Sometimes insights come to you when you least expect them.
We have a ritual that before bed my mother "tucks me in." Last night it got to more than just a tuck in- it began with: "You know, its kind of disturbing reading the news nowadays."
"Why?" ( I obviously KNOW why, I'm just inquiring her point of view on the matter...It was a turn slightly unexpected...)
"Well, its frustrating to see that even though in every day life the "Palestinians" of Gaza hate the hit men of Hezbollah, and if they would under any other circumstance, meet in the street, they'd at least spit some nasty words at each other, and at most get into a blood feud, or whatever it is that Arabs do to pre-occupy their time. But when it comes to the Jews, when it comes to the idea of obliterating the nation that so called" occupies" THEIR land- they unite.
And it's not a mere unity, a collective " I agree," it's a " lets donate the children of Gaza to help Hezbollah blow up something to hurt the Jews." It's a unity that crosses all Arab family blood feuds, its a unity that binds them. "
In the month of Av, Jews commemorate the devastating destruction of the worlds holiest piece of architecture- the Beit HaMikdash. It is widely known that one of the reasons why the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed was because of Sinat Chinam- or baseless hatred. The infamous story of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza is just a beginning look at a period where each Jew's heart was turned against their brother's. When a person looks out for themselves, numero uno , and is oblivious not only to the needs of others, but to their desires and feelings, the world gets very warped.
THE ONLY WAY WE WE CAN GET BACK TO OUR APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF SPIRITUALITY, THE ONLY WAY G-D WILL RESIDE AMONGST US AGAIN IS IF WE OBLITERATE SINAT CHINAM.
Hashem resides in Israel when Israel can be a home to all Jews- together. HaRav Kook speaks about this topic. He says that when a person wishes to repent, they not only must avoid doing the sin at all costs, but they must go beyond that and use what they defiled and make it holy. Iimagine drowning: if you are at the BOTTOM of a pool- you do not want the lifeguard to just leave you at the surface of the pool where you could drown again- you want him to get you OUT of the pool! Same thing with repentance, or Teshuvah: when one wishes to repent they need to go beyond just "not doing it again," they need to do the polar opposite in order to regain a healthy balance.
In OUR case, we need to not only obliterate Sinat Chinam- we need to incorporate Ahavat Chinam into every second of our lives.
I bet you heard of " my enemy's enemy is my friend." That is one very universal way to create and maintain a friendship- as we see with the Arabs. But a friendship based on something other than genuine love will fall apart sooner than later.
The real way to sustain a human relationship, whether its a male-female, friendship, mother-daughter, anything relationship, is through Ahavat Chinam: through loving a person just because they're a person, a Jew, a brother. My mother, my pearl of wisdom, always says, " It's easy to find faults in a person- because we all have them. It shows TRUE personal strength and greatness when you can find good in a person."
Ahavat Chinam is the way to bring us back to G-d. Like a father, He detests when His children hate one another. He cannot pay complete attention to them because their arguments are so diverting. Ahavat Chinam is like the glue that holds a broken cup together. You cant expect to drink from a cup that has broken if you only reassemble the pieces to how they used to look- you have to glue them back together in order to actually use it. Only then can we drink from the cup- only then can it be filled.
There is a Jewish saying that says " Ein cli l'bracha elah shalom," which translated means
"there is no vessel for blessing except peace." How can you appreciate all the blessings you have if there is turmoil that disrupts your perception of it? How can you appreciate life if there is war and baseless hatred? It hurts to be hated, but it is even more detremental to hate. To be hated is to be in a state where you see the enemy outside of you, to change yourself as best as you can, and the rest is up to the other. But to hate is to fight the enemy inside you. Your Yetzer hara- or evil inclination ( you know in cartoons it's that little devil sitting on your shoulder) convinces you to close yourself off into oneness. He convinces you that they are eternally wrong, and you are never at fault. He convinces you to push blame on them and deem yourself innocent. He convinces you to hate, and that is the enemy inside: that is the biggest detriment because it keeps you from developing and growing into a loving and open person.
When the Arabs are under pressure and in the face of an enemy- they unite. When we, Hashem's beloved children are under the load of the enemy- we attack each other. We have our Jewish brothers in the army and government evicting our Jewish brothers in Gush Katif. We have left-wing Jews despising Right-wingers. We eat ourselves up- which only makes us weaker. Iit's like cancer in a body that convinces its own cells to devour each other until the point where the body is no longer functional! So, although it is disgusting to have to learn this from the very people who are out to obliterate us, nothing happens stam( for no reason). We need to learn from the Arabs the importance of uniting- the importance of being one, the importance of facing troubles together- that we can learn from our precarious situation. But to make ourselves truly strong, to have Hashem guide us once again, to defeat the Arabs, and all our mortal and spiritual enemies, we can't just unite in the face of danger- we must unite in the face of peace too. We MUST employ Ahavat Chinam, and only this way can we rid ourselves of our enemies once and for all.
