I'm tired and beat down.
My body is ravaged by the poundings of life.
I am just too tired.
I read the paper this morning and saw that the Jews leading us in Israel, in their infinite wisdom, released the 250+ prisoners I lamented about two weeks ago.May Hashem watch over our people when the "innocent" prisoners, decide to extinguish a few more Jewish lives. Maybe then we can truly rejoice in our commitment to lift up the stature of the evil Abu Mazen.
I read this week how we have been selling smichot so people can earn 1000 shekels more. Is there no such thing anymore as integrity and character? Think about the last time you ever heard a shmooze by your rebbi or a speech by your rabbi and he mentioned those words. What are we doing? Is this Torah Leadership?
I read about a rabbi overseas who has been collecting money from his government for services never rendered. Straight out stealing. No if's and's or but's. What are we gonna do?
I'm just too tired.
This week of the nine days has proven to be all it is rumored to be and between all our issues and our conscious decisions to not deal with our problems as a people, I hate to say this, but we deserve what we get. We have absolved ourselves from personal responsibility, deferring to our rabbis for every decision we make. We have become lemmings. I am just too tired.
I need Shabbos this evening. I need it to reinvigorate my beaten down body and distressed soul and pray that Hashem have mercy on us this week-a week of historical tragedy and hope that our withdrawing from the pleasures of this world, will serve as an atonement for our cowardice and our shameful behavior.
Shabbat Shalom.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Monday, July 9, 2007
Can we Really be this Stupid?
If our enemies only knew how stupid we really are.
I have said that for the last 20+ years and as evidenced by the illogical Oslo Accords, our enemies figured it out and we have been on center stage making stupid decision after stupid decision ever since.
This morning's headlines scream out-"We are still the dumbest country on the planet"
"The government, in its Sunday morning weekly session, approved the release of 250 convicted Arab terrorists from prison, as a goodwill gesture to PA chief Abu Mazen. Only terrorists without “blood on their hands” are to be released."
We are doing what? Why?
I am stunned that the Israeli people-my people-have lived with this gutless sell-out for the last 12 months. His lawyerese gave Israel it's first Viet-nam last summer on the premise that we will not stop until we get our soldiers back. That lasted until George Bush told him to stop. Any sign of backbone? None.
Today he works to lift up a true Sonai Yisroel-Abu Mazen-who is a modern day Aisav-he gives us a kiss but it is really a bite. Does Olmert demand anything in return? No. Instead he has agreed to release terrorists "who have no blood on their hands". Why do they have no blood on their hands. BECAUSE THEY ATTEMPTED TO KILL JEWISH MEN WOMAN AND CHILDREN AND FAILED. Now Olmert will hand them a second chance to finish what they started.
But my question is deeper than that. My question is not why the Jewish people have stood by and let him destroy their country from within. My question is what about the religious parties? How have they stood by and become willing participants in a government that disdains them and all that they are supposed to stand for? How have they stood by and watched the imbeciles that are making decisions in Israel and VOTED WITH THEM on matters that they know are anti-Torah?
The answer of course is very simple.
They have stood by with their hands out and their "kadoorim" exposed. They are criminals by the purest of Torah definitions. They wear the garb and act the part, while underneath they make shady deals with the Aruv Rav just so they can line their pockets and remain in power. I ask again, in light of last weeks Parsha, where is Pinchas? Where is Judah Macabee? Where are the Jews who will stand up and say enough is enough??!! We cannot sit by and watch you kill our children through your cowardice, greed and thirst for power!!
Hashem is testing our people and we are not only failing, but I fear we are setting ourselves and our children up for a tragedy that we have not heard of in seventy odd years...What are we doing to our people? What are we doing to our children?
This is and always has been about power, greed and corruption.
Lest the religious amongst us in America act above it all. This past winter, the Torah Academy for Girls-a Bais Yaakov School on Long Island, sent home an edict which in a nutshell said as follows. All children who are with their aunts, uncles and or GRANDPARENTS, without parental or SCHOOL supervision, are subject to immediate suspension and or expulsion. In other words it's us or you. No Grandparents can be left alone to supervise your child(ren).
HUH?
What had this world come to? Not only can the grandparents, your parents, not be supervisors of your children, but we will be in their stead and in yours-En Loco Parenti.
What a Chutzpah!! Who thinks of these things? What kind of sick twisted individuals, think that they are not only the arbiters of their Torah, but yours and more importantly YOUR PARENTS Torah? Do you really think if the parents can't cough up the 10-15k it takes for tuition, that these righteous purveyors of Torah won't be calling on the very pasul grandparents to pay the bill? These people turn my stomach and they should sicken our whole nation and on top of that, the entire Bais Yakov movement, which in due time will all fall in goosestep, should be stripped of the very privilege we have entrusted them with-educating Jewish Children-and their leaders exposed for the self righteous, greedy, bullies that they are.
These people at TAG need to be called out. What message of Kibud AV are we sending? How does one tell his parents that their children cannot visit this summer because their Torah way of life, some of it lived from out of the ashes of the holocaust, is not good enough according to the leaders of today's Bais Yakov movement? This is Daas Torah? This is the nachas they get for sacrificing their lives for Torah? What message are we teaching the future woman of Klal Yisroel? This is a scandal of epic proportions and I am stunned that these so called educators are allowed to get away with this?
