An old man and his 6 year old grandson are sitting on a bench.
Both lost in thought....
The child turns to his grandfather and asks: "Zeide, did you ever see G-d?".
"Yes", he answers," all the time".
Both - pensive....
"Did you see him when you were six?", asks the grandson.
"No, answers the old man, " but now that I am getting older, I can barely see anything but Him".
Older fellow with glasses: I see that book in your taliis bag, called "Forgiveness". What is it about?
New Age Guy: It is about how you have to forgive all those people who hurt you?
Congregant: Why would you do it, if they dont ask?
New Age Guy: No, you forgive them for yourself, so you can be free. Not forgiving traps you in negativity.
Glasses: Really?
New Age Guy: Yes. It holds you back, it gives them continued power over you. When you let go, you can move forward.
Glasses: Can't you move forward without them. You can forget them, for example. Forgiving someone because you want to detach from them is kind of selfish and not sincere- no?
New Age Guy: Forgiving is always noble. It's theatrical, a grand jesture of liberation. It's a better thing to do.
Glasses: And trusting that G-d is always just is a very private step. I get it. In my book, they have to ask. for fogiveness. They can't hold you back, if you understand that it is all from Hashem and they are just His messengers. Then we are honest, I am not using them for my ends and they gain true forgiveness - through understanding.
New Age Guy, unsure: But forgiving is better.
Glasses: Doesn't sound very Jewish, Sounds outright Christian. Forgiveness only comes if it is solicited. I KNOW that I cannot forgive someone unless he apologizes, at the very least, and I better know he means it. I can say that I forgive him but that is just words and I don't really mean it. I am just being noble in my own mind and self involved. I enjoy shoving my superiority in their faces and I gain not repair but revenge.
New Age Guy: How would you know that he means the apology? May he is just unburdening himself to not be trapped himself in negativity.
Glasses: If the apology is sincere. I know what is sincere; if it is complete, if he doesn't minimize the offense and does not blame others or the cicumstances. If he is willing to compensate - then I know it is not just words.
New Age Guy: What difference does it make what you call it.
Glasses: What you call it shapes your perception of what it is. Truth is always beter than self delusion.
New Age Guy, insisting: But if you don't forgive you will always remain trapped. It's for you, not for them.
Glasses: I seee what you mean. But, may be that is not called forgiveness, May be you you do it to move on but you need to call it something else, what it really is.
New Age Guy: What?
Glasses: Bitachon !
It is the day after Hurricane Sandy. Most families in the neighborhood do not have electricity and men walk around with long faces and preoccupied. The Shul has power. A man walks over to me and starts a conversation. He is obviously in high spirits and joyful.
Man: Rabbi, Hashem make a real miracle for me today!
I (expecting a story about a falling tree that missed him by a few inches or something like that): Baruch Hashem, tell me what happened.
Man: You know that I was out of work for over a year.
I: Yes
Man: So, I was going to have the house go into foreclosure. I had a hearing in June, but I just got a new job and I asked them to postpone it till I got a few paychecks, and they did.
I: Great!
Man: So the hearing was supposed to be October 30th and I was going to offer them a deal, take it or leave it.
I: So what happened?
Man: They postopned it again. I am so HAPPY? I am going to pay some of my tuitions now!
I: Baruch Hashem, you should have a lot of Hatzlacha.
After he leaves, musing to myself - Ah, this is why Rachamim is the plural? Our world runs on Rachamim, which is a combination of Chesed and Gevura. So, goes it in our world. One man's loss is another man's gain.
The events in Syria are painful to watch. So much suffering, so much loss of life! As Jews, we bear no malice to any human being and hope well to all. Even, to our enemies, may Hashem keep them and keep them far away from us. Vengeance is His, and ours is too long for peace and for all human beings to recognize His sovereignty in the world that he made.
How I wish that Syrian, Iranians, Egyptians, Saudis, felt the same way, but there is no Golden Rule in Islam. Instead, there is vengeance and ill-will towards infidels and those who did not submit to Allah and his messenger.
The Torah sees humanity as being composed of families of nations. The father of all nations is the Master of the the world. Israel is God's firstborn but other nations are also his children. The firstborn leads his siblings and takes a double portion of inheritance that he usesto finance his work for their benefit.
