Steve Ornstein – The News I heard today, Oh Boy!
The Channukia lights up the darkness until on the last day we get a crescendo of light uplifting us into a world where song and sweet delights overcome the most unbearable events in the world. In our houses, we witness the dancing flames surrounded by an aura of hope.
There were demonstrations in Tel Aviv these past few weeks by tens of thousands of people from all walks of life and political persuasion against Government corruption and laws supporting such.
My friends on the right of center are disturbingly silent as more and more MK’s and their friends are being indicted and or implicated in illegal activities. Silent about the introduction of laws that are meant to stifle Police investigations and Supreme Court powers because they don’t align with the government’s agenda.
The world is once again erupting from the complacency that has stifled freedom and civil discourse. The so-called sexual revolution of the 60’s has given way to predator men in power that have abused their status to fulfill their sexual fantasies at the expense of young women and men.
President Trump states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Wow! What a revelation! Jerusalem has always been the capital of the Jewish State. Here and now and in the past. Besides, if one is publically touchy about including East Jerusalem then at least recognize that West Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel. But no says the EU Foreign Minister, who has this nasty habit of wishing we would disappear. This need to deny the only Jewish state in the world the right to identify its capital is mindboggling.
Here we are going about our daily lives in Israel as Gurus, so-called leaders of the free world and self-proclaimed leaders of “other worlds” living among us, dedicate themselves to denying the realities created by hate and bigotry.
Do I sound a bit cynical? Breath is the final solution to any of these stress-related actions. Breathe the breath of life that transforms us from victims and the need to be perfect.
This new teaching to abandon your uniqueness, personal religious identification, and moral-ethical value system for a more significant horizon of a “One World” where no one gets their hands dirty is a fantasyland.
The uplifting moments of DOING while BEING, here and now, defies all the rhetoric from imperfect spiritual leaders that have participated all too often in inappropriate sexual behavior. But no one within the organizations or the followers are honest enough to call them out and be accountable regardless how sweet the sound of their words.
Israel, wherein lies a community that shares a moral and ethical value system of the highest standards while at the same time recognizing our human shortcomings with our ability to rectify our mistakes and insensitive behavior. It stands miles tall compared to all the dreams of imagining a world where there is no uniqueness:
Our global differences by state, by region, by culture, and by religion are opportunities to recognize the beauty in the differences and the commonality we all share when these differences become unimportant because we are comfortable in knowing who we are as individuals and as part of a community.
We are all living in a state of becoming in a process of perfection. Dedicating ourselves to the exploration of our inner and outer journey while pursuing what is moral and ethical without demeaning the “other” that resides in our midst.
Israel with all its imperfections addresses these issues and confronts them head-on. The nature of this nation and its people, while differing in approach, is extraordinarily vocal about issues that reflect the need to change the present reality into a more equitable one.
So Chanukah once again reminds us of our frailty and endurance as the light increases every night until we are finally at home on a journey of peace, hope, and faith in ourselves and in each other.