Where is the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah-the self proclaimed leaders of Klal Yisroel? Where is Agudas Yisroel? This is how we treat our parents? This is the thanks they get? You call this Torah? Kibud Av V'am?
You people disgust me!!
I'm not even sure who I am disgusted with more. The Leadership and board of TAG or the numb parents who allowed this ridiculousness to happen....
We cry about the abuse of power of Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon and then DO NOTHING when the very same thing is happening in our own backyard. This is all about power and the ability, through fear, to control people's lives.
I'm afraid this will only get worse as the blind sheep worry about the shidduch of their children.
Will someone please tell me what ever happened to principles? What ever happened to doing the right thing? What ever happened to leading a genuine life?
My heart aches for the torture that we are going through as a nation and it is all being brought upon us from within, destroying the intestinal fortitude that once made us special, and turning us into a weak, blind, and principle-less people.
I am pained to say this and never thought I would.
Today, I am ashamed to be a Jew.
I have said that for the last 20+ years and as evidenced by the illogical Oslo Accords, our enemies figured it out and we have been on center stage making stupid decision after stupid decision ever since.
This morning's headlines scream out-"We are still the dumbest country on the planet"
"The government, in its Sunday morning weekly session, approved the release of 250 convicted Arab terrorists from prison, as a goodwill gesture to PA chief Abu Mazen. Only terrorists without “blood on their hands” are to be released."
We are doing what? Why?
I am stunned that the Israeli people-my people-have lived with this gutless sell-out for the last 12 months. His lawyerese gave Israel it's first Viet-nam last summer on the premise that we will not stop until we get our soldiers back. That lasted until George Bush told him to stop. Any sign of backbone? None.
Today he works to lift up a true Sonai Yisroel-Abu Mazen-who is a modern day Aisav-he gives us a kiss but it is really a bite. Does Olmert demand anything in return? No. Instead he has agreed to release terrorists "who have no blood on their hands". Why do they have no blood on their hands. BECAUSE THEY ATTEMPTED TO KILL JEWISH MEN WOMAN AND CHILDREN AND FAILED. Now Olmert will hand them a second chance to finish what they started.
But my question is deeper than that. My question is not why the Jewish people have stood by and let him destroy their country from within. My question is what about the religious parties? How have they stood by and become willing participants in a government that disdains them and all that they are supposed to stand for? How have they stood by and watched the imbeciles that are making decisions in Israel and VOTED WITH THEM on matters that they know are anti-Torah?
The answer of course is very simple.
They have stood by with their hands out and their "kadoorim" exposed. They are criminals by the purest of Torah definitions. They wear the garb and act the part, while underneath they make shady deals with the Aruv Rav just so they can line their pockets and remain in power. I ask again, in light of last weeks Parsha, where is Pinchas? Where is Judah Macabee? Where are the Jews who will stand up and say enough is enough??!! We cannot sit by and watch you kill our children through your cowardice, greed and thirst for power!!
Hashem is testing our people and we are not only failing, but I fear we are setting ourselves and our children up for a tragedy that we have not heard of in seventy odd years...What are we doing to our people? What are we doing to our children?
This is and always has been about power, greed and corruption.
Lest the religious amongst us in America act above it all. This past winter, the Torah Academy for Girls-a Bais Yaakov School on Long Island, sent home an edict which in a nutshell said as follows. All children who are with their aunts, uncles and or GRANDPARENTS, without parental or SCHOOL supervision, are subject to immediate suspension and or expulsion. In other words it's us or you. No Grandparents can be left alone to supervise your child(ren).
HUH?
What had this world come to? Not only can the grandparents, your parents, not be supervisors of your children, but we will be in their stead and in yours-En Loco Parenti.
What a Chutzpah!! Who thinks of these things? What kind of sick twisted individuals, think that they are not only the arbiters of their Torah, but yours and more importantly YOUR PARENTS Torah? Do you really think if the parents can't cough up the 10-15k it takes for tuition, that these righteous purveyors of Torah won't be calling on the very pasul grandparents to pay the bill? These people turn my stomach and they should sicken our whole nation and on top of that, the entire Bais Yakov movement, which in due time will all fall in goosestep, should be stripped of the very privilege we have entrusted them with-educating Jewish Children-and their leaders exposed for the self righteous, greedy, bullies that they are.
These people at TAG need to be called out. What message of Kibud AV are we sending? How does one tell his parents that their children cannot visit this summer because their Torah way of life, some of it lived from out of the ashes of the holocaust, is not good enough according to the leaders of today's Bais Yakov movement? This is Daas Torah? This is the nachas they get for sacrificing their lives for Torah? What message are we teaching the future woman of Klal Yisroel? This is a scandal of epic proportions and I am stunned that these so called educators are allowed to get away with this?
Where is the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah-the self proclaimed leaders of Klal Yisroel? Where is Agudas Yisroel? This is how we treat our parents? This is the thanks they get? You call this Torah? Kibud Av V'am?
You people disgust me!!
