Chevrah, Brothers, Sisters
Hoping this finds all of you and yours safe and well.
Amidst all the strife and War the Children of Israel are experiencing in today's world we are approaching the day we commemorate the Destruction of both Temples in Jerusalem, the Ninth Day of the month of Av. We have learned from our Sages throughout the past two millennia that the destruction's cause, in its core, is the sin (or character trait) of baseless hatred; Sinas Chinum. Hate without cause. Hate directed towards our brothers, sisters, neighbors and friends. Hatred for hatred's sake.
Have we lost our way ? Have we forgotten our past and the lessons we've learned ? Has our eyesight become so clouded that we cannot see that we are all standing together on a platform waiting for that cattle car to come and gather us in ?
A short story; true and telling. In the 1950s and 1960s once a month, my Parents, ob"m, would gather and meet with other Holocaust Survivors in a social gathering. They would bring food, play cards and sit and talk for hours. Mostly in hushed tones they seemed to discuss worldly matters of great import enveloped in cigarette smoke. Whatever the reasoning, at a certain age i was brought along, with strict instructions to sit quietly on the side. For a child of ten or so it was an amazing experience. It was if i was transported onto a movie set and became part of a saloon scene in a Western movie, albeit with all the characters being played by Jewish Holocaust Survivors speaking Yiddish. It took me many years to realize that i was privy to an extraordinary event. There, in this small crowded smoke filled room sat in total cohesion a group of disparate Jews from diverse backgrounds and philosophies diverse in total harmony and unity. Religious, Irreligious, Chassidish, Litvish. What beauty !
This is the antidote to what caused the disharmony that brought about the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem; Ahavas Chinum - Love for love's sake without any strings attached.
Let us learn from those groups of Survivors !
Have a Shabbat Shalom, a Lichtige Shabbos. Love to ALL. May Hashem protect our Defenders wherever they may be.
jay
p.s. below a few sentences by a Poet of note on harmony
In both, to reason right is to submit.
Better for Us, perhaps, it might appear,
Were there all harmony, all virtue here;
That never air or ocean felt the wind;
That never passion discompos'd the mind:
But ALL subsists by elemental strife;
and Passions are the elements of Life.
The gen'ral ORDER, since the whole began,
Is kept in Nature, and is kept in Man.
-AP