When I was young, Polish jokes were the rage. Every country has their own style of jokes along the same lines, in Ireland around the same time I believe it was Kerry man jokes, about County Kerry. And then there is Chelm. Top 10 Jokes about Chelm https://www.aish.com/j/fs/Top-10-Jokes-about-Chelm.html
But of late it’s been some of those from Poland that have been some lions at the forefront of the coming battle. And I do believe we are headed for one. The signs aren’t hard to see that danger looms. Holocaust Remembrance Day this year suddenly became “Climate Day”, with no mention of the oddity by the lame stream media. Odd Kamala’s Jewish husband didn’t mention it. Seems a bit tone deaf.
In another display of “I forgot to remember” for the Biden Regime Yom HaShoah this year ended on Thursday, April 8th at sun down. “Day of Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance“. As in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. As in that’s the day Beijing Biden’s handlers decide to trot him out to tell us “No right is absolute”. And since in communism that includes the right to life, regardless of the age of the human, I suppose that’s another one of those things he tells us without really meaning to.
And if Jews had any doubts as to the Communist/Democrats sentiments towards them, I should think that Biden and his gun control lies that spewed forth today put paid to that. https://townhall.com/columnists/johnrlottjr/2021/04/08/bidens-many-false-claims-on-gun-violence-n2587609
The beauty of being a communist is the media is your propaganda arm so you just have to be close “enough for government work”, as my Dad used to say, in your statements, actions and such. But once in a while the D/Cs (Democrat/Communists) tell such a whopper even “Circle-Back Psaki” has to circle back so fast you kind of wonder if she ever tips over.
So we have Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagevurah, and Biden’s handlers are starting to gear up by appointing this bit of floatsom as head of the ATF, or as Beijing Biden called it, the AFT. I believe Tucker Carlson lays out what Beijing’s handlers have chosen.
Sometimes I wonder if people really believed their Unions when they were told to vote for Biden as him really wanting to confiscate guns was just a right wing talking point.
The thing about some of these people from Poland is they know what living under a tyrannical government is like. They’ve seen this movie.
In America we have Marlena Pavlos-Hackney, a Polish immigrant who owns a bistro and has run afoul of “Jackboots” Whitmer and Dana Nessel who both have their panties in a twist because someone they view as a peasant who dares to try to save her business and support herself defied them! THEM! How DARE she!
And perhaps saving the best for last, a Polish priest who ran the gestapo out of his church.
And the little Aryan blonde just keeps talking, she can’t conceive that someone that is suppose to be afraid of her is standing up to her tyrannical little lecture. And she just keeps blathering on and on. But she was dressed very fitting. Did you notice she was wearing a modern day version of the jackboots? Oh yes she was!
These Poles that have come out of communism know it when they see it, and it is no laughing matter. They are refusing to be cowed down. That mindset is key. We just had Pesach, Passover and in my Haggadah the are some things other than the Sedar service. One of them is a little section on how the Jews became slaves in the first place. Through a trick. The Jews had become very numerous, and the Egyptian Communists feared them. Ooops, just Egyptians. They came up with a building project that all good Egyptians would want to participate in, it was their patriotic duty to take the experimental injection sorry wrong column, help with the building project. In the beginning everyone showed up and worked, but shortly it was only Jews who showed up and they were no longer paid for their labor. Then they were greeted by armed taskmasters, and there was no longer any choice of being patriotic or not. You worked or else. And with the handy covid contract tracing they knew, oh sorry, again. Anyway, they knew where to find those who didn’t show up. But one thing I heard on a radio show, was talking about the slave mentality and that is a mindset we can not allow ourselves to sink into.
But for all the Democrat Communists declarations that the Conservatives are anti-Semitic, that is just one more of their lies. There are anti-Semites in any party, I’m sure. However the Biden regime has been sending some pretty clear signals with the changes to “climate day” and announcing his gun control scam on a day arguably made possible by German “common sense gun control”. That’s twice.
‘Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action’ ~~ Ian Fleming
You know when you’re a child, lots of things seem like really really good ideas. For example selling your little sister to put the money towards a pony. Writing your own excuse to skip gym class/recess because it’s freezing, or anything else, by not only writing the note, but also signing it. In printing because you haven’t learned how to write in cursive yet. I hadn’t actually figured out how I was going to explain my parents lack of skill in that particular department. But you kind of out grow that sort of thinking where you think you can just pull some boneheaded stunt and no one will see through it, or that there might be a need to anticipate things that could go wrong and different potential outcomes. You know the old failing to plan is planning to fail concept? Yeah most kids start growing out of that by 2nd, 3rd grade.
You know who never outgrows that idiotic alternate universe kind of thinking? Progressives, leftists. Reality doesn’t inhabit their world, so lying to people has no consequences. Forcing people to live in your unrealistic and imaginary paradigm is kind and compassionate. No matter how much you force them through tyranny, and no matter what they think or feel, the democrat\communist will try their level best to force you into their demented playhouse.
And the thing is, some of these brainless/brain-dead ideas they have, would cause you to think you are reading a column from The Onion or The Babylon Bee because no one could be that stupid. But you would be wrong.