I'm not even sure who I am disgusted with more. The Leadership and board of TAG or the numb parents who allowed this ridiculousness to happen....
We cry about the abuse of power of Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon and then DO NOTHING when the very same thing is happening in our own backyard. This is all about power and the ability, through fear, to control people's lives.
I'm afraid this will only get worse as the blind sheep worry about the shidduch of their children.
Will someone please tell me what ever happened to principles? What ever happened to doing the right thing? What ever happened to leading a genuine life?
My heart aches for the torture that we are going through as a nation and it is all being brought upon us from within, destroying the intestinal fortitude that once made us special, and turning us into a weak, blind, and principle-less people.
I am pained to say this and never thought I would.
Today, I am ashamed to be a Jew.
Friday, July 6, 2007
What can I offer?
I apologize again for not writing 'til now. Family health issues have dominated the landscape. It is a topic related to that issue that I wanted to write about-or at least the helplessness that comes with it.
I won't really go into what exactly the issues are within the family, but my thoughts have been directed towards the proper response in a crisis like this. Being raised FFB, you're taught that your first response should be to daven to Hasham and pray for help and health. Well, that would be everyone else. My first response? How in the world will my prayers help? I KNOW Hashem doesn't want to hear from me.
I cannot even begin to count the massive amounts of ways I have fallen short of the throne each and every day let alone my entire life, and I cannot even fathom how my creator wants to hear anything from me, or on top of that asking him for a favor I clearly do not deserve. Maybe it's easy for some people who know they have sinned and find it no problem to ask Hashem for his help. I find it almost impossible...does Hashem really want to hear praise from me?
How disappointed must he be in me and what I have done with my life? Do I really have any legs to stand on by asking Him for help with my child? Say Tehillim? I think that's better left for those who have far less baggage than I...
I get the fact that Raish Lakish was a stage coach robber and thief by trade and found his way to Torah. I get the fact that Nevezadrun killed hundreds of thousands of Jews and became a convert worthy of having Torah scholars as grandchildren. I've learned all about them all and have learned all about the Glory and Loving Kindness of the Creator, but I STILL cannot find it in myself to address the Holy One as if I have the right to.
Trust me, I'm not looking for a rebbi, an intermediary or a false prophet to pray on my behalf. I'm just looking to get past my vast array of misdeeds that may have been the cause for this family illness in the first place. The helplessness and loneliness I feel is palapable and weighs on me like a thousand pound gorilla. I know that the point of Judaism is that Ad yom mosso tichake lo-until the day of man's death Hashem accepts his Teshuva-I get all of that....I just feel so powerless....
I don't want to lead you to believe I do not daven three times a day-G-d forbid-but I must say that I do so feeling embarrassed that it is through me that praises to Hashem are spoken. How absurd... Surely there must be someone more worthy than I?
As another beautiful Shabbos approaches, I am hoping that the holiness of Shabbos will overcome my shortcomings and serve as a refuah for our child. Nevertheless, I will greet the Shabbos Queen with the same question that haunts me each and every waking moment....
Who am I?
I won't really go into what exactly the issues are within the family, but my thoughts have been directed towards the proper response in a crisis like this. Being raised FFB, you're taught that your first response should be to daven to Hasham and pray for help and health. Well, that would be everyone else. My first response? How in the world will my prayers help? I KNOW Hashem doesn't want to hear from me.
I cannot even begin to count the massive amounts of ways I have fallen short of the throne each and every day let alone my entire life, and I cannot even fathom how my creator wants to hear anything from me, or on top of that asking him for a favor I clearly do not deserve. Maybe it's easy for some people who know they have sinned and find it no problem to ask Hashem for his help. I find it almost impossible...does Hashem really want to hear praise from me?
How disappointed must he be in me and what I have done with my life? Do I really have any legs to stand on by asking Him for help with my child? Say Tehillim? I think that's better left for those who have far less baggage than I...
I get the fact that Raish Lakish was a stage coach robber and thief by trade and found his way to Torah. I get the fact that Nevezadrun killed hundreds of thousands of Jews and became a convert worthy of having Torah scholars as grandchildren. I've learned all about them all and have learned all about the Glory and Loving Kindness of the Creator, but I STILL cannot find it in myself to address the Holy One as if I have the right to.
Trust me, I'm not looking for a rebbi, an intermediary or a false prophet to pray on my behalf. I'm just looking to get past my vast array of misdeeds that may have been the cause for this family illness in the first place. The helplessness and loneliness I feel is palapable and weighs on me like a thousand pound gorilla. I know that the point of Judaism is that Ad yom mosso tichake lo-until the day of man's death Hashem accepts his Teshuva-I get all of that....I just feel so powerless....
I don't want to lead you to believe I do not daven three times a day-G-d forbid-but I must say that I do so feeling embarrassed that it is through me that praises to Hashem are spoken. How absurd... Surely there must be someone more worthy than I?
As another beautiful Shabbos approaches, I am hoping that the holiness of Shabbos will overcome my shortcomings and serve as a refuah for our child. Nevertheless, I will greet the Shabbos Queen with the same question that haunts me each and every waking moment....
Who am I?
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