֶ֥ה אֶתְהֶ֖ן גָּזִ֑ית כִּ֧י חַרְבְּךָ֛ הֵנַ֥פְתָּ
עָלֶ֖יהָ וַתְּחַֽלְלֶֽהָ׃ <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="en"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">And if you make for Me
an altar of stones, do not build it of hewn stones; for by wielding your sword
upon them you have profaned them. <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="he"><span style="mso-bidi-language: HE;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">וְלֹֽא־תַעֲלֶ֥ה בְמַעֲלֹ֖ת
עַֽל־מִזְבְּחִ֑י אֲשֶׁ֛ר לֹֽא־תִגָּלֶ֥ה עֶרְוָתְךָ֖ עָלָֽיו׃ (פ) <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="en"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">Do not ascend My altar
by steps, that your nakedness may not be exposed upon it.”</span><span style="font-family: times;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">As the Mizbeah is being build and operated, not even the symbol of
violence which is the sword should be used in the process and not even a slight
exposure of the body should happen.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Those are clearly referencing <i>Shivas Dumim</i> and <i>Giluy
Arayos</i> -- two of the Ten Commandments as Rav Hirsh will explain below.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But before we go to the detailed commentaries let’s look at the
Rashi.</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">מזבח אדמה
AN ALTAR OF EARTH [SHALT THOU MAKE] — i. e. an altar attached to the earth,
meaning, that they should not build an altar upon columns or upon a base, but
it must rest upon the actual ground.”</span><span style="font-family: times;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">After a general explanation of the commandment of Mizbeah,
Rashi explains the further meaning of not using a tool of violence or giving
indecent exposure of the body.</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">“THEN YOU
HAST PROFANED IT — Thus you may learn that if thou liftest up thy iron tool
above it thou profanest it. The reason of this it, because the altar is created
(its purpose is) to lengthen man’s days and iron has been created (one of its
purposes is) to shorten man’s days, it is not right that an object which
shortens man’s life should be lifted up above that which lengthens it. And a
further reason it: because the altar makes peace between Israel and their
Father in Heaven, and therefore there should not come upon it anything that
cuts and destroys. Now, the following statement follows logically, à fortiori:
How is it in the case of stones which cannot see nor hear nor speak? Because
that they promote peace Scripture ordains, “Thou shalt not lift up against them
any iron tool!” Then in the case of one who makes peace between a man and his
wife, between family and family, between a man and his fellow, how much more
certain is it that punishment will not come upon him.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">“THAT YOUR
NAKEDNESS BE NOT UNCOVERED — because on account of these steps you will have to
take large paces and so spread the legs. Now, although this would not be an
actual uncovering of one’s nakedness (of the parts usually kept covered), since
it is written, (<a href="file:///C:/Exodus.28.42">Exodus 28:42</a>) “And thou shalt make for them
(the priests) linen breeches [to cover the flesh of their nakedness]”, still
the taking of large paces is near enough to uncovering one’s nakedness that it
may be described as such, and you would then be treating them (the stones of
the altar) in a manner that implies disrespect. Now the following statement
follows logically à fortiori: How is it in the case of stones which have no
sense (feeling) to be particular about any disrespect shown to them? Scripture
ordains that since they serve some useful purpose you should not treat them in
a manner that implies disrespect! Then in the case of your fellow-man who is
made in the image of your Creator and who is particular about any disrespect
shown to him, how much more certain is it that you should not treat him
disrespectfully!”</span><span style="font-family: times;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now after reading Rashi’s commentary we can go further with Rabbi
Hirsch’s commentary. As we will see, his understanding is very much parallel
with Rashi however Rav Hirsch brings some other details of <i>Mesoira</i> which
hopefully will help us understand this out of place insert of the commandments apparently
not fitting to the sequence of the <i>Mitzvois Ben Adam le haveiro</i>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">“You shall
not make images, shall not form the likeness of the sun or moon or anything
that is with Me: but I do allow you to form for yourselves things that are with
you; what you are to do, is not to bring heavenly things down to you on earth,
but to elevate all earthly things up to Me. When you wish to come to Me, you
have not to represent to yourselves things that you imagine are with Me in
heaven, but rather to ponder on how I wish things to be carried on by you on
earth. It is the earth not heaven that concerns you if and when you wish to
come near to Me. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">The altar
that you build up to Me should represent the earth raised up to God by Men's
deeds, Men's action. "An altar of earth "<a name="_Hlk62403573">מִזְבַּ֣ח</a>
אֲדָמָה֮ direct and immediately from the earth is to arise, even an intervening
space of a handbreadth would make the <a style="mso-comment-date: 20210203T1433; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-reference: ML_6;">altar</a> invalid. The temporary altar of
the Mishkan was itself a freshly erected heap of earth, which was then enclosed
in hollow box.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">And when
you will have finished your wanderings and entered into your permanent State,
and then will have also to change your "wandering" altar into a
permanent one of stone, then every stone of your altar is to preach to you the
holiness and dedication to God of the whole of your national life. No steel may
have touched a stone out of which you wish to build your altar, no steel may
touch any stone out of which you have built your altar. The stone over which
you have swung your steel becomes desecrated thereby for the altar of God.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="he"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">Not destruction, not sacrifice, nor giving up life, is the meaning
and purpose of the altar, and the sword, the instrument of force and violence
cannot get any consecration at the Jewish altar, right and humanity must build
the altar, and the realm of rights and humaneness, not the mastery of the
sword, is to spread from it. In the "Hall of Stone" adjoining the
altar of stone, Jewish Right had its permanent citadel (the Sanhedrin was
housed there.I.L.) and not the sword, the altar is the symbol of Jewish
Justice. V. 23. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="he"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">And just as the altar is to be a preacher of right and humaneness,
those twin spirits of society striving upwards to God, be a preacher of modest decency,
that fundamental trait of godliness in humanity without which justice and
humaneness will be sought for in vain in human society. With <a style="mso-comment-date: 20210203T1437; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-reference: ML_7;"><i>Giluy Arayos – </i>Forbidden relationships – </a><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span></span>the
heights of the altar will never be mounted! <span style="mso-bidi-language: HE;">וַתִּשָּׁחֵ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ לִפְנֵ֣י הָֽאֱלֹהִ֑ים וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס׃ </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">The earth became corrupt before G-d; the
earth was filled with lawlessness.</span> (Gen. VI,12) is the oldest and the
most serious experience of the history of Man. ("The world became morally
corrupt before G-d, then the whole world became full of injustice and
inhumanity." I.L.). <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">To summarize
this epilogue to the "Ten Commandments" : the three main sins which
undermine our relation to G-d are countered, and to banish them, to expel the
very last trace of them from our midst is the object of the Divine Lawgiving.
These are <i>Avoida Zura, Shvichas Dumim</i> and <i>Giluy Arayos</i>, the
culmination of sin against God, of sin against one's fellow-man, and of sin
against oneself. V.20 and V 21 A’Z, V.22 S’D and V.23 G’A. God, society and the
human being are the subjects of the Divine Torah, and this epilogue announces
that just as our relation to these form the contents of the Lawgiving, so it,
and it alone, is to form the subject of the symbolism of the Sanctuary, as a
whole, and of all its parts. The altar and the Torah itself have solely human
beings as their subject matter and meaning as well as the godly building up and
extending of all that true humanity should <a>be</a><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span></span>.” Rav Hirsch, Parshas Yisro.</span><span style="font-family: times;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Back in Parshas Noach Rav Hirsch comments on the same topic
of Mizbeah in following words:</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">“To take a
single slab of stone and sacrifice thereon would mean recognizing God from the
standpoint of Nature; whereas the built מִזְבַּ֣ח expresses the conception of
first working oneself up above the bound character of Nature to the <a style="mso-comment-date: 20210204T0959; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-parent: 9; mso-comment-reference: MW_10;"></a><a><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 10;">godlike</span></a> free-willed standpoint of Man, and, from that point of view, strive upward to
God. So that inasmuch as Noah built an altar to God on the fresh gift of the
earth, he, as the Ancestor, dedicated this newly-gifted earth to be a place on
which the future activity of mankind is to add stone to stone until ultimately
the whole becomes a holy mount of God. When other nations tried, and try, to
get near their God, they get away from human surroundings and believe they can
find God nearer to them out in nature. Certainly, one can find God there too,
but He is much nearer in all His Glory in the sphere of a human life. There, in
Nature, His Omnipotence, His infinite Power is revealed, here His infinite <a style="mso-comment-date: 20210204T1001; mso-comment-done: yes; mso-comment-parent: 11; mso-comment-reference: MW_12;"></a><a><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 12;">Love</span></a><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="font-size: 8pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span></span>.”</span><span style="font-family: times;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">One of the first Talmudic <i>Mesechtois</i> learned by very
young students in the <i>Haider</i> is ‘<i>Mesechtas Succa</i>’. One of the
first subjects which they learn is ‘<i>Lulav Goizel</i>’ – stolen Lulav and the
concept of ‘<i>Mitzva abube aveira</i>’ – Mitzva performed by means of Aveira –
sin.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">It should be clear to everyone after reading above
commentaries of Rashi and Rav Hirsch on topic of the Mizbeah inserted in this
strange place, out of flow of the M<a style="mso-comment-date: 20210204T1537; mso-comment-parent: 13; mso-comment-reference: ML_15;"></a><a style="mso-comment-date: 20210204T1002; mso-comment-parent: 13; mso-comment-reference: MW_14;"></a><a style="mso-comment-date: 20210203T1443; mso-comment-reference: ML_13;"><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 14;"><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 15;">itzvois</span></span></a> concerning human interactions, why it is
there.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">We learn from the words of Rashi and Rav Hirsch that the c<a style="mso-comment-date: 20210204T1042; mso-comment-parent: 16; mso-comment-reference: MW_17;"></a><a style="mso-comment-date: 20210203T1446; mso-comment-reference: ML_16;"><span style="mso-comment-continuation: 17;">onstruction of the Altar is raised from
below up. It is constructed with our actions, where stones of that Altar are
elevated by our submission to G-d‘s Law. We learn that the altar can not contain
any elements of intermediary between us and our Creator. No form of violence is
justified in building this Altar on the individual or national level (Except
actions commanded by Prophets and Sanhedrin). No form of promiscuity should be
used to achieve higher goals.</span></a><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-special-character: comment;"> </span></span></span><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">The commandment of building an Altar with provided
guidelines in this place and as explained by our commentators constitutes a
general rule for all the other commandments listed in both <i>Atzeres Hadibres</i>
and parshas <i>Mishpatim</i>.</span></b></p><div style="mso-element: comment-list;"><div style="mso-element: comment;"><div class="msocomtxt" id="_com_17" language="JavaScript">
<!--[if !supportAnnotations]--></div>
<!--[endif]--></div>
</div>Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-46847746601147562752020-05-28T15:40:00.003-04:002023-06-02T20:00:34.354-04:00Line, Crescent, Cross and Swastika<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">B-H<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I ) + # The Four Representations of
Civilizations </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I don’t remember in which of Hoimar
Von Ditfurth’s books I saw for the first time a picture of a virus under a
microscope. I was either 10 or 15. I instantly knew – that thing did not
assemble itself, the complexity of what I saw required ‘an assembler’. There is
no other way about it. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It still took some time and study to
establish my personal relationship with the Assembler and Creator. It took
years until I found the path designated to approach Him and ultimately to
accomplish complete Unity in Him.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But back then, for the first time in
my life I saw a pattern, something undeniably too complex to exist without
intent, design and supervision. A sign for those with open eyes and honesty to
challenge their own ego in admission of this Higher Power. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Once the personal relationship was
established, I had no need to continue seeing those signs. That is because now
I was experiencing Him in my life. Yet, time and time again He gave me
enjoyment of finding such revelations.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Once I began to learn the
commentaries and Sefurim written by Rav Shimshon Raphael Hirsch I quickly
developed a great love for every mark of his pen.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">He exposed me to the essential idea
that the Creator of the universe reveals himself in three methods. Besides the
Torah and ‘nature’, He reveals Himself in human History as well. Any keen, intelligent,
and sensitive mind can see His guiding actions in the development of mankind. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The earliest days and years of our
history are known to us only through the revelation of Torah and our oral
tradition recorded in the Medrish. As such, it should be treated as a part of
the revelation given to the Jewish people and not as the third component of
general revelation accessible to the rest of humanity. It must be stated that
parts of the Sinaitic revelation were addressed to all children of Noah, all
humans. Scientific research on nature and history is accessible to all
humanity, if they seek the Truth.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In certain parts of humanity’s
development, the Creator of Man can be easily, so to say, detected by anyone
possessing any knowledge of history, culture, and religion. There are certain
patterns which only stubborn individuals can deny as something random and
“natural”.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We observe the patterns because
patterns exist, and we are created with a mind able to see them.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">My aim in composing this essay is to
discuss these phenomena. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">World Views </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Humanity can be divided into four
basic religious or cultural groups of people.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Each of these groups are represented
by a graphic symbol defining the very core of their philosophies and approach
to life, as individuals, as nations and as religions.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">v</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 7.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
</span><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The
First group is represented by a vertical line.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">v</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 7.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
</span><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The
Second group is represented by a curved and sloping line.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">v</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 7.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
</span><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The
Third group is represented by a vertical line that is interrupted by a second
horizontal line.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%; margin-left: .5in;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">v</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 7.0pt; line-height: 106%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Fourth is represented by a cross
with arms broken in a way that is showing movement. In some cultures, it takes
the form of a swastika on the square plane, in other cultures it may be on the
circle plane or a wheel. Some other places contain only three arms of sign
representing turn around.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Our Mesorah, or more commonly
referred to as Oral Tradition, describes additional details to the history
described in the first chapters of Tanach, the first chapters of the Bible.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The history of the creation of Adam
and Eve is known by nearly all mankind.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Some people deny the veracity of the
Bible as a whole and like to describe it as a Mid-Eastern legend of nomadic
tribes from the Sinai Peninsula. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Others take moral and spiritual
inspiration from this story. As it was declared for the first time in the
history of the nations, that all mankind comes from the same set of parents
created by G-d. In contrast to the myths that told that humans came out from
different body parts of gods or that they have evolved on different trees.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Yet there are those who are inspired
by the moral lessons but deny the <i>historic</i> value of this story. The
story of creation seems a little bit childish and naïve to them.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">However, for those of us who
understand the Holy Language and who learn the Torah, it is well-known that
precisely this part of The Tanach contains the greatest levels of revelation
and veracity. In the narrative of Genesis is prescribed the goal of humanity
itself and a guide for every individual to choose his or her own goals in life.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">First Man: Paragon of Humanity </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Adam HaRishon – the first man, was
created completely naked and morally pure in fact, his skin was translucent and
had a transcending glow of illumination and was made of fingernail-like
substance. He was of immense height and stature and had supernatural sight and
insight. He was mature in mind yet innocent in spirit. Being devoid of shame
and immorality (there was no right or wrong for him, only true and false) there
was no reason to cover his skin. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Immediately when Adam sinned, he
discovered that he was naked. Namely, he discovered that there is shame in his
nakedness. He covered himself with fig leaves and upon leaving the Garden after
the sin,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>G-d gave him a set of clothes
made out of animal skin. It is clear and obvious that the animalistic nature of
Adam prevailed over the Angelic, spiritual makeup of his higher being. Thus,
Adam was greatly demoted from his lofty position and his radiance and splendor
much diminished. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Since then, man must cover his or her
skin, as a proof of his failure and shame. The clothes made by G-d possessed
potent characteristics of illumination and power. Generations later these
clothes were used by individuals like Nimrod and Eisav. They used it as a
‘magical’ device of intimidation and as a tool to deceive people into
worshiping and submitting to them.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It should be added that the word
‘skin’ (</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">עור</span><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> – pronounced OR)) and word ‘light’ (</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">אור</span><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> – pronounced OIR) in Holy Tongue are pronounced almost the same
and only the spelling of the first letter is different. This is because of
Adom’s physical/spiritual illumination was changed to an object of separation,
distancing, and darkening of his relationship with creation and the Creator
(thus we find disharmony between humans and animals, the labor needed to
cultivate, the fear of the night, etc<span style="background: yellow;">).</span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Staff of Elokim</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is brought in Kabbalah that Adom
was created naked and unclothed. However, he was holding in his hand a device,
a staff. This staff appears later in the Biblical narrative when it comes into
the possession of Moshe Rabeynu (Moses) and is called “Mateh Elokim” – the
Staff of G-d. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It was a device created in the hand
of the first man.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Just as man himself and all the
physical and natural phenomenon surrounding him, this device was representing
something from the higher spiritual reality.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Staff was made out of the same
material as the Luchois Habris – the Tablets of the Covenant. This material is
called “Even Saphiri” – Stone of Saphiri. This stone was heavenly blue in color
(sapphire) evoking the Heavenly Abode. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Furthermore, the word “<i>saphiri</i>”
is associated with “<i>Sefirot”</i> (G-dly emanations and attributes), “<i>Sefira”</i>
(counting of 50 days from Pesach to Shevuos), “<i>Sapar”</i> (telling; story),
“<i>Sefer”</i> (book) and many other words which by association can give an
idea of what this stone was about, namely a “telling” or representation of the
Spiritual potential. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Staff in Moshe’s Possession </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">To add another element to the puzzle,
let’s examine the story of when Moishe, our Master and Teacher met G-d for the
first-time, face to face.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">He was holding a Mateh – a staff, in
his hand at the time. This staff was the Matteh Elokim. How did this staff come
to be in Moshe’s possession? </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Medrish says that Moshe ``plucked
it '' out from his father-in-law Yisro’s garden. In turn, Yisro stole it from
Egypt when he abdicated his post as advisor to Pharaoh. In turn, it was brought
to Egypt by Yosef who got it from Yaakov and who acquired it from his forebears
all the way to the time of Creation.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">For a short while Yaakov was in
possession of two objects given to Adam by his Creator, the Staff and the Beged
Ha’Or – garments of hides, when he wore them to get the blessing from his
father Yitzchok. However, there was one moment in his life when Yaakov was
completely naked and the only thing that was left in his hand was the Mateh –
the staff. It was when Eliphaz ben Eisav caught up to him at the River of
Yarden while escaping from Eisav. He remained with nothing but <i>his staff</i>.
Just as Adam, Yaakov the perfect one (<i>Tam</i>) had nothing but the
staff. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It should be noted, the fact that he
wore the clothes for this short a time, affected his descendants in the most
negative way. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We know that “<i>masey avois simun
lebunim”</i> – the doings of the patriarchs are a preordination for their
children. Namely, the Patriarchs’ actions and life events are like a genetical
code<a name="_Hlk38199171"> that forms and shapes the history and character of
the Jewish people. </a>I will explain this particular event later. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Staff in Egypt </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">When Moishe met Hashem, he was told
to throw the staff on the ground and that it would turn into a snake in order
to convince his brothers about the legitimacy of his mission. But first Moishe
has to convince himself.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The staff becomes a snake, not just
any snake, which of course Moishe would not be afraid of while talking to the
Creator himself. He saw the snake that brought devastation and suffering on the
first man and his descendants and this was something that Moishe was afraid of
– even while talking to G-d. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Hashem tells Moishe to grab the
snake, but not from the front rather from the tail end, in a way of trickery.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It immediately becomes a staff again
from the tail to the head: the Snake becomes a vertical linear object in the
hand of man.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">When Moishe meets the Pharaoh, he
shows him that a time will come when the snake will be grabbed and be made into
a device going from down, up, from a lower to higher realm. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Pharaoh, his priests, his wives and
children replied to Moishe that it will not be so fast and not so easy. They
could make staff into snakes and that’s what they are planning to do throughout
history.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Moishe’s Staff eats the snakes of
Mitzrayim – the Egyptians. That is the end and goal of history.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Straight Line </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We are created as the Tzeilem Elokim.
All parts of our body represent some element from the higher reality, the only
reality which is actual. (On this point the Maharal explains that just a sketch
of a tree is a far-removed representation of what a tree is, so we too are mere
images of the Divine). </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">A Hand represents the action. Our
actions are always good or bad – moral or immoral, desired by our Creator or
causing Him anguish. When our actions are in accordance with the Will of our
Creator, we are holding the staff in our hand. When we are insubordinate, the
snake is chasing us. With the staff, miracles can be made, when the snake is
chasing us our life is a horror and tragedy. For good or bad, our actions have
a direct impact on heaven which in turn has a direct impact on earth.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is the vertical line: the
straight connector between heaven & earth: the staff. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The vertical line connecting lower
and higher is represented in the Hebrew alphabet as letter Vav and the meaning
of the prefix Vav is “and”.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Vav is the crucial element of the
word Mitzvah – the meaning of the word Mitzvah is a link or connection. By
following the Will of the Creator – the Mitzvos, one is connecting to the
Creator Himself. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Curved Line</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The second group of humanity that is
represented by curved; tilted line, are the nations of Islamic faith. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Islam is aware of the Creator and
possesses high philosophical and moral standards. Let’s take a look at the
entire history of Islam, though not through the prism of propaganda of the
nations of Edom who see the Muslims as a competition to their own philosophy of
ruling the planet in their own way.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">When Islam arose, from the very
beginning our masters called Rishonim saw it as an advance in human history and
a step closer to the Geula. Those who understand that we as the Jewish people
were obligated to be the Light for the nations and ultimately their spiritual
leaders in moral teachings; they understood that Islam with its understanding
of G-d, ideas of charity, and teaching of Seven commandments of Noah will make
this task much easier. There are many statements from the Rishonim that express
precisely this idea. Sefer Kizuri, Rambam, Ramban, Hovos Halvuvois from that
period of history and later the Maharal from Prague and Rav Hirsch talk openly
about this idea. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It must also be mentioned that the
difference in treatment of the Jewish people and other religious minorities in
Islamic countries was astoundingly different than in Christian realm. There
were few hot spots in the history of Jewish Muslim relations, but Islamic
civilization has never produced anything close to inquisition, pogroms and
holocaust. There were no Muslim Torquemada, Chmielnicki or Hitler Y-Sh-m.
