People will still believe anything...

This is not verbatim, merely my recollection a variety of similar texts I read in a Medieval history course.

Near the cathedral, I heard a voice screaming for help and I ran towards it. When I got there, no one was in sight, but I saw drops of blood leading away from the church. I followed them to the Jewish neighborhood. 

As I got closer to one home, I heard the screams again. Looking in a window, I saw Jews gathered around a table. A wafer, the flesh of our god, lay on the table. A bearded man with a long, hooked nose was repeatedly stabbing the wafer with a knife. Each time the knife pierced its flesh, the wafer cried out. 

This tale would might be laughable, except for the fact that hundreds of Jews were killed because people believed this falsehood.  

It is one thing to confront historical narratives that led to tragic consequences for certain groups. But we forget how deeply people believed that absurd accusation. We don't recognize that many of today's false charges are just as ridiculous and just as false. Today's new false charges include the buzzwords of this era, thrown about without with no consideration given to their possible accuracy or inaccuracy.

Without understanding history or the present day, how can we make the world better and achieve what we all want: a society that is free, tolerant, inclusive and compassionate.

Wikipedia's description of this image: "a 15th-century German woodcut of the host desecration by the Jews of Passau, 1477. The hosts are stolen and sold to the Jewish community, who pierce them in a ritual. When guards come to question the Jews, they (the Jews) attempt to burn the Hosts, but are unsuccessful, as the Hosts transform into an infant carried by angels. The Jews, now proven guilty, are arrested, beheaded, and tortured with hot pincers, the entire community is driven out with their feet bound and held to the fire, and the Christian who sold the hosts to the Jews is punished. At the end the Christians kneel and pray."

Our Source, our Council

Rehabir's translation of Avinu Malkeinu was posted to RockyMountainHAI.com.

And although it sounds best when a congregation of average voices sings it, Barbara Streisand doesn't do too badly:

Our Source, our Council, listen for our voice
Our Source, our Council, we have missed the mark before you
Our Source, our Council, Let your compassion flow in us and in our children

Our Source, our Council
empty the world of the pestilence,
war and famine that weighs on us
Our Source our Council,
Empty us of all the trouble
And the hostility that surrounds us

Our Source, our Council,
Our Source, our Council,
Write us in, in the book of good life
Our Source, our Council, renew us
Renew us for a year of good changes.

Listen to our call
Understand our acceptance
Hear our voice

Our Source, our Council,

Our Source, our Council,
Renew us for a year of good changes

Our Source, our Council,
Listen to our cry
Understand our call
Hear our voice
Oh hear our cry

Justice Requires Truth

Colonialism is a bad word. So let's call Israel colonial. Even though it's not.

A recent post at Gods&Radicals quoted a book that referred to "Israeli colonialism." Does the author of the book or the person who posted the review of it know what colonialism is? Do either of them know the history of Jewish immigration to Israel or that there has been a continuous presence in the Land for 3,000 years? [Edit: The reviewer removed that quote from his post… so maybe he knows better now.]

Capitalism is a bad word. So let's point out that Israel is (partly) a capitalist country. So are many other countries.

Kibbutzim were the ideal for many decades. The ideal didn't work out ideally, so many kibbutzim have changed their social and economic structures.

Apartheid is a bad word. So let's call Israel an apartheid state. Even though it's not.

Can there be peace if people are not honest 

about their grievances and hopes? 

Can you honestly say that you hope for peace throughout the world if you are contributing to lies that promote hate and violence?

See all posts labeled 'Lies About Israel'

or follow RM Bellerose for Truth About Israel 

Review - A Woman with No Name; A Journey of Survival

This is the memoir of a woman who served honorably in the U.S. Navy and, as a result of her experiences, suffered from PTSD for years. Her story is filled with hope despite its horror. It’s a true story. What almost seems like fiction is that its writer could pull herself up after everything that happened to her. That’s true, too. Debra Jean is the goddess of her own life.

