ah... it is early Monday morning... services ongoing...
Postponing Tuesday meets... one lunch w/Andrew and the other Dermatology.... So I can attend funeral of Stu Bresnick. OY! Dermatology canceled... Andrew got my message and will get back to me. AOK.
WHAT is the Big Idea... for now, this time.... The idea generally always is NOW.. The Time Is NOW... Do it ... do it now. Do It Now.... DO IT NOW... What IS is?!!!
What is the final frontier? Space? Time? Life? Death? Or is there an end to anything? If no end... how can that be stated? And is there IS an end... what does that mean?
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Israel vs Rituals, et al.
SO --- Israel has been a great yearning of the Jews for centuries. It is our homeland from which we have been exiled many times. Many times Jews have returned. Generally the returns have been pilgrims, I think, who decided to stay. There was no conquering of the land... just a re-population of the land by Jews. Sharing the land was the norm and purchasing bits and pieces over time the way to establish homes and villages and cities and today a country.
ALSO over the millenia - riturals and rules and ways to live as a Jews were established and followed by Jews living in Europe and Africa and Asia and the Americas... etc.
And so - I can see many types of Jews... Can't you? I see secular Jews for whom Israel is THE thing. For others religious ways and means is THE thing. Then there are groups who meld both. Than there are groups who deny one or the other of those two pillars.
Is there a third pillar which can help all Jews find stability and solidarity!?
Perhaps that pillar is our ethics and morality and HUMANITY!!! Our understanding that compasssion for ourselves and others is essential. That Lovingkindess is The Way. We can have and feel compassion but our acts of lovingkindess is how we move forward to true peace and tranquility.
THE QUESTION then becomes - how to be compassionate and show/do loving and kind acts when the people to whom we might be so... are attacking and killing and further threatening us? Our sage Rabbi Hillel boils it down to: If I am not for myself who am I? If I am only for myself what am I? If not now - WHEN?
And WHEN will others show us compassion and lovingkindness? Is RECIPROCITY important or not? Some might say - love your neighbor and turn the other cheek. We say - do no harm... and break bread together!
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Hmmm..... a thought about Jewish Americans or American Jews... Where are the Israeli Americans or the American Israelis???
There are: Irish Americans and Italian Americans and African Americans and Mexican Americans and Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans... OR perhaps those dual words can be reversed... BUT where are American Israelis or Israeli Americans???
I find that INTERESTING.... and cause for more thoughts and curiosity...
First - most American Jews or Jewish Americans are Jews with no direct ties to Israel. Certainly no recent historic ties to The Land. Yes -- a great yearning ... but in the USA... generations of Jews who's identity was not land based. The question remains, as noted above, what is the basis for one's Judaism? Perhaps when Israel is part of that identity with the millenia of yearnings the Israel considered is an ideal. Perhaps an unreal IDEAL! Or an Ideal to be REALIZED someday?! The someday would be the Days of Moshiach??!!! Days of Paradise on Earth... !!! A time of peace and love and abundance for all.
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ordered chicken wing deal... pickup at 3:15 on way back from visiting Jim.
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