The Impossible Dream Is Not Impossible

Are you a visionary? Look at the picture below.  How do you perceive it? What kind of a person are you?  I know that many of you have already seen this picture before, maybe from an email that you received or in a psychology or business class, but play along again anyway.  What's your first impression?  Look closely, and decide what you see BEFORE you scroll down.  There is no wrong answer.

Did you see in the picture, an old woman who looks like a witch, or a young woman looking into the distance? Again, there is no wrong answer really, but what you perceived can tell you a lot about yourself.

From the replies I received below from my last blog piece, I think that maybe we can divide ourselves into 2 groups: The Me Jews and the We Jews.

The Me Jew is one that sees the warts of today, or sees only the 'instant gratification' of pleasure and comfort.  They are like, what my Iranian guest said on my radio show this week, "Americans usually act for the moment's benefit.  They don't care what will happen tomorrow. They say, "I need this today, so I'll do this today. If there is a price to pay, I will pay it tomorrow."  These Jews are not visionaries.  They see only the moment and what is good for them.  Imagine if our ancestors who came to the Holy Land in the early part of the century said, "There's swamps there, malaria, and Turkish/Ottoman rule.  I'm not going to THAT place."  These 'Me Jews' are trapped in the moment.  They have no view of what waits for them in the long run.  They are not visionaries, because they cannot see beyond their immediate scope.  Their scope of view is severely limited.  They will pay a price for this.  We have seen it all throughout our history.  Yet it appears that each generation of Me Jews think it won't happen to them, that THEIR host country is different.  Spain was enlightened and Jews lived VERY well there.  Jews were employed by the King and Queen of Spain.  What could happen to them when Jews were welcomed and saw such comfort? Impossible that Spain would turn on them.

Come up further in time.  It's Germany, in the 1930's.  Berlin was the hippest place in Europe.  The poets, writers, actors, transvestites and homosexuals all sat at cafes and smoked and drank.  They were 'the Beautiful People' of their generation.  They argued politics, philosophy, Spinoza, religion, capitalism, communism, and reveled in their Yiddish and Yiddish theatre.  They were IT, at their pinnacle of coolness, hipness,  intellectualism and comfort.  Berlin was the new Jerusalem!  They fought in wars, were German war heroes, and proudly wore their medals.  They are all dead now, because they thought, "The cultured Germans could never do such a  thing! They could not burn people at the stake like Spain and Portugal did in the inquisition."  No, Germany burned their Jews not at the stake, but in the ovens.

And today's American, British, French, (fill in the blank) Me Jews say the same thing.  Our generation is different.  They would never do such a  thing.  But what they do not remember, is that G-d said he would wield His justice on the nations of the world in the end of days.  If it doesn't happen that a certain country will turn against its Jews, the Jews should know that they will suffer whatever fate the host-nation suffers.  The safest place for the Jewish People will be in Israel.   Perhaps it looks like Israel is not the 'young woman in the picture above', but this may just be the 'Yetzer haRah' (evil inclination') just testing you. G-d wants you to YEARN for Israel, not YELL at Israel.  He wants you to DESIRE His Land, not DISS His Land. He wants you to not only love your own tuchus, but your nation.  If our forefathers were Me-Jews, we would never have merited the Torah.  It is contrary to Torah to be a Me-Jew.

The 'We Jew'

The 'We Jew' is a Jew that looks beyond his inner circle.  He is one who cares and acts for his fellow Jew and humanity.  He knows we have a long history and that we have a future that is up to us to develop.  He is the young woman in the picture, looking towards the future. The We Jew understands that there are more important things than his comfort for the moment.  That is why he is willing to immediately give 10% of his earnings to charities and the Poor. He knows that whatever money he made, 10% of it is NOT his, it is G-d's and he is to use it for helping others.  The We Jew is willing to live in a tent, in uncomfortable conditions, because he loves the land of Israel and cannot stand to see it sit fallow and uncared for.  He wants to bring Jewish life back into the area, where Jewish children will run and play and go to school, and Jewish mothers and fathers will walk their babies, play with their children, plant gardens and raise Jewish families.  The We Jew will not make 'conditions' that suit him before he does the RIGHT thing.  He CHANGES the bad situation and makes it better for future generations.  He is not a wimp. He does not rationalize to himself and others, making excuses why he does not have to roll up his sleeves and move.  The We Jew knows there is MORE to life than being comfortable.  He is the one who is willing to walk the walk.  The We Jew is a visionary.  He is the person G-d wants us to strive to be. G-d wants us to leave our comfort zones, and go above and beyond what we are today. 