Planet Earth unfortunately always saw some religious or ethnic tensions on the
ground of economic exploitation, and it must be pointed out that in Islamic
states, Jewish community was living a relatively good life considering minority
status. Major persecutions or animosity directed against Jews is limited to few
periods and local range. We will mention two major periods and places
where Islamic countries decided to be Judenrein - Almohads in northern Africa
in 12<sup>th</sup> century and the Saudi Arabian regime in modern times.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The curved line also starts from the
bottom shutting up. It reaches almost the highest point but the path itself is
not a straight and safe ladder connecting higher and lower realm as it was
designed for Yaacov-Yisrael. Curiously, the Islamic sword also often has that
curved shape unlike Christian weapons which we will talk about next. I see no
further reason to explain why Islam is considered – what is called in Latin:
Preparatio Judaicae, as it should be obvious to an intelligent and educated
reader.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Curved line, therefore, represents
legitimate attempts and even connection with the higher realm but it is not a
direct or straight connection.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Cross</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The other big portion of humanity are
considered by us as Bnai Eisav – the children of Eisav-Edom.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I wrote about the characteristics of
the civilization of Edom-Eisav in many of my other essays and encouraged my
readers to go to this material as it was and (Beezras Hachem) still will be a
topic of essays to come.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The main idea expressed in those
essays is that Chazal – our Sages of blessed memory, explain that Edom-Eisav
represents brutal militaristic conquest and control of the world.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Control can be achieved by many
means. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It can be achieved by propagandizing
the minds of the world with content appealing to the animalistic desires of humans.
The immense entertainment industry is doing precisely this work, delivering on
a daily basis their values and ideas that are mostly conflicting with the moral
principles expressed in Revelation or even simple logic.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The decline of family and marital
values is not only self-destructive to individuals but destroys entire
societies and nations.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Another tool of control is the loan
and banking system in the form as it exists in our society.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I will never forget a conversation I
had with my friend when I simply told him that he, like millions of Americans,
doesn't own ‘his’ house – the bank owns it. And as millions of Americans
learned at the time of the recession, banks can send you under the bridge or to
the tent cities without mercy.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">At the time when the control of minds
and possessions of the inhabitants of the Edomite nations fails to work, the
rulers don’t hesitate to use deadly force as they are using it to control other
nations.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I expressed in my essays on American
democracy, that there is a change in progress. However, it will still take a
time to come to that era, when the Chazer becomes Kosher, as it is promised in
the words of our prophets and masters. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Meanwhile the nations, culture, and
religion of Edom-Eisav is a major obstacle to us on many levels.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Edom did everything in its power to
deny our moral message as it usurped our task and right to be chosen to lead
humanity in spiritual measures.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">They persecuted us mercilessly and
not only millions of our brothers were killed in periodic persecutions and
sometimes almost total annihilation by sword – the very symbol of their
civilization. The vertical line of connection is cut by a horizontal flattening
force. A divide severing the direct connection. A Symbol with a dead Jew
hanging on it.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Another aspect of this disruption is
our own weakness when we falsely assume that by operating in the realm of their
values we can survive or even accomplish something.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Hours when Yaakov imitated
Edom-Eisav by wearing his clothes, somehow imprinted in us the wrong idea, that
by aping Edom we are being nobilitated. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Wheel of Fortune.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Swastika is one of the oldest
graphic symbols related to spirituality and life philosophy.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is known to the ancients in the
Middle East, it has been used by Hindu civilizations since they exist. It was
known to Greeks, Romans, and Mezzo Americans. It is still used by Chinese,
Mongols, Siberian nations, Native Americans, and is known in various places in
Africa. That’s a lot of places and a lot of time!</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It represented most people in the
world in the past and it still represents a big part of human society in the
present day. The ‘swastika philosophy’ is still popular, but not the symbol
itself.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Swastika had become a shameful
symbol only after WWII, for its association with the Nazi regime.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In all of those places, and in all of
those cultures, it still has an almost universal and common meaning; as
expressed in a Roman saying – “Fortune turns around.”</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">For example, The Greek Gammadion was
equivalent to the one of the Sanskrit swastika and the meaning of both symbols
was almost the same.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Fortuna, known to Greeks as Tyche was
a deity of luck, good or bad luck while the Indian Swastika was a wish of <i>good</i>
luck.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">There are many relatively
contemporary interpretations of this symbol, but historically it has another
meaning.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It’s supposed to represent the idea
that whatever is now down, will be up, whatever is left, will be right, and so
on… There is no solid standard, there is no pattern, there is no right and
wrong, and neither does right or wrong have an influence on up and down – our
life situation. It is a random self-sustained mechanism without an ultimate
source, without an outside influence other than itself. The wheels turn. Karma.
</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In this mindset there is no space for
G-d, The ultimate Creator and (Manhig) of reality.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In this philosophy there may be space
for gods - devices helping to achieve different goals but they operate within
the circle of the swastika or the swastika is a part of this spiritual
non-reality.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">There is a place for prayer and even
sacrifice but only to achieve our ends, not to subordinate our ends in
accordance with Whom we own our existence to.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The ‘good’ is what is good for me and
the ‘bad’ is what is bad for me. ‘Me’ is the ultimate center of the universe. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">‘I’ can use different devices to
change ‘my’ luck, but it has nothing to do with ‘my’ moral standards or
actions. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Sometimes ‘I’ can adjust my behavior
to something to which was told to ‘me’ as being moral, but only to use it as
another device to adjust ‘my’ luck. G-d and morality serves ‘me’. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is the kind of syncretic mindset
common among formal monotheists. They still believe that there are self-turning
powers independent from The Only One Above.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">B’Ezras Hashem I will come back to
the topic of “luck”, as it deserves an essay for itself.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Conclusion </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Those are the four forms of
civilization and their four graphic symbols representing the very essence of
what they are.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;"><b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">As I said in the introduction to this
essay, this observation is just a glimpse of the revelation of G-d in history.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><br />Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-51727517206836408562020-05-07T09:45:00.003-04:002020-05-28T15:52:11.850-04:00G-d and Nimrod<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b> B-H</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Abraham, a man of flesh
and blood is bargaining with the Creator of the Univerese in an attempt to save
the cities Sdom, Amora, Adma and Seboim from destruction. Sodom and Gomora are
the two that are most known from this account. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>We Jews, know this
conversation very well.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Those who attend any
kind of services on Sundays or Saturdays, know this story as well. At this
moment, we can talk about it without the risk of overexaggerating, that most of
our fellow Americans know this story.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>I would even take a
risk and say that some self-declared atheists may know this story as well.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>In the world, in philosophical
literature (but not limited to) some of the events that are described in the
Bible are considered to be fundamental in human history for developing ideas of
justice. This particular conversation may be familiar to most of humanity.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>We do not judge, or
even worse, harm the majority on the account of deeds or beliefs of the minority.
This is the moral teaching coming from this dialog.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>But there is a part of
this story that is not known to public. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will describe a quiet different chat, which
I imagine, took place before G-d came to our father Abraham.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Nimrod the First known
also as Amraphel, was the emperor of Babylon, the first city and government
organized in a way that later in history was described as Hegemony.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Nimrod the First was
killed by Abraham in the battle of the four kings by supernatural means
described in detail in the Midrash. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>After the death of his
father, Nimrod the Second approached G-d with a complaint against his enemies
from the Valley of Shittim. Which is where Abraham came to rescue and save his
nephew Lot, and in process killied the first Nimrod - Amraphel.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>Nimrod the second called: <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">G-d?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes, my servant
Nimrod.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Oh, you call me a
servant now but you allowed my father to be eliminated by this enemy of social
order Abraham? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Don’t you know? Lev
Hamelech be yadaim Hashem. Your heart is in my hands so of course you are my
servant like all the other Nimrods in the future – Cesar, Napoleon, Hitler.
Those are the big ones but there are pages of the future filled with names of
all small Nimrods. Anyhow we will not talk about what is to become of history now
and why I allow them to act in the way they do. What is you Issue Nimrod?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">G-d, did you hear
about the evil perpetrated in the cities of the Valley of Shittim? The lack of
hospitality, their laws against any immigration that would undermine the
wellbeing of the citizens, and then cardinal sins against the first commandment
in your Torah, that about marriage? I think they deserve to be eliminated from
the rest of the healthy society for they may endanger the rest of us with their
misdeeds, it is potentially danger her in Bavel and for my relatives in Canaan.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes, something came to
me, but I can’t eliminate such a large population on the account of some bad
individuals…How many bad people do you think live there in the five cities of
Shittim Valley?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I don’t know but let
me ask you G-d, if there would be 10 evildoers then would you consider eliminating
them?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nooo …can’t destroy
human lives on account of 10 bad individuals. You talking about my creation and
well… if I created them that means I love them and it would cause me tremendous
suffering if I would have to harm them in any way.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What about 20 bad
guys, would it be enough for You to act?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Of course not, I can’t
do it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What if 30 are evil?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is this going
Nimrod? What are you trying to achieve? Of course, my Justice Love would not
allow Me to harm the population on the account of 30.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What about 40, would
you send angels of destruction then?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">No.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">45 G-d, 45 bad guys
and You say it would not justify the elimination of those cities’ populations?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">No, Nimrod! I said No!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Let me tell you G-d.
I’m quite sure that there is at last 50 bad individuals in those cities, that
makes 10 bad guys per city. I appeal to your Justice to destroy the lives of the
inhabitants of those cities.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It will not happen
Nimrod, the only condition is that all the members of those societies must be
evil to be eliminated, otherwise My Attribute of Chesed will not allow to harm
those people.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But G-d they are
pagans, they don’t believe in You, is this not enough to destroy them and erase
them from under the heaven?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nimrod! Enough! They are
mistaking perhaps with their intellect, while you and your father rebelled
against me in action, and I still allowed you to exist. I myself will go and
learn what are you crying about and then I will ask my friend Abraham what he
thinks about whole thing. Then I will make my decisions.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>I wonder, did I make
this story up from scratch or some people already heard it before and are
siding with Nimrod?</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>By Matys Weiser</b></span></div>
<br />Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-4103005011007576892020-03-29T18:48:00.002-04:002020-03-29T18:49:55.640-04:00Rebetzin<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b> B-H</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>So, it
happened. </b><br />
<b>At the age of 97 Cheshanover alte rebetzin passed away.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>I knew this
day would come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thinking so many times,
how will I get to New York for the levaya, as I am so often on the west coast.
I Couldn’t imagine not to be there at the funeral which according to the Jewish
law, must happen within a day of passing.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>For me, a
person that is away a big part of year, half of a day of driving from the
closest airport with direct flights to NY, it may be a matter of concern – how
will I do it. And there are those places where I go, which are almost day from
the airport.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>HBH decided
to take her away when I’m just two hours away from the place of the levaya and
I cannot </b><b>attend it due
to the Corona pandemic restrictions.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Now, at the
hour of the levaya, I sat to write this. I could not attend the funeral of my
own mother who passed away in Poland four years ago, now I can’t listen to the
words of hespaidim about a person who was like a mother to my family in the
crucial years after our immigration to United States.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Thinking, making
Cheshbon haneifesh – soul account. I don’t know. I don’t know.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>That’s how
she was – a mother not only to her family but mother to yesoymim who she found
on the </b><b>path of her
life. I know that our family was not only the case.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>She was born
in Sadovne, Mazowsze (Mazovia) district of Poland just few years after Poland
regained its </b><b>independence
after 130 years under the control of foreign kingdoms. Mazowsze was under
Russian control and Polish and Jewish populations developed their own culture, distinctive
to other parts of the Polish land.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>There is a reason
why we have Poilishe and Galitziane Hassidim, as well as Russishe and
Hungarians.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Cuisine is
only one of many aspects of cultural differences.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Rebetzin was
at the entry to her life, just 16, when the darkest years of human history
approached.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Somehow her
mother with, I hope I know it correctly, four children, managed to escape to
the Russian </b><b>side of
occupied Poland. As most Polish citizens they were considered by Sovyetska
vlast (Soviets) - </b><b>enemies of
the people – burjuy. As such they were send to Siberia and trough seven years
there, they </b><b>were dumped
from one labor camp to another. Rebetzin’s mother didn’t survive, giving her
life in Janbul </b><b>–
Kazakhstan.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>After the
war, four siblings came back to Poland – three sisters and one brother.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>The three sisters
became three rebetzins – Sadovne, Cheshanove and Aleksander – Boro Park.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Only one of
three got married to a Galitziane family, not a common mix before the WWII.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>How did she
fit in to the Rubin-Helbershtam family? I can humbly attest from my few years
close to the family – she was one of them – perhaps most important, most
influential in the decades after the passing of her husband and the father of
my rebe.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Now I have
to say few words about Cheshanov itself, and I will try to be restrained in my
words for two </b><b>reasons –
you never know what can be offensive to others; and I know, I can be if not
controversial </b><b>personality
at least inconvenient for some so I will try my best.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Cheshanov
comes from the straight line of descendants of Santzer dynasty. And it can be
heard and felt </b><b>there in
many aspects. But probably even more that Santz – Nowy Sacz, it is the spirit
of Shinov – Sieniawa, which is dominant in Hasidic life philosophy of
Cheshanov, than any other influence.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>It is not
only because every third man or boy in the Shul is Yechezkiel Shraga for this
name is used in the </b><b>family for
generations after the original Yechezkiel Shraga of Shinov.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>He was a son
of Santzer Rebe, probably the most influential among his other siblings, even
he did not </b><b>continue in
the place of his father in Santz.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>He took a
post of the Rav and at this time in Galitzia it was also the post of the Rebe,
in Shinov in 1855.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>When the
“whole town” came to listen to his Third Meal derusha – Torah Comentry at the
end of </b><b>Shabes,
which in Hasidic custom is the moment when position of Rav takes effect; the
new Shinover Rav </b><b>opened the
Chumash and red from the Parsha – Torah portion of the week.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>In his later
years in Shinov, he began to deliver customary sedua shides derusha but the way
how he </b><b>approached
some Minhagim was symptomatic to his general approach to Hasidus.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>This Derech
– path, was expressed probably the best way by the Satmar Ruv Reb Yoel
Taitelbaum – </b><b>Derch Baal
Shem Tov is lost, and we don’t understand it. This is what I heard from his
Talmidim – </b><b>students.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>It was
controversial a few decades ago, and even if at the time of the Shinover Ruv it
was only a little taste of this approach, it should be self-understood, that it
was not popular among other Hasidim.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>It is not
the place perhaps, but it must be mentioned that in the following centuries
after the Ball Shem Tov, different Hasidic groups developed distinctive
cultures, life philosophies and minchagim which are not necessarily rooted in
the teachings of the first master of Hasidus. Some of them seemingly expressing
philosophy in direct opposition to the original Hassidic teachings.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Cheshanov
respects minhagim, recognize the power of the Hasidic movement, teach great
thoughts of Hasidic masters from different streams of this philosophy, but –
all of this with feet strongly standing on the ground, with a square head and
skepticism famous among other Hassidim.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Cheshanover
Rebetzin was a small postured person, especially among her sons and grandsons
of six feet and more, but she was great in precisely this kind of approach to
life and yidishkeit so characteristic for this place.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>She was a
champion of self-sufficiency; man has to work to support his family.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>She was a
hard-working woman, cooking the best kugels already from the beginning of the
week, some of this food she delivered to lonely persons just hours before
Shabes.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>I have to
mention the parve cholent. It was best parve cholent in the Universe, parve
because in 1950ties, some Singers and other vegetarians use to come from
Manhattan to visit family in Boro Park. Yes, those Singers – Yitschak Bashevis
and Yisrael Yehoshua.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Rebetzin’s
Shabes fish – you can smell the town of Belz in that fish – she told me that
she learned the recipe from her mother in law, daughter of the Belzer rebbe.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>But the most
important mida - trait which I observed in the years as a neighbor, was yashrus
-straightforwardness. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>She used to
say – “Good thing you should learn from the pastuch – a simpleton, the bad
thing you </b><b>should not
learn from the rebe.”</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>She didn’t
hesitate to call some of the rabbis – ‘’galuch”.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Well…not the
most pleasing name or description of some leaders in our own fold. Mildly
translated, </b><b>galuch is
the person making a living from spiritual services. But to really understand
the word you should </b><b>ask Yiddish
speaking children.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>I have a
great privilege to befriend some of her grandchildren and of course consider
her son as my </b><b>personal
Rav.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>I understand
how atypical person I am in the Hasidic world in general and in Cheshanov in
particular.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>But I don’t
have to hide or play someone else, there is no inconvenient mold which I have
to push in to.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Thanks to
that yashrus which she implemented in to the following generations I feel at
home.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>She was the
one who asked me almost quarter of century ago to come and open the door.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Rebetzin
with her clear head and straight understanding of life and human characters was
Cheshanover as rest of Cheshanov – she was just Cheshanov</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-87242559861008393482020-03-23T13:00:00.000-04:002020-03-23T13:07:52.750-04:00Freedom of individual<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I can’t believe that it’s been already year since I posted
last time.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I wrote few essays since then and this is one of them. I titled
it “Freedom of individual” as B-H I hope to write separate essay on topic of
Personal Freedom – the Freedom achievable only by progressing control over our
body and heart, guided by commandments of Torah.</b><br />
<b>Below some words about Freedom of Individual or citizen if you will.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>A street of a
European city, could be day, could be after dusk. Four or five story buildings,
some trees on </b><b>the edge of the
sidewalk. Streets paved with cobblestones, sometimes smooth on the surface
sometimes corrugated as they came straight from the riverbed.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>And then the
steps. First quiet but then louder and louder as the somebody walking on the
sidewalk </b><b>progresses
quietly closer toward a rhythmic sound. He can’t turn back, he knows, this
would put him in </b><b>danger. Now
we see the boots and then persons marching with weapons on their shoulders.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Then loud
command – Ausweis bytte, Papiren.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Man and
woman are showing ID’s, but it doesn’t end there.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>One of the
soldiers or policemen are sniffing trough the belongings of the person who a
minute ago was </b><b>walking
minding his or her own business but now he/she is a suspect. For a petty crime,
it can end with a jail sentence or even worse.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>This is a common
scene from many movies that I remember watching as a child depicting the Nazi </b><b>occupation
of Poland. This is how it was described to us, born a few decades after the
war.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Millions of
people were still around who remembered those years of the German fascist invasion.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>When in
December 1981 the Polish communist government instituted a State of War up on
Polish the population, these scenes came to our lives as a generational Deja Vue.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>There was no
doubt in our mind that we had a Nazi like regime reincarnated and now dressed
in the Polish uniforms, asking for our ID in our native language, just as
original Nazis sniffing through our </b><b>belongings.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>After major
riots in the cities, patrols were walking in groups no less the five, two
police and three </b><b>soldiers, in
fear of their own population.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>I will never
forget the scene which I observed from the city bus on the way back from
school.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>The bus
stopped to pick up some passengers, and in the tall grass separating the road
from the sidewalk, a few boys, aged less than ten, were shooting from their
sticks toward such patrol.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>The whole
bus, the whole street burst with laughter. But in less than minute it was in
the air, people </b><b>felt sorry
for the young officers protecting the regime from the hate of the population.
Kind of a hate – pity situation.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Seventeen
days after the Nazis entered Poland from the west, the Red Army took the entire
eastern Poland as it was agreed between Hitler’s and Stalin’s diplomats.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Lvov was a
capital of eastern Galitzia and now become a Soviet city.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Under
communist rule every citizen is supposes to work, not necessarily in the
profession acquired or </b><b>practiced in
the past. Rabbis definitely didn’t have it easy under an atheist government, so
they got </b><b>a profession
which was fitting them somehow or if they got some ‘protektzia’ then some
easier job.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Rabbi Shlomo
Helbershtam, son of Bobover rebbe and after the WWII Bobover rebbe himself, got
that kind of easy profession – a factory guard. His job was to check workers ID
as they were entering the factory as it is a practice in many large businesses
until today.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Soon, the
local population learned the soviet ways of life, stealing became a widespread
practice, including stealing from the factories and places of work.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Reb Shloime
was asked by his supervisors to check the belongings of some workers leaving the
premises of the factory after work hours. The Bobover rebbe refused as he saw
such behavior humiliating and inhumane.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>He didn’t
learn this idea from Voltaire or Kant, it was not a “humanism” where he was
rooted in his ethics.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>It was the Toira
which he learned from his father and grandfather and all the way to the Moishe
and </b><b>Avruchom.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Freedom and
personal dignity is a fundamental Jewish value, indispensable and equal for all
G-ds creations. It is a first condition to even think about service of the
Creator as a Jew and as a Goy.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>We will not
dwell in this place about chalachic ramifications of basic minimums given in
historic </b><b>environment.