With Hashem's help we should soon build the Beit HaMikdash together in unity- B'ezrat Hashem!
peace!
יום רביעי, אוגוסט 09, 2006
יום רביעי, אוגוסט 02, 2006
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!
guys this is one of the most sincere gestures i have ever recieved in bulk mail.
sponsored by the HAS Advantage Campaign and Elite chocolate, they ae sending a chocolate to each soilder...along with a personalized card... that YOU write! Think of the air-combat soilder, or tank operater that will be handed a chocolate and a card from YOU. Think of their smile! YOU can brighten up an IDF soldier's day no matter how far away you are from Israel.
Please spend 1 minute of your time and visit the site!
http://www.websense-media.co.il/has_200706/default.asp?gid=has_man
sponsored by the HAS Advantage Campaign and Elite chocolate, they ae sending a chocolate to each soilder...along with a personalized card... that YOU write! Think of the air-combat soilder, or tank operater that will be handed a chocolate and a card from YOU. Think of their smile! YOU can brighten up an IDF soldier's day no matter how far away you are from Israel.
Please spend 1 minute of your time and visit the site!
http://www.websense-media.co.il/has_200706/default.asp?gid=has_man
יום שלישי, אוגוסט 01, 2006
For Johanna
Okay, so for my second blog... ( this is more fun than i thought it would be), i want to dedicate to my best friend Johanna Corcos who is unfortunately stuck out there in my home town, Dallas,Tx.
For all y'all israelis who are reading this, imagine the pain of it: a girl who wants to come so badly to israel, and had her plans hung up becasue of the war up north. Now, i am going to say, that even if she wasnt one of my best friends, my heart would still pour out for her pain. Think about it! How many people out there arent even considering, or even worse- abhor the idea of moving here to our homeland? Now that we have one more that WANTS to come, is even dying to come, her plans get held up because Hizbullah decides to show some of their true colors( a.k.a, they don't love us and could really care less about peace, although they'd love to have their poor Palestinian brothers scoop up another slice of our land) and bomb our northern, and now even southern borders!
I'll share an insight with y'all that i didnt have until i came to israel, my home. Living in America was always just a land. Yes i know every word to " Oh Say Can You See," and yes, i did celebrate 4th of July each year...but it was never home. Until i came here, i never learnt what it meant to have a land. To be a part of a place that you KNOW is destined for you, and no matter how hard the times are, you wouldnt leave it because its YOURS. In America i always knew in my heart that i wanted to live in in israel- the catch? I didnt know how much Israel wanted me.
In Hebrew, native Israelis are knowns as "tz'aabarim" or "Sabras." Like the fruit, many seem to have a hard prickly outside, but on the inside they are just as sweet as ever. Another secret that lies int he core of our Sabras- they want all the Jewish population to move back home! Yes they do " laredet al anashim," or make fun of people, but you will not find another nation that makes fun of themselves as much , or more, as they do others. People in CHU"L ( Chutz la'aretz, or outside of israel), most specifically people from North America are often either offended orintimidated by a Sabra's prickly and hard external covering. They say that Sabra's mennerisims are so different than those of " us north Americans," that it would make it impossible to live with them. Yet they do not know the sweetness that lies within! Each and every Tzaabar wants their Jewish brothers to make Aliyah and Join them in the promise land. Some hide it better than others. Yet there are throngs of people who i have met here ( including my Aunt and her family who have lived here for 20+ years)tell me countless times how they are dying for all our bretheren to just come on over already!
This is the part i didnt know, and had i known their desperation for their "extended family" to make aliyah, i would have toddeled outta my carseat and signed all the aliya forms at age two!( or better yet, force my mom through telepathy to have me be born IN israel- i could be mean, like force her to eat a lot or green beans until she would get the point... ;p).
Y'all... we need you here!! Nobody is going to carry you here. You know those "wings of an eagle?" those are called airplanes!Hashem never wants us to wait around for Him to just perform miracles for us. Would we have acted by the Red Sea as we( people in CHU"L)do in regards to getting ourselves over here... we all would've be killed in a flash by the Egyptian soldiers that were on our heels! Nachshon Ben Aminadav ( i want to name my kid Aminadav, so he can name his kid nachshon, so when they call him up to the torah hell be nachshon ben aminadav!! how COOL would that be? poweful name, huh? hmm, maybe i should copywrite it...;p...haha, just some random facts, slightly connected. anyways nachson ben aminadav..)charged the waters of the red sea until they were up to his NOSTRILS. NOSTRILS PEOPLE, NOSTRILS!!! G-d wants our initiative...how is He supposed to know that we want salvation if were not acting!
