January 29, 2004
"SHOULDN'T WE ALL BE CRYING?":
From: JWR_Editor-in-Chief (Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 14:20:52 -0500
To: jwr-today@jewishworldreview.com
Subject: IMPT. PLEASE READ!Dearest readers:
A few moments ago, my heart sank.
Going through my e-mail, I learned that one of this publication's periodic contributors, Chezi Goldberg, who dedicated his life to working with "at risk" teens and who was originally from Toronto and living in Jerusalem, was killed in today's bus bombing.
But what is so eerie was not his death --- that stung and I'm still feeling sick over it. And I mean SICK! What stung were the near prophetic words in one of his essays.
It's the middle of the day. I understand many subscribers are busy. But PLEASE take a moment and read these essays.
And then forward them to somebody you know --- and ask them to do the same.
It's important that his words move over the web no less that the jokes we always forward!
I'm CERTAIN that after reading the two articles you will agree with me.
PLEASE do it for Chezi. Do it for all of us. PLEASE
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky,
Editor in Chief
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/
-261 dead (Chezi Goldberg, Dec. 8, 2002, Jewish World Review)
I was riding a Jerusalem bus Thursday when news of the intended missile attack against the Arkia flight from Kenya came across the airwaves. For a moment the passengers were in shock. Then we all breathed a sigh of relief.That was our mistake.
Minutes later, news of the attack on the Paradise Hotel came across the radio waves. There were casualties. There was no sigh of relief.
When we here look at a miraculous escape from a deadly attack and breathe a sigh of relief, we lose the war on terrorism. Our attitude should be: The terrorists intended to down a plane with 261 innocent commercial air travelers aboard. They did not succeed, thank G-d. However, their intentions were clear. We must consider their intentions and take action with a state of mind, as if they had succeeded.
-Because, if you don't cry, who will? (Yechezkel Chezi Goldberg, Dec. 3, 2001, Jewish World Review)
He walked into shul, synagogue. I nodded my acknowledgement, as I always do. He made some strange gesture, which I didn't comprehend. I continued praying.A few minutes later, he walked over to me and said: "Didn't you hear?"
"Hear about what?" I replied.
He grew impatient, almost frustrated. "Didn't you HEAR?"
I understood that he was talking about last night's terror attack on Ben Yehuda Mall, a trendy night spot frequented not only by Israelis, but also Western tourists.
I assumed that he obviously was intimating that someone we knew was hurt or killed.
I replied: "About who?"
He looked at me as if I had landed from another planet. "About who? About everyone who was attacked last night."
I nodded. "Yes, of course I heard."
"Then why aren't YOU crying?"
His words shot through me like a spear piercing my heart. Our sages teach that "Words that come from the heart, enter the heart." He was right, of course. Why wasn't I crying?
I could not answer. I had nothing to say.
He pointed around the shul. "Why aren't all of my friends crying?"
I could not answer. I had nothing to say.
"Shouldn't we all be crying?"
I could not answer. I had nothing to say.
What has happened to all of us, myself included? We have turned to stone. Some would call it "numbness." Some would call it "collective national shock." Some would say that we all have suffered never-ending trauma and it has affected our senses.
Frankly, the excuses are worthless. All the reasons in the world don't justify our distance from the real pain that is burning in our midst.
Let us, this once, look into the dark places and shed tears today for the victims of terrorism in Israel, Iraq, and Afghanistan before we do turn to stone. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 29, 2004 03:43 PM
Fro Psalm 94
O Lord, God of vengeance, come forth!
Rise up, Judge of the earth;
Give the arrogant what they deserve.
O Lord, How long will the wicked exult?
How long will they boast of their deeds and flaunt their evil deeds?
They crush Your people, O Lord; they afflict Your inheritance.
They slay the widow and the stranger; they murder the orphan.
* * *
The Lord will not forsake His people; He will not abandon His inheritance.
Judgment will accord with justice; And the upright will follow it.
Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?
If the Lord had not been my help, I would soon have gone to the silence of the grave.
If I say, "My foot is slipping," Your kindness, O Lord, supports me.
When I am filled with cares; You sooth my troubled soul.
* * *
Tyrants conspire against the righteous;
And condemn the innocent to death.
But the Lord is my fortress;
My God is the rock that shelters me.
He reflects their wickedness back at them;
And will destroy them with their own evil;
The Lord, our God, will annihilate them.
"May God have mercy on you, because we won't."
-Sen. John McCain, September 12, 2001
Spend ten minutes crying and ten minutes killing arab terrorists. See which gets you further.
The Jews of Isreal have made a collective decision to absorb a certain amount of injury as long as it remains withing tolerances. They'll fight when you start constructing death camps or rolling into Isreal with five armies, but not when you blow up a few busses. They'll do a few symbolic guestures and kill eight or nine or twenty or whatever Arabs, like that makes any difference at all.
It's very idicative of the Jewish mindset that this guy is asking "why aren't we all crying?" instead of 'why don't we gather our armies and go slaughter this enemy tribe?' like we Anglos would.
It's a Jew thing, don't worry, they know what they're doing. Isreal will build it's fence then crush the Arabs slowly out of the fenced area, like a python. They are winning this war the Jewish way, not the Anglo way. Let's leave them too it.
Posted by: Amos at January 29, 2004 07:59 PM"...turn to stone..."
Too late. My heart has already turned to stone for them. At this point, I'm thinking like Donald Sutherland's character in Backdraft: "Kill them. Kill them all."
Eventually we're going to have to clean them out the way you always clean out a scorpion nest. With flamethrowers.
Posted by: ray at January 29, 2004 08:03 PMHe said "Burn them all".
Here's a hint on remembering: it was a movie about burning things and firefighters trying to extinguish burning things.