We are talking about the idea given first at the time of creation, and then
again as an </b><b>introduction
to Atzeres Hadibres – The Ten Commandments.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>The idea of
personal freedom and human dignity was obvious for the Bobever rebbe, for some
– this backward Jew from a small town in an even more backward Galitzia, Poland.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Not long ago,
I was sitting by a table with bunch of my fellow Americans talking all the
things Americans talk about. I still don’t know much about Baseball or
Football, but I was always hoping that on the other hand, sharing ideas of
American political and social system written in the Declaration of Independence
and Constitution will do.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Then topics
switched to security, and as I was quiet before for lack of knowledge about
sports, now I </b><b>was just stunned
listening where we hold as a society.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>For my
fellow Americans it was fine when the police stop and frisk… as long as this is
not one looking like one of us. It was ok to look in your pockets when you
enter an office building, because who knows.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>It was ok to
take the belt off of your pants in the middle of airport, because…I don’t even
know!<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>I was
horrified that no one is even hinting how to build a society where no one is in
need of ‘protection’.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>No one
analyzed why do we need this ‘protection’, everybody just knew from whom do we
need it – </b><b>from enemies
of our freedom.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>You don’t
have a freedom when security government can listen to your conversations and
look in to </b><b>your
correspondence.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Communists
in Poland under the Martial law were at least informing us that your
conversations are under surveillance. Here, the person who informed us about
surveillance became a political refugee!<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>You don’t
have freedom if the cops can look in your pockets!<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>You don’t
have freedom if TSA can put you in situation where you don’t know what to hold,
your falling </b><b>pants or your
suitcase that is soon to be checked.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>You don’t
have freedom if you deny the same privilege to people living in your or other
countries.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>And no! They
don’t hate us for our freedom, they hate us because we normalize taking their
freedom </b><b>away.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>I will even
go further.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>There is no
freedom if we can’t protect the wellbeing of our citizens, and by wellbeing, I
mean their health and sometimes lives.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>We don’t
have a freedom if we can’t educate our children to prepare them to be
contributing members </b><b>of society,
there is no freedom if we cannot do it using our school taxes in the way we
wish.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>And no, no
parent will send a kid to the school teaching anything against the wellbeing of
the general society, be it a religious or secular school.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>There is no
freedom of an individual or a society, if work of the government is not
reflecting wishes of “we the people”. Instead every politician on every level
of government is only looking how to appease the donor class which by Darwinian
nature, protects only their own interest. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>No freedom
there.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Instead I
was sitting there with my fellow Americans listening to ideas of betterment of
methods of </b><b>security.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b>Only… what
is there to protect and secure?</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-37156022279742325182019-03-22T13:37:00.000-04:002019-03-22T13:37:03.120-04:00Yomim Toivim<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">“This
month will be the beginning of the months for you”</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">PESACH</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">In the
middle of the first month it was declared to us that we are independent people.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Released
from bondage by other human beings we are now in the position to take the route
of our own choice, to shape our own future.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">SFIRAH
and SHVIOS</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The hints
where to go were given, but to get the tool to complete freedom, it takes some
work; some preparation. We got 50 days to climb the steps to be worthy of the
treasure, we got the guidebook to freedom. Now we have freedom not from other
human beings, but freedom from ourselves, our own earthly character.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Freedom
engraved-written on the Tablets containing as the sages explain, all of the
Toira.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Engraving
and freedom spells the same way in Hebrew.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">We said
“Naaseh ve nishma” – “We will do, and we will listen”. </span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">THREE
WEEKS</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">This
declaration and readiness from our side was unprecedented and still is
unprecedented but the gloomy days and weeks of summer came, and we lost it, we
messed up.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">ROSH
CHASHANA</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">The
Awakening came later in the summer. We made a cheshboin haneifesh - the
introspection and its culmination came after a month of preparation at the
beginning of the civil year, on Rosh Choidesh Tishrei, when we accept once more
the Sovereignty of the King.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">YOM
KIPPUR</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">We made a
proper attempt to see ourselves in our full misery and after ten days in anguish
we came to ask for forgiveness. </span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">It was
granted to us.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">SUCCOS</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Now we
were ready to renew our bond to the Giver of life, so we showed our complete
trust going out and living without physical protection for seven days.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">By
dwelling in flimsy structures without a real roof we declared to our Father in
heaven and to humanity our confidence and conviction that He is the one who
protect us from any harm, and we can’t be harmed unless He withdraw His
protection. But we knew that it is ultimately in our own hands. Our deeds have
a power to alternate this protection, i.e. we may, in our</span> <span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">madness</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"> ruin the
pledge of His shield.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">SIMCHAS
TOIRAH</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">At this
moment of the calendar however, we are too high to fail and after the
affliction and cure of Av, Elul and Tishrei we come back to the Source, and
once more in the year we take the gift of Torah to dance with in excitement, to
learn the steps of the ultimate dance of existence</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">CHANNUKACH</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">But first
we must understand that it is not an easy task, that besides our own physical
corruptive powers there are also outside influences. We must see it in clarity
that to fulfill our individual and national task we must carefully separate
ourselves from foreign persuasions. </span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">We don’t
withdraw from the general society to achieve this, quite the opposite, we
declare to the public our confidence in our own values and the power of light
invested in us. We declare the readiness to serve the rest of humanity sharing
the guidelines to achieve a bond with the Creator, a bond that is uncorrupted
by human imagination.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">PURIM</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">If we
achieve this level of understanding…another holiday is given to us, almost at
the end of the year, a holiday closing the cycle and concluding the path we
stepped on still as slaves.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">This one
is a true gift, it reveals all what was hidden till now. And the name of the
Book that we are reading on this day is precisely such “Megilas Esther” -
“Revelation of the Hidden”.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Of
course, to get to the heights of this last Yom Tiv we must properly follow and
prepare ourselves through all the days preceding Purim. Otherwise we will
experience a superficial day of rigid commandments with a slight taste of fun.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">What we
will miss is the understanding of what the mask is really hiding, what is the
true character of reality.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Mathematics,
chemistry, biology and music are declaring unfathomable harmony in every aspect
of the creation, a harmony impossible without the hidden hand of the Creator.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Theoretical
physics are telling us that all three-dimensional surroundings exist against
the very same laws that keep this world in existence; that what we see, and
experience is nothing but a mask showing or declaring existence but behind the
mask there is Truth. Hints of it is given to us in the form of this mask.</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><b>If you
are not ready for them, you don’t have to go to Sifrey Kabula to understand,
that this world is just a virtual reality serving one and only purpose – to
find the way back to Eden.</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-46655115408280087672019-03-04T10:12:00.000-05:002019-03-04T10:12:51.871-05:00From Alturas to San Francisco, or from San Francisco to Alturas?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>B-H<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In my previous essay I suggested to look for this writing as
it is also inspired by the city of San Francisco.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I wrote this essay four years ago but for some unknown
reason, I never had it published.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>So …here it is: <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state>
is not the state where I usually work. Nevertheless, I was quite happy to find
myself in that state at a time when my fellow New Yorkers were experiencing a
few weeks of snow blizzards, followed by ice storms. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Alturas is a town that has quite a distance from any other
town and requires at least a two hours’ drive to or from its nearest neighbor.
Due to the higher altitude, it can be quite cold over there. In Spanish,
Alturas means ‘higher place.’ <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Interestingly, the main route, Route 59, in my home town of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Monsey</st1:place></st1:city> shares the name
with this Californian, predominantly Bask and Native American settlement. But Route 59 in NY is
quite flat and its altitude is not too high, geographically speaking. I guess
something else puts Monsey on a higher plane.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The day after I left Alturas the town was shut down due to a
tribal dispute that took the lives of four individuals. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A few days later I was at a business meeting in a store in
downtown <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San Francisco</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>While my customer perused my merchandise, I observed the
street through the front glass window. Maybe 25 feet in front of my line of
vision, there was a fellow seated on the sidewalk. With worn clothing and tired
eyes, this unusually skinny Caucasian man in his mid twenties was sitting there
without any support to his back. Somebody brought him some cookies to eat, but
what he was doing there was simply watching. Watching a busy street of a big
city. People were rushing in all directions, cars were passing by, trolleys were
ringing their bells while making squeaky noises on the tracks that were barely
visible upon the pavement of the street.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>He was seated there and just watching.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>That could have been me a little bit over thirty years ago.
In a politically different reality but a visually similar tableau, people were
walking, running, and chasing something that they will never manage to catch in
their lifetimes. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In the brief hippie period of my life, I used to sit on the
sidewalk or in the mall or at a train station and just watch. I studied people’s
walks and tried to understand where all of them were going and where I myself
should go.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Now, on that street in San Francisco, a few groups of
hippies passed whose appearances were vastly familiar to me. They looked like
relics of the sixties, with long hair, loose garish clothing, and badly in need
of a shower. I was sadly reminded of my own hippie phase. For a while, I saw being
a flower child as an alternative to the conformist society in which the individual
didn’t really count and in which rules were forms of restriction.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There I sat in the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San
Francisco</st1:place></st1:city> business district, a part of the soulless
business world. Am I soulless? I would be, if not for those memories and whole
new set of convictions.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Then I noticed someone on the street going from business to business,
even stopping passersby on the sidewalk. In a plastic cup he had something that
looked like a piece of worthless polished brass, but apparently, he thought he
had some precious metal to sell. In his daydream, perhaps this man already counted
the money he earned from his sale and imagined all it would buy him. But in
reality, everyone else saw something very different in this object of his
affection. While he saw treasure in his cup, they saw only a cupful of despair.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I looked at the man, but he couldn’t return my glance, for
his eyes kept shifting in all directions. They could not stop and focus on
anything for longer than a second. He was on drug hunger; his young but
plowed-with-pain face showed everything. There was no human anymore inside of
that human-looking shell, but just an animal chasing after something which
would fill the emptiness that caused him to look for artificial happiness in
the first place. But now, the very result of </b><b>the</b><b> chemical consciousness enhancements
was this vacuum - a vacuum of humanness, a vacuum of self-consciousness, a vacuum
of anything but the animalistic hunger. He was not chasing after a moment of happiness
anymore; now he was only chasing after a moment of forgetfulness, in his desire
to kill the pain.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I remember from the shiurim of Rabbi Avigdor Miller zt'l,
when he often spoke about our Tzelem Elokim. He said that most people still
maintain their Tzelem Elokim – their likeness to G-d - which gives them the
potential to climb toward a higher spiritual experience and ultimately to
higher spiritual existence. But it was clear from his statement that there are
also some two-legged, vertical standing creatures that have lost it. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I didn’t understand it then, I didn’t ask, even though I
could have submitted my question anonymously on a piece of paper, as it was
customary to give to Rabbi Miller after his shiur. To this day, I still don’t
know exactly what he meant. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Is it possible for a human being to lose it all? To lose his
soul?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Rashi says clearly that what makes us different from other
Nefesh Chai is our intellect and speech. But intellect and speech are only two
of the tools to the greatest gift of our Creator – free choice. It is free
choice which empowers our Tzelem Elokim. Intellect, along with our means of communication,
is just the necessary apparatus without which choice would be impossible. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Are there any Bnai Adam – children of man - who lost the
ability for free choice? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I would imagine that a person like the one I described a few
lines above is such an individual; but can I say it with certainty? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>No. I can’t. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Neither I, nor any other human being has the tools to
evaluate the balance between chemical intoxication and the intoxication of our <st1:stockticker w:st="on">DNA</st1:stockticker>, hormones, and other natural factors which our
decisions are influenced by. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We don’t have the tools to measure someone else’s level of
intellect to ascertain if it is high functioning enough to overpower the
desires of the heart and make them submissive to the intellect, as Sefer
HaTanya describes it. This battle between Saichel and Lev is our work of life. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Can we give this evaluation to ourselves? I think this is the
first and most basic condition for any spiritual progress in our lives. We must
find who we are, and where we are in our lives; which direction we should follow
and which utensils we should use. But the most important necessity is our acknowledgment
of the One above and our imploration to Him for guidance and help.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In Parshas Netzuvim we learn: “I have set before you life
and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life… - Ivuchartu bachaim.” Many
before have directed our attention to the fact that it doesn’t say – choose
between life and death, but simply ‘choose life.’ <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It seems to me, that when we are choosing, when we are using
our faculty of Bechira – free choice, the benefit can only be life. But when we
follow our desires, when we succumb to our hearts, our bodily requests, we are
not choosing at all! We just follow what our body tells us to do, engaging
intellect only in the process of justification to see ourselves in a better
light than just as thoughtless beasts! <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Who are we in times like this? Are we the Tzelem Elokim when
we put His gift of Bechira aside? Is our intellect serving the purpose of analyzing
reality and following the will of our Creator, the purpose for which life was
given to us in the first place? Is our speech used to express where intellectual
process leads us, and do we use it to inspire and encourage our fellowmen to do
the same – to make choices?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Self-evaluation is a fundamental condition to any effort in
our life, any meaningful work.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>And this is the only way to get to ‘higher places.’<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<br />Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-86011593789362148382019-01-19T23:48:00.001-05:002019-01-19T23:48:09.321-05:00Beirut<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b> B-H</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Few years ago, at one of our Bnai Abraham meetings, a newly
returned Baal Tshuva attended. His name was Shimon.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Oh! I didn’t explain what Bnai Avraham is? Well, it is
nothing, it was an attempt to create an environment where primarily gerim and also
Baaley Tshuva can come and share experiences; like for example the integration
with their FFB’s communities and all kind of other struggles.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Anyhow…<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Shimon was ex member of the Israeli commando. He was sent by
his government to kill some terrorists in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>With great pride, he told us the details of his actions
including the fact that after the mission came to an end, he came to the
conclusion that since he was one of the two out of twenty commandos who survived,
that it was a suicide mission. It caused him to think about life … about the gift
of life, about the Giver himself.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>For almost an hour in some quiet home in Boro Park, the room
was filled with smoke, the loud noise of machine guns, the smell of sweat and
human blood. His English was good enough to describe his experience with
details describing the death of his enemies and friends. But also, his
miraculous survival. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It was painful to hear that he still took some amount of
pride from the fact that he killed human beings, people who he didn’t know.
Somebody’s husbands, fathers, uncles, brothers. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I was afraid to ask if there were any wives, mothers,
sisters, aunts…children. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The action took place in an apartment building and everybody
in the way got eliminated. Or as they call killing in the nice way.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I met Arieh not long ago. Arieh was someone whose experience
was similar to that of Shimons. In his early fifties he lives in California for
around thirty years. Although he was covered with thick layers of tattoos on
his skin, I saw a precious Jewish soul yearning to connect with what was taken
from him in his youth – the connection with his G-d. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Being on the sharp curve of his life he told me:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“I can’t take it off of my body but, I am telling you, when
I get my stuff in order, I will go to the mikva. I will let my beard grow, and also
my payos. I will not hide my connection to Hashem. I want everybody to see the
kedusha. I will keep Shabes and eat only kosher and put tefilin every day. May
Hashem help me…”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I wish him the koach - strength and providence to straighten
his life up and fulfill his desire that he expressed while choking on tears. Seeing
him like this was enough for me to appreciate the Yidishe Neshuma at work once
more.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We shared some difficult life experiences and I asked him in
a delicate way, how he got to where he is.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>He was also a member of the commandos with a mission in
Beirut.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>They sent us to die – he told me – we were doing crazy
things there…<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“After that, I told myself I will not defend this f… country
I will not let my children do it either. It was crazy…” hes said.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Exactly a week after my encounter with Arieh, I met the
senior rabbi who visited President Reagan in his oval office a few days after
blowing up an American military base in Beirut by Hezbollah militants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some two hundred young people who were told
that they are going to defend their country had died there. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The rabbi, when mentioning Hezbollah used some words that we
usually add when talking about our enemies, like those who caused many Jewish deaths,
physical or spiritual forms of death.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I raised my head in wonder but kept my tongue behind my
teeth, out of respect and due to the presence of other people I didn’t ask –
Who sent those kids to Beirut? Isn’t it the capital of the other country? If our
American fighters would defend Spokane for example, from North Korean invaders,
would we call them terrorists? Why did we get involved? Is a war our Jewish business?
Don’t we comprehend that this is the two sides of the same coin, with the
picture of the straight sword on one side and a curved sword on the other?
Eisav’s and Yishmael’s swords?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Shimon’s and Arieh’s government told them to go and kill.
Kill the enemies before they kill you.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But they didn’t know those people! <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Jewish principal of self defense applies only when there
is situation of life endangerment, but it can <u>not be used</u> as a practical
application of Von Clausevitz doctrine! <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Talmud teaches clearly. When you hear the noise and find
someone digging under you house you are allowed killing him in self-defense
since you can suspect his worst intentions. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u>When you see someone digging – taking action</u>, there
is no time for negotiation, it is to late, your life is only what you have, and
you should defend it even if the cost is the life of another human being. At that
moment his life has no value since he intends to spill human blood. However, <u>intentions
alone</u> can never serve as a justification to kill!<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Before Yaacov met his brother Eisav, The Torah says that he
was afraid, and he was in distress.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Rashi explains – He was afraid for his life and his family,
but he was in distress that perhaps he will have to take a human life.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What are we doing
there… in Beirut… and other places…?</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-89115589388779095402018-09-27T13:53:00.002-04:002019-01-19T23:52:21.926-05:005th of July part 2<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b> B-H</b><br />
<b>This essay will be a continuation of my series of essays
under the common title of 5<sup>th</sup> of July.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In this new essay I will stay in the same political mood,
this essay will be a really sad one, for such is the political and social
situation of our country in general and our religious group in subject of
politics in particular.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I hope to write for the people who don’t despise democracy
because it sounds as the name of the Democratic Party, or politically opposite
group being fooled by the same name believing that the Democratic party
represents democratic values.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Both of those assumptions are wrong.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Siding with the Republican party doesn’t make you anti
democracy, because a republic or democracy, or rather representative democracy are
essentially the same political system. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I’m sorry to explain those basic facts and please don’t feel
like someone stupid, but unfortunately there are people among us, who are
completely ignorant on those topics and as such they are extremely vulnerable to
manipulation. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>As I said in my previous essay, it pains me that it is
happening to the nation who lived through all possible political systems through
history and by this fact alone, we Jews should understand better.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>And yet, even among us there are masses of people who are
lacking basic education on the reality which may affect their lives like no
other factors but they are completely ignorant and ignoramus in politics.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>And yet…as every Jew, they have an opinion or… few of them.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This is not postulate to include political science in to our
Chedurim and Yeshivos for Gemara and Meforshim give enough education on these
topics, rather it is postulate to the Jewish media to stop selling B./ taken
straight from outside manipulative propaganda machine and deliver it to unsuspecting
Jewish mases, as well as many times, to my horror, shaping political views of
our leaders.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I understand that for the good of our community we may
support right or left wing of the ruling corporate party. But please stop
pretending that this is what a democracy is about, or a republic looks like.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I will try to give a few examples showing that no conscience
Jew can fully associate him/her selves with any of the two wings of the current
government i.e. Democratic or Republican party.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Let’s start with the very emotional topic of abortion.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>As many of us, I also wonder how the subject of killing
babies could be a matter of political discourse in any country and without
doubt I support saving those lives by means of appropriate legislature.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But at the same time, I consider lives of Iraqi, Afghan or
Libyan babies equally sacred, created by the same Giver of life as American
babies. Those foreign babies have mothers, fathers, uncles, brothers, sisters,
aunts, grandparents and all others from the same street and neighborhood, who
are killed with the support of the politicians playing on your sentiments but
pretending to be life protectors. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Party that advertise itself as pro-life, supports wars
serving their patrons mostly economic and only sometimes political gains. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I will not support such a party.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I will not support a party that made many of my fellow Jews
believe that the second amendment to American Constitution is Toira de Oraisa.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>People kill, that’s’ right. But they kill more effectively
with weapons or even better with semiautomatic weapon. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>How any G-d fearing person, not to say Jew, could support
such a law as a second amendment in its present understanding? Not going in to
the details, that the second amendment does not say about the possession of the
any kind of weapon or possession of weapon itself. Read it, then we can discuss
the topic. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>How any Christian person who read the Gospel at least once
in his/her life could be supportive of any walls on any borders? How lehavdil a
Jew who learns from Pirkey Uvois (Avot) that midda of “what is mine is mine
what is yours is yours” is Midda of Sedom can talk about so called security of
borders? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>How anyone with brain in the scull can be a racist???<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I know. They scare you with terrorists, gangs, rapist and
such.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>They always do it. Then they could pull you on a string like
a puppy looking for the protection of his owner. You are not the owner in this
case.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Don’t get under the impression that this is some
leftist/liberal propaganda what I write. I’m neither on the so called Right or
so called Left on the illusion of a political spectrum.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>As I said before and probably will say it again – don’t get
fooled by the wrestling match which they performing to give you an impression
that you have a choice. If they really would like to give you a choice they would
allow all political candidates to talk to the public and not only a few
selected by them to appear in the corporate media. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>For example – A 5% limit doesn’t allow presidential
candidates with less than 5% support to debate in presidential debates. What is
5% is designated by private media companies owned by the same people who
deliver those debates to you and ultimately deliver to you candidates to choose
from.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If you don’t understand – this is not a democracy nor a
republic.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I don’t support the Democratic Party for they are just a fig
leaf on the erva of the political system which is pretending it represents the
same values and mechanisms as the founding fathers of this country designed.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>They are talking about protecting the working class of this
nation which are the real builders of prosperity of this country and yet
‘democrats’ the same as ‘republicans’ support any legislature that helps to
suck more blood from the veins of the population. Their talk about middle class
or working class is nothing but anesthesia which like all parasites infuse in
your body that you don’t feel the sting which you blood is being sucked through.
