A rabbi’s plea on divestment from Israel

A Rabbi’s Open Letter to Presbyterians

A rabbi’s plea on divestment from Israel

KEITH SRAKOCIC / ASSOCIATED PRESS

By Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch / NYDailynews.com
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Faith:

There is a Jewish folk tale that defines a friend as one who knows what gives his comrade pain. If we do not know what gives our fellow human being pain, we cannot be a friend.

You have caused us deep pain.

Our friendship has been ruptured not because we may disagree on any specific policy of the government of Israel.

Rather, by publishing Zionism Unsettled, a study guide deeply critical of Israel, and last week voting for the Presbyterian Church to divest from three major companies that do business with the Jewish state, you have evolved views that come perilously close to classic Christian animosity toward Judaism.
You criticize Israel incessantly, unfairly and disproportionately. But you are silent about Arab rejectionism, intolerance, and terrorism. There is little reflection, little sophistication, and little effort to understand underlying causes. Your minds are made up. You even ignore the reality that Israel is the only place in the Mideast where Christians are comfortable and safe, and Christian holy places are protected and open to all.
It is, indeed, tragic that there is violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories. You are not the only liberal movement that seeks peace. We, too, have been fighting for peace our entire lives. But it is even more tragic that Israel has been left with no alternative but to fight against those who have never recognized her and have made it their cause to destroy her.

It is easy to sit in a convention center and debate politics, policy, and philosophy far removed from the realities of daily life.

It is easy to write resolutions if you have never experienced the fear of sending your children to school in the morning and worrying about whether they will come home at night.
It is easy to voice noble sentiments of love and brotherhood if you have never had to don gas masks or spend days on end in a bomb shelter.

It is easy to condemn the walled section of the security barrier in Bethlehem, utterly ignoring why it was built in the first place: Because Palestinian terrorists were crossing into Israel and murdering and maiming thousands of Israelis in suicide bombings, or climbing onto rooftops in Bethlehem and shooting at civilians.
Is it too much to expect fellow liberal believers to understand Israel’s basic obligation to protect her citizens? Is it too much to expect fellow liberal believers to have some sympathy for a fellow democracy struggling to survive in the world’s worst neighborhood, encountering challenges the likes of which no other democracy in the world must face? Instead, you voice paltry pieties and self-satisfied sanctimonies.

The test is not whether you can quote religious chapter and verse. The test is to apply religious values to a difficult reality where it takes two to love and two to practice brotherhood and two to make peace. You act as if Israel alone has the power to make peace and has simply chosen not to. You give the impression that the Palestinians are mere potted plants.

In “Zionism Unsettled,” while you attack what you perceive as the exclusivist and even racist elements of Judaism, you also praise the inclusive nature of Islam. I have no doubt many Muslims are inclusive. I have met, and deeply respect, many of them, and we have worked together in brotherhood and common cause. But it is dishonest to ignore the reality that Israel, and the West itself, are fighting not that part of Islam that is inclusive, but the part that is rejectionist and violent. At this moment of anti-humanitarian, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-women’s rights, anti-gay, anti-pluralistic, anti-Western tribal savageness in the Middle East, this is the moment that you chose to divest from companies trading with Israel?

Divestment is shameful. Boycotting enterprises trading with Israel is reminiscent of dark chapters in Jewish-Christian relations that we hoped were behind us. No matter how much you seek to explain or distinguish, you have chosen to join the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement. You have allied yourself with some of the worst and most implacable of Israel’s enemies. They are not in favor of what you say you support: two states living side by side in peace. You should not be comforted by the relative handful of Jewish activists and academics you have found to support your views. Your Jewish supporters are marginal and unrepresentative and cannot be the slender reed upon which to justify your anti-Zionism or renew a productive partnership, if that is even what you want.

Finally, and I say this with no intention to offend: It is not for you to decide whether Zionism is a legitimate expression of Judaism; that is for Jews to decide. It is for you to decide only whether you will respect our understanding of Judaism.

I join you in praying for peace; may it come speedily in our day.
—————-
Hirsch is rabbi of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan. He wrote this open letter in an email to his congregation; a longer version can be found on the synagogue’s website.


http://www.levitt.com/news/2014/06/29/a-rabbis-open-letter-to-presbyterians/

Shalom!  Pray for the PEACE of Jerusalem!

