A mother I am, but the privilege of being an Israeli is not mine yet. Lest I sound like the wicked son of Passover, please accept me as an Israeli at heart. After all, I was raised by a Jerusalemite father.
Israeli mothers, ever wonder lama lo holech lanu (how come it is not working for us)?
Here we have a tiny country, outshining many bigger countries, with its tremendous brainpower, superior military force, progressive technological and scientific expertise, yet bereft of nachas.
Let us do a balance sheet; check off our accomplishments, our contributions to the world and wonder why all these add up to "hamatzav" (the situation). What is missing? What is in the works? How is it that when it comes to us, might plus right equals nada, zilch?
We have got to face it, we are not like any other nation, nor is the land deeded to us over 3,000 years ago like any other land. Like it or not, as the "treasured" nation, we have inherited a unique land deal. A deal with strings of Biblical magnitude attached to it, one that doesn't take blood, tears, sweats and toil as a token for peaceful ownership. We are party to a covenant with its own set of rules and its own system of accountability.
Vayikra (Leviticus), chapter 26: If the people embrace G-d's commands, the land will be blessed with prosperity, security and peace (verses 3-13). Conversely, rejecting G-d's edicts will result in war (verses 23-26), destruction and exile (verses 27-39).
The terms of enjoyment and damnation are all clearly spelled out for us, yet either we are ignorant of their existence, or with arrogance, we pretend it is not for us, it is beneath our intellect, or it is not for our generation.
Look at us, our zeal for becoming the new Jew has driven us overboard and changed us to a post-Jewish nation altogether.
The hyper-sophisticated among us are so self-absorbed that they have consciously shifted their birth rate to an anemic level, while the Jihad machine has gone into frenzied production. "Pru ur'vu" (be fruitful and multiply) is our Biblical mitzvah, but it is the Arab mothers who are scoring.
The self-loathing "Jewish" intellectuals among us have so pathetically abdicated their sense of logic that the chronological facts of history have become irrelevant. The time-tested fact that our demise is our enemies' only solution to the conflict, that all our concessions will be reciprocated only when Hajar Al-Aswad (the black stone, centerpiece of worship in Mecca) becomes Hajar Al-Abyad (the white stone), is beyond their grasping capacity. "Turn the other cheek" is not our Biblical command, but we are happy to oblige, time and again, despite our lacerated cheeks.
The self-flagellating peaceniks among us, even some who are the daughters or granddaughters of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, have so insanely bought into the delusions of our own well-meaning Left, with misplaced compassion, that they are sheepishly marching in the same old path of the peace of the grave; but this time, under the banner of Zion's capitulation, this time, voluntarily, this time, with a blue star of David as our badge.
And then there are the so-called neutered ones, the hoping and wishing crowd.
No matter what category we fit in, we are all parties to the collective guilt of having diminished our connection with our Jewish tradition.
Over the years, we have watched passively as our observance faltered. We have allowed our professionalism, our ideologies or whatever else to advance at the heavy cost of severing our spiritual ties with this demanding land of ours. In the process of assuming new titles, new roles, we have lost our true identity, we have forgotten who we are and where we are. If we naively presume that just by the virtue of living in this holy land, or by being scrupulous in our dealings with our fellow man, we should merit being under the grace of G-d, we should think hard. It is not happening.
Meanwhile, the enemy has not changed. The genocidal war is still on the same course; only relegated to a more sympathetic surrogate. Read the manifests of their leaders; listen to the sermons of their clergies and marvel at the price of their children.
And now, with the clock ticking, once the Nazi Aryans (namely my ex-compatriots, the Iranians) get hold of their "peaceful" nuclear power, Nazi Germany will pale in comparison to these charged up Johnnies-come-lately who have no hesitation to cut off their nose to spite their face.
No matter how you cut it, the driving force of the hostility that is robbing us of peaceful existence is religion and religion is what it should be answered with. The enemy has unanimously embraced their death-glorifying religion, while a whole host of us have distanced ourselves from our life-sustaining faith.
How is it that we, the mothers, the all-giving, the all-enduring, send our children off to the fronts to defend our land, but somehow find it hard to pay this land its prescribed dues?
We have gone to Madrid, Camp David, Oslo, Geneva and a myriad of other places for solutions and have not inched our way any closer to peace. Where are we going to put our hopes next time around? There is a Persian saying: "The water is in the jug and the thirst-stricken of us are wandering around the world." Enough of wandering; salvation is within us and in what we do to merit the land of Israel.
Time for us to go back to the basics, return to the sources and set the spiritual tone in our homes, to be the hostesses of Shabbat, the guardians of Kashrut, the paradigm of dignity.
Time to transform the spirit of our country to what it is mandated to be and earn the rein of our fate. We owe it to our children; we owe it to ourselves. After all, we will be the vertical dead if they are lost forever.
It is said that mothers have the power to rule the world. Our enemy has unleashed this power for quite some time. Ever since they have smothered their motherly instinct and fast-tracked the road to the heavenly virgins with their blessings, terror has become rampant throughout the world. And they are literally banking on it to continue.
Now, what about us? Are we going to stand by and let the chips fall where they may? Or will we take matters into our own hands and do what we have not done yet, at least concertedly - rouse the Jewish spirit that this land yearns for?
We live in a holy land; we have got to be believers.