Her story shows us that hope is more than reasonable. She received numerous commendations and even a much-sought posting with NATO during her service despite the almost unspeakable trauma she experienced during those years. If she can heal, each of us can.

One would expect a memoir about PTSD to be difficult to read, but while her descriptions of places and emotions are vivid, Debra Jean never dragged me into her story. I cringed often, but there was something objective in her writing that didn’t force me to plunge into the horror of her experiences.

Nonetheless, her writing was engaging enough to make me care about the story. When her plane landed in Italy, the intimation of impending disaster was so powerful, I wanted to beg, “No, no! Please, don’t get off the plane! Please!”

When I did read all that happened next, I groaned, wishing events like these couldn’t happen, wishing that life didn’t have to be so horrific to bring wisdom. But Debra is wise and strong.

Her spirituality is obvious. During a description of the rituals and rhythms of her childhood religion, she writes, “Time is crucial to Catholics. The shortest mass in town equals the largest congregation. That makes more time for visiting the tavern after church.” Okay, her sense of humor is even more obvious. She must get it from one of her grandmothers, two ladies I wish I had met.

After years of exemplary service and numerous commendations, Debra Jean was given an honorable discharge, but the document included these words: “Other/ Physical/ Mental Condition – Personality Disorder.” She writes,

From November 1, 2001 to June 30, 2007, over 26,000 enlisted military personnel were discharged with the diagnosis of personality disorder. The Government Accountability Office studied the files. A vast majority of these service men and women were deployed overseas and/ or victims of military sexual trauma. A personality disorder is considered a pre-existing condition. So how did 26,000 men and women pass their psychological tests? I believe that these men and women have PTSD. However, if they are discharged under personality disorder, the government is not responsible to pay for their disability benefits because this diagnosis is considered to be a pre-existing condition.

The courageous women and men of this country defend our freedoms, constitution, and country. Veterans should not be subjected to any unnecessary administrative battlefields in order to receive their benefits that they so rightly deserve.

Four years after her discharge from the U.S. Navy, she began the fight to have the Veterans Administration acknowledge that she suffered from PTSD that was a result of injuries sustained during her active duty military service. Many years later, she was “validated and vindicated” when the Navy amended her honorable discharge to indicate a medical discharge.

You can recognize, that for Debra Jean, the telling of this story was a releasing of her past. For readers, it may be a promise that healing is possible or an example of courage worthy of emulation. It is certainly a lesson about understanding for veterans and other people with PTSD.

Her story begins with pain and sinks into confusion, shame, agony, and fear. I ached for her. But her book ends with these words:

My journey continues, as I walk upon the earth’s arena carefully nurturing the new heart that beats inside this body. I will never forget the journey that carried me here. The scars on my body remind me of the thorns on a rose bush. They were meant to teach me to parent myself, to walk side by side with faith, and to never lose myself for the selfish benefit of another.

And had it not been for the grace of my Lord and Savior, I would not be here today.

Debra Jean has faced her experiences and transcended them. I am grateful that she shared her story with me.

Every day, twenty-two U.S. veterans commit suicide.
That’s eight thousand and thirty servicemen and women each year.

BaMidbar – In the Desert

5776. My first hopeful Rosh HaShana in over a decade. Recovery from something that I’ve never believed was traumatic enough to knock me on my ass. And yet, there I was, on my ass, and I couldn’t get up.

Why did “getting over it” have to take twelve years? At least it didn’t take forty!

There have been other signs of progress:

Months ago, I left my job and sold my house. Even though my plan to make aliyah was not working out, I entrusted myself to insecurity: it's a doorway, I hope, to a new life. I do not miss the house, only watching sunrise in the back yard, looking out at desert and mountains.

A few weeks ago, I visited Washington. Olympia seemed eager to press upon me many opportunities to build a full, new life. Those opportunities would have added up to a life I’ve already had. I want something else.

When I returned from Washington, I was overjoyed to be in the desert again. When did I become a lover of the desert?