<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In the last presidential election, “Democrats” tried to
install in the White House someone whose essence was about selling herself to
the highest bidder, but to win votes of the masses she was talking sleazy talk
about the suppressed and how she is the only one to help fight income
inequality and other problems affecting our economy and our nation.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>She was talking about peace and yet send weapons to rebel
groups in Syria and helping Saudis siege of Yemen. She bombed Libya just to
show her strong hand in bid for presidential position.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Because of lies on such a level now we have to deal with an impulsive,
illiterate, immoral tenant of the White house who accidently won the election
against the desires of the true owners of this country. So far, he has just enough
brains to do his best to appease them to keep to his toy position.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I met many people, especially in the West, people who are
all about “family values”, they told me – yes, I voted for him… but with
fingers on my nose.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I can understand this kind of attitude. I understand anger
with the political establishment which anyhow is only a façade for the real
rulers of this nation, class of owners who need a political apparatus to keep the
masses calm.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What I don’t understand, is the almost unconditional and
many times enthusiastic support for this lowlife in the White House, narcissist
with mentality of a badly spoiled 5 years old and not much more intellect. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There is no Mikva which can be used to meatachor tuma of
supporting current president in such enthusiastic manner or even supporting him
at all. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>You still have another choice – stop giving them legitimacy
pretending that we have free elections. We don’t. We have socially engineered
elections. This last presidential elections, social engineering worked only
partially and a person who was not the prime choice of the ruling class got
elected. Most probably this was also the case in the previous presidential
elections, but the last president also learned quickly how to serve his
masters.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>For example – Democrats did have the absolute majority to
provide this nation with the healthcare system assuring that no American will
go bankrupt or die because of lack of money. They didn’t. The so-called
Obamacare was another gift to insurance corporations and the pharmaceutical
industry.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Bush left the country with two wars, Obama with his
secretary of State added another five.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Bush legalized torture, Obama decided to use extrajudicial
executions including killing American citizens without due process.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Bush did not allow off shore drilling, Obama did.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Bush designed a so-called Road Map for peace in the Middle
East, Obama gave Israeli government 10 billion $ for weapons and under his
watch almost half million settlers moved in to what was supposed to be the
Palestinian State. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I know that the way how I put the last issue may anger some
of my readers but I’m not a supporter of the so called Two State Solution and
this is not a topic of this essay anyhow.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The fact is that by all means, the Democratic party proved
their faithful service to their sponsors and never represented those who voted
for them.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What is the solution for the quagmire which we find
ourselves in it?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I don’t know at the moment.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But please let me tell you from my own experience. As a 10
years old boy I was growing up in a communist country where the ruling party
wanted people to believe that they acting as protectors of the working class;
at the same time communists were sending the police forces to pacificate
striking factories and beating people demanding basic human rights.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Communist propaganda wanted me to accept an artificial
reality in mine and other communist countries. When I learned the truth about
power abuse in 1976, this was first year of my personal emancipation which
ultimately lead me to find freedom in Toira and Mitzvois. The way was long, but
my dream about all people being free and being free to serve their Creator is
still in my mind and on my heart.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>First step on the path to freedom is awareness that you are
slave, you are owned primarily by you own desires but again… this is not the topic
of this essay. You are owned by the other creatures pretending to be human
beings but essentially being human-form expressions of the power of the Other
Side. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In deep sense, they are the Other Side.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I know…it needs explanation. But I touched some deeper level
of awareness I don’t feel strong enough to write the depths of this topic.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Let’s stay here, where I ask to first be aware that you are
manipulated, owned and soothed in this matrix of Oilom Hasheker on so many
levels. Please awake your awareness at least on the level of politics and
personal freedom as native of the country which as the first of all countries,
offered idea of freedom to all of its citizens as an ideal.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is hard to imagine that the ruling class will allow the
vote that will undermine their own interest.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>People giving face (politicians, media and more) to the
ruling class are being paid and the powers paying them will do everything
including bloodshed to protect their superior interests. They don’t respect any
human being, foreign or domestic. They will fool and send your sons and daughters
to die, and kill if they can show off with larger numbers on their accounts in
their country club or on the golf course.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>They will tax you, lying to your eyes that it is good for
you and you will believe them. You think you are smarter that this? They are
doing it already for a long time. I know …it sucks to admit that you got
fooled…it sucks more to be fooled even further.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What is called today “American Government” will not change
the laws allowing to pay for elections or to reward politicians and other
officials by different forms of bribery like trips and other free stuff,
handouts – If you like.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Members of all three branches of government are benefitting
from all forms of bribery. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The best what they did so far, they disclose some of this
bribery but that’s only another attempt to pretend that this is how democracy
works and what they do is democracy.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is not.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In representative democracy, we elect administrators of our
town, county or country and we pay them accordingly and fire when they are not
fulfilling tasks which we the people put them in position to do.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We the people overlooked when we gave ownership of this
country to a handful of its today’s owners and their puppet politicians against
our interest, and they will not give it back willfully.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The closest in recent years to get out of this quagmire was
possibility of electing president who run on the platform of getting money out
of politics. With popular leader, I believe it would be possible.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Neither Ron Paul or Bernie Sanders were strong enough to
break through their own parties controlling establishment. But they got a
chance to shake the political system with postulate of eliminating legal corruption.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I’m not sure if they would be able to change to much but at
least there would be an opportunity to catalyze the nation in the direction
toward Democracy.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Our Country needs a revolution.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Revolution like the first one which brought this nation into
existence.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>My personal stand is, that no human blood should be spilled
in the process. After all I’m pacifist.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Rav Hirsch wrote about the Napoleonic campaign in his essay
on the 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the Battle of the Nations, that even
events that are not aligned with Biblical ethics, like war itself, can lead
toward the advancement of society in the area of ethics and social ethics.
Bonaparte was a bloody dictator but by putting on his banners, slogans of the French
revolution he spread the idea of equality and personal freedom among the
nations of Europe.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Then came the Spring of the Nations, and then Positivism in
literature, and after came the regress of 2 wars and act of murder comparable
only to the first act of violence in the history which was killing Abel by his
brother Cain.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Why do I see the Holocaust as such? I Can’t answer this in
this essay, it is long enough.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>After WWII, the United Nations was created and Europe
experienced a few decades of Peace first time in its History.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>At the beginning of this positive advance of civilization was
the French and American revolutions. Those revolutions are still in progress
and there will be setbacks, no doubt about it; but much less human blood is
being spilled than it used to be in the past and that’s good enough.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>America has its own sins to consider.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>After revolution came the extermination of the native people
of this land. Then kidnaping and enslavement of African people. Those are the
two big sins of this nation but the list is much longer.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Nevertheless, some steps were made to recognize and repair
the depravities against the Native Americans.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Some steps were made to repair the crime against black
people of our country. Still much must be done.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This itself shows that there is progress in social thought,
even some back steps are happening at the same time. Allowance of murder of an
unborn human being is not a positive development. Undermining the existence of a
basic cell of our society, which is family, by propagating what I call
Hollywood antifamily values and homosexuality as normal human behavior, are
deeply regressive. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>And one more powerful statement from now from Jewish
American <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">thinker
Avram Noam Chomsky - “<span style="background: white; color: black;">If the
Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have
been hanged</span>”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>That’s almost devastating but thanks G-d, there is more
awareness regardless of all attempts to confuse and divide the American people.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Political and social streams go in cycles.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>One such cycle was 60/70ties, but social and political
awakening was calmed and even pacified in the following decades by giving
people even more s… on TV to choose from and six pack available.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Political and moral awareness awaked again in some degree
when the powers ruling this country decided to destroy Iraq and destabilize the
Middle East.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Many of us knew what is being sold to the American
population in order to gain support or to calm them.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>For some it was the well lubricated propaganda machine for
others, the ability to buy stuff for credit as the banks were giving money
without checking to whom.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I don’t believe it was only the banks greed to do so, there
was also a push from the government which is not only banks who owns it, there
are many other groups of interest who wanted to calm Americans.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Revolution cannot happen without awareness and awareness
cannot develop without information.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Previous decade was the last one where TV and press
machine was able to keep everything under control while giving you a mirage of
political discourse.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There was no political discourse out of limits which would
endanger control of means in hands of the owners of this country.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Internet broke the status quo.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Internet brought back the freedom of information which was
granted to Americans as a part of Democracy.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Unfortunately, the same people who kept control using media for
the past decades, they are working day and night to use the internet in the
same manner.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>They may succeed as partially they already did. Don’t
forget, Gates and Zuckerberg are now part of the Club, co-owners of the country
with tools in their hands to protect their class interest and allow their class
to skim you further.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I hope that those few years when they were behind in
developing new mechanisms of manipulation and control, this gap will be enough
for the rest of us Americans to wake up and revolt.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I do not call, G-d forbid, for any blood or other harm to
any human beings. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I hope that we are closer to the time that rabbi Nachman of
Breslow called the era when people will be ashamed of killing others in wars,
like it is shameful to bow in the front of the idol of clay, wood or gold. I
don’t think we are there yet but according to the Nuvim – Jewish Prophets, this
is ultimate goal of Humanity – recognition of the Creator and man as His
Creation.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The revolution which I call for can happen by using existing
political mechanisms of our country.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We can find candidates who will deny and denounce money in
politics and vote only for them.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It can happen even within the framework of the two-party
system. Bernie Sanders case showed that it is possible to bring a candidate
from out of the two-party system if necessary.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I personally don’t care much which party would be used to
bring such politicians in order to destroy the current system. Once we will get
to Democracy, we will sort what is right and as I mentioned, I believe that an
informed society, led by intellectual leaders can make right decisions at
voting boots.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The other way to rebel is to stop voting at all. Bring
attendance to elections to single digits taking all legitimacy from the ruling
class and bring the system to a crush.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What would such a crush would bring? I don’t know, but at
least I hope, no life would be lost in the process.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Of course, only one of the options can be chosen and
propagated in order for a revolution to win - choosing candidates which
election would depend on donations from the citizens and not corporations or
complete boycott of the elections.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What about us, Jews faithful to Hashem and His Toira?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We were never completely out of political realm of the
countries which HBH send us to in our dispersion but neither willingly into the
center of politics.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We are obligated by the prophets and sages to pray for the
welfare of the place where we live. Rav Hirsch explicitly advises that we
should participate in the political process in the direction bringing G-dly
values in to society. Democracy is the system which he sees as a means to
achieve this goal and in that sense, the ultimate Goal of the History itself.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There are and will be differences among the Jews regarding
these topics as it will be among our other fellow Americans. But once more,
nothing can progress without first raising awareness. For us the first step is
to cease to deliver official propaganda under Jewish roofs.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>That’s point of start and then we will see how again we can
serve as yeast for the nations or maybe even light.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-76080959617462501172018-07-05T00:30:00.000-04:002019-01-19T23:52:48.563-05:005th of July part 1<b> B-H</b><br />
<b>In my series of the essays with the same title “4<sup>th</sup>
of July” I wrote that I will come back to the topic of the influence of
Biblical ethics on American political system.</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In my essays, I showed one of the possible links between the
moral teaching of the Toirah and the model of society based on the social ideas
left to humanity by the Jewish Prophets, starting from Moishe Rabayni, aka
Moses trough all prophets of Jewish Scriptures as well as Jewish ethics
contained in Christian writings.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is known to virtually all historians that the Ideas and
Ideologies of Jewish Ethics influenced members of Abrahamitic religions, what
is today more than half of Humanity. It is also recognized that Jewish Ethics
disseminated much behind borders of those religions. Without going into
details, In my essays I mentioned major political and social thinkers like John
Locke and Voltaire. As precursor of Humanism, Voltaire considered himself a
warrior against ancient and ‘irreverent Biblical writings’, nevertheless he was
under strong influence of religious group of “Polish Brothers” which based
their theology and social thought on the teachings of the Bible. Some,
especially in modern times, talk about him as the father of atheism even though
he declared that the existence of the Creator is self-evident.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In the chain of political thought, the Founding Fathers of
our country created a political system which had no precedence in the history
of the mankind. The American government is supposed to be elected by the people
and serve the public rather than a ruler. Until the American and French
revolutions, sometimes the only qualification to rule the country was lineage
or in some cases lineage of a group electing their ruler. Monarchs in turn
nominated officials to control and tax the population for the benefit of the
government which they – the kings - together with nobility owned.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The American Declaration of Independence and American
Constitution was calling for the recognition of all human beings as equally
created by G-d and as such free individuals are not subject to the government
but rather the right owners of the country electing its administrators from
among themselves.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In this model, all elected officials and those nominated by
the elected officials, officers or judges, were nothing more than honored
servants of the American society.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The three branched government in this model of the government
was overseen by the free independent media with its main goal to inform and
even to educate the general population. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Only informed and educated, with the top abilities of
intellectual powers voter, can make a conscience decision in the election
process choosing individuals which in his or later her mind will serve the
people in the best way on all levels of the governmental structure – from local
to presidential elections.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>That was the idea and ideal which was for over two centuries
followed by all countries adopting democracy as their political system.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Different countries crafted their democracies according to the
local culture, mentality or history, but the idea of the government “From the
people, by the people and for the people” was and still is attractive to many
nations around the world and in many countries. In some places democracy was
applied with success while in other countries it was suppressed by dictatorial
powers or a manipulation of powers maintaining their domination and privileges
rather than applying a democracy in full measure. Some countries were corrupted
from within while other places, the democracy or democratic development were
suppressed by outside powers protecting their own interest.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In this essay, I will write about a country that is close to
my heart, the country that gave me freedom to be who I chose to be, the country
that I live in, and till Messianic advent or my death, want to live in –The
United States of America.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This one sentence contains in short, the story of the
Beginnings written in the first chapters of the Bible as well as it is
quintessence of the moral teachings of Jewish Scriptures when understood
correctly.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I’m aware that this disclaimer may make some readers uneasy
but please don’t forget that millions of people lost their life killed in the
name of G-d while G-d obviously has nothing to do with it. There is a need for
correct understanding of the Scriptures. Too many times murderers and dictators
are using verses of the Bible and lehavdil other holly scriptures to abuse, to
grab, to conquer and to kill.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is not the subject of this essay to explain the Bible and
the events or ethics described there but I rather want to write here about what
happened after the 5<sup>th</sup> of July i.e. how the American Constitution
was implemented and where the so called American Experiment holds today. I’m
not the first and not the only one but I hope to contribute to this topic from
my own peculiar point of view.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I planned to write this essay a few years ago but writing is
not the occupation that is the priority of my life at this moment, and my plans
were pushed away in time.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Most of what I wanted to write about was rather obscure knowledge
of a few who observe and understand political events in historical perspective
and in context of political ideas and writings.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In other words – there were only a few people who understood
what was supposed to be and what is, our democracy and how it went astray.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>To all those who shape their political views on popular
shows on TV or Radio, I will tell you this: this is not on your level and if
you want to understand more you will have to make a greater effort in order to
increase your political savyness. I would suggest to familiarize yourself with
at least a few articles from Wikipedia on the basic terms of political
language, but ideally a few books on the history of the political systems would
be a must.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If you still want to read this essay you will have to agree
at the end or challenge me with facts and your knowledge.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“All men are created equal”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>For almost two centuries and even till now it is idea which
is misunderstood by many of our citizens.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>People of dark skin were enslaved in this country for almost
a hundred years. For almost another hundred years, black or indigenous men
didn’t have voting rights, and was considered an unequal citizen in many
measures. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Till now even after we got our first black president, in
parts of the country or society, black lives matter less than white. Latinos,
Asians and people Native to this land from pre-Columbian times are
systematically treated as unequal by many, including the government apparatus.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Native Americans were killed a mass from the very beginning
of existence of the American Democracy.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Extermination of Native people is one of the most horrible
acts of mass killing in the history of mankind.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>All perpetrated in the name of “Manifest Destiny” in the
name of domination of white European immigrants and their descendants. In this
understanding, American Indians were not a part of the human race, the same as
other people of color.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Woman didn’t have voting rights till a few decades ago and
as today regardless of their input to the economy women are being paid much
less than man even doing the same work.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This and in fact much more, clearly shows that the understanding
of word ‘equal’ was challenging to our ancestors and it is misunderstood to
many contemporaries.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>All human beings are created equal, those living in our land
and those in the rest of the world.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Separation of State and Church which I wrote about in my
other essays, is a fundamental condition of democracy, where the religion of
the members of society or this society clerks or officials should not be taken
under any consideration in the election process. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>After all it does not matter to what religious confession a police
officer, judge, the lady in the ticket window or president of United States
belongs to. Their task is to serve the people according to the rules developed
from within this society. As I wrote above, it is imperative for the society to
be informed and educated and not manipulated by cultural, economic, or
political powers. If not restrained by the law those ‘powers’ misinform for
their own benefit and to keep their privileges.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Democracy without moral leaders guiding them, is not
beneficial for society whatsoever. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In my religious view, Morality should be based on the Divine
Revelation but I understand that this ideal would be rejected by many, on the
base of the same Separation of State and Church which I strongly believe in. I
understand such rejection.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>However, I have enough trust in the men, the educated men or
women, men who with intellectual powers alone can detect and understand what
serves society in the best way. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I have no doubt, that morality of such men would be parallelly
known to us as Sheva Mitzvois Bnai Noah.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This is how it was understood by Rav S. R. Hirsch and as
such is a part of revelation. This is also an idea known to many contemporary
social tinkers perhaps starting from Kant and not ending with Chomsky.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Without imposing any official religion on society or its
officers it is possible to maintain civility and consensus. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Yet, election after election, the issue of the religion of
the candidate is brought to discussion.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I have to admit, it was big surprise to me after moving to
America, because by European standards of democracy it would be unthinkable to
talk about a candidate’s religion.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Religious bias in any direction must be excluded from civil
democratic society - in the election process or service of the elected to
electorate. The same with service of nominated or hired public servants to the
voters i.e. people.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Unfortunately, the issue of religious bias is another aspect
of inequality of members of American society.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>From one side, some Christian denominations and its members
in political environment are trying to impose their agenda on all citizens of
this country. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>From the other side, malicious anti religionism of some
personal enemies of G-d, are destroying the moral fabric of this nation built
on Biblical values which protect human life and existence of family as the
central nucleus of a healthy society. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There is no contradiction in last two sentences. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If family values and value of human life and dignity would
have a different source than religion I would still support them as they are
parallel to my religious values. But historically there is no other source.
Another words, I consider those values beneficial for society regardless of the
source even I hold the Source in the highest esteem. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is known to me that there will be those who would like to
put to the basket of ‘inequality’ some other groups like for example so called
“sexual minorities”. I consider persecution or discrimination resulting from sexual orientation
unamerican and unconstitutional however as religious Jew I have my Chalachic
and Chashkafic guidelines which I don’t compromise. Idea of marriage of the
same sexes is absurd the same way as other combinations of willing to marry
including siblings and other forms of incest. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I would rather exclude the institution of marriage from
jurisdiction of the government than turn the sacred agreement between husband
and wife to parody of it. Civil issues between people desiring to hold a common
household should be treated as such, without the aspect of sacrum which in
today’s obviously misguided society is losing its meaning.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This digression should close the topic for now.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I would like to focus rather on the idea of democracy
itself.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The issue of when, where and how we lost it, I would leave
to historians as I have limited time and expertise in this area.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What I want to write here is rather the description of the current
situation in our country which is nothing but a democracy. The fact that I can
talk about it openly without fear of persecution is of course way better than the
Soviet domination which I experienced in my youth, but freedom of my words does
not make or prove existence of a political system dreamed by Jefferson, Adams
and other Founding Fathers.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>American and French revolutions took power and in parted
ownership of the elites and gave it to the members of society. For a while. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This was not the case of Bolshevik or other communist
revolutions where private ownership was annulled, and new communist elites took
the control into their hands soon after physically eliminating the old elites.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The American
revolution and its ideas gave people power of self-governing without
eliminating the rich or taking their possessions. The idea was rather to give
equal political power to all members of society regardless of their wealth. The
Founding fathers believed clearly that equal rights will create an economically
balanced society. Government must create conditions and organized itself in the
way that will maintain Safety and Happiness.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Dollar is not supposed to be a factor in the political
process as it becomes an infringement of equality of the citizens.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In such democracy, without money buying political power, it
would be possible to model a just society where the owner of the business has
to pay his workers decent wages according to the rules of the free market but
with assuring that all members of the society are benefiting from their work
and input to the economy. The laws would be designed to keep sacred private
ownership but at the same time democratically elected politicians would stand
for the working class ensuring this classes well-being.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In Justice society those who are unable for any reason to
contribute to the economy would be supported from the taxes of all other
productive members of the society according to the taxation system worked out
in democratic process.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is unimaginable that any member of human race, any
citizen of our country should suffer poverty or die because of lack of economic
input independent of his or her ability.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If anybody understand “Right to Life” otherwise I doubt his
or her humanness. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“What is mine is mine what is yours is yours” is
characteristic which our sages described people of Sedom.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Idea of Democracy was always dangerous for wealth and
privileges of the elites, especially after the American and French revolutions.