For example, if a sane person hears “Defund the police” they might say, “Excuse me, I mis-heard, you said DEFEND the police correct”? A leftist will say “Yeah man, defund the police, they’re evil”. A democrat/communist will say “Ok, as soon as we get rid of the local police that are made up of community members we’ll bring in the national police force barry sotero talked about that have no ties or relationship with a community”
The woke
But grown ups will realize there is going to be a consequence. Which is how you know the mayor of New York City and his very stupid wife are not grown ups, or at least wise mature people.
Hizzoner then handed off the question to McCray, who said, “There’s no question that it was important to move more funds to youth and social services.”
McCray said the mayoral coronavirus-recovery Task Force on Racial Inclusion and Equity, which her husband appointed her to co-chair with Deputy Mayor J. Phillip Thompson, conducted a survey that showed “more resources for our young people was right up there” with the most-requested assistance.
“Even without those responses, I talked to my husband about it, and I encouraged him to find — help us find — ways to do that because you know, it’s something I know from my heart,” she said.
Shootings in New York City doubled in 2020 and were up 75 percent last month compared to a year prior. Burglaries have also increased, and violent, unprovoked crimes against Asians have become endemic.
“As attacks on Asian American communities continue, we’re asking New Yorkers to show up for their neighbors and intervene when witnessing hateful violence or harassment. I know that can be frightening when you aren’t sure what to do or say, but you can learn,” New York City’s First Lady Chirlane McCray wrote on Twitter March 6. “Fear is a normal feeling when stepping into a confrontation, but being prepared can help.”
And then Mrs De blasio helps you deal with being prepared to physically intervene in an assault that is taking place in front of you. She seems to get her intervention techniques from a web site called “Hollaback” https://www.ihollaback.org/. No, I can’t make that up. They do offer in person and interactive classes to prepare you to intervene in violent situations. But you need to plan your day wisely so you’ll have enough time for the class. Because as best as I can tell, the class lasts an hour. A whole HOUR! But it could be a wise investment of your time, as you will now feel empowered to step into these violent situations with such techniques as distracting the criminal beating the life out of some poor soul, or raping a woman and walk up to the victim and say “Scuse me old chap, I say, have you got the time?” <<Ok, that’s fluffed up, you just walk up and ask them the time. Then you should document it, so film as the person has the last few seconds of life beaten out of them, or as a woman is left in a huddled humilated mess, but Mrs. De Blasio does caution you not to release the video without the victim’s permission. Then you delay for a bit, then maybe later go back and check on the survivors “I say, sorry about that brutal assault your suffered” Then offer to help them contact the police if they need it. This apparently will make them feel valued. It’s ok to delay this step if your confidence is low. I guess your confidence won’t be low if you decide to give step 5 a go, because that is confront the aggressor directly.
After all, after the defunding of police initiated in 2020, violent crime in New York City has skyrocketed.
By the end of 2020, NYPD reported a 97% increase in shooting incidents compared to 2019. Homicides increased by 45%.
The 2019 “Bail reform” law has not helped matters at all. The result of bail reform, according to NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, is that 90 percent of arrestees for gun crimes are released right back on the streets.
NYPD statistics list 20 arrests for alleged anti-Asian hate crimes in 2020. Most of the suspects were black.
I wonder if the fact that their daughter has rioted with blm, shut down streets and bridges caused the Asian-American community to doubt the sincerity of the deBlasios? Seeing as how the mayor and his wife have made blm a protected class.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s attempt to participate in an anti-Asian crime vigil at Union Square this Friday fell by the wayside when the rallygoers reportedly heckled him and chased him away.
Video footage from the event showed him trying to express his solidarity with all Asian Americans as some of the onlookers kept shouting “what are you going to do about it?”
You know what role His Wokeness does approve of using police to fill? Thought Police, Bill de Blasio Wants NYPD to Visit People to Warn over Non-Criminal ‘Hurtful’ Conduct
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said the NYPD could visit those accused of racism or discrimination, “even if something is not a criminal case.”
….
The reporter followed the response by asking how the Mayor would view cases where the lines are burry. “[If] it’s something that’s not a criminal case,” she asked, “how would the NYPD confront someone if it’s not criminal? Would they have a conversation with them to say, ‘Hey, that’s actually not cool?’”
“Well, that’s exactly what happens. Whether again, it’s NYPD or it could be other agencies as well, but NYPD is a great example,” de Blasio said. “One of the things officers are trained to do is to give warnings. If someone has done something wrong, but not rising to a criminal level, it’s perfectly appropriate for an NYPD officer to talk to them to say that was not appropriate.”
So, it’s something like you see some poor soul being assaulted by one or two (or more) viscous thugs. You walk up and ask the nearly unconscious victim if they have the time. They barely mumble their phone was stolen. You could then say to the aggressor “I say old chappie, don’t you think that poor old fill in the blank nationality has about had it?” The aggressor then stops stabbing/pummeling/raping/beating <<circle appropriate style of assault, and whips out the stolen cell phone and dials 9-1-1. “Hello, NYPD? I’d like you to send one of the three remaining officers to central park, I’ve been micro-aggressed. No, I don’t want one of flipping de Blasio’s social workers, this is serious.”