Dedicated to the Preacher Man - When the Issue is No Longer the Issue

Friendship is relative. Friends love one another. The Body of Christ is called Christ-like or Christian. We are called to show love one for another. We are called to show love even for our enemies, those who spitefully use us. I'm not citing chapter and verse from the BIBLE because those who know it simply know what I say is true. Those who choose to ignore it really do not care where it is in the BIBLE or even IF it is in the BIBLE. 

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If you become irritated with every preacher's sermon that you consider a 'slight,' you will never find peace nor the perfect preacher.

Nor will you find it by always separating yourself from those who irritate you. You can only fire so many preachers before you find yourself very much without a choice. You can keep hiring new preachers, of course, but sooner or later they will irritate you -- and then what?

Perhaps the better course might be to let the irritation go. Preachers rarely mean it personally when they do that, and a touch of easy forgiveness every day is even better than an apple.  Forgiveness, just like the apple, is for the one who holds it. The apple doesn't benefit. Neither does the one being forgiven.

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Bitterness, envy, strife, discord - all signs of a tortured soul.  The pain that courses through the heart and mind often finds its way out of the only avenue of escape - the lips.  When venom drips and the harshness is obvious to everyone, it is evident that the lips that have such caustic flavor are coming from an extremely tortured spirit. 

A difference of opinion becomes a battle and a simple comment creates a wall and war is declared.  And we are Christians.  And we are at war.  The battle that rages does not belong to us.  It is a Spiritual battle.  It is not between flesh and blood.  Yet we embrace the battle and arm ourselves with weapons so vile the Devil himself is giggling gleefully.

What to do when one sees a battle raging between two Christians is often a dilemma that few of us are equipped to face and none of us want to face, especially if we are not one of the combatants.  The problem is seldom that either is completely wrong.  Unless there is a doctrinal difference then there can be no "compromise" on one party's part, particularly if you believe in the inerrant nature of the WORD OF GOD.

So, what does one do when a congregation is pulled into a territorial dispute over something as simple as who decides what goes into a bulletin or as critical as to whether or not women should be Deacons?  What do you do when the actual issue has long since departed and the issue is no longer the issue, it is the struggle that now matters?  What does a bystander do with this drama?  I might add unnecessary drama.

When tension descends upon a church and even visitors notice it, there is no way I will invite someone to the service without having grave misgivings.  I'd almost rather not invite anyone.

When there are a few who, rather than confront an issue and work it out or at least work on it, would prefer to refuse to speak to one another and leave the room rather than be in the same room with the other, would prefer to act as a child and simply vilify the opposition, how do we handle that?

 

Shut up, stop whining and get a life!

Been reading and listening to a variety of things to improve whatever needs improving.  I have latched onto a couple of phrases from Larry Winget.

"Shut up, stop whining and get a life!"  (You must be willing to DO whatever it takes to be successful.  You MUST be willing to take a stand for what you BELIEVE and NOT waiver.)

"If your life sucks, it's probably because you suck." (You are responsible for your life.)

"You can't have it all, you have to make choices and you have to give up something to get something."  (It's called sacrifice. In order to get healthy you have to give up all that crap that made you UN-healthy.)

If you aren't satisfied with where you are and your life as it is, quit hanging around with those people you call friends who support you and tell you that you are okay where you are.

Employers have to be careful to not have much of a backbone and tell people what they really think.  They won't tell people that they are not hiring them because ....and actually give a valid reason.  They just don't and the poor sap goes around to prospective employers doing the same ignorant thing and wondering why he isn't being hired.  Then they wind up with people that have to be continually motivated because they don't realize that most of life is not done because we feel like it but because it simply has to be done.  If they don't feel like working, they find other things to do or even leave to go to appointments that don't exist.

Keeping employees motivated isn't what it's all about.  If you have to work to keep your employees motivated, maybe you hired the wrong people.  Most work is completed because it needs to be done, not because someone is highly motivated to do it. 

We are a coddled, infantile lot.  Our feelings are hurt at the drop of a hat primarily because we think the universe revolves around us.  We need to get over it.  The world was here first and owes us absolutely nothing.   Employers and management are no less insulated from the ME crowd as they cater to those whims of the few who are so tender that someone MUST say, "Good morning, kind sir.  Wouldst thou please movest thy coat-tails so I may properly kiss thy rather large posterior?" 