<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We are not taking about wealth that is the result of work,
ingenuity or even the gift of wealthy parents, for private possession should be
sacred in any civilized society. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Wealth assuring better quality of life for those who
acquired or received the wealth in the lawful manner is a fundamental right. It
is obvious however, for society based not on Darwinian ‘laws’ but on ideas of
justice and compassion, that as the part of the broader society, Wealthy have the
obligation to pay their workers or pay the taxes in the amounts agreed in the democratic
process. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In practice – The Idea of allowing members of the working
body of large corporations in a decision process is the right the direction to
follow. Other desirable form of ownership in case of large corporations is of
course co-operation.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>On the other side<span style="color: #92d050;"> </span>exist absolute pathological possession of wealth and
power, at the cost of the majority of the citizens.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What if the elites don’t want to participate in the burden
of citizenship or simply want to squeeze the population in the most efficient
for the elites’ manner? And yet they are restricted by the rules designed by
visionaries who wrote the Constitution of this country giving people Rights?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Such elites developed the political system which we are
living in today.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The money is being made by different industries which all of
them possess their paid lobbyist, making sure that every politician in this
country is being paid. If you still living in imaginary world where you have
two parties please be aware that it has to do with reality as much as wrestling
match.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Pay for the politicians comes in the form of money in the
election process, which I’m soon going to explain if someone is missing the
point what is wrong with it. There are other forms of bribery like privileges
and rewards given to politicians assuring that their payers in return will get
what they want – to make more money or get more power.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It happens on every level of the government, perhaps with
exceptions of the police officers which it is illegal for most of them to
benefit from any other source than their pay. It is presumed that benefits from
other sources may corrupt their service.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Interestingly politicians and even judges do not apply those
rules to themselves.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>For example, even the judges of our Supreme Court are
benefiting from the trips founded by groups of special interest as it is (to
this moment) illegal for them to be paid by the sides of the potential
conflict.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Why funding elections by the groups of special interest,
industrial or even groups serving foreign governments is nothing else than
cancer on democracy?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The answer should be self-understood but if not, please be
aware that politicians and judges founded by such groups are serving those
groups and not society which they are supposed to serve in a truly democratic
system.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Some say - Well, after all, those politicians are elected by
the voters and this itself I evidence that everything is right with our
democracy.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Here is the trick.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Technically it may be still true that votes matter as it was
shown in the last presidential election where preferred candidate of the powers
owning this country lost election to the less preferable.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The problem is, that in the presidential elections there are
only preferred and slightly less preferred but still corrupted candidates to
choose from. This setup is not limited only to presidential elections.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In communist countries, there were elections as well. You
could choose from list of candidates offered to the voters by the communist
elites, by the establishment owing those countries… but there was an election.
They called it – Socialist Democracy. Of course, it didn’t have anything to do
with Socialism or a Democracy.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It was easy for communists to maintain such a “democracy”
with the help of the media owned by the communist government. They kept control
and no matter what candidate the people chose they were all serving the same
lords. In case they needed to use force, they didn’t hesitate either, because
police and the army were only defending ‘people’ from the enemies of the people’.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In a society build on the foundation of freedom and
democracy it was much more difficult for the elites and other groups of
interest to keep the election process under their control.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But they believe money can buy everything.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>They bought the media.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Only informed and educated citizen could make a decision that
will benefit him and other members of the same social group.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Citizens that are misinformed or simply kept busy with
constant <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_Hlk486958090">entertainment</a> or infotainment cannot think
for himself.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The subject of Social Engineering is being thought on the
top political universities of the world.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>All rulers understand, that from time to time they will need
such engineers. Some need them all the time. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Edward Bernays laid the foundation for modern advertising
and political manipulation and his school of deception is perfected as new
challenges emerge for the ruling class in their control of society.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Till 1996 American law was prohibiting media companies from
extensive control over the information.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Clinton’s Telecommunication Act changed the rules.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Since then, almost all media in our country is owned by six
major corporations with other umbrella corporations connected to big business
or other influential groups of interest. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This is not a conspiracy theory, this is reality.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Technically you can still open your own tv, radio station or
write you own newspaper but the media engineers will make sure your voice
should be quiet or if it’s getting to loud, ridiculed and marginalized.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Social engineers make sure that your election choices should
be limited to the candidates serving the people who pay for their elections. The
differences between candidates are reduced to sometimes completely irreverent
but emotional topics. Other times, topics of difference between divided society
are serious and equally emotional. All of those divisions are maintained in the
media in order to pull attention of the voter away from the issues more
reverent to himself and members of his social class.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>At times, some of those divisions are artificially created
to achieve the goal of division.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Roman motto - Divide et Impera, was probably not invented by
Romans, but it is one of the best and most common tools of the social engineers
working for the ruling class. Divisions could be cultural, racial, religious or
any other. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Divided society is easy to control.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>‘Scare technics’ are being used for the long time. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>At different times, different groups are being used as the
bogyman but it always works.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Irish, Catholic, Muslim, Mexican, redskin or yellow man are
always handy, but no one scares more than ever plotting Jew. Jews are always
the scariest but used often as a last resort if any other bogyman doesn’t work
anymore.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>To those who feel assured by the Jewish connections to last
few governments please don’t forget 12 years between 1933 and 1945 as well as
600 useful Jews in Hitler’s Y-S government.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>To those who will tell that he was elected in democratic
elections please read all of above again.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In light of all written above I will explain some details of
the deception as it is painful for me to see nation once politically aware way
better than any other social, religious or other group on the Earth.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is painful to see today my fellow Jews being subjects of
common manipulation and falling for the scheme of two party system and being
unaware of the strings that are being pulled by.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Even those who are somehow aware of the corruption of our
politics will rather use it to benefit what they consider our national
interest, forgetting that as Rav Hirsch stated – We don’t have any political
economy. Our only goal is to serve the Creator and mankind with complete
Yashrus – straightness and truth.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>‘PR’, even invented by a person of Jewish descent, has nothing
to do with the idea of bringing light to the nations that cannot happen through
means of deception or violence.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If you are religious Jew and somehow those words don’t
resonate, please study carefully the short text that you recite three times a
day, but maybe for last few decades didn’t pay attention to the words - read
Aleinu Leshabeach…<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It doesn’t matter who occupies White House. It is always a person
designated by the ruling class to stay there. You may get only someone from the
left or the right wing of the ruling or rather ruled party.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is always - either somebody completely corrupted or
stupid enough to be manipulated and if somehow it is not easy to manipulate him
or her, it will be settled by other means.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Your vote doesn’t matter in congressional or senat elections
because candidates have to pass a filter of donors who will chose to donate to
the election of candidate preferred by them ensuring proper service for the
payer. It will be again – somebody corrupted or an idiot who could be manipulated
according to the needs and preferences of those who pay.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Mind, that I didn’t say a corrupted idiot, for it could be a
highly intelligent Machiavellian scum ready to switch the front as it serves
him or her.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This filter works on all levels of government. Even if it
doesn’t change much for the ruling class, who the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>local sheriff in your town is , but the
culture of this open corruption allows to set in the positions of power and decision
making people who are not most qualified. For those preselected officials’
wellbeing of the constituency is not what drives them to take this suppose
service.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I will not refer here to what is discussed as ‘deep
government’, ‘new order’, ‘illuminati’, Rothschilds or any other identity
supposedly pulling the strings as I rather see it as the part of the deception
with one purpose, to confuse the population and defuse the pressure from the real
powers behind the theater of politics and culture.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I don’t see it as one central power pulling invisible
strings to assure their domination and secrecy.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>To this day I see it rather as different circuits of power
who sometimes configure in some common goal but in other times they may compete
for more power or influence. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The problem is, it has nothing to do with democracy, the Declaration
of Independence and the political system designed for this country. It is not
founded on the Biblical ideal of a free individual and his freedom being
assured by elected clerks and officials.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In the time when due to the lack of prophecy, the theocratical
government is impossible, it is self-evident that the political system designed
by the founding fathers were influenced by the ideas of justice derived from
our Scriptures is the only system assuring the well being of our people as well
as all other people’s living in the same country. And if the well being of other
people is on our mind, we can be assured about Heavenly protection of all
people of this and other lands. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The moment when one group in an uncontrolled manner takes
more power to their hands in order to subordinate, control and exploit other
people is where democracy ends. Be it people living in our country or other
lands.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Government that controls the life of its own citizens or
citizens of other countries without applying rules designed to form a free
society is just another form of a regime with a goal to give the most for the
few and little for the most, it is precisely the idea invented by the Nimrod in
ancient times.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-90501446013073500372018-05-18T13:54:00.001-04:002019-01-19T23:53:27.823-05:00Homeless<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b> B-H</b><br />
<b>It a was gut-wrenching day.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I don’t want to use the word depressing because if not
caused by a chemical imbalance in our body I consider it a sin, Therefore I think
- gut wrenching would be a proper word to use.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>My day Started with getting out of the woods of high Sierra,
an email popped onto my screen that my fragile package of merchandise was dumped
somewhere at a door of a house in Brooklyn. They did not update me on the package
as usual, and make sure someone signed for it. It cost me few hours of horror, because
not only did I pay for it but now I need to sell it, that’s my product!<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Burich Hashem it was found, and my life was back on
track…for now.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>After another appointment with a client somewhere in West
Sacramento I got to San Francisco.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is not first time I’m Writing about San Francisco of course. Those who read my
essays may remember the one titled – From San Francisco to Alturas. If you
don’t remember, please go find it. I won’t give a link because while searching
you may find some other interesting essays. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In that essay I described some individuals from the so called
lower echelon of society – old and young hippies, street beggars and homeless of
the big city.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This was a few years ago…<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Much has changed since then. Mostly in numbers.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>You may see them in all big cities around the country –the
homeless.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>People who for all kind of reasons lost their permanent
dwelling and are living on the streets of those cities. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If they still have some resources, maybe a job, they can
afford to sleep in the car and if not chased away take a shower in some gym or other
public places of the kind.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If they have no job and no resources, they are sleep on the
street. They obtain cheep tents and put them in some public parks, or usually
under bridges where they can get a little bit better protection from the
elements.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If they can not obtain tent they build their shelter from
carboard, plywood or other sheet of material, wrapping everting with tarp.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Around those shelters they keep their belongings that can’t
fit inside – pots, small gas stoves, baskets, some clothing. Food they usually
keep inside the shack to prevent it being stolen. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Of course, those shacks don’t have walls securing their
treasures but if you think that all those people are thieves, you are making a
huge mistake. They know that stealing is evil because for many of them,
everything has been stolen from them.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I don’t know the statistics or any data regarding the
numbers of homeless people in our country, but after frequently visiting other
big cities of the glorious California – Los Angeles, I noticed tent ‘cities’
between bridges and viaducts of highways that are always filled with traffic.
The number of those shelters was growing from year to year, but it was nothing
compared to the utter shock that hit me in the guts this time in San Francisco.
<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I didn’t cruse around the entire city but almost every
bridge or passage has tens of small villages of people living in such conditions.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Those are not immigrants from other countries, those are
mostly born Americans whose life circumstances put them under the bridge,
literally.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It hit me to the extent that I couldn’t follow my GPS and
driving further out I saw more and more of those ‘villages’. People laying on
the sidewalks, sometimes on some old couches or matrasses, sometimes on the
bunch of old clothes and sheets of fabric. From time to time, on the sticky concrete
or asphalt of the sidewalk.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>No doubt, some of them are mentally affected. No doubt some
of them are affected by drugs, which I can assume at least some of them opioids
prescribed initially to kill some pain. Drugs prescribed by doctors paid by the
pharmaceutical companies to sell them and hook people on addiction despite
being aware that not only some of those people will lose everything in life
trying to buy the product of those pharmaceutical companies but some of them
will die.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This essay is not about opioids, but everybody can find
multiple documentaries and testimonies from people who failed to those editions.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>You may say they have the freedom to refuse? Maybe.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>BeEzras Hashem I was never addicted to anything so I don’t
understand either, but I will never forget one of my clients - let’s call him
Fred.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A little bit chubby, always smiling with a positive approach
to life. He owned a small business in the town somewhere in the South West. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>For a few seasons he didn’t give me any appointment but when
he finally told me over the phone to come I was hoping to see the same Fred.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What I saw was ghost of Fred – his shadow.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It started with some pain that probably came from sitting
and doing his job.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>He went to doctor and got some strong pain killing
medication…the rest of the story isn’t hard to picture. He still owns the
business but this is not the same smiling guy who was liked by his customers.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I wonder, I just wonder …how many people on the streets are
a product of the killing industry of pharmaceutical companies in collusion with
insurance companies. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Insurance firms are
initially paying for those drugs but when person falls into addiction and is
not able to pay, not only for health insurance but rent or even food…there is
no insurance from homelessness.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What makes me wonder most is the amount of destitute people
in the cities which are proud of themselves as being the most ‘liberal’ or
humanistic in the country.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I understand that this and climate may be precisely the
magnet pulling homeless people perhaps form other parts of the country. But I also
saw homeless in Salt Lake City. The winter there could be bitter. And yet, homeless
are pouring in there from all over the country. But weather is not the reason
for that, it is the policy of the state of Utah, helping those people to get
small apartments which enable poor people to sleep in a bed, to keep hygienic standard
allowing them to attend job interviews and even cook something for themselves
in own pots on own stove.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It cost money, it does. San Francisco is one of the cities
with the highest taxes in the country and there is a large number of
institutions there that are supposed to spend some of the taxpayer’s dollars to
help the poor or mentally disabled. But it cost thousands of dollars per person
and as anybody could see on Google streets passing under the bridges, it is
highly ineffective. The tent cities are all over the place.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>SF and neighboring cities are the land of the .com boom
companies. Here and in LA you can see people earning the best money in the
country except perhaps Los Alamos Laboratory. They are driving fancy cars, they
have fancy dogs, they hire dog walkers and dog sitters to watch their pets.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is impossible that while driving their cars or walking
those streets that they don’t see what I saw, just driving into the city for
few hours. Or maybe they don’t see? Maybe having eyes is not enough to see?
Perhaps you also need a soul?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maybe they rationalize – well… we pay the taxes - let the
city or government take care of the problem.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>They may have a point, but only to a certain extend. They
don’t pay taxes because they want, it is imposed up on them by the government
and if those corporations or their owners and CEO’s paying money, the intention
is certainly not to help the poor.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But like other self-righties people they also are quick to
declare their love for humanity and care about the poor. With all kind of boycotts
and other actions to protect anonymous working children in some far away
countries or prison workers in other. They love their pets and nature all together
spending their resource for care of their dogs and even plants. They are so
humanistic…the only ones that are out of this equation of love and care are
their fellow human beings, citizens of the same city.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Or as someone recently said about Paralympians – it’s tough
to watch those people…<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If my suspicion wouldn’t be true, there would not be homeless
on the street and under the bridges of those cities.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>And government? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Well…<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>As was said, we have a government of people who are being
paid by pharmaceutical companies profiting from selling <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">death</i>. They are being paid to make sure that no law affects their
business or will change this legalized corruption where corporations can buy
politicians.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We have a government with politicians creating law to criminalize
large sections of population in order to fill up private jails paid per
prisoner from our tax money, and where owners of those prisons are able to pay
those politicians to make sure that their business thrive.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I hope that all my Jewish brothers and sisters know well
about Mrs. Linda R. Reade’s husband buying stocks of private prisons just
before his wife in collaboration with other authorities raided Reb Shalom’s
Rubashkin Shloicht house. They were expecting number of new prisoners and some
money to make in the process. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>That’s a tip of the tip of the iceberg of the prison for
profit industry with the largest number of prisoners in the world, and that is
including China that is five times more populated.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We have a government being paid by the Military Industrial
complex which president Eisenhauer was warning us against.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Perhaps he was to late with his warning.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Since then, paid politicians are using existing conflicts or
creating brand new ones all around the world to sell their product, many times
to opposing sides of the same conflict.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Today days, The American army serves as a mercenary for
other countries but besides the hiring parties, only military companies are
making money, by being paid by foreign powers and our tax money or sometimes
even borrowed from countries like…again - China.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We live in the country where it is legal to kill human being
by just changing terminology and stadium of life. Call it “fetus’ and you can
kill without regret. Just change definition of life, like in Romania of Nicolau
Ceausescu, to improve statistics person was counted alive after living one year
out of womb. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Killing human being is included by some to the category of Human
Rights – so called “Reproductive right”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Those few listed polices have nothing to do with fact of who
is sitting in the White House or the Capitol.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Any of those issues can be used in the election cycle as red
meat for the masses to get some excitement and the illusion of choice, but the
same as Democrats support wars and pouring money to the military industrial
complex or insurance companies despite having legislative majority, the same
Republicans allow to kill unborn children when they have majority. It is all
for show.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It crossed my mind that perhaps there is ‘homeless
industry’, where institutions spending our tax money, instead of finding
permanent solution like in Utah, just maintaining number of homeless to justify
their existence. Just a thought…<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>For poor, homeless and sick, our country based on so called Judeo
– Christian values as some people call it, for destitute we have no resources
and no proper supervision of existing spending. Just talk and talk and talk.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If this and bombing other countries is what Judeo-Christian
means? I will pass. I will stick rather with my Abrahamic values. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Chesed – loving-kindness, Tzeduka – justice charity, and
care of every orphan, widow, immigrant and unprivileged otherwise. And if I
will be taxed by my elected and trusted government to achieve this goal, I will
be happy to give my share.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This is what I also learned in last week Parsha – parshas
Behar in five books of Moses, this is what I learned from the other Moses –
Moses ben Maimon – Maimonides commenting on the commandment of charity. He says
- not only to save people who are already destitute but to create a social
system that will prevent them from falling in to poverty. It may not work for
all of the poor, but if we would redirect our resources and oversee spending by
democratically elected officials and free press, there would not be tent cities
in our cities.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-28031571065062277812017-06-02T19:31:00.000-04:002017-06-02T19:34:06.627-04:00Return.<div class="MsoNormal">
<b> B-H</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Many Mussar Sefurim – Books on Ethics, teach that we must
make Cheshbon Hanefesh – account of the soul, all days of our lives and return
to ideal of whom we supposed to be. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In our times this word ‘return’ is common translation of the
Hebrew word ‘Teshuva’ – coming back to the fold of Klal Yisruel – Jewish
people.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The title ‘Return’ is my private return, but not in above
described meaning.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Rather simply I return to the idea of writing my essays on
this blog which originally was intended to accompany project of publishing my
book ‘Another Convert’<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>That project is entirely aborted and yet I hear from some of
readers reading my blog that I must return to writing. Some of those voices are
coming from rather surprising sources.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Years ago, I began to write and publish and post because I thought
that my unique life, experiences and knowledge on certain topic are worthed to
share.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>My suspicions were proven right to me when people were
expressing apricciation for the measage I was delivering, and as I wrote once –
even if one person will benefit from one line written by me it is worth to
spend all time and resources invested in this project. Perhaps this is my
Tafkid – life mission. To help that one person with that one line.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But as it could be easily noticed from the dates of the
posting of my essays, nothing was posted for some two years and written even
more.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>My book is not in the book stores and only few copies are
available on Amazon and those are used or leftovers from the book stores.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>My website anotherconvert.com has only some remnants of the
project and my blog is cold.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There is still interview on YouTube as I rather neglected to
take it out and partially feeling guilty to all those wonderful people involved
in the project of my book and this interview.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Rest of the remaining copies are being utilized in the
manner which no books should but as I explained to someone seeing what is being
done with them – I lived life described in there, I wrote it, I self-published it,
I even schlepp alone few skids of heavy boxes from place to place loading it
and unloading on U-haul tracks.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Now I use them as I see it right.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>To many things described in this book are not true anymore.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>To many to keep it alive.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Somebody described my recent years as – private Waterloo.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But I was not about conquering, not the world and not part
of it.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>From the beginning of this project, the idea was to share
responsibly what was given to me.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>So Waterloo is not good example and if I would like to use
something from popular history or culture I would rather use the lyrics from
one of my favored bands Procol Harum:<o:p></o:p></b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><span style="background-color: white;">When everything around me,
even the kitchen ceiling, has collapsed and crumbled without warning. And I am
left, standing alive and well, looking up and wondering why and wherefore.</span><span style="background-color: #ccccdd;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I don’t know what person who wrote those lyrics intended but
it is hard to describe my situation metaphorically better than by above quote.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I will leave interpretation to my reader as I don’t want to
go deeper to my personal matters.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It should be understood, that I went through nothing else
than personal Hurban, where if not the Koisel would be left there wouldn’t be
any hope and reason to continue.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>B-H I still standing alive and well.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There are still things which I can and perhaps I should
share.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There are thoughts and ideas which I promised to continue in
my previous essays.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There are new experiences, situation and people from which I
took lessons and now I feel obligation to distribute it further.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I must admit, that many of my essays were written when
everything around me was crumbling and still B-H I was able to bring something
positive from within, regardless of agonizing personal pain.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In this area I stayed well Burich Hashem, maybe even
stronger.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It was surroundings which collapsed and most painfully, “my
kitchen ceiling” - the essential protection of the chamber which I thought is
stronger than any nuclear shelter.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It was not.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>So I’m back.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Back to work.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Trying to restore at least material surrounding and
financial situation.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It’s not easy, I have to admit, but I still see His Hand and
Blessing in almost every turn.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Almost? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Yes. I’m not man of the perfect Emuna<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>No! We are not talking about Faith! I don’t need that.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What Emuna is? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I hope to share with you some of the thoughts on this topic
in the future once it crystalize in my own mind.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Before that I may get a little bit political, for once I
promised to continue my 4<sup>th</sup> of July essays and few others.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But B-H I’m back and once more will express myself with
lyrics from Procol Harum:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><b style="background-color: white;">At a time like this, which
exists maybe only for me, but is nonetheless real, if I can communicate, and in
the telling and the bearing of my soul anything is gained, even though the
words which I use are pretentious and make you (or rather me) cringe with
embarrassment.</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-5516337637672044122015-09-21T21:00:00.001-04:002015-11-17T23:36:20.186-05:00Bris Milah <div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Once again the Statue of Liberty is waving to me as I pass
Hamilton Bridge. Built over some side water canal, this bridge hasn't been used
in all capacity probably more than half a year, and is being fixed continuously for at least
the last 19 years. Yeah, that’s how often I pass this bridge: A ramp on the
left, a ramp on the right, and pavement in the middle. Additional lanes and
other various revamping operations usually keep a number of other lines closed
to the general public. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Well, it’s New York. It costs a lot of money to live in this
city and a lot of money to make money. Yeah, if you think there's some hidden message
in this last statement, allow me to clarify – I strongly believe something corrupt
is going on over here, but well…corruption is going on everywhere.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>At least when they stop me again on the FDR drive, the east
side highway of Manhattan Island, I can glance at the UN building overhead and hope
that this time they are solving some world conflict. I know the UN doesn’t really fulfill our
desire for world peace, but as long as those buffoons, can come knock their
shoes on the rostrum and call each other - devils or the axis of evil, and as
long as some human lives are saved because they vent their hellish fumes there…
it's ok. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Let them talk and let them close traffic on the FDR. It's a
small price to pay for the good that comes from there.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b>I enjoyed the Holidays with my beautiful grandchildren, the smartest and cutest grand- daughters, and </b><b>with my children </b><b style="text-indent: 0.5in;">we eagerly awaited our
newest arrival. Personally,
considering how much Nachas my granddaughters are giving me, I can have a hundred
of them, but you know…. we were hoping for a boy.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>So Be'ezras Hashem we got one.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>He is the first boy born as a Jew in his entire family, and
mine. Ever. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>My children converted together with me when they were still
small. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Now I have a male descendant with the DNA of our Patriarchs
in his veins. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Not that this fact makes me jump with ecstasy, for it was
always clear to me that there is nothing more important in life than our own relationship
with Hashem. But if this <st1:stockticker w:st="on">DNA</st1:stockticker> can
enhance that, it's good enough for me. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There are certain promises given to Gerim about their descendants,
in the words of the Sages. So I hope and pray that those promises, along with
the promises given to the Fathers of the Jewish people, will be fulfilled in
all of my descendants, and that these two lines of heavenly guarantees will
fuse and merge in them. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But before that hope comes to realization, we have to fulfill
the will of our Creator as his chosen children - which is the commandment of
Bris Mila – circumcision. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Bris Mila happened on the eighth day from the day my
grandson was born. This coincided with the first day of Succos, the day we
invite Avruhom Uvini himself as a guest in our succos. This fact gives me goose
bumps every time I think about it. It is hard to imagine a better ‘hello’ and
smile from Heaven than this.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When I think about it, my own Bris comes to memory. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I wrote about it in my book, but since the book is no longer
available I will repeat the story and even give some more details.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>**********In the early fall of 22
years ago, when I was 27 years old, I took part in the first Jewish<span style="color: #fe4940;"> </span>circumcision to
commence in Poland in some forty five years. It was performed in Warsaw. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There were a few of us attending.
