Rabbi Miriam's Blog
Late last night I spoke with my dear friend Dalit for two hours. Dalit is a world famous ceramic sculptress who lives near Tzfat in Northern Galilee. She
got home in June of this year after a long trip to Central America. At first, when she heard some muted boom sounds, she did not know what they were. Very quickly she realized that these boom sounds were coming from Syria, just a short air distance away from her home. She could not believe how life in Israel is going on “as usual” when thousands of people are being killed across the border and the world, again, is silent. At first she was not able to sleep at night, having a really hard time hearing these horrible sounds of bombs falling on women, children, the elderly and those who were not able to leave the area. She was having nightmares of the last war Israel had with the Hezbollah in Lebanon, as the terrorist movement rained shells on half of Israel indiscriminately. Yet, like most things in life, in order to survive the horrific reality of life around us, we create our own imaginary “beautiful world.” A few people even said to her “let them kill one another.” Suddenly, the world she knew collapsed. She was questioning the ethics of people she loved and knew very closely for many years. This is one of the poems she wrote. By next week, God willing, I will translate her second poem. HEARING THE BOMBS AND ROCKETS Don’t you hear the falling bombs and rockets? How can we continue to live our daily serene lives When in the background are the sounds of tanks Where hundreds and thousands of people die daily Men, women and children, A short “spit” distance away is... hell. But who cares? “Let them kill one another,” they say. There are those in this war who see pure profit And we are such an ethical nation Does ethics knows the difference between race and color? Is there such a thing as double (standard) ethics? And the sound of the bombs, that accompany my life for months Flashes in my mind of ghastly pictures That are coming closer and closer And they don’t let my soul rest. The nervous tension in the air is real. The hate in the area is mounting Without boundaries and restrictions It is endless. And we, as mere mortals Are human? Ahavat Torah of West Los Angeles
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About Rabbi MiriamRabbi Miriam E. Hamrell MHL, M.Ed., has served as our religious and spiritual leader at Ahavat Torah Congregation and helped it grow since it was founded in 2003. Archives
April 2017
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