Or, if female, say, "How doest thou this grand morning?  Thou lookest very comely with thy lovely makeup and thy magnificent hair adorned so beautifully!  It is certainly a pleasure to be speaking with you this glorious day!"   And add,  "How best may I serve you in all that you desire?  Every wish you may have is just a twitter within me to grant to its conclusion."

As opposed to, "It's me, how can I help you?"

And if you were to say to some flibbertigibbet that he was more of a man than he acted, well, my word, bring in the National Guard and surround the office because someone done got their itty-bitty feelins hurt!

To be continued.... only because life goes on...

Shalom!  Pray for the PEACE of Jerusalem!

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff!

Well, it's certain. I'm going to die. Yep. In the meantime:

I'm drinking bottled water left in the car.
Eating cookies that I dropped on the floor (5 second rule or not).
I'm spending time in the sun with or without sunblock.
Driving my car within 25 miles of home.
Eating fried catfish caught in the Mississippi river by my loving husband.
Eating the occasional bacon and sausage.
Walking out doors through fire ants and maybe getting bitten.
Walking outside at night and getting the occasional mosquito bite.
I plan on talking to total strangers at the check out line. In Wal-mart!
Plan on drinking my 2 shakes a day, drinking 5 bottles of water a day and getting some exercise.
I may even have a bowl of ice cream and a bag of popcorn.

How long do I have? I don't know. Maybe 20 or 30 years. But unless THE LORD comes...

No one knows the day or the hour or even the year, so live today. Enjoy today. And don't get too caught up, over-the-top twisted about "saving the planet" and eating only "healthy stuff" because THE LORD will have HIS day and the earth and the Heavens will all be made new.  And when that happens, guess what?  You will be, too, if you are a child of HIS.  So what you need to be the MOST concerned about is where you'll spend eternity, knowing that the only time you can become a Child of GOD is here in time.  Once time passes, it's too late.  The decision is made.  Become HIS now.  Be the best HE made you to be.  HE has great plans for you.
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#2014NoExcuses ‬ ‪#‎Christian‬ ‪#‎ViLife‬

Shalom!  Pray for the PEACE of Jerusalem!

Project 10 Challenges

PROJECT 10 CHALLENGERS
LOSING WEIGHT!  GETTING HEALTHY!  HELPING KIDS!!

#vilife join our challenge!! Tamika

"Just a little over a year on ViSalus! Down almost 140 lbs. on the Project 10 challenge, off all 5 of the prescriptions I was on, countless inches lost (yes, I need to measure) and feel better than I have in years! I Joined a gym, have a trainer (and those words are still amazing coming out of my mouth), workout 3-5 times a week and LOVE IT!" Kathy

“One year ago I would have thought it impossible to lose 100 lbs. I have no idea what I am capable of and that is awesome!” Congratulations, Rod! Never stop surprising yourself! #FitnessFriday — with Rod Medel.

March 27, 2012
My Body By Vi Challenge is:
lose 9 pounds which will take me down to 160lbs,
lose 3 inches on my waist,
lose 3 inches on my hips,
and add an additional 2 miles to my walk in the morning which will make it 4 miles. — with Wes Pigott.

Body By Vi - Pam Pigott shared Pam Pigott's photo.

Posted by Pam Pigott · April 12

For everyone who is embarrassed or afraid to go public with your weight:
I am sharing this again because I find it hard to believe that I have lost so much weight just by faithfully drinking "milkshakes"!!!

Oh yeah! That BMW I'm standing in front of wasn't mine. I have my own now!!

This is great!! I have been below 150. I'm about 152 now.
I am down to a loose size 10!!
I'll have to check on the other measurements.
WHOOO!! HOOO!!

Not my usual post, but I am excited to see the progress others and myself have made on the Project 10 Challenge.  The PROJECT 10 CHALLENGE DONATES TO HELP CHILDREN AS EACH OF US LOSES WEIGHT AND GETS HEALTHY!   TO FIND OUT MORE INFO CONTACT ME AT MY WEBSITE!  

Body By Vi - Pam Pigott

 Shalom!  Pray for the PEACE of Jerusalem!