Most were from Warsaw, 3 of us were <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>from Wroclaw. It was arranged by Rabbi
Schudrich who, at the time, was working in kiruv in Poland. For almost half a
century, Poland officially didn’t have a Mohel to perform circumcision.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When I came to the US, in the
synagogue where I attend prayers, I met an older Jew whose father was a Mohel
and had been a Mohel in my own native city. He said the problem in Poland was
not that there was nobody to perform circumcision - there was nobody who would
want to do it to his child. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If you think it stemmed from a lack
of conviction, you are wrong. We are talking about a country where, not too far
in the past, having this sign on the body meant having the mark of death. Even
at that time, 22 years ago, if anyone would find out you are circumcised – at a
doctor's office, in the army, etc. - this information could leak anytime and it
meant civil death in this rabidly anti-Semitic country.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Above that, it was illegal to
perform any procedure without a license from the government, and those laws
were very much scrutinized. We were risking arrest and who knows what after
that. All of us.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Even the Polish word for
circumcision – obrzezanie - has the same root as butchering, bloodbath, etc.
Now you can get a small picture of this despised procedure, perpetrated by a
despised people with a despised name - and all of it illegal…<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Everything was organized in
underground fashion. We didn’t know where we would go, who would do it, and
what would happen afterward. Adult circumcision is quite a serious procedure, even
when you don’t have all of the above listed disadvantages stacked against you. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We came by train to Warsaw on the morning
of the day when it was supposes to happen. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In the Synagogue, we got the address
of the place where circumcision would be performed. It was in some dental office
located in an apartment building in Mirow, which once used to be a Jewish
neighborhood like Boro Park or Williamsburg is today.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We walked the very same cobblestones
from which, some fifty years earlier, Pinkert’s funeral company walked every
morning and collected the dead bodies put there by the inhabitants of Warsaw’s
Ghetto. The buildings were redone, but many streets were the same streets, the
same stones soaked with blood of the butchered Jews who inhabited this once
biggest Jewish city.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The door looked like any other
door in the building, but in the small apartment was a legal dentist's
workplace. I don’t remember if the owner was there, but most likely not. All
the other personnel had taken the day off. The only people who were awaiting us
there was our Mohel - Rabbi Yitzchok Fisher from New York (later my neighbor in
Monsey), his assistant, and Rabbi Schudrich.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I will skip this rather graphic
part of the story, as well as what the next few days felt like. If anybody wants
to reconsider his plans for an adult circumcision, please contact me in
private. But just as I didn’t blink an eye then, I wouldn’t blink again.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>For anybody else the day of my
grandson's Bris Mila and the Bris itself could be just another Bris, as tens of
them are happening on a daily basis in a few-block radius in the city. Maybe
there is some curiosity to it, but still…Maimonides Hospital in the Boro Park neighborhood
has the highest birth rate in the country. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But for me, that day, the day of
my circumcision and the day of circumcision for my first Jewish-born descendent
are defining moments of my life.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There is no exaggeration if I say
that my own circumcision was in fact only leading to this and other, Be'ezras
Hashem – with the G-d’s help, Brisen to come. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But let me ask you –What are you
thinking after reading the above? The guy is boasting about his own
righteousness, is that how it looks?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Didn’t we say just few days ago in
Slichos – Lo vchesed vlo vmaasim buni lfuneichu – Neither with our kindness nor
with our good deeds are we approaching You. As paupers and beggars we are knocking
at Your door.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Lushon Hakoidesh – the holy tongue
is an amazing language of communication. The amount of information that can be
contained in every sentence, every word, every letter and every dot is just
incredible. The word Buni is built from four letters – Bays – Alef – Nun –
Voov. Buni: Coming to, approaching. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When we read the same word with a
slightly different pronunciation, it becomes BAni: in ourselves, with our very
essence. And when we read the very same word as BeOni it means ‘in mourning.’ <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Who has to be eradicated if it is
us given to Him, and whom are we mourning?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If we take the second letter, the
letter Alef, away from this word, the word will change meaning. Bni Lfuneichu:
My son, my descendent before you. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Not with my kindness nor with my
deeds, but with my child I stand before You Hashem.”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Now… what is the meaning of Alef
itself, who is the Alef? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Alef is one, and One is HBH. But
it can't be that we eradicating Him from the sequence. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This Alef is the second letter in
the word and in fact it is a secondary Alef, which is eliminated – our own
illusionary Alef, our ego - Ani. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“Not with ourselves are we coming
to You Hashem, but we offer You our children.”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>WE are in fact our children – BAni
– my true me is Bni - my child, each of them separate.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>”Not with our kindness, not with
our deeds, not with anything that we may consider our own, but with the very
gift from You, our future generations!”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I grew up on the land where Cain
killed Heivel.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>He recognized him by the sign on
his body. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Not for the first time in Jewish
history was this mark a death sentence.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I was aware of the consequences
that could've happened to me, and what I could bring onto my descendants with
Bris Mila. But I was also aware of the thousands of Jewish parents who didn’t
blink, knowing all of this way better than me. They knew it from their family
experience, but for me it was theoretical.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The awareness of my Creator was within
me when I walked the autumn streets of the Polish capital.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Now was the time to show readiness,
just as the first believer, Avruhom did. He did and all of his children
followed. I wanted myself and my descendants to be part of these people.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This essay was written a year ago
when my grandson Shloime Zalman was born.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Hashem should bless him, his parents and
siblings with a life of peace and plenty, and all as a means to serve HBH and
grow spiritually. May they use all of their potential for the good of Klal
Yisroel, and may he in particular be a source of Nachas to his parents.</b></span>Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-74168125776465507882015-03-02T17:08:00.003-05:002015-03-02T17:08:56.724-05:00Little Big Horn Battlefield and Amulek<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I had a business appointment in the Crow Indian territory,
but there were a few hours to spare before that meeting and nowhere to go for
miles in any direction.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There was nowhere to visit other than the Little Big Horn Battlefield
National Monument.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I usually have the inclination to see a variety of
interesting places; not only those of exceptional natural beauty, but also those
of historical significance. But it's very rare for me to stop at any sites that
commemorate military campaigns. Why? You will understand by the time you reach
the end of this essay.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Still, with time to kill I stopped at the Little Big Horn visitor
center to learn more about the place. In the past I had driven past the Monument
with my family, and so the basic facts were known to me. But this was the first
time I actually entered this former western frontier battlefield.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Gentle hills were covered with prairie-type vegetation, visible
from three sides, all the way to the horizon. On the west, the Big Horn
Mountains were still covered with snow, as they are until early summer in this
part of the mountain chain.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Paved paths led me to the spot where a major clash took
place; where many of the bodies of killed American soldiers were found. Hills
were spotted with white marble tablets that looked like small tombstones. From
the information display I learned that the stones indicate the places where the
slaughtered bodies had lain, stripped of all valuables, until an additional
regiment of the army arrived. The deceased bodies were then collected and laid
to rest in a nearby cemetery, which was also used later for the slain soldiers
of other U.S wars.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgupFlwMX_4oIgPR3SuQY8PMLvcPJowxqGF_t3AzuTALB5LhSqtBMgvTyQFqM_K3a6tmlQpUeZheGiR5Pq8LEmO-j9-tT346xwVuyF51-cEp-Y7989Ncpc5uVce_0RdJQF_K0kaq8K-1dD_/s1600/IMAG1723.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgupFlwMX_4oIgPR3SuQY8PMLvcPJowxqGF_t3AzuTALB5LhSqtBMgvTyQFqM_K3a6tmlQpUeZheGiR5Pq8LEmO-j9-tT346xwVuyF51-cEp-Y7989Ncpc5uVce_0RdJQF_K0kaq8K-1dD_/s1600/IMAG1723.jpg" height="236" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Walking the paths between the white marble stones, from time
to time I stopped to read the names and ages of the soldiers. What struck me
was not the young age of many of the soldiers, for that is precisely the age
group that is used on battlefields all over the world. What did surprise me to
learn, was that more than 40% of the slaughtered soldiers were not born
Americans.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>That was not, however, the case of their commander Colonel George
Armstrong Custer. Custer was of German and perhaps Irish ancestry, but he was
born in Ohio. Colonel Custer was a hero of the Civil War, known to many as the ‘Boy
General’ who earned his celebrity status in his early twenties.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Dressed in a custom-ordered, distinguished uniform, he often
engaged in the most dangerous acts, thus gaining the respect of other soldiers
through his fearless and aggressive pursuit of enemies. He killed those enemies
with visible satisfaction.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In fact, this sadist actually wrote in a letter that while
he understands that Civil War doesn’t serve his country well, he wishes it would
never end.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Soon after the Civil War did end, the American army
struggled with a surplus in the military industry, as many governments do after
war. One of the enemies which the army was next deployed to fight emerged in
the western territories of what is today the state of Utah: the Mormon Church. But
that was not where Colonel Custer was sent.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>After pursuing different lines of fame and business,
including an attempt to fight for the army of Benito Juarez in Mexico, Custer
found new fields upon which to discharge his natural drives – the American
Indian Wars.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>As the American frontier was moving westward, the interests
of indigenous populations were challenged. Sioux or Lakota, Arapaho and
Cheyenne Native American nations were on the frontlines of American progress.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>As noted shortly in Wikipedia:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“<span style="background: white;">By the time of Custer's
expedition to the Black Hills in 1874, the level of conflict and tension
between the U.S. and many of the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_Indians" title="Plains Indians"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Plains Indians</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span style="background: white;">tribes
(including the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakota_Sioux" title="Lakota Sioux"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Lakota, Sioux</span></a> <span style="background: white;">and </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne" title="Cheyenne"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Cheyenne</span></a><span style="background: white;">) had become
exceedingly high. Americans continually broke treaty agreements and advanced
further westward, resulting in violence and acts of depredation by both sides.
To take possession of the <st1:place w:st="on">Black Hills</st1:place> (and
thus the gold deposits), and to stop Indian attacks, the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> decided to
corral all remaining free Plains Indians. The<span class="apple-converted-space">
</span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant" title="Ulysses S. Grant"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Grant</span></a> <span style="background: white;">government set a deadline of January 31, 1876 for all
Lakota and Arapaho wintering in the "unseeded territory" to report to
their designated agencies (reservations) or be considered "hostile."<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525;"><b>The problem was
that Cheyenne Indians never signed any treaty with the American Government, as
was also the case with many other tribes.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525;"><b>To get a better
picture of the situation, imagine that someone breaks into your home and takes
room after room into his possession. As proof of his right to do so, he
presents you with some document which he calls, for example, ‘Manifest Destiny.’
He genuinely believes that he has the G-d-given right to possess and manage
your house.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525;"><b>After pushing
you down to the basement, he comes to you with a ‘peace’ treaty that says you
can now occupy a few rooms in the basement, as long as you comply with certain
rules.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525;"><b>Of course, you
don’t know what he is talking about because you still remember the comfort and coziness
of the couch in your living room. So you refuse to sign any treaty. Rightly,
you feel that this may not be the end of this intruder's demands.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525;"><b>And that's
exactly what happens next. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525;"><b>The invader
discovers that the main water valve is in the room where you put your air
mattress, as you are trying to somehow organize your life. Now he wants you out
of the room because his strategic interests must be protected. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525;"><b>In his
generosity he shows you the closet under the steps, which he is ready to grant
you under the terms of a new ‘peace’ treaty. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525;"><b>That is precisely
what happened with Lakota, Arapaho, Cheyenne and many other American nations.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525;"><b>They refused to
go to the reservations that were designated for them. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525;"><b>If you would
see the Black Hills in South Dakota and what kind of wasteland surrounds this most
beautiful region of the country, you would understand why they did not want to
leave the area.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #252525;"><b>Whatever was
not wasteland was prairie, where bison once roamed. But the white man almost
annihilated the bison. For Plain Indians, countless herds of Bison were a source
of food, clothing, building materials and tools. They were an essential element
to their survival. That element was destroyed precisely in order to cut them
off from the source of their livelihood. Bands of settlers rode their horses,
killing as many bison as possible without taking anything from the animals.
Their goal was solely to deprive the Indians. And it all happened with the
quiet acceptance of the government.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In the spring of 1876, the American Government deployed
three different units of its army to bring the Indians to ‘order’ by enclosing
them in reservations. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>One of the groups was led by the commander of the 7<sup>th</sup>
cavalry regiment – Colonel George Armstrong Custer.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Custer was informed about an Indian village in nearby Little
Big Horn River in today’s Montana. He decided to engage them in battle, even
though the village was estimated as being populated by as many as eight
thousand people, at least 1500 to 1800 of them warriors protecting their
families and possessions.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Custer didn’t have that number of people with him. If he
would have waited for two more American army units, their numbers and their technological
superiority in the profession of killing people would have given him certain victory.
But this war celebrity had already been lauded in the books and the national
press, and he didn’t want to share the fame with others. He decided to engage
in battle with the Indians on his own. After all, his middle name was
Armstrong… and that’s probably how he saw himself.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>He divided his unit into three smaller groups, but I will
not share any further details of what happened after that, because describing the
loss of human life causes me pain.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Between June 25 and 26 of 1876, most of his soldiers were
killed - including their commander.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1WeXcV5kVbFXz7I3DEEpnBCzU6tSMfJ085bZoq1A8G9rjipaXfGLjm3YPq1fSELUgP8MK0tvppjjGw1O5slIQw7OokuaGnuQ0KwQ5axbL9O7VKhtJLIz3eICU2al45TGwmUUkIcBS1Y3T/s1600/IMAG1730.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1WeXcV5kVbFXz7I3DEEpnBCzU6tSMfJ085bZoq1A8G9rjipaXfGLjm3YPq1fSELUgP8MK0tvppjjGw1O5slIQw7OokuaGnuQ0KwQ5axbL9O7VKhtJLIz3eICU2al45TGwmUUkIcBS1Y3T/s1600/IMAG1730.jpg" height="238" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It was only a temporarily successful defense for the 8000
souls who tried to avoid an encounter with people who invaded their land from
beyond the great sea – the Atlantic Ocean. The other two units of the American
army arrived shortly thereafter and defeated the Indian tribes, forcing them
into reservations upon which they are still living today.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If you would take a road trip through the states where the
story described above happened - Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming - you would probably
be as surprised as many of the east coasters are who visit the western States.