Posted by: Amos at January 30, 2004 04:11 AMCry.
Fight.
Cry again.
Perhaps destroying the terrorists is what we need to do now, but we cannot afford to drop all feeling for fighting, either. Give yourself a moment to cry...to pray. Ensure that G-d comes with you to your battle and victory is inevitable. Show G-d you care. Show G-d it hurts.
Cry.
Fight.
Cry again.
Perhaps destroying the terrorists is what we need to do now, but we cannot afford to drop all feeling for fighting, either. Give yourself a moment to cry...to pray. Ensure that G-d comes with you to your battle and victory is inevitable. Show G-d you care. Show G-d it hurts.
i see the swirling lights and flames
i hear the screaming, sobs of pain
i count the dead now...1,2,3
i just thank g-d it wasnt me
i watch their loved ones begging "no...!"
running, weeping, losing hope
i smell the blood that paints the street
i just thank g-d it wasnt me
tomorrows sun will calm my nerves
im safe, secure cuz im not hurt
my heart is closed tp the pain and pleas
i just thank g-d it wasnt me
i turn to run from this crowd of grief
and a soilder falls dead at my feet
i meant to step over, forget him and leave
then i see its my own...my son...and i weep
BS"D
Sunday, 1.4.2003
I cried on Friday night, having run out of my home after the surreal Shabbbes meal into the park "of the three" (Park HaShloshah - commemorating the 3 who fell in a battle for the Gush in the fifties) at the top of Beitar-Illit. I cried and some of the young guys from the "Le Zion Be'Rena" Institute (Highschool) from either Moskau or the US asked "Are you o.k." and I called back: "Yes I am, it's just pent up tension!"
And I cried out to heaven like a small helpless child the entire pain of "I can't take this anymore, I just can't."
Shabbos morning: finding solace "stop the madness, start centering, start living constructively one more time, as a Jew is meant to live". Set the Shabbes table. Nurse the angelic 2 week old baby boy. Drink. Breathe. Then after lunch with the family strength through company with a neighbour. Of course everything is as usual close to home. Chezi's children are in school with that woman's children and the boys my boys play with every Shabbes are in school with Chezi's children.
Often I saw him on the bus we both rode home the Derekh Hevron bus, which he had missed that day. At the lunch, my husband and my sons started singing: "He Who Heard Avraham, will hear you!." That at least put that crying on Leil Shabbes into perspective. Part of me was saying: But people are supposed to not cry on Shabbes even if a member of their own family lies dead before them. The other part had to cry and the song answered that part's insecurity about itself.
Thank G-d I am alive enough to cry!
As for policy: talking (yes the mere act of talking, never mind negotiating, or conceding) to the people who are bent on ending the existence of Israel, leads to the murder of Jews in Israel. This had been the outcry of the Rebbe of Lubavitch from the late 60's to 1993. When will we understand that?
It is a security position that is shared by key people in the Israeli army. Withdrawal and even talk about withdrawal in our position makes the situation MORE dangerous!
This is not a spiritual or a moral point, this is a security point. Only when we stop TALKING about conceding parts of YES the entire Eretz Israel, can we begin to negotiate from a position of strength with those Palestianians of goodwill, who actually truly want to live their lives in peace. All the nations which try to bully us into following their ideas of what our policy here should be, hvae to basically either leave the Middle East Arena or come around to understanding one basic point: The security of 5 million Jews in Israel is the top concern for us living here, and out halachah clearly states that you kill the one who comes to kill you.
I've heard Europeans friends visiting the country argue that for the sake of peace you let yourself be killed. That is their warped notion of pacificism, which they would like to impose on us. It is not Halachah.
Let us not go back to the routine, but instead let us learn for once to stop the behaviors that last Thursday took another 11 Jewish lives.
Posted by: Hannah at February 1, 2004 04:24 PMChezi HY"D wad a great man, selfless in his caring and helping others. His avodas Hakodesh has surely earned him a special place in Gan Eden. May HKB"H send a true nechomo to his greiving wife and precious children
Posted by: shloimie at February 1, 2004 10:04 PMChezi HY"D was a great man, selfless in his caring and helping others. His avodas Hakodesh has surely earned him a special place in Gan Eden. May HKB"H send a true nechomo to his greiving wife and precious children
Posted by: shloimie at February 1, 2004 10:05 PMChezi HY"D was a great man, selfless in his caring and helping others. His avodas Hakodesh has surely earned him a special place in Gan Eden. May HKB"H send a true nechomo to his greiving wife and precious children
Posted by: shloimie at February 1, 2004 10:05 PMI prayed and asked the KADOSH BARUCHU to strike and perish all the present day hamans that are out there trying to hurt our people. Amen.
Posted by: Otto Fuchs at March 8, 2004 11:05 AMI am Chezi's sister. One of them. In trying to locate as much as I can on line for our mom and Shifra, Chezi's wife, I am coming across notes people took time to write honoring my brother. Thank you. Please if we are all to remember him, do what Rabbi Taub said in Thornhill the shabbat of his shivah- show the world you knew him, truly, embody who he is in who you are, how you live your life. If we each do just one positive mitzvah as he would discuss, do so, otherwise then we lost him for no reason. This is about moving forward with him in us and always around us. He's big guy with a lot of heart to keep us all in his heart and then some. Our mom says this. I have no idea where she got it from but she says it to Chezi's kids when she call them in Israel- put your left hand to your right shoulder and your right shoulder to your left shoulder. Well, we all know whose bearhugging. Tell your loved ones each day how much they mean. He did. He knew the day would come he would not get another chance.
Be good.
Carrie
Posted by: carrie devorah at March 12, 2004 12:22 AM