I will finish with this song, probably my favorite of all time. And if you think it is corny for me to post these lyrics of this song, you can laugh, but I hope you would join me in striving for more than comfort, illusionary safety, and a life lived not having filled its potential.  Sing, "If you don't have a dream, how are you going to have a dream come true?"  Sing along with this song as well, my favorite.  Please view this great 3 min video below:

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

Come home.  Join your nation. The Impossible Dream is NOT impossible. 

Caught On Camera in Jew-Land

It's there on film!  No denying it. Those blankety blank blank &%#!*%#$ enemies of Israel, as well as the world's media who refuse to show this footage makes me so angry!  Why doesn't CNN show this?  Where is BBC, SKY news, FOX, ABC, CBS.  I want YOU to watch this video.  Then, if you care a hoot about Israel and Jews, you can write your TV stations and ask them why they don't show this footage that I am posting for you below.  Please view video before continuing on.

Write Bush and tell him, "Is this what you want to divide G-d's city and land for?  These murdering terroists?"  Bush is leading the way in giving the terrorist ilk a state of their own.  Giving them Judea and Samaria means putting them within firing range of our airport near Tel Aviv. They will shoot at our planes taking off and landing. It will destroy tourism and our economy, and worse.

Another thing that makes me want to use expletives  &%#!*%#$ is that our own government cares more for the enemy's children than they do our own. They won't attack the terrorists launching bombs at OUR CHILDREN in Sderot, because it might harm THEIR Jew-hating children in Gaza. Is there something terribly and revoltingly wrong with this thinking?

And to all of my brothers and sisters, sitting smug in the USA thinking we have such a terrible government, and that you are so smart, and you claim that you need to be there because you can help influence American policy by fighting for Israel...  Well, your president is hosting a conference in Annapolis, in order to divide Jerusalem and our land. This city is YOUR city, you are Jews, and it is YOUR inheritance.  If you are staying in America to be safe or to influence from there and help, you sure aren't doing a very good job! 

You'd do infinitely more by coming here and helping us to vote and throw out our lousy politicians and bring in more Torah loving and patriotic Jews like you, into the Knesset.  If Jerusalem is divided, I don't want to even think what will happen to America. Remember Hurricane Katrina when Jews were expelled from Gaza? I don't know for sure whether this was divine retribution for Gaza, but as a G-d fearing person, I know that NOTHING happens by accident, and G-d controls everything. Click HERE to read a controversial article I wrote back in 2005 on 'Katrina and Katif: some connections to consider'.

If Judea & Samaria are given over to the enemies of Israel, and we become even weaker, it will affect JEWS everywhere on the planet.  No more Israel = weak Jews, less respect and safety for Jews everywhere in all host countries around the world. 

The German Jews thought they were safe in Germany.  They were proud Germans.  They're dead now. 

Do you really think America is any different than Germany, which was one of the most liberal and 'enlightened' countries in Europe in the 1930's.

As for authentic Jewish life, I am sure you want to give your children a REAL Jewish experience, a FULL Jewish life, but you cannot do it in the Exile.  Only here can one live a FULL Jewish life doing all the mitzvoth. 

Do you want to know what most Gentiles think of us?  They are laughing at us.  If many of them had the chance,,,, 

Watch this video taken in Britain. 

Come home my brothers, strengthen us, strengthen yourselves, extricate yourselves from the Exile, and make Israel strong again.  Bush certainly isn't doing it. 

Remember, the Exile was a curse!

Rabin Memorial or Hatefest?

I don't know about you, but don't you think it is 'overkill' to observe what the Left has created?  They have made Yitzchak Rabin into a 'saint'. This last week, Saturday night,  a 'memorial' rally was held for assassinated Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin.  A previous memorial was held as well a week or so before on the Hebrew date of the Rabin murder.  TWO ceremonies, for one man, TWELVE years after his death. 

The famous 'peace rally' minutes before Rabin was killed.

Now, I didn't vote for Yitzchak Rabin for Prime Minister.  And I think his going after Oslo was a disaster (to say the least) for Israel.  But I would never have wished for a Jew to kill him.  If Yigal Amir, or anyone, wanted to kill someone to stop the Oslo Accords peace process, they'd be smarter to have taken retribution on the arch terrorist with the stubble on his face, not our own PM.  But what we see today in this 'fetish' with memorializing Yitzchak Rabin is not so much remembering this man, but more, a demonization of the Right Wing.

Now, at the demonstration, just like the replay of the Rabin years, posters mysteriously turn up with  (this time) Peres in an Arab Kafiya. Except that we already know who was responsible for those ‘kafiyah’ posters last time, - Avishai Raviv who was an agent of the General Security Service of Israel.  The Right was set up and made to look like hate-mongers and nut cases.  Are we being set up again?  What Israeli on the RIGHT would be stupid enough to show up at a LEFT wing rally with a poster that we never made in the first place?