Alexander Dumas said, "cherchez la femme." (look for the woman)
I say, Amen.
Israeli mothers, ever wonder lama lo holech lanu (how come it is not working for us)?
Here we have a tiny country, outshining many bigger countries, with its tremendous brainpower, superior military force, progressive technological and scientific expertise, yet bereft of nachas.
Let us do a balance sheet; check off our accomplishments, our contributions to the world and wonder why all these add up to "hamatzav" (the situation). What is missing? What is in the works? How is it that when it comes to us, might plus right equals nada, zilch?
We have got to face it, we are not like any other nation, nor is the land deeded to us over 3,000 years ago like any other land. Like it or not, as the "treasured" nation, we have inherited a unique land deal. A deal with strings of Biblical magnitude attached to it, one that doesn't take blood, tears, sweats and toil as a token for peaceful ownership. We are party to a covenant with its own set of rules and its own system of accountability.
Vayikra (Leviticus), chapter 26: If the people embrace G-d's commands, the land will be blessed with prosperity, security and peace (verses 3-13). Conversely, rejecting G-d's edicts will result in war (verses 23-26), destruction and exile (verses 27-39).
The terms of enjoyment and damnation are all clearly spelled out for us, yet either we are ignorant of their existence, or with arrogance, we pretend it is not for us, it is beneath our intellect, or it is not for our generation.
Look at us, our zeal for becoming the new Jew has driven us overboard and changed us to a post-Jewish nation altogether.
The hyper-sophisticated among us are so self-absorbed that they have consciously shifted their birth rate to an anemic level, while the Jihad machine has gone into frenzied production. "Pru ur'vu" (be fruitful and multiply) is our Biblical mitzvah, but it is the Arab mothers who are scoring.
The self-loathing "Jewish" intellectuals among us have so pathetically abdicated their sense of logic that the chronological facts of history have become irrelevant. The time-tested fact that our demise is our enemies' only solution to the conflict, that all our concessions will be reciprocated only when Hajar Al-Aswad (the black stone, centerpiece of worship in Mecca) becomes Hajar Al-Abyad (the white stone), is beyond their grasping capacity. "Turn the other cheek" is not our Biblical command, but we are happy to oblige, time and again, despite our lacerated cheeks.
The self-flagellating peaceniks among us, even some who are the daughters or granddaughters of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, have so insanely bought into the delusions of our own well-meaning Left, with misplaced compassion, that they are sheepishly marching in the same old path of the peace of the grave; but this time, under the banner of Zion's capitulation, this time, voluntarily, this time, with a blue star of David as our badge.
And then there are the so-called neutered ones, the hoping and wishing crowd.
No matter what category we fit in, we are all parties to the collective guilt of having diminished our connection with our Jewish tradition.
Over the years, we have watched passively as our observance faltered. We have allowed our professionalism, our ideologies or whatever else to advance at the heavy cost of severing our spiritual ties with this demanding land of ours. In the process of assuming new titles, new roles, we have lost our true identity, we have forgotten who we are and where we are. If we naively presume that just by the virtue of living in this holy land, or by being scrupulous in our dealings with our fellow man, we should merit being under the grace of G-d, we should think hard. It is not happening.
Meanwhile, the enemy has not changed. The genocidal war is still on the same course; only relegated to a more sympathetic surrogate. Read the manifests of their leaders; listen to the sermons of their clergies and marvel at the price of their children.
And now, with the clock ticking, once the Nazi Aryans (namely my ex-compatriots, the Iranians) get hold of their "peaceful" nuclear power, Nazi Germany will pale in comparison to these charged up Johnnies-come-lately who have no hesitation to cut off their nose to spite their face.
No matter how you cut it, the driving force of the hostility that is robbing us of peaceful existence is religion and religion is what it should be answered with. The enemy has unanimously embraced their death-glorifying religion, while a whole host of us have distanced ourselves from our life-sustaining faith.
How is it that we, the mothers, the all-giving, the all-enduring, send our children off to the fronts to defend our land, but somehow find it hard to pay this land its prescribed dues?
We have gone to Madrid, Camp David, Oslo, Geneva and a myriad of other places for solutions and have not inched our way any closer to peace. Where are we going to put our hopes next time around? There is a Persian saying: "The water is in the jug and the thirst-stricken of us are wandering around the world." Enough of wandering; salvation is within us and in what we do to merit the land of Israel.
Time for us to go back to the basics, return to the sources and set the spiritual tone in our homes, to be the hostesses of Shabbat, the guardians of Kashrut, the paradigm of dignity.
Time to transform the spirit of our country to what it is mandated to be and earn the rein of our fate. We owe it to our children; we owe it to ourselves. After all, we will be the vertical dead if they are lost forever.
It is said that mothers have the power to rule the world. Our enemy has unleashed this power for quite some time. Ever since they have smothered their motherly instinct and fast-tracked the road to the heavenly virgins with their blessings, terror has become rampant throughout the world. And they are literally banking on it to continue.
Now, what about us? Are we going to stand by and let the chips fall where they may? Or will we take matters into our own hands and do what we have not done yet, at least concertedly - rouse the Jewish spirit that this land yearns for?
We live in a holy land; we have got to be believers.
Alexander Dumas said, "cherchez la femme." (look for the woman)
I say, Amen.