Alas, it is not for nothing that Jews see themselves as onw sheep among sevety wolves. If not for the Shepherd, we would have come to naught millennia ago. He protects us and saves us from their hands and teeth, may he continue to so protect us. May they be shamed and not we, may they stumble in their nefarious designs and not we, and may they ultimately, as a consequence of their failure to destroy us come to recognize Him.
The world is in crisis. Old ways of thinking, old religious ideas, are in their death throes. Christianity has changed more in the past century than in the previous 2000 years. It gave much back and retreated far before disbelief. But, atheism and agnosticism has similarly changed and been challenged by the events of the past century. Post-modren paradigms render everything uncertain, even uncertainty itself. Eastern religions too have been shaken by the exposure to Western patterns of thought and Western spirituality. The holdout has been Islam. Islam has not changed.
It may have seemed that Islam was defeated by overwhelming military might and intellectual and scientific superiority of the West. However, except for here and there, except for Ahmadis and Koran-Only followers, the encounter with Western thought has not seriously challenged Islam from the inside. It never stood before the West ashamed and defeated. It never looked at itself and said: "I must find their ideas within myself". It is now roaring back, angry, wounded, seeking redemption and revenge. Because the West lost its courage, the battlefield has been evened. Western advantage in technology and armaments do not help in close, hand-to-hand combat. Terrorism is a hand to hand combat
An earthquake is shaking the Middle East. The spiritual bankruptcy and the loss of the will to dominate and to fight has disadvantaged the West. The ground has split and the dwellers of the dark have broken through and risen. A seeminlgy unending supply of mujahadeen, shahids, and holy warriors seeking destruction, desolation and death is pouring out our of the dark recesses of the Muslim world. The first who they will desolate will be Moslems themselves. Allawis, Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis, Sufis and the many offshoots of Mohammed fight and kill each other. Fellow believers accuse each other of "shirk" and settle their differences by force and not reasoning. How long will this continue?Perhaps, at the end, they will be surfeited with blood, gore and pain. Perhaps, as the Europeans before them, they will become sickened of religiously inspired violence. They will begin to know that hate, frustration, violence and revenge are not from G-d. Perhaps, then and only then, will Islam undergo a process of internal change and reform. Then and only then will it be prepared for the Messianic age.
I pray, that this events, did not come to be. Yet, they seem destined to be, and the end of history has already began. The internecine violence may also cause us, the Jews, great injury but it is becoming more and more likely and obvious, that it will largely bypass us. Our land may yet be an island of tranquility among the raging storms.
The coming events will bring Jews and Christians closer together. Already, our shared history and heritage, and our shared conceptual framework, concepts of morality, and the Bible that we hold in common, as the defining the Judeo-Christian alliance. We no longer squabble about doctrine. Atheism from behind and Islam from teh fron made us allies. Both Jews and Christians have the Golden Rule. Islam is built on acceptance of Mohammed as the messenger of Allah, subjugation of those who reject Mohammed, and holy vengeance against those who do not believe. Therefore, Christians and Jews are destined to draw even closer as allies in fellowship.
In the short term we're looking at more and more instability. Syria, I believe, will break into Allawite, Sunni and Russian occuppied spheres(the port of Tartus), with Al-Qaida bleeding them all. Iran will go down under Israeli and American might. Egypt will grow progressively more impoverished with ever-increasing low-to-moderate evel communal strife and violence. The Shiite – Sunni fault line will burn in the midst of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. Pakistan will implode in an orgy of revenge, tribal conflict, and armed clashes between tribes and with India. Afghanistan is already doing this and will continue. Separatist Islamic groups will be mercilessly suppressed in China, and throughout Far East and Central Asia. Israel will build taller and taller walls and use its technology, unity of purpose, and intellectual capital to limit cross-border fallout from the surrounding conflicts. Europe is a sleeping giant that that its clueless Muslim minorities will provoke and awaken to face an orgy of violence and revenge. It will be a terrible thing when Esau arises. Do not believe that half a century of pacifism has driven the bloodlust and the love of war from his descendents. Look at the culture; are not European movies, books, and music still deeply imbedded with the barbarian ideal of war, fire, and violence and the sensibilites of its pagan ancestors.
Amongst all this, Israel will dwell in tranquility and peace. Certainly, it will be pricked here and there but it will continue growing economically, culturally, and spiritually, to truly become a light to the nations. It will be a miracle in the midst of the land.
And what will be with America? One knows not. If it stands closely with its Jewish brother, it too will prosper. If not, I wish not to know.
May Hashem bless us all with peace.