Today, if anyone says anything negative about Rabin, they are intimidated and castigated by the LEFT.  Just look at this news piece where Peace Now wants a probe or investigation made into a soccer team because their fans voiced their true feelings about Rabin, which Peace Now didn’t like.

“The left-wing Peace Now organization has demanded that a soccer club be probed because its team's fans booed the name of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin during a moment of silence before Sunday's game. Peace Now did not define what law the fans had broken.” 

Do you believe what you are reading? They want a SOCCER team probed because their fans were not 'fans' of Rabin, the man who proclaimed as prime minister that his opponents could continue to "spin like propellers" as far as he was concerned, and said openly that he was Prime Minister of 98% of the nation, not the 2% who so strongly opposed him.  (Another version of his remarks has it that he said his job was to provide security to 98% of Israel's population.) Either way, one could see why he was not loved by lovers of the Land of Israel.  Yet the RIGHT are the intolerant and the hate-monger inciters. 
Could you imagine seeing a U.S. president get up and make a speech that because Texas and Ohio didn’t vote for him, he was only the president of 48 states, and not all 50? Chutzpah!

Could you imagine seeing a U.S. president get up and make a speech that because Texas and Ohio didn’t vote for him, he was only the president of 48 states, and not all 50?  Chutzpah!

I am sorry if I sound overly bothered by this issue, but I am kind of tired being blamed for all the ills of the world.  It’s because of us Jewish lovers of Israel and Torah, that there is no world peace, and if we were only demonized enough, crushed, and put in our place, all would be well in the world.

Oh, and by the way, I am trying to remember: were memorial rallies still taking place in the USA TWELVE years after JFK’s assassination?  I would have been 15 years old then, and I do not remember any giant memorial rallies held for Democrats or the American public, memorializing this man. 

Of course, if I acted like the LEFT, and had famous Israeli musicians giving a free concert in the town square, I’d probably show up too!  (not really).  The memorial featured Israeli performers Aviv Geffen, Rami Kleinstein, Shayke Levi, Shlomi Shabat, Sarit Hadad, Ahinoam Nini AND OTHERS!  Gee, that’s a good way to get people to show up to whatever political agenda you have, just provide an out door FREE concert.  Never mind that the right wing garners bigger numbers at political rallies and we don’t have gala parties with a line up of the most famous singers in Israel, like THEY offer.

I am sure some of the readers of this blog (and Oslo vicitms) could contribute in remembering other 'legacies' Saint Yitzchak' has left us with besides his quest for peace by piece. 

A note to my LEFT wing brothers and sisters in Israel…  The RIGHT wing is not your enemy.  Look over at Gaza, Ramallah and the International community.  We can’t throw as great a party as their money can, but we will protect YOUR homes when it comes on the Condi ‘Rice -slice and dice’ chopping block. We are all brothers, we still love you, our land, and our heritage, and it’s time you knew who your REAL enemies were.

Did King Solomon’s Navy Discover America?

Mystery Mountain, Los Lunas, New Mexico.  That’s where a fascinating find was discovered with the Hebrew inscription of the Ten Commandments.  What is amazing about this find, is that the ten commandments were written in a Hebrew script that is so ancient, it was last used around and up to the Babylonian expulsion.  This means it was probably written between 2,500-3,000 years ago!  How did this script, as well as the text of the ten commandments wind up in New Mexico, so many centuries ago?        “Over two thousand years before Columbus "discovered" America there were people of semitic origin in New Mexico worshipping the God of Israel. How can this possibly be reconciled with known history? It is seemingly apparent that the financial backing to launch a Hebrew-Phoenician voyage of world exploration could have readily occurred during the reign of King Solomon of Israel. Solomon worshipped the true God of Israel and had the means to fund explorative voyages to other lands. With Solomon's main port being located on the Red Sea it would be difficult to explain how his fleet would have entered America through the Atlantic drainage. ( Reference note: Kings I  9:26) :And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.27 And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.

Tarshish , however, had access to the Atlantic. The reign of Solomon was enveloping the entire world. Israel's close neighbor, Phonecia, and their expert navigators were working with the servants of Solomon  from both countries ports. The ships of Tarshish sailed extremely long voyages to bring back all kinds of raw materials and items (copper & other ores, flora & fauna samples, "exotic" animals, etc.). ( Reference note: Chronicles 2 -Chapter 9): For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks. 