You would find that this land is empty; there are almost no people living there,
and no major industry. Miles of land are not even cultivated. Here and there,
some cows wander on the horizon, but otherwise the land is almost barren.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What was the urgency, you may ask, to take this land almost
150 years ago, if it is still uninhabited and almost unused? If the indigenous
population was suppressed and their numbers weren't increasing; if the
Europeans weren't arriving in big numbers; what was the land grab for? Coal in
Wyoming was not yet discovered, neither was oil in Dakota and Montana. Why did
white American men consider it so imperative to enclose the nomadic tribes in
the reservations? Was it only about the gold in the Black Hills?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Walking among those white marble matzevos I noticed commemoration
stones that were the same size but a different color. These were sparsely dotting
the prairie. I went closer to them to read their inscriptions.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Those stone were not as weathered as the white ones,
indicating that those brown stones were put on the battlefield much later than
the white ones. The names inscribed on the newer stones were those of the
Lakota, Arapaho and Cheyenne warriors.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuAFhqtyfXE8igbzkBu5kZgYrGZ_H9k9K9qm3q5iE43nqoMlc_1hxame3j45AldjrZWC59L5DdN17MvclsWxA0MiWqbmwtiggOahOAMZraEyfzzKej8GcpDdcoTRvrIUnhv9fSFoKggSe1/s1600/IMAG1729.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuAFhqtyfXE8igbzkBu5kZgYrGZ_H9k9K9qm3q5iE43nqoMlc_1hxame3j45AldjrZWC59L5DdN17MvclsWxA0MiWqbmwtiggOahOAMZraEyfzzKej8GcpDdcoTRvrIUnhv9fSFoKggSe1/s1600/IMAG1729.jpg" height="238" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>At some moment it was recognized by descendents of European
immigrants that not only were those Indians defending their families and their
livelihoods, but they displayed military valor and bravery.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It struck me because this mindset is exactly the same
approach of the culture in which I was raised: civilians can be mass murdered,
but soldiers are interned in POW camps and officers are treated with honors,
including allowing them to carry unloaded weapons. Military might is admired.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It struck me also because I clearly remember the words of my
beloved rabbi, Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>“Philistia feared, Edom remained stunned, Moab trembled,
Canaan was quite dumbfounded; it was only Amalek, completely unprovoked, who
hurried out of his way to gain renown and take up arms against the Force which
had laid even a Pharaoh low. He alone lo ire Elokim, did not fear
G-d.<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>He alone was the heir of that spirit which chose the sword
as his lot, who sought to realize the seeking renown in laurels of blood and
the naseh luni sheim with which old Nimrod started the history of
the world to the destruction of the happiness of nations and men. This seeking
renown by the force of arms is the first and last enemy of the happiness of
mankind and of the Kingdom of G-d on earth.<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>The policy of the Pharaohs — using force ruthlessly to
further their own interests, certainly had an interest in keeping up slavery,
but that policy can even be a friend of freedom, when freedom serves its
interests. But Amalek's renown-seeking sword knows no rest so long as one
single pulse beats in freedom, and pays no homage to it. So long as any modest,
quiet happiness exists which does not tremble before its might. <o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">Before similar forces, armed to the teeth like himself,
Amalek does not yield, but rather sees in such measures a sign of recognition
and fear of his sword. He wages war against them, of course, but honors
opponents who acknowledge him and have similar principles to his own.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">But in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>
he sees an object of mortal hate and complete disdain, where one dares to think
the sword is dispensable, where one dares to trust in spiritual moral powers,
powers of which the sword has no idea, and which are beyond its reach. <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: #cc0000;">In the representative of the idea of the greatness which Man
can attain by Peace, Amalek sees the utter scorn of all his principles, sees in
it his one real enemy, and senses somehow his own ultimate collapse.</span>”</i><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When I was reading those words of Rav Hirsch for the first
time, I have to admit, tears rolled down my cheeks. I cried with the tears of exaltation,
for one more time I saw that the idea of aversion to violence is not only my
own conviction. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Nonviolence is not only hinted at in some cryptic message of
our father Yitzchok that “Hakol kol Yaakov veyidaim yadey Eisav” – The voice is
the voice of Yaakov but the hands are the hands of Eisav. Our sages of blessed
memory explained those words multiple times as an obligation imposed on Yaakov
and his descendent not to engage in violence and even avoid situations where self-defense
must be used.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There are other places in Chumash where we find similar
messages. For example, the words of Chazal on the ‘blessing’ of Yaakov to his
sons Shimon veLayvi, in which weapons are called ‘stolen devices’. Stolen because
they belong to uncle Eisav and his descendants, but not to bnei Yaakov, not to
Yisrael.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I exulted to read the words of Rav Hirsch. He was one of the
most prominent leaders of our people, having a unique clarity and understanding
of the Jewish mission and role in history. And he explained this fundamental
truth in a most lucid manner.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Rav Hirsch didn’t stop only by explaining the historical and
political reality which started with Nimrod, continued with Eisav and then with
his archetype grandson Amulek. Rav Hirsch spoke about the ultimate collapse of
the ‘philosophy of conquer and control’. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>“Es Zaicher Amulek - It is not Amalek who is
so pernicious for the moral future of mankind, but Zaicher Amulek,
the glorifying of the memory of Amalek which is the danger. As long as the
annals of humanity cover the memory of the heroes of the sword with glory, as
long as those that throttle and murder the happiness of mankind are not buried
in oblivion, so long will each successive generation look up in worship to
these "great ones" of violence and force, and their memory will
awaken the desire to emulate these heroes, and acquire equal glory by equal
violence and force. Only when the divine laws of morals have become the sole
criterion as to the worth of the greatest and smallest of men, and no longer in
inverse proportion but in direct proportion to greatness and power do the
demands of morality grow, and the greater and more powerful a man is, the less
any lapse in the laws of morality is excused, then and then only will the reign
of Amalek cease forever in the world. That this is the final goal of G-d's
management and direction of the history of the world is expressed here after
the first weakening of Amalek, "I will utterly obliterate the keeping up
the remembrance of Amalek from as far as the heavens reach."</i><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This is not some peripheral topic in our Torah, as there are
no peripherals in the Torah. There are only essentials.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But here more than anywhere else Rav Hirsch explains the very essence of our existence,
which has multiple connections to our struggle with the Spirit of Eisav, a.k.a.
the Satan, Snake, Angle of Death or Other side. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Here is revealed the hidden message;
the core reason of our existence as Jews and as mankind at the same time, where
the goal of history is the recognition of diversity in order to unite in
complete Oneness. The first step to achieving recognition of the ‘other’ is
simply by not killing him or violating him in any other manner. For in the face
and existence of the ‘other’, we need to recognize the ‘face’ and existence of
the One.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But to get to this stage we must first stop killing each
other, justify killing, honor murderers, or remember heroes of violence. We
should be ashamed to talk about warriors, soldiers, generals and politicians
who caused loss of human life instead of admiring them or giving them even
quiet recognition. Even to those who fought so called ‘just wars,’ where some
bloody regimes were defeated and further butchery was stopped. For as long as
it happened through the means of violence, not much was really achieved in the
general struggle of history.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When, almost thirty years ago, I stood in the front of a
military commission in the office of higher command, this is almost precisely
what I told them.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>At the time, refuseniks like me were normally given a
sentence of two years' incarceration. And after hours of scaring me with visions
of being harmed and beaten in jail, they laughed and ridiculed my naivety in
this tough and cruel world.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>They thought: Here he is – a big guy, six and a half feet
tall, who thinks that using physical force is in reality a defeat and a failure.
A giant of a man who says that in case of attack he would rather try to escape
and avoid harming his assailant, than engage in struggle and knock him down to
the ground.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>My statements were radical for them to the extent that they
couldn’t stop laughing for a long time. "A big guy big like you…you can
probably kill with the strike of your bare hand… and you would rather run away,
you idiot?!"<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I answered, "Perhaps I can. But I don't want to. And I
don’t want to be part of your institution either."<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Almost thirty years have passed, and my policy hasn't changed
Burich Hashem.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Of course there are Hilchos Roidef – Torah Laws regarding self-defense
and the defense of another person in situations of direct endangerment to life,
health or even the possessions of a Jew. But that has nothing to do with the
cult of Amulek and his sword.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I know that even among our own people, there are those who will
label me with the words of Lenin – “pacifists are useful idiots.”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Be'ezras Hashem I would rather remain an ‘idiot’ and pray
for them to distance themselves from the dogma of Lenin.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This is what I realized once again on the battlefield of
Little Big Horn.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS3XHCkwGo9UgJdQLyJAHpYDL-txtGy9eamKHf625dkzFxghZnv4zbVMqwiQO2R9xr-XC21oIJHWFy18a_EjT25IITrC73ZEPsWgR3upAzJvXi1cuMbbk_yk8wTsTjgS4qZcXDcOud1Jxo/s1600/IMAG1724.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS3XHCkwGo9UgJdQLyJAHpYDL-txtGy9eamKHf625dkzFxghZnv4zbVMqwiQO2R9xr-XC21oIJHWFy18a_EjT25IITrC73ZEPsWgR3upAzJvXi1cuMbbk_yk8wTsTjgS4qZcXDcOud1Jxo/s1600/IMAG1724.jpg" height="238" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-81169095128544944412014-09-04T20:21:00.000-04:002014-09-04T20:21:04.443-04:00Miracle in New York<div class="MsoNormal">
<b> B-H</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>My day ended somewhere in Northeastern Oregon, where I could
while away some time before a morning appointment in Tacoma. Instead of taking
the shortest route to Tacoma, I wanted to see Mt Rainier on my way there. So I
steered my vehicle off the interstate and left behind the volcanic landscape
with fruit orchards in the valleys around Yakima. Soon I was driving through
different valleys - mountain gorges surrounded by high, but still volcanic, peaks.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>At first my car zoomed into a tunnel of greenery made out of
cedars and pines and leafy trees. But the green subway quickly got darker, as
only Evergreen trees can survive the harsh winter conditions of a higher elevation.
</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>After the mountain pass where I expected to see Mt Rainier,
I stopped to view some small-but-stunning alpine lakes. The awesome view that I
had awaited surprised me once again. Mt. Rainier towered like the sharp teeth
of some giant monster peak. She was there, but how different she looked. In the
past I usually saw Mt Rainier under a clear sky; but now, when I came from the
East in the late afternoon, the view was completely different. The sunshine
created beams of light that shone between the branches fashioning the tunnel
through which I drove. Now, seeing the mountain in open space made for nothing
less than a supernatural sight. In the haze coming straight from the distant
Pacific Ocean, the photons - particles of light that are slowed down in the
combined atoms of hydrogen and oxygen - gave the mountain a ghostly, ethereal
look. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>As in all of the rest of nature, here too I saw a miracle: a
miracle of shapes, lights, smells and sounds. It was an act of creation at work
– by the Creator Himself.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>At that moment, I thought about another miracle; A miracle
that can only be seen from a 'different light.' A miracle back there in the big
city – in Babylon itself.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Just a few days earlier I spent some time with my children
and granddaughters in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn. Although I davened
there with few minyanim alongside some Chusheve Chasidishe Rebbes, I didn’t go
to ask them for a miracle - even though my life requires nothing less than that
right now. I went to regenerate and recharge my spiritual batteries in my Rav’s
Beis Hamedrash, and also some other places. But as always, what impressed me
most in Boro Park was the view of the Yididshe gass – the Jewish street. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The kedusha – the holiness of institutions of learning and prayer
that can be found on almost every block and corner are seeping out of the
buildings and are detectable for a sensitive soul, even on the polluted streets
of this urban jungle. In the madness of traffic and sidewalks filled with
people, if you open your eyes you can still see peace and love in the faces,
conversations and simple behaviors of people passing you on the street. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Yes, life in the city is stressful and fast-paced, but I
don’t want to compare the Jewish residents of Bavel to some happy and perhaps
less-stressed villagers. In that competition Boro Parkers would lose, since I
personally prefer town life rather than city life. Still, the presence of true
Torah Jews in The City; people who are devoted to self-improvement, social development
and general holiness, is nothing less than a miracle. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>While driving and witnessing the miracle of this 14000+ ft
mountain, I was thinking about different experiences and occurrences that are
even more fascinating for me than the sight of physical beauty, even given the
fact that I am a nature enthusiast who truly appreciates magnificent
geographical phenomena.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I was reminded of some other memories, from the same places
and the same streets.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I remember going with my son to some small book store
somewhere in Brooklyn, to buy some sefurim and books. While building the pile together,
the salesman began speaking to us in a manner which no salesman ever should. In
fact, no man should speak that way to any other human being. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I took it rather patiently, though that older Chasidic man
was not talking in a manner befitting his Chasidic attire. His language was
simply inappropriate for welcoming a client, especially a client who obviously
intended to spend a few hundred dollars in his store. I understood that there
must be something wrong with the man. But my son, who was the brunt of his bitter
comments, was a bit less tolerant and certainly feeling more stressed. At one
point my son gave a short speech to the salesman in his native Yiddish, and then
asked me to leave the books and go. I felt for my boy as he was being
humiliated for no reason, and with regret I left the sefurim and we walked out
of the store. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I expressed to my son my suspicion that the salesman was
perhaps suffering from some condition which caused him to act in this manner. But
my son disagreed with me, clearly shaken by the whole situation.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Two blocks past the store we encountered a man who was
disheveled and eccentric. There are a few men like him in the neighborhood, but
each is slightly different in appearance and behavior. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This man's tzitzis (talis katan) was covered with countless
flecks of dirt and splotches of food which had fallen on it. His beard and
payos had obviously not been brushed for years. Even his veise zaken (white
sacks) were more gray than white. He had some sheets of plastic covering him,
boxes of ripped suitcases in one hand and a stick in his other hand, which he
was waving while screaming to the passersby, including the two of us. He also
wore Chasidic garb, but in his case there was no doubt that the man was
mentally disturbed.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A few days later, when I was already back in the West; my
son told me that he checked on the man in the book store to learn what could be
the cause of such strange behavior. In der kleine yidishe velt (in the small
Jewish World) even within the big city, it doesn’t take long to find
information. My son learned with sadness that indeed the salesman was disturbed,
even though he can function somewhat in society and work with people most of
the time. He has some health issues which can cause the kind of erratic conduct
we experienced in the store.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I thought about other possible situations, while I was
driving. What if this incident had happened, not to us, but to some out-of-towners
who were visiting Boro Park - a place where they would expect to see only
people who are on the spiritual level of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? What if this
would be someone looking to recharge his spiritual batteries, and he instead got
them burned by a salesman with a bad attitude?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Would he have enough understanding for his fellow Jew who is
suffering from a mental condition? Would he be able to rationalize to himself
that he is not dealing with a normal situation?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I don’t know. I hope that many would weigh the circumstances
with love and patience. I hope they would still see what I see every time I go
back to these places of holiness. Despite the fact that we have some cases of
mental illness or undeveloped middos (character traits) or even white collar
criminals and other people of inappropriate conduct in the frum community, the holiness
can still be detectible to the sensitive eye, on the streets of the big city. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>And that is a great miracle.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Someone may ask – Why employ a man with mental problems as a
salesman in their store? </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Well… a yid darft parnuse (it is honorable for a Jew to work
for his living). Perhaps this was the only place where some other Jew offered
him occupation. Although it may not benefit the owner financially, it is a
definite act of chesed (kindness). Chesed is not cost-effective – but it is
compassionate.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This Yid might have ended up like the other person whom we
encountered after leaving the store – on the street – had it not been for the
kindness of the proprietor. So why was
he employed while the other fellow remained homeless? Perhaps the stage or form
of his mental condition didn't allow the street person to take even a simple
job or live somewhere where he can wash and sleep in human conditions. But he
is still among us, he is still us, he is still part of the holy Jewish street
in the big city.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>He too is part of this miracle.</b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Matys Weiser</b></div>
Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-22410142082708375212014-08-06T23:45:00.001-04:002014-08-06T23:46:46.314-04:00Gaza<div class="MsoNormal">
<b> B-H</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Some people asked me repeatedly about my stand on so called <st1:city>Gaza</st1:city>
operation.</b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Well… it should be known for whoever read some of me essays
or posts containing passages from the writings of Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch
which there is few on my blog. If anyone has doubt I think following reflects
my views on this topic in the best possible way: <a href="http://anotherconvert.blogspot.com/2011/03/es-zaicher-amulek.html">http://anotherconvert.blogspot.com/2011/03/es-zaicher-amulek.html</a><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Matys Weiser</b></div>
Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-81734851687271322872014-07-13T11:58:00.000-04:002014-07-13T11:58:04.601-04:00Defending the Indefensible, or Simply Whitewashing <div class="MsoNormal">
<b> B-H</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In my teenage years, I used to have friends who lived in the
tenement house adjacent to mine. My family had just moved to the big city and the
first pals I met there, were those boys. They appeared to be from a nice family,
educated and rather well-to-do, as far as Communism allowed. They were good
looking and had excellent manners.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>But I was soon to learn that all those qualities were only
surface-deep.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If any window glass got broken in the neighborhood, they
were behind it. If someone woke up one morning to find that his car has been
scratched with a nail, one of the younger brothers was probably the culprit. If
school furniture or instruments got damaged, chances were that one of them had
done it. Moreover, if something was stolen in the vicinity, there was a big
probability that the owner could find it in their basement. They asked me many
times to be their watchman, in case someone found out about their escapades.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>However, when the parents of these boys got called to the
school or were even visited by the local police officers, the boys need not have
worried, because they were protected. They were protected by something which people
might call ‘blind paternal love.’ Whether or not such an emotion was beneficial
to the children, we will analyze B-H soon. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The parents would swear by all the saints, raise their arms in
incredulity and claim that ‘Their boys? Their treasures? Their well-mannered
and beautiful sons? They could not possibly do anything wrong. Impossible! It
could not have been them!'</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I didn’t hang out with them for too long, because somehow I
aspired to higher ideals that could not mesh with that lifestyle. But the boys
were still my neighbors, so for the next few years I observed how their lives
rolled steadily downhill, unstopped by those who were supposed to guard them. The
parents failed to protect them, not from the hostility of the world, but from
their own evil urges. They ended up as common criminals. And the degree of their
criminality only increased over time, as the younger one was the worst miscreant
of all. He just permitted himself more than his life role models, his older
brothers.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When I analyze this story, which I witnessed with my own
eyes, I came to a certain belief. It was not the boys whom the parents were
protecting. It was the image of themselves which they cherished in their hearts
and minds; an image of self-love and self-righteousness, which just did not
allow them to see anything wrong with their family. That is what they
protected. That is what they really defended.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The obvious conclusion of this story is that if they would
have distanced themselves somewhat from their offspring, if they would really
have loved their children instead of their self-image, if they would have corrected
the crooked paths of their boys, they would have saved them from destruction. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A little bit of awareness, some modesty and truth, may have
been unpleasant in the short run, but would certainly have been helpful in the
long run.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What I’m going to write may sound bitter, especially when
written by a convert who, by the nature of things, is always suspected of not
only being uneducated on matters of Yiddishkeit but also lacking in Jewish self-consciousness
and perhaps Ahavas Yisroel.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>No matter how much I prove otherwise, there will always be
some who accuse me of such. But I will try. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I became a Jew in the most anti-Semitic country in the world
after WWII, in a community where aveira was far more common than Mitzvah. Personally,
I was later Gegavened even by some frum people. I could go on much longer, but
this should be enough. Still, I say and I believe “Mi Kamochu Bagoyim K'Yisruel”
– There is no nation among the nations like Yisruel. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I love every Yid and it makes no difference to me when I
have the opportunity to help any of my brothers, any member of my Jewish family.
Not even when he represents total moral failure or an ideology that contravenes
the Torah which I believe. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Justification for this is simple. He must not be aware of
what he is missing, and probably it is not his own rejection of Torah but what
he was taught by other evildoers that causes him or her to be irreligious. He
never tasted the sweetness of real Yidishkeit and the only way to make it accessible
to him is through brotherly love and active help on a personal level. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is prohibited, however, according to the teachings of
Chazal as was explained by the Chasam Sofer and Rav SH.R. Hirsch, to be engaged
on any level with a group calling itself Jewish, but which is not representing the
Jewish way of life.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is extremely painful to repeatedly see how some of us, religious
Jews, publicly defend acts that are committed by members of our family which do
no represent what we are about and what our Jewish mission is in the world. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Quite the opposite! Actions which are contradictory to our
laws and our values can sometimes cause physical and moral destruction to
creation. Worse still, they can cause others to follow in their footsteps. Subconsciously,
goyim believe that if the Jews can do an avaira, they can too. Unwittingly, we
are the world's compass. If the Chosen Nation, called by the holy name, commits
a crime or an atrocity, the goy in his mind and conscience permits himself to
do the same or worse. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A really evil act, even one perpetrated by a Jew, is
recognized by the Gentile as such because certain evils are self-evident. For
those deeds, the evildoer will be held solely responsible at the time of Final
judgment. But for the impression of
permissiveness in a sin; for the bad example that our misbehavior sets for the
world, we have no defense. Those misdeeds will be held on our account. As
Mamleches Kohanim – a <st1:place><st1:placetype>Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename>Priests</st1:placename></st1:place>
and Ohr L’amim – a light to the nations, we are obliged to keep higher
standards of morality and ideals. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Too often, unfortunately, the Nations follow our renegades
instead of our righteous.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is said that at least some of our misdeeds are also
committed under the bad influence of the nations. This is true. But still, who is
supposed to lead in this game called history?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When other people question the misbehaviors of our own
Jewish family who represent the betrayal of what we treasure most, Torah and
Mitzvois, some of us defend them. Is this right? </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>I will not even mention the topic of Mesira, which is the most
self-defeating act that can pervade our circles. We should always bear in mind
how harshly the Torah forbids it, and be aware that there are strict halachic
rules regarding this issue.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Let us look together into the Talmud, the protective walls of
our nation. Let us examine what our position should be, when the sins of our
fellow Jews are committed in public. These avairos are sinful by any standards,
including rule Dina De Malchusa Dina – the rule of the country where we live is
our rule. DDMD applies as long as it is not openly in opposition to the Revealed
Truth.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Yoma 86b in the middle of the page: "Rav Yehuda said
that Rav contrasted the following verses. On the one hand it is written: ‘Fortunate
is one whose transgression is forgiven, when sin is concealed.’ But on the
other hand it is written: ‘One who conceals his sins will not succeed.’ This is
not a difficulty, says the Gemura. The second verse, which objects to the concealment
of wrongdoing, deals with a sin that is already widely known.” Rashi elucidates:
“When people discover that someone sinned, the honor of Heaven is diminished.” </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When a Jew transgresses any commandment of the Torah, and
knowledge of it becomes public, it creates Hilul Hashem which is by many accounts
the worst part of the sin itself. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>On the same page of Gemura the fascinating topic continues
in the last Beraisa: </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“We expose hypocrites, for otherwise a desecration of the Name
might ensue.”</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Talmud says specifically that when a person pretends to
be a righteous, for example by calling himself with the holy name “Jew” but acting
with behavior that is antithetical to the positive characteristics ascribed to
Jews, we must call that what it is – a sin.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Chazal is teaching us in many places, that it was never the
intention of our Torah to whitewash even our fathers and our greatest of teachers.