There will always be more money you can get befor eyou make aliyah, there will ALWAYS be another reason why THIS YEAR cant work because ( fill in the blank)job/school/kids/money/inexperience/intimidation/other.... fill in the blank. Just look at me. had i acted like what most CHU"L people consider " only normal,' i wouldnt have come to israel in 11th grade, let alone in the middle of the YEAR of 11th grade! I woldve opted out of doing the bagruyot and just take the easy route and do the S.A.T.S, I would've refused to leave my precious family( the people i love most in the world) for 6 months, i wouldve said that i would just come after high school. And after high school would turn into after im married, after ive had my first, second, actually after ive had all my kids, which would turn into after all my kids are in school, which would turn into after all my kids are OUT of school, which turns into a whole BUNCH of things, until im 119, turning 120 and i realize " hold up, arent i missing something? OH YEAH! A COUNTRY! Ooops"
Thats how it always works, trust me my family has personal experience( anyone who knows me personally can attest to our life long attempt at aliyah...)..but that story will be saved for the next blog.
For all y'all who skipped down to the bottom of this blog to see how long it could possibly be, and wondering how this girl can write SO much... the main idea that y'all should take from here is: WE NEED Y'ALL HOME!( There, i saved those of y'all who are lazylots of reading...but if you actually want to be thuroughly convinced...i'd suggest READING MY WORDS...)
I'll write back soon! but until then
Shalom, L'hitraot
:D
For all y'all israelis who are reading this, imagine the pain of it: a girl who wants to come so badly to israel, and had her plans hung up becasue of the war up north. Now, i am going to say, that even if she wasnt one of my best friends, my heart would still pour out for her pain. Think about it! How many people out there arent even considering, or even worse- abhor the idea of moving here to our homeland? Now that we have one more that WANTS to come, is even dying to come, her plans get held up because Hizbullah decides to show some of their true colors( a.k.a, they don't love us and could really care less about peace, although they'd love to have their poor Palestinian brothers scoop up another slice of our land) and bomb our northern, and now even southern borders!
I'll share an insight with y'all that i didnt have until i came to israel, my home. Living in America was always just a land. Yes i know every word to " Oh Say Can You See," and yes, i did celebrate 4th of July each year...but it was never home. Until i came here, i never learnt what it meant to have a land. To be a part of a place that you KNOW is destined for you, and no matter how hard the times are, you wouldnt leave it because its YOURS. In America i always knew in my heart that i wanted to live in in israel- the catch? I didnt know how much Israel wanted me.
In Hebrew, native Israelis are knowns as "tz'aabarim" or "Sabras." Like the fruit, many seem to have a hard prickly outside, but on the inside they are just as sweet as ever. Another secret that lies int he core of our Sabras- they want all the Jewish population to move back home! Yes they do " laredet al anashim," or make fun of people, but you will not find another nation that makes fun of themselves as much , or more, as they do others. People in CHU"L ( Chutz la'aretz, or outside of israel), most specifically people from North America are often either offended orintimidated by a Sabra's prickly and hard external covering. They say that Sabra's mennerisims are so different than those of " us north Americans," that it would make it impossible to live with them. Yet they do not know the sweetness that lies within! Each and every Tzaabar wants their Jewish brothers to make Aliyah and Join them in the promise land. Some hide it better than others. Yet there are throngs of people who i have met here ( including my Aunt and her family who have lived here for 20+ years)tell me countless times how they are dying for all our bretheren to just come on over already!
This is the part i didnt know, and had i known their desperation for their "extended family" to make aliyah, i would have toddeled outta my carseat and signed all the aliya forms at age two!( or better yet, force my mom through telepathy to have me be born IN israel- i could be mean, like force her to eat a lot or green beans until she would get the point... ;p).
Y'all... we need you here!! Nobody is going to carry you here. You know those "wings of an eagle?" those are called airplanes!Hashem never wants us to wait around for Him to just perform miracles for us. Would we have acted by the Red Sea as we( people in CHU"L)do in regards to getting ourselves over here... we all would've be killed in a flash by the Egyptian soldiers that were on our heels! Nachshon Ben Aminadav ( i want to name my kid Aminadav, so he can name his kid nachshon, so when they call him up to the torah hell be nachshon ben aminadav!! how COOL would that be? poweful name, huh? hmm, maybe i should copywrite it...;p...haha, just some random facts, slightly connected. anyways nachson ben aminadav..)charged the waters of the red sea until they were up to his NOSTRILS. NOSTRILS PEOPLE, NOSTRILS!!! G-d wants our initiative...how is He supposed to know that we want salvation if were not acting!