I had thought that I missed abundant green and generous rains. In fact, I’ve learned to love bare earth, plants that thrive between rocks, bright flowers that appear for only a day, and clouds that are immense and fantastical landscapes in the sky.

I even love the tease of the monsoons: seeing a smear between cloud and horizon and knowing it’s raining “over there,” watching nearby rain evaporating before it reaches the ground, feeling three-minute long rolls of thunder, and waiting and hoping for rain to fall where I am.

Waiting and hoping. They feel good. And when the rain pours down: joy!

The knowledge that I have found my place is empowering. I am a toshevet midbar, a desert dweller. I will discover other parts of myself and, eventually, I will find my name.

There is no hurry. I want to take this journey.


Addendum: Tamara Cohn Eskanazi writes, "Wilderness is a place—or time—without orienting landmarks or structure." She asserts that the theme of B'Midbar (Numbers) is transition and that the book "charts the journey through a wilderness and attempts to create new structures in this intermediary space for future life in the land." 

A Black South African on Israel and Apartheid

I recently received this comment on another blog, after someone read a post of mine:

This blog post you link to is just a tirade that says if you stand in solidarity with Palestinians you are an anti-Semite. Because you say so. There is no real explanation, just that opposing the systems of occupation and apartheid somehow equates opposing the Jewish people. Is this the best you can do to justify the horrible acts of a capitalist racist state?

There's no way to communicate with someone who wants to believe things that aren't true.

However, since he brought it up, I thought I'd share this video. Kenneth Meshoe, a South African politician, argues that the allegation that Israel is an apartheid state "is so inaccurate it betrays the memory of those who suffered through a real apartheid."

See all posts labeled 'Lies About Israel'

or follow RM Bellerose for Truth About Israel 

Two Capitols for Two States

Years ago, I had a bumper sticker on my car that read “Two Capitals for Two States.” Because if everyone would just share, then there would be peace, right?

Then, in 2000, Palestinian leaders turned down the opportunity to create a state with its capital in Jerusalem and 98% of the land they had claimed they wanted.

It was the first time that Israel had offered to divide its capital. But, I learned, it was the third time that Palestinian Arab leaders had refused to create a state.

So I finally started making an effort to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rather than just accepting the popular narrative. I realized that I’d accepted falsehoods without thinking, I was ashamed of myself.

And I ripped that bumper sticker off my car.

About that time, one of the tales Palestinian Arabs often recited was about the Arab town of Jenin. The narrative was that the Israeli Defense Forces had entered Jenin, slaughtered all the Arabs there, and buried them all—men, women, and children—in a mass grave. I learned that this was an invention repudiated even by the U.N., and when I visited Israel ten years later, the town of Jenin was still there and populated by Arabs.

The image I’d had of evil Israeli occupiers was a fiction. I had felt obliged, as a Jew, to do something about the supposed crimes of my people, so I had participated in organizations such as The Jewish Voice for Peace. Why hadn't I felt obliged, as a Jew, to determine that what I’d heard was true?

I was angry that no one at my synagogue had tried to set me straight. No one had even expressed offense that a JVP bumper sticker was in the shul’s parking lot two or more times each week.

I was angrier with Palestinians. How could I make sense of the conflict when I couldn’t trust them to be truthful? How can people achieve peace if they don't honestly discuss their grievances?

Clearly there was (and still is) injustice: children taught to blow themselves up in order to kill Israelis, conflicts resulting in the deaths of Arabs and Israelis, and nothing done to prevent hatred and fear from growing.

With a fictional narrative promoted even by the “balanced and unbiased media,” where can we learn the truth? Why did the Palestinian Arabs turn down opportunities to create a state in 1937, 1947, 1948, 1967, 2000, and 2008?

If you’ve only listened to the popular narrative, don't be afraid to read pro-Israel information for a change. All of us should try to learn facts from the perspective of both sides. How else can we find a route to peace?

