Not Really Surprised
The United Nations and Hizbollah are best buds. Check out the pictures.
Otherwise, all is thank G-d going well here. Tonight I went to a Breslover class/shiur. Very interesting points were made. The point that struck me was about finding joy in pain.
Mind you of course Simcha doesn't exactly translate to Joy, and Tzar doesn't exactly translate to pain, but it'll have to do. It's a very difficult concept especially when we're involved in the pain. This is my own understandings and spinoff of what he was saying since it was in Hebrew and I was doing my best to understand.
Right now we're going through a painful process here in Israel, but there will be an end. All of Jewish history/and general history will come to an end at some point. At that end point we will finally be able to see the point of the tzar that we had to go through. The rabbi speaking, Rabbi Doron, said that we do not fully understand Joy unless we understand Pain.
A metaphor that I think is easier to understand is physical therapy. My physical therapist put me on a bicycle and told me to pedal. Since my knee was not bending far enough to make a full rotation of the pedals, she told me to go forward as far as I could, then go the other direction. The stationary bike was not my friend.
A couple weeks later (going 3 times a week), I was moving the pedals back and forth (slowly and painfully) when all of a sudden I did a full rotation. This doesn't mean that it didn't hurt, but it did mean that I was getting more motion in my knee. I actually cried from being happy when I did the full rotation. I realized that I was progressing - up till that moment, the bike was my enemy, now it was my friend and nothing to be afraid of. I still remember crying at that moment.
I think that the same thing is true of Jewish history. My goal in PT was to get my knee back to 100% mobility and strength (I'm still working on it). It's easier to keep this goal in mind over a four month period than it is to keep focus on a goal over a 4,000 year period. We are unable to see past the pain of what the Jewish People have gone through and see the goal which we've been aiming for.
If I were on the bike in pain with no idea why I was there, it would have been a horrible experience (even with an idea it was uncomfortable). We need to somehow realize that the pain we've been through is for a reason. We don't always know why, but somehow it makes us stronger and brings us closer to the coming of Moshiach. Rabbi Tauber mentioned at the Shmirat HaLashon (Guarding Our Speech) gathering that we have more merits than we did Egypt when we were taken out. At this point in history we are actually in good shape, why isn't G-d redeeming us? Like the Lubavitcher Rebbe said, we're at the point that we're just shining the buttons on the uniform. We're a soldier waiting for inspection and we're just about cleaned up and the last thing to shine are the buttons.
It's time to love each other as Jews. This war in Lebanon has united the Jews in Israel and across the world like I've never seen before. Jews under attack in Haifa are finally understanding what the Gush Katif (Gaza) Jews went through when they were thrown out of their homes. Sometimes we need a push in order to properly feel for each other.
This is my take on one of many points he made tonight. Hope it made sense.
Comments
It was a pleasure to talk with you this afternoon, sweetheart. I really enjoyed it. But if I may... do you think Israel can attack or retreat without asking if the USA agrees or disagrees? Somehow, I get the feeling that whatever Israel does [after all, it is a small State that depends on the US for it armaments], that action is coordinated with someone else, is weighed, and is decided upon. It may be good or bad, but Israel just has to go along. What would happen if Israel would just do something without asking? I think that may have been the case in 1967 SixDay War. Israel liberated Judea-Samaria, was standing at the Jordan River, and proclaimed that 'they won.' Tragically, General Moshe Dayan, some three days later -- but I suppose, he could have been 'reached' by the US State Department or the President, explained the necessity for the 'palestinian'-Arabs to have a land of their own, and voila, General Dayan announces the beginning of 'palestine'!! Dictator Rabin made it official, Jews screamed [which is irrelevant], and a nascent 'palestine' now occupied the 'west bank' of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Therefore, the question raised is -- what is the current Dictator Ehud Olmert's plan for Judea-Samaria? Israel crushes the Hezbollah and Hamas forces in Lebanon and Gaza, but does Olmert [remember he's not elected] perceive that continuing the handover of Judea-Samaria is a continuation of the policy of 'surrender' on the one hand, while the policy of smashing the Arabs of Lebanon and Gaza is a victory? Is the message to Jews that to surrender Judea-Samaria, is the ultimate 'good'? Is the retrieval of the 'west bank' so discomforting and ugly, so destructive of the 'palestinian'-Arab objectives, that the Jews must yield to another Arab State? Is Israel supposed to obey and witness a 'palestine' inside of its own Land? What happens if Israel refuses to allow Arabs to establish [or re-establish] another State which hates the very essence of a Jewish State? And if Israel continued to maintain its 'palestinian'-Arab independence within the State of Israel boundaries [courtesy of the President and State Department], Israel will be absorbed and abolished. Well?
Posted by: michael drissman, ie Abba | July 27, 2006 5:55 PM
Shalom Michael,
Hope you are all well. Does Shira's note mean that she is in Israel? We would love to meet her.
Best regards from Chaim,
Kol tuv,
Rachel
Posted by: Rachel Spring | February 4, 2007 2:52 PM