There will always be more money you can get befor eyou make aliyah, there will ALWAYS be another reason why THIS YEAR cant work because ( fill in the blank)job/school/kids/money/inexperience/intimidation/other.... fill in the blank. Just look at me. had i acted like what most CHU"L people consider " only normal,' i wouldnt have come to israel in 11th grade, let alone in the middle of the YEAR of 11th grade! I woldve opted out of doing the bagruyot and just take the easy route and do the S.A.T.S, I would've refused to leave my precious family( the people i love most in the world) for 6 months, i wouldve said that i would just come after high school. And after high school would turn into after im married, after ive had my first, second, actually after ive had all my kids, which would turn into after all my kids are in school, which would turn into after all my kids are OUT of school, which turns into a whole BUNCH of things, until im 119, turning 120 and i realize " hold up, arent i missing something? OH YEAH! A COUNTRY! Ooops"
Thats how it always works, trust me my family has personal experience( anyone who knows me personally can attest to our life long attempt at aliyah...)..but that story will be saved for the next blog.
For all y'all who skipped down to the bottom of this blog to see how long it could possibly be, and wondering how this girl can write SO much... the main idea that y'all should take from here is: WE NEED Y'ALL HOME!( There, i saved those of y'all who are lazylots of reading...but if you actually want to be thuroughly convinced...i'd suggest READING MY WORDS...)
I'll write back soon! but until then
Shalom, L'hitraot
:D
we <3 Israel
My father is the renowned " brother of the ex-American embassador to Israel" and as we speak, he is sitting in our living room, talking to a reporter from the Israeli newspaper "Yerushalayim." This is the 7th interview, no exaggeration, that he has done since my family moved here nearly a month ago.
I can't tell yet if he enjoys it. I know that for since i can remember he and my uncle, Dan Kurtzer, have shared an opposite political view on everything. Israel, where we stand, what land is ours, where we belong, everything- i guess they agree to disagree. My dad is, although in America he was a Republican ( :( ), here, he is right-winged... the place where a religious Jew should stand. We protect our land, and are not willing to give it up in a pinch, like the ones that President Bush and his government gives to Israel under the table.We deserve our land, and it will be ours, when push comes to shove.
I've never held a blog before, so i dunno what all y'all( yes, thats an authentic "y'all," im origionally from Dallas,Tx.) are expecting.
Oooh, goodies! my siblings just came back from their first day at Ulpan-camp( ulpan( pronounced ool-pahn) is an Israeli program that helps immigrants learn Hewbrew)...and the Israeli interviewer just asked me if i can speak hebrew, and i just spoke to her for like a few minutes in fluent hebrew.
My story?
I've been here since january ( a.k.a the middle of my 11th grade year). I plopped myself into the middle of 11th grade, an extremely abnormal decision- if youre a normal human being. Me? Naw, i guess im one of those abnormal ones. I made friends, learnt the language, did the homework, took the Bagruyot( a form of national finals, the types that ALL colleges and higher educational services look at to decide if they want to accept you to their well-bred establishments), and im still alive. I lived with my aunt and 6 cousins for 6 months, and well... in short...i survived that too. I love them to pieces, but oh lordy did i miss my family.
So, for all y'all teens, or people in general around the world: if the problem for you is moving to a new place, moving here is very do-able. well, I'll talk about all the political action and saftey precautions in my next blog... but for now...
Shalom, L'hitraot
:D
I can't tell yet if he enjoys it. I know that for since i can remember he and my uncle, Dan Kurtzer, have shared an opposite political view on everything. Israel, where we stand, what land is ours, where we belong, everything- i guess they agree to disagree. My dad is, although in America he was a Republican ( :( ), here, he is right-winged... the place where a religious Jew should stand. We protect our land, and are not willing to give it up in a pinch, like the ones that President Bush and his government gives to Israel under the table.We deserve our land, and it will be ours, when push comes to shove.
I've never held a blog before, so i dunno what all y'all( yes, thats an authentic "y'all," im origionally from Dallas,Tx.) are expecting.
Oooh, goodies! my siblings just came back from their first day at Ulpan-camp( ulpan( pronounced ool-pahn) is an Israeli program that helps immigrants learn Hewbrew)...and the Israeli interviewer just asked me if i can speak hebrew, and i just spoke to her for like a few minutes in fluent hebrew.
My story?
I've been here since january ( a.k.a the middle of my 11th grade year). I plopped myself into the middle of 11th grade, an extremely abnormal decision- if youre a normal human being. Me? Naw, i guess im one of those abnormal ones. I made friends, learnt the language, did the homework, took the Bagruyot( a form of national finals, the types that ALL colleges and higher educational services look at to decide if they want to accept you to their well-bred establishments), and im still alive. I lived with my aunt and 6 cousins for 6 months, and well... in short...i survived that too. I love them to pieces, but oh lordy did i miss my family.
So, for all y'all teens, or people in general around the world: if the problem for you is moving to a new place, moving here is very do-able. well, I'll talk about all the political action and saftey precautions in my next blog... but for now...
Shalom, L'hitraot
:D
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