It would help explain the need of three year journeys if the seamen had to cross the ocean to come to these far off isles in America. The fact that the trading ships of Phoenicia did have docks in ancient America can be proved from inscriptions they left behind. The Los Lunas site is located along the Puerco River which is tributary of the Rio Grande River. The Rio Grande is definitely in the Atlantic drainage. It would have been  entirely possible for the Hebrew-Phonecian sailors to access the area of the stone.”

So, did King Solomon’s navy discover America, bringing back exotic animals, plants, and rare minerals to Jerusalem?

Could it be that this mystery rock was written by Jews who sailed to America in King Solomon’s navy?  Could it be that they taught certain tribes of native American Indians monotheism and morality?  Were these Jews sabbatical fly by night teachers, or did they go on permanent ‘shlichut’ (sent out as an ambassador)   to spread knowledge of the One True G-d and His Ten Commandments? Or could it have been that some Jews left the ship, going on an expedition, got stuck or stranded, missing the boat back? 
1) Perhaps they were just late in getting back to meet the ship, and decided to leave a message for posterity’s sake, that Jews were here.
2) Maybe they liked this new world, and joined, or were even kidnapped by Indians, and taught what they knew, and also left this message for us.

Let is remember, there are many similarities in some Indian tribes, specifically the Cherokee nation, to Judaism.  The Cherokees were monotheistic, believing in one G-d.  They did not have idols (totem poles), some of their words in their language are similar to Hebrew, and they braided their hair in the manner which is similar to Jewish sidelocks (payot).  Some say the Cherokees emanated or mixed with Jews who escaped from Masada during the Roman siege on Israel. I don’t claim to know, rather, to wonder about this fascinating history.
One might surmise that the Cherokee Indians were never in New Mexico, but we know that many Indian tribes migrated to different regions and let’s remember, that we are not talking about a couple of hundred years ago, rather a couple of THOUSAND years ago.  How do we know that they never dwelled or passed through the southwestern part of America?

This mystery rock was written and left for us to discover. It is only the tip of the iceberg of some sort of Jewish influence in America many, many centuries ago.

So, did King Solomon’s navy discover America, having been sent on missions to discover and bring back exotic animals, plants, and rare minerals like gold and silver? It would be fascinating to know what really happened.  
 

Cut and Paste Biblical Style

I always tell people, if we lived in the time period of the Torah (Bible) our story and news today would have been recorded there, and people would have been studying us, our 'kings', leaders and the decisions we made.  

     "And the New King of Israel, Ehud Olmert was a king who was not beloved by his people.  He made alliances with other kings. Enemies of the Israelite People, yet the Israelite King kissed and embraced his enemies, supplied them with armory, and ceded land.  Woe unto the King of Israel for his folly and foolishness. It brought a great upheaval to the nation. The Children of Israel were expelled in the south of the land, and attacked in the North of the land.  They suffered under his leadership.  But there were some among them that clung to the Torah and the settling of the Land.  They were the People of Orange.  They believed in the Lord your G-d, and they built their cities.  They lived modestly, they prayed for the Temple of Hashem, and their children guarded the land.  They planted and built outposts. They sang and danced to the glory of Hashem your G-d.  The captains of the hosts came to cut open the heads of the children, and he sent his roaring long armed machines with spider legs to crush the homes that the Orange People built.  The people cried, how can our king do this to his servants?  But their cries fell on deaf ears, the supreme judges in the High Courts did not hear their cries and did not give them justice.  But the Orange Children did not lose faith in the Lord their G-d.  They continued to march to the high places where their cities once stood.  They vowed to rebuild the homes of their fathers and brothers.  The children, the Orange Children pursued, and they did not falter.  And in time, when the wicked ones thought they would de-throne G-d and take over His reign, and they would sit and look at their gold in their treasuries, and would not harken to what was righteous, their enemies who feigned to be their friends turned on them.  The children of Israel were afraid, as arrows from the sky rained down on them with thunderous noises as G-d wreaked His vengeance on those who turned away from Him.  But the Orange People and all who clung with faith to Hashem your G-d, did not fear.  They were comforted as G-d delivered justice on all the enemies of Israel, and the Erev Rav from amongst its people.  It was after this that the children of Israel who had strayed and known not their G-d, came to honor and praise Him. The Orange People and other G-d fearing Jews taught the righteous ways to their other brothers and sisters without fear of persecution or verbal attacks from the old King's guards. They taught with gladness and song, with dance and with loving kindness.  Then, together, all the People of Israel gathered together to rejoice in the Lord, and rebuild Israel's cities and G-d's Holy Temple. And peace, a real peace, reigned in the Good Land that the G-d of your forefather's gave you, to be a holy people."

A young Jewish (Orange) woman defying Israeli security forces in Amona, Israel.
AP's Oded Balilty