Unfortunately, I'm still wondering where to find truth from the Arab perspective. Arabs say they want land and peace, but Israel's “land for peace” policy has not been successful. After its neighbors attacked Israel (three times) and lost, Israel gained land that it offered to return in exchange for treaties. Only Egypt regained land, the Sinai, by simply acknowledging that Israel exists. Simple.

Yet world opinion still vilifies Israel and Israel alone.

While visiting Olympia, Washington recently, I saw a mural on Capitol Way that includes the images of two women. The word “Peace” is painted next to the woman in red, green, and black. The other woman, in blue and white, is tattooed with the words, “I will not occupy.” The mural not-so-subtly puts all the blame for the conflict on Israelis.

What is it that’s occupied? Gaza? Judah? Samaria? Arab towns in Israel? The Golan?

There are no troops in Gaza. (Hence, rockets being fired on Israel.) When Jewish settlers began to build-- legally-- in Judah and Samaria during peace negotiations, the IDF demolished their buildings. And the few times I traveled through Arab-Israeli towns, I saw no Israeli soldiers or even road blocks.

How about the Golan Heights? Israel acquired that land defending itself from Syria and offered to return it in exchange for a peace treaty. Unlike Egypt, Syria refused to sign a peace treaty. It was years before Israel accepted that it would have to administer the area. The Golan Heights represents Syrian intransigence. Some people call it “occupied territory.” I call it northern Israel. 

Judah and Samaria, renamed "The West Bank" when Jordan conquered the territory in 1948, are the Jewish heartland, but Arabs live there. 

The political spectrum in Israel is enormous, but there seem to be cycles of hope and cynicism among all Israelis. One famous singer, who had been a peace activist in the 1970s, said, “There is no one to make peace with.” Arafat had killed the moderate Palestinian Arabs who had been willing to make peace. Today, Hamas uses violence to keep Palestinians in line; it randomly accuses people of aiding Israel and executes them publicly.

Irshad Manji once noted that while she knows Israelis who argue for the Palestinians, she has never met a Palestinian who argues for Israelis. She describes the disappointment she felt when visiting a Palestinian writer who dared not express himself frankly about peace while in the same room as Palestinian leaders.

It might be possible to validly criticize Israelis and Palestinians. Unfortunately, you’ll only hear criticisms of Israel and they are often false. You have to know who is speaking and what his agenda is. Opposition to Israel is rarely about peace; it is mostly inspired by the hatred of Jews, not by facts.

That may be one reason why peace initiatives have not succeeded. There can be no peace without truth.

See all posts labeled 'Lies About Israel'

or follow RM Bellerose for Truth About Israel 

U.S. Christians "Under Siege"

Church in Baghdad, from www.atour.com

On first hearing that statement, one might find it absurd. Middle Eastern Christians are being murdered because they are Christians, while American Christians exercise social, religious, political, and economic freedom.

However, it is a fact that America Christians are under siege. At one time, all branches of the federal and state governments were aligned with Christian mores. Today, Christians are losing that power.

Here is a well known example. Kim Davis, a clerk in Kentucky, has been incarcerated for refusing to issue marriage licenses after the United States Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage is legal. She tried to arrogate to herself the power to impose her beliefs on other people.

Sorry, Kim. The United States Constitution prohibits the government from imposing any religion or religious doctrine. For example: President Obama cannot write a prayerbook and compel your church to use it! Your position as a government official does not give you the power to impose your beliefs on other people.

Does it need to be said that comparing yourself to Martin Luther King, Jr. is laughable?

Christians in the U.S., from camphanes.org
(click to see suffering, Christian children in the U.S.)

It is ignorant to claim that the Supreme Court is a dictatorship hostile to Christians. It is ignorant to claim that states' law should supersede federal law. It is ignorant to believe that the words "man" and "woman" on a county form are divine command. And Mike Huckabee knows better.

The United States Constitution gives Christians many rights, including the right to tell their elected representatives to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Christians have rights and freedoms in the United States, but it's not the "good-ole days." Christian power is indeed under siege. This is a good thing for everyone.

