In Praise of…..

Today is a very special day in the Jewish calendar. First, it is the day before Pesach, one of the busiest days of the year. (And if you are wondering how I had time to blog today, I wrote this—or most of it—a week ago.) In addition, today is the day of “Birkas HaChamah” (see HERE),the “Blessing on the Sun”. Our tradition is that the sun was created on the fourth day of creation (ie., Wednesday). Our sages, many who were quite expert at astronomy, determined that the sun returns to the same exact place where it was at creation once in 28 years. When that date arrives, we bless G-D for the wonderful gift of the sun. So let’s take a bit of a look at this luminary. The sun accounts for 98-99% of the total mass in our solar system. It is about 400 times further away from us than the moon, light from the sun taking 8 minutes and 19 seconds to reach us. And this powerhouse of energy is what fuels life, movement, and warmth on the earth. The sun promotes the sugars for the growth of plants, as well as plankton. Plants and plankton form the basis for the entire food chain, and are, in addition, the original source for oils, coal, and the like. The amount of energy contained therein is staggering and probably beyond our ability to truly comprehend. Of course, the biggest miracle of the sun is the distance we are from this bomb of energy. Any further we would freeze; closer we would be fried to a crisp. So this orb of light, energy, and warmth is well worth thanking the Creator for. * * * *
I remember vividly last time we had “Birkas haChamah”. I was a young married lady; I had one son (who was too young to remember the event), and was due any day with my second son. The big fear was if the day would be so cloudy as to prevent saying the blessing, but as the sun peaked over the horizon, the sight was greeted by hundreds of people gathered next to the Ponevezh yeshiva, who had gathered specially to pray at the earliest time (sunrise), and afterwards make the blessing on the sun from the hilltop of the Talmudic institution. (In Jerusalem, people gathered at the Western Wall to pray and say the blessing.) I remember wondering then , 28 years ago, where would I be 28 years in the future. I envisioned myself as an “old lady” nearing 60. Well, I don’t FEEL old (though I admit to being slower…), and rather than dwelling on the fact that I am past the years of “babies”, I revel in the wonderful family that surrounds me. Now I am just hoping that I even make the next one, but I suspect that unless I get my weight down, it’s pretty unlikely. [And maybe with that sobering thought, I should get to work on my diet….] But I don’t mean this in a sad tone, but in the air that today I have a chance to grab a rare portion of what we call “life”. So I better say with conviction; it may well be my last chance for this mitzvah.

Terrorism and the “Crazy Lady -Part 2, or HATE EVIL

Now for the other side. While all of the previous post is true, it does not mean allowing evil to run wild… or at all. While one can try to understand what is going on in the mind of a terrorist, or a criminal, that does not mean letting him do what he wants. We can not allow abusers, criminals, or terrorists to do as they please. If the only way to stop an impending terror attack is to torture a partner of the perpetrator, than do it. Not because of hate, but to prevent an evil act.
The Torah says that one who has pity on evil people, will eventually be doing a hateful act to innocent bystanders. As much as we need to “understand” those who are evil, we have first a mandate to understand the public’s need for protection. Society needs to impose penalties for crime, not only as a deterrent, but as Rabbi Moshe Feinstein said, as an indicator to the public of how wrong and immoral such actions are.
Understanding the evil person should only be used to try and solve the underlying problems. It should never be used to condone the evil intent or behavior.

A "Good Week"

On Saturday night, we make the "havdallah" ceremony, and with a whiff of fragrant spices we usher in a new week. "Have a good week!" we wish each other, as one son dashes out to his pizza delivery job, and my husband heads to the kitchen to do the pile of dishes that has built up over Shabbas (Saturday). I call a mildly protesting Ricki to come do some homework, and study for Monday's science test. Later in the evening I will turn on the computer, wondering (as I always do on Saturday night) if the globe managed to stay relatively sane over Shabbas.
Maybe this half-expectation that it is nigh-miraculous if there were no calamities over the last 25 hours (whether natural or man-made) is a post- 9/11 state of thinking. I know that for me this feeling that the world is a bit fragile has intensified since then.
However, is you know any history, than you know that man's cruelty to man has not increased over time, but rather the ability of a small group to wreck damage far out of proportion to their number. Man, since Cain and Abel, has used violence towards others as a tool. (Anyone who thinks that we have more of this today, should pursue Barbara Tuchman's book, A Distant Mirror, on the fourteenth century.)
Today, we have so many movements to stop violence. We teach non-bullying in schools, have peace rallies, etc., yet it is questionable how much any of this is helping. Perhaps it seems that we have an overly violent world because (as I mentioned above), even small miniscule minorities can terrorize large groups of people. But I think that even those of us who think of ourselves as "decent" people, are often only "decent" if it is convenient.
For example, in the very interesting book Choosing Naia, the opinion of certain therapists is that Down syndrome is a preventable disability (i.e., one can abort), and is a drain on the economy. I recently talked to a mother who was told by her daughter's therapists basically the same line, and that her daughter anyway won't "amount to much". Is it any wonder that she stopped taking her child to therapy? (Which of course is not a good way for her daughter to "amount to anything" either.)
The bottom line is, how much are we willing to go beyond our comfort zone, to help others ? To finance programs? Two months after today's headlines about the treatment of the mentally disabled in Serbia, how many of us will have done even one little thing about it? Or about guaranteeing the rights of the mentally challenged in our area? Or will we just shake our head at how dreadful it is, as we go back to our regular pursuits without a second thought?