They were indeed righteous but if they failed even on their own level, it revealed
their human character. It showed that the Torah was not given to humans who are
made of superior material, but to simple flesh and blood like our own. In other
words, their behaviors should motivate us. For if it was possible for the greatest
people from the pages of the Torah to uphold the commandments, so it is
possible for us. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Any effort to whitewash their mistakes would bring the opposite
result than what was intended. That is exactly what happens when we try to whitewash
something that is obvious to everybody around us, including ourselves. But we conveniently
make ourselves believe that the whole act, event or situation was different
than the reality. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is highly desirable to find explanations and sometimes
even justifications for our fellow family members; as long as they do not perpetrate
a crime against intellect.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>There are always plenty of anti-Semites, including those
from our fold, who are waiting to amplify any Jewish misbehavior. And if those misbehaviors
don't exist they will fabricate ugly stories to pin on the Jew. For this kind
of false accusations we should always be ready to defend our people and our
values.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If, however, in the false attempt to defend the indefensible
we are adding lie to the sin, we cause Desecration of The Name – Hilul Hashem
of even greater proportions. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>It is highly required to defend our brother or sister if we
bring him to do Tshuva. However, without realization of sin Tshuva is impossible.
If we try to defend only our self-image at the price of our fellow Jew not
being informed about his transgressions, we do not really help him. We only
lead him toward further destruction.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Besides that, there are those of our as-yet-irreligious brothers
who will not understand what our ‘good’ intention was. They will see only a
defense of sin, which will make sin seem permissible to them. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Our condoning is a disservice to our fellow Yid who
transgresses. If we repaved his path back to the heights of real Jewishness, we
would enable more members of our family to follow the path of righteousness
instead of going astray. Ultimately, whitewashing will only bring blemish to
the holy nation and disrespect to our G-d. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Love cannot be blind. Real love is not that which is
directed toward ourselves. </b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>First Emes, then Shuloim, as the Nuvi directs - in this
sequence. Because without truth, there cannot be peace.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Matys Weiser </b></div>
Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-21676547926292003792014-06-30T10:09:00.001-04:002014-09-10T19:50:57.743-04:004th of July - The Polish Link<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When the dogma of the trinity was developing in the soon-to-become
Christian Roman Empire, there were two outspoken leaders of two conflicted streams of
Christianity. One of them was Athanasius, who was perhaps the main propagator
of the dogma of partnership in heavenly matters by the human called Jesus. The
other, Arius, strongly opposed such
ideas. Both of them were from Alexandria in Egypt. </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Athanasius prevailed, and under the auspices of Cesar
Constantine the Great in 325 in Nicaea, it was declared that there are two gods
in heaven. Some fifty years later in Ephesus, the third god was added, and that
is how the trinity dogma was formed. Since then, many groups among the
Christians opposing this dogma of trinity have been called Arian. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When Martin Luther was nailing his 95 Theses to the
cathedral <st1:place><st1:placetype>church</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename>Wittenberg</st1:placename></st1:place>,
perhaps he didn’t know that by this act
he began what is known in the history of the Church and mankind as The Reformation.
Neither he nor his followers, nor alternate leaders of Reformation detracted
from the basic Christian belief in the trinity. In fact, one of the reformers,
John Calvin, burned another Christian
thinker, Michael Servetus, at the stake for denouncing the trinity dogma.
Nevertheless, there were circles among Christian reformers to whom this and
other Christian dogmas and social institutions were at least without any basis
in scriptures and simply ridiculous. One such group developed in Poland. At first, the
movement of the so-called Polish Brothers separated from the Calvinist church,
but it soon grew to the one of most influential movements not only in Poland,
but in Europe. We have to remember that Poland was, at the time, at peak of its
historical development. Needless to say, it was the biggest country in Europe
at the time, and this alone was enough reason to attract intellectuals who
spread the Arian ideology throughout Europe. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A significant amount of the Polish aristocracy joined or was
under the influence of the Polish Arians. The movement was not monolithic, and
tolerated different streams of social and theological thought. On one side, for
example, there were so called <i>judaizantes</i>
represented by Szymon Budny, or Marcin from Olawa, my town of birth; they were
observing Sabbath as the holy day instead of Sunday and observed some basic Biblical
dietary laws. On the other side of the spectrum, perhaps, was Italian-born
theologian Faust Socin. In the later stage of the development of the Polish Brothers
movement, they were even called ‘Socinians,” especially among foreigners.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Brothers built several printing houses and the Academy
of Rakow, which attracted students from all over Europe. Many of the Polish Brothers were pacifists and
refused to participate in any military conflicts of the country or even appear
with a weapon in public. Polish law, however, required the members of the aristocracy to
wear a sword as one of the symbols of being its member. Many Brothers chose to
wear a wooden sword, which obviously said everything about their owners. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>For almost one hundred years, the Polish Arians influenced the
religious and political thought of Europe. But the Polish Church soon was able
to influence the king to bring in a powerful anti-Reformation force – the
Jesuits – and in what had been till then tolerant Poland, the war of words and
pamphlets exploded. In 1638, the students of the Rakowian Academy were accused
of throwing stones at a roadside cross. An out-of-control young students' prank
served the influential Church to justify further persecution. Arians didn’t believe
in either the human deity or its material representation hanged on the wood, in
this case hung all over Poland. The Jesuits brought the issue to the Polish
Parliament and king. The academy of Polish Brothers was closed, and in 1658,
the group was sentenced to banishment under penalty of death. Those who
converted to Catholicism were spared, but those who chose emigration were stripped
of all their possessions. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Many of the Polish Brothers immigrated to Amsterdam, which
then was the most tolerant city in Europe. They didn’t develop there into any
significant movement, but some of them and people influenced by their ideas
emigrated further to America, where they became what are known today as Unitarians. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Enlightenment<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In Poland and abroad, the recollection of the Polish
Brothers diminished, and a few centuries later in a then-strong Catholic Poland,
their memory was almost completely forgotten. The Polish Brothers left, however,
a heritage in the form of a few volumes written by different members of the movement.
<i>Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum</i> was a set of books which influenced
religious and political thinkers in Europe and on the new continent in the 17<sup>th</sup>
century. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In those writings, Polish Antitrinitarians developed ideas
of freedom of religion and government arrangement unknown in Europe until then. One of the
most innovative thoughts discussed in those books was the idea of separation of
Church and State for the first time in the history of the continent.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>"As one should not mix together matters of religion
with matters of state, so one should not allow for religion and state to be in
opposition to one another," and "one should not bring into conflict
religion and state nor should they be mixed together," writes Samuel
Przypkowski in his work “De iure Christiani magistratus et privatorum in belli
pacisque negotiis,” published in approximately 1650.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>One of the consequences of the separation of Church and
state is the disengagement of government from persecution of heretics and other
dissidents. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Marian Hillar's work on the topic of Polish Antitrinitarian
influence on fundamental ideas at the roots of the American political system is
probably the best written to date. In his work “From the Polish Socinians to
American Constitution,” he describes the political beliefs rooted in <i>Bibliotheca
Fratrum Polonorum</i> as follows: <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“To be a heretic is not a political but ecclesiastical
infraction. The matters concerning the church are different from matters
concerning the state. Their fusion leads to disasters and wars. The function of
the State is protection of all religious groups—pagans, idolaters, heretics,
apostates... The State flourishes when an accord and harmony reigns among the
citizens as it was recommended by Moslems and not by Christians.”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Mr. Hillar summarizes the Polish Brothers' impact on
political thinkers in contemporary Europe and, by extension, on the new
continent: <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“We find arguments used by Przypkowski, Szlichtyng, and
Crell repeated later in the works of John Locke, Pierre Bayle and even
Voltaire, and their echo in writings of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.
Przypkowski's ideas were the most original and his work the most exhaustive
Polish study on the mutual relations of Church and State.”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“The intellectual ferment Socinian ideas produced in all of
Europe determined the future philosophical trends and led directly to the
development of Enlightenment. The precursor ideas of the Polish Brethren on
religious freedom were later expanded, perfected and popularized by John Locke
(1632-1704) in England and Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) in France and Holland.
Their ideas on religious freedom, toleration, their philosophical and religious
arguments, coincide with those used by the Polish philosophers. Locke possessed
in his library works of earlier Antitrinitarians, works of Szlichtyng, Socinus,
Smalcius, Wolzogen, Wiszowaty, BFP, Racovian Catechism, Przypkowski's
Dissertatio de pace ... etc. He certainly read them and was influenced by them.
( [51] ) Grandson of Jan Crell, Samuel Crell, was Locke's friend. Locke went
further presenting a detailed analysis of toleration and state church relations
from a political point of view, obviously under circumstances in England.
Bayle makes numerous references to Socinians and their rationality.”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>“The ideas of John Locke were transplanted directly to the
American continent by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson who implemented them
for the first time in the American legislation. They were
philosophers-statesmen who shared a strong conviction for absolute freedom of
conscience and distrusted any kind of established ecclesiastical institution.
Their conviction was that the established churches create only "ignorance
and corruption", introduce "diabolic principle of persecution."
The exercise of religion should be completely separated from government,
toleration was not enough only absolute freedom could be acceptable. Democracy
understood as the institution erecting a "wall of separation" between
church and state, and protecting the liberties of minority groups<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>against the imposition of majority views was for them the
best guarantee of religious freedom. Both were broadly educated and Thomas
Jefferson had a keen interest in studying religions including the Socinians.
Their writings follow Locke and quite echo the Socinian literature. ([55]) The
Polish Brethren were forerunners of the later thinkers who developed ideas of
the Enlightenment and humanistic modern times.”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In my research, I found yet another link connecting
Jefferson, Madison and Adams to Antitrinitarians.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In his essay on the religious affiliations of Thomas
Jefferson, Mr. Thom Belote writes:<span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white;"><b>“While a student at William
and Mary College, he began to read the Scottish moral philosophers and other
authors who had made themselves students of church history. These scholars
opened the door for Jefferson's informed criticism of prevailing religious
institutions and beliefs. But it was the world renowned English Unitarian
minister and scientist, Joseph Priestley, who had the most profound impact on
his thought.” Later, he writes that “Jefferson never joined a Unitarian church.
He did attend Unitarian services while visiting with Joseph Priestley after his
immigration to Pennsylvania and spoke highly of those services. He corresponded
on religious matters with numerous Unitarians, among them Jared Sparks
(Unitarian minister, historian and president of Harvard), Thomas Cooper,
Benjamin Waterhouse and John Adams. He was perhaps most open concerning his own
beliefs in his long exchange of letters with John Adams during their late
years, 1812-26.”<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white;"><b>As I stated at the beginning
of this essay, there are not my innovative thoughts; I followed other
researchers collecting the data for this article. What may be innovative,
however, is the sequence in which I put some of the more and less known
historical facts together.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white;"><b>Many of our contemporaries
presume that the American political system is a child of the European
Enlightenment, and when they think ‘Enlightenment,’ this means antireligion or
antibiblical. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white;"><b>I hope that, with G-d's help,
I was able, if not to prove, then at least to expose, that there is a solid
link between Jewish scripture, and even Jewish political philosophy, and the political ideas of some of the
Founding Fathers. At least we can say that various political philosophies are
rooted in those Jewish scriptures. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white;"><b>Today, many of those who
declare themselves atheists, i.e. they consider G-d as their personal enemy, regard
themselves as children of the Enlightenment and humanists.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="background: white;">At these final lines of this
essay I will take the liberty of quoting one of the fathers of Enlightenment, Voltaire himself, who writes: "What is
faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to
my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being.
This is no matter of faith, but of reason."</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>And one more time, the same Voltaire: <span style="background: white;">"It does not require great art, or magnificently
trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should tolerate each other. I,
however, am going further: I say that we should regard all men as our brothers.
What? The Turk my brother? The Chinaman my brother? The Jew? (Thank you, Mr.
Voltaire.) The </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="background: white;">Siam</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="background: white;">? Yes, without doubt; are we not all children of the same father and
creatures of the same God?"</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Well, if this is what makes a person a humanist, then Matys
Weiser is a humanist. But the reason for my humanism lays not in writings of the
fathers of the <span style="background: white;">Enlightenment</span>, or the
Polish Brothers or any other group of people inspired by Jewish teachings. It
is the following of the Jewish teachings which makes me a humanist.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>In Mesechtas Nedarim of the Talmud Yerushalmi, there is
discussion recorded between two Sages and leaders of the Jewish people. They
were asked which of the the verses of the Torah is most important? “V'ahavta
l'rei'acha kamocha – you should love your neighbor as yourself,” answered Rabbi
Akiva. But Ben Azzai pointed to a different verse of Torah,“Ze Sefer <st1:city>Toledos</st1:city>
Adam – this is the book of generations of Adam,” stating that we are all
children of the same father who was created by G-d.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Maybe the words of Voltaire were an <span style="background: white;">Enlightenment </span>for his European contemporaries and later
followers. Maybe it was a chiddush, a novelty, for bnei Esaw to recognize that
all people are descendants of the same father and creation of the same Creator.
This wasn’t any chiddush for Jews, as we always knew it, as our children learn
it in cheider, that ahavas briah – the love of creation – is what the Creator
wants from us. And if sometimes “creation,” some of bnei Adam, persecuted and
killed Jewish children and as a reaction to this persecution some of us
developed certain distrust toward our non- Jewish or sometimes Jewish neighbors, we still learn our old Scriptures,
our old Talmud, and we still have leaders who, when the time is right, remind
us of our principles.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Preamble to Declaration of Independence:<i><o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div style="background: #F9F9F9; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 4.8pt; mso-line-height-alt: 9.6pt;">
<b><i>We hold these truths to be<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-evident">self-evident</a>, that<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_men_are_created_equal">all men are
created equal</a>, that they are
endowed by their<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creator_deity">Creator</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>with certain<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inalienable_rights">unalienable Rights</a>, that among these are<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life,_liberty_and_the_pursuit_of_happiness">Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness</a>.<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div style="background: #F9F9F9; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 4.8pt; mso-line-height-alt: 9.6pt;">
<b><i>That to secure these
rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from
the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consent_of_the_governed">consent
of the governed</a>, That whenever any
Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_revolution">Right of the People to
alter or to abolish it</a>, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect
their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and
accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce
them under absolute<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Despotism">Despotism</a>, it is their right, it is their duty, to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution#Political_and_socioeconomic_revolutions">throw
off such Government</a>, and to
provide new Guards for their future security.</i><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>When I read these words I truly feel proud, not because I
contributed to it in any way, but happy
that I found the Source of it.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Matys Weiser<o:p></o:p></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaoJZH7Ee6Z4j_OAjf75lPRal-cD1QbqTPd_ClFYGoPrmriNrWara-BnvgBtaU_4CF3CMrbZF-dYwDIEUs_icBJhQfCoFlQcn3gh-1aa5pRFSLruyPdbfzqhnCNVi0ROVKb8OOduwFEw9L/s1600/20140704_215322.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaoJZH7Ee6Z4j_OAjf75lPRal-cD1QbqTPd_ClFYGoPrmriNrWara-BnvgBtaU_4CF3CMrbZF-dYwDIEUs_icBJhQfCoFlQcn3gh-1aa5pRFSLruyPdbfzqhnCNVi0ROVKb8OOduwFEw9L/s1600/20140704_215322.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">4th of July in Orthodox Synagogue - Bozeman Montana</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>This is not all what I want to share on the topic and I-H further
essays will follow.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7788007335568504066.post-71042043497786364472014-06-01T01:44:00.001-04:002014-06-01T01:48:12.280-04:004th of July and Kingdom of Gerim<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> B-H</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Second installment of my essay about influences on the
writers of American Declaration of independence and creators of political
system which I believe was closest attempt to provide humanity with freedom to
find the way back to lost Freedom.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>L Kuvod Yom Tov Hashvios Zman matan Toirusaynee – For glory
of holyday of Shvios day of gift of Torah – exceptional day for gerim.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Jewish Kingdoms<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Descendants of Yaakov-Yisrael are the people chosen to be
the spiritual leaders of humanity in the task of bringing mankind to ultimate
recognition of Creator and His laws of morality. </b><br />
<b>This is our sole destiny; this
is both our burden and our privilege .
Ohr l'goyim and Mamleches Kohanim— this is what we are declared to be by the
Torah . The light for the nations and the kingdom of priests – an assembly of
people in charge of building unity between the Creator and His creation. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>If we Jews are responsible for building the moral, social and political progress of
humanity, how is that reflected in what was expected to serve as the prime
example of a perfect society which we were supposed to build in Eretz Yisroel, the
holy land? What about other Jewish governments and kingdoms in history? Did
they meet the ideal expected from us by the Creator? <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The answer is provided by our sages, and unfortunately, the
answer is - no. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Jewish government and Jewish kings are supposed to serve
only one goal: the fulfillment of the
laws of the Torah by the people of the Torah. This ideal has never been realized; it is still awaiting us under
the King Mashiach, whose days should come speedily. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We were close to the realization of a perfect society at the
time of Shlomo Hamelech – king Salomon. Then Chizkiyahu Hamelech was a tefach –
a handbreadth away from being Mashiach, but we, the people, were not ready yet.
<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We were able to build theocratic societies at certain points
of our history, which were close to the ideal but never achieved it. It is
necessary to say that theocracy was possible only at the time of prophets and
prophecy. I believe that it was still possible during the times of the Anshey
Kneses Hag'dolah, the Great Assembly, when prophecy was taken away from the Jewish
people soon after the second Temple was built. There is no possibility of
theocracy anytime after that and in any other land than Eretz Yisroel. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Without the prophets or smicha - the authority of judges
transmitted from generation to generation, the building of a government ruled
by G-d is impossible. This ideal is temporarily lost, and the only alternative
which may find acceptance and pleasure in the eyes of the Creator is when His
free, independent, tolerant people will rule themselves according to the moral
law known as the sheva mitzvos bnei Noach. Those rules are taught to humanity
in G-d's scriptures, by the example of His chosen people, or by the recognition
of the foundations of those moral laws in nature. Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch writes
in his commentary on Torah that the seven mitzvos bnei Noach can be discerned by any sensitive intellect. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Only once more in history was there a government ruled by the
Jews, as according to the Talmud we are prohibited to have our Jewish
government until arrival of Mashiach. It was not a government created by Jews,
but one which became Jewish to a certain extent.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The kingdom of Khazaria<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>We have very limited information about the kingdom of Khazaria
and the acceptance of the Jewish religion by its leaders, but we have even less
information about its social and
political system. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>At the end of the 9<sup>th</sup> century, King Bulan accepted
Judaism for himself and his country, and although he was converted to Judaism
by legitimate Rabbis of Talmudic Judaism, he himself never came to the level of
observance which he perhaps wished to
come to. </b><br />
<b>Obadiah, who was probably Bulan’s grandson, hired Rabbis and Jewish
advisers and built synagogues and yeshivos to provide his country's citizens
with a proper Jewish education, allowing them to be kosher Jews. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>One of the striking characteristics of Bulan's kingdom is that,
unlike many believe, most of its citizens were not Jewish. Even though some
members of the aristocracy converted to Judaism, and there were Jews born to
Jewish families and converts among the citizens of kingdom of Khazaria, the
majority of its citizens were Christians, Muslims and Pagans. The Jewish king
of Khazaria provided respected religious societies with their own independent
court systems and judges judging people according to their laws. In the Jewish
theocratic kingdom in Eretz Yisroel, it would have been impossible to tolerate pagans,
for example, as citizens unless their form of paganism would recognize One
Creator and basic moral regulations. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>King Joseph of Khazaria declared in his letter to Jewish
sage Ibn Shaprut, who lived in today’s <st1:country-region>Spain</st1:country-region>
in the 10<sup>th</sup> century, that his ruling Jewish ancestors expelled and
uprooted witches and wizards. We must understand that
those wizards were not Gandalfs or Harry Potters, but rather worshipers of dark forces of asocial tendency.
However, in this kingdom ruled by Jews, there was a complete separation of state
from religion. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The kingdom of Khazaria was still not government from the
people, by the people and for the people, but the Jewish kings of Khazaria
provided their citizens with the freedom known to us from the document written
by the founding fathers of the United States of America. How did it come to
this — the Jewish idea of the
coexistence of different religious societies occupying one country where
religion of the aristocracy or ruling class has nothing to do with their
service to the country and religion of its citizens? Once more, we will skip a
few centuries and we will find the thread in 16<sup>th</sup> -century Poland.
It is needless to say that it would be extremely difficult – but not impossible
– to find the sources of the American political system in Poland if not for my
background. <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Matys Weiser</b></div>
Matys Weiserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05885438723711995344noreply@blogger.com0