Addendum: Here is a brilliant post on this topic from Shaun Paul at Stone of Destiny.

See the soul of the person sitting opposite you

On the second day of Rosh HaShana, we read the Akedah, the binding of Isaac.

One interpretation of this disturbing passage is that Avraham failed the test. God had always encouraged Avraham to argue with him, but after Avraham nearly killed Isaac, God never spoke to him again.

It's a reassuring position, and it's supported by Torah, but the interpretation feels insufficient. Rabbi Kohenet Jill Hammer shares words of Torah that are more substantial as well as beautiful and profound. Listen to her eight minute d'var Torah here: Missing Words from a Hidden God.

L'Shanah Tovah Tikatevu!

Elul, a month of reflection and repentance is nearing its end. The High Holy Days begin the evening of September 12. It's fascinating that the Jewish calendar is both lunar and solar. It feels good that our holidays are in sync with Nature's cycles.

Sept 12 - 28 Elul - New Moon
Sept 13 - 29 Elul - Erev Rosh HaShana
Sept 14 - 1 Tishrei - Rosh HaShana
Sept 15 - 2 Tishrei - second day of Rosh HaShana (not in Israel or most Reform congregations)
Sept 16 - 3 Tishrei - Tzom Gedalia
Sept 19 - 6 Tishrei - Shabbat Shuva
Sept 21 - 8 Tishrei - Moon at first quarter
Sept 22 - 9 Tishrei - Autumn Equinox and Erev Yom Kippur
Sept 23 - 10 Tishrei - Yom Kippur
Sept 25 - 12 Tishrei - the Powwow begins sometime around sunset
Sept 26 - 13 Tishrei - Powwow and Shabbat
Sept 27 - 14 Tishrei - Powwow and Erev Sukkot
Oct 4 - 21 Tishrei - Moon at last quarter and seventh day of Sukkot
Oct 5/6 - 22/23 Tishrei - Simchat Torah (the 5th in Israel and in some Reform congregations)
Oct 10 - 27 Tishrei - Shabbat
Oct 12 - 29 Tishrei - New Moon

This Is A Forest

I just returned from the Pacific Northwest, after exploring the possibility of living there. Everyone and everything was wonderful; I could picture myself as part of that community. However, the uniformly gray sky and the constant rain depressed me badly.

Returning to the Southwest made me ecstatic! 

Phoenix's 105 degrees made me laugh. During the early afternoon to middle-of-the-night drive home, I never took my eyes from the sky and horizon. That night, I gasped each time in-cloud lightning made a cloud visible in the black sky. And the first thing I did the next day was take a long hike. 

Just so you can understand my perspective...

This is a forest:

These are clouds:

Here is rain in the distance 

and monsoon lightning.

A parapet for your roof

The shul in downtown Olympia was welcoming. I struck up a conversation with a few people during dinner, very pleasant. One man, an attorney offered me a job. (Yes, seriously.)

The service was new to me, Reconstructionist. I could learn to like it. The week’s parasha was Ki Teitzei and the rabbi gave a short sermon on gun control.

One man commented intelligently but then continued to pontificate for much longer seemed appropriate to me. The rabbi asked if anyone else wanted to speak. 

One woman did. “Look at me. I feel such empathy for the victims of gun violence. Aren’t I special? Guns should be illegal. Oh, poor me and the suffering I feel because of guns! Pay attention to me.” The rabbi let her go on and on and on. Unfortunately, I couldn’t entirely control myself; my forehead hit my palm (and I may have groaned out loud).

A young woman asked a good question and the rabbi promptly put an end to the discussion. 

She pointed out that the text says “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone should fall from it.” (Devarim 22:8) She was puzzled because the text seemed to indicate that our only motivation should be to avoid “blood guilt.” 

That does sound like a pretty shallow motivation; what about saving a life? What does “blood guilt” mean? Does it imply an ethical imperative to value life? What have chazal said about the phrase? I know that if the Land “swallows” too much blood it will become sick and vomit us out... 

How can I research this and learn more?