I'm writing this post mostly as a reminder to myself, don't want it to sound like lecture-ish...
Like most folks, I feel very helpless and want to do something to help our people. It took me a few days to even start saying Tehillim, and my first thought was, "Why not? It can't hurt. Maybe it will help." Boink! Of course it will help! I'm in such an unspiritual fog that I don't realize what's really happening here. God is causing this situation to take place. (Hizbollah knows that and they think He's on their side.) When God causes these traumas to occur, He is pleading with us, "Come back to Me." The path is developing a real relationship with God through sincere prayer and communication. It is so hard because it feels like a one-way conversation, if we don't believe that our prayers are accomplishing anything. But they are.
But here's a really important point. During the time of King Achav, the Jewish nation worshipped idols, definitely didn't have a strong relationship with God, but they were victorious in war because they all got along with each other. I think this a good message for the jblogosphere. We sometimes go on rants about fellow Jews and other Jewish lifestyles. Although there may be some positive aspects, maybe somebody will be inspired to change their ways, the end result is more likely to be a negative feeling toward our brothers and sisters. R' Yaakov Weinberg, zt"l, said that it is natural to have a Beit Hamikdash in the world and the fact that it isn't being rebuilt means that it is actively being destroyed. Nothing has changed for over 2000 years - we didn't get along as a nation, the stones of the Temple were destroyed, and we still continue to fight, bicker, and criticize and the Temple is still being destroyed.
As Ezzie aptly named it the Three Weeks War, we try to work on our person-to-person relationships during this time period. Especially when we feel like we want to help the situation, we should practice loving kindness to each other, and if not, at least refrain from speaking badly about our brothers and sisters.
And remember that our prayers do have power.
"During the time of King Achav, the Jewish nation worshipped idols, definitely didn't have a strong relationship with God, but they were victorious in war because they all got along with each other"
ReplyDeleteI just posted on this aspect of Jewish unity and that our diaspora has made it next to impossible to truly identify with our brothers and sisters around the world.
Great post, SIL.
ReplyDeleteDosses emes.
ReplyDeleteUnity and prayer and deffinately needed to bring shalom
ReplyDeleteNice post.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'd love to see SerandEz and other leaders of the J-Blogosphere doing during this tense time is reach out to any Arab blogosphere that may exist somewhere. Seek out and vet intelligent Arabs and get the two communities talking to each other. It's my personal belief that there is probably a ton in common amongst the communities and that the people themselves could be an influencing force.
For instance, say you can attract a couple of thousand of people to a site per day from America, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, and Iran. They're Sunni, Shia, and Jewish. Perhaps a few Christians are thrown in. You get a few discussions going about what the groups have in common, what their common goals are. Once that framework is established, you begin to discuss ways to wield this new community's power, such as putting together your preferred plan of action for various actors in this conflict (UN, US, Israel, Hezbollah, Syrian government, Lebanese government, Iranian government) and release it to the press.
Just an idea. The implementation would be much harder, but seems like it could be worthwhile. If everyone on all sides is thinking, worrying, and spending time blogging and writing about this, why not design some simple framework around cheap, modern technology to direct the conversation and get as many diverse voices together towards some common goals (whatever the community decides those goals may be). Obviously, consensus is not something that is to be expected, but an average (I'm not sure I'd use the word "compromise") seems likely...
Nice idea with this site its better than most of the rubbish I come across.
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