Dispatch: Dispatch to Adam-12
This is Adam-12 go ahead.
Adam-12 we have a report of micro-agression in Central Park. A man was beating a insert gender or lack thereof here to death when a bystander following the de Blasio rule attempted to intervene and asked the time.
Adam 12: Dispatch are we going out on a homicide call for a fool that followed that bird brained mayor’s wife social engineering scheme?
Dispatch: Sorry Adam-12, no it’s the assailant that called in, he was microaggressed by the man he is now beating to death, but he wants you to come out and take a complaint in case the man that interfered survives. The other assault victim didn’t.
Adam 12: Um, sort of busy right now Dispatch. Mayor’s lovely daughter, the one that looks like a cockatoo, started a riot at one of the two stores left on 5th Avenue, and it is on fire. They didn’t have the shoes she wanted in the color she wanted so she called in her BLM buddies and the store is burning
Uh huh, she’s a real peach.
Dispatch: I admire your courage Adam-12, but remember the de Blasio rule, micro-aggressions and offences lead to the spread of systemic racism and white supremacy. The riot on what’s left of 5th Avenue is mostly peaceful anyway. Probably won’t last long, there was only two stores left. Everyone else fled years ago.
So the insane (what you call it when you keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results) communists disarm law abiding citizens, dispose of big parts of their police department and it never occurred to them that crime might soar? In a communist world, they keep telling the same lies, they keep trying the same failed policies and expecting the results to be what they want. Because they’ll do it right, this time. And yes, de Blasio has been up front about his communist policies. https://rumble.com/vbzwqb-bill-de-blasio-takes-the-mask-off-admits-hes-a-communist.html
And yet, they are shocked, shocked when law-abiding citizens don’t like being the target of criminals and don’t want to lay down and just take it like the Europeans do.
Communism is slavery, always has been, always will be. And we, we are meant to be a free people. There are many that are deluded, confused and fooled by the mainstream media and baseless hatred stirred up by the #MSM, #FakeNews and social media’s cancel culture. They don’t understand what is headed our way. All they know is “Orange man bad”. They are incapable of discussing policy or like the de Blasios, looking down the road and seeing the consequences of their actions. I kind of feel sorry for the people of NYC, but not very much. He got elected somehow.
But Pesach is coming, Passover, the time of leaving slavery. You know, the plagues went on for about 10 months, you’d have thought the Egyptians would have got a clue by then wouldn’t you? But like those voting Democrat/Communist they want G-d removed from the public arena, from private lives and from the world if they could pull it off. Fools, who do they think created this world?
In our lives, we each have “matzah moments,” moments in which we experience the blessings of life. Moments when we feel truly free and liberated. We also have “bitter herb” moments, moments in which we feel the bitterness of challenges and difficulty.
The bitter herbs are part of life. Every person experiences some measure of hardship and challenge. The “free” person is one who is not enslaved by life’s difficult challenges, but rather grows from them. The bitter experiences of life, when approached with faith and courage, can bring out the greatest potential of the human being.
Yet, initially, the matzah and the bitter herbs are eaten separately. Because in the moment of pain, we often don’t see any redeeming factor. In the moment of challenge, all we see is difficulty. Only after the fact, once we overcome the challenge, once we attain freedom, can we look back and view the past suffering as a step toward freeing our deepest spirit. From our perspective, the pain and the freedom cannot mix. We therefore eat the matzah and the bitter herbs separately.
And then we make a sandwich.
We remind ourselves that there was was a time, when the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, when spirituality was easily accessible. At that time, a person like Hillel could combine the matzah and the bitter herbs. He could combine the suffering with the salvation. At the very moment that he was experiencing the challenge, he could feel that his challenge was part of a sandwich. His challenge was an integral part of the free person he would become.
The Jew living in spiritual exile may not be able to feel that the challenges in his life are part of a bigger story of freedom. However, he can and should remember Hillel’s perspective. Eating the sandwich will remind him that the bitterness of life is the catalyst for redemption.
Years ago in a galaxy far far away, I served on the board of a couple of Second Amendment groups. One of them very much a grassroots group and it was very active in the legislative process and citizen lobbying. Contrary to what people are sometimes lead to think, “lobbyist” is not a dirty word, or a bad thing. Many people have jobs, employers seem to expect that their employees will be at those jobs. So, when there is legislation that matters to gun owners be it a bill to expand gun rights or a bill proposing further infringement of a law-abiding citizens rights with yet another gun control scam disguised as “gun safety” it would seem fair that the law-abiding citizen should also have their voice heard. Ahh, the conundrum. What is the law-abiding citizen to do? They have a job, but they also have rights that need to be defended. Well, the Second Amendment groups in the state went together and hired a lobbyist to be present at the hearings and speak on behalf of the voters that held opinions most firm about further infringement of their G-d given rights, namely self-defense. From time to time the lobbyist would be accompanied to these hearings by the leadership of the Second Amendment rights groups, and I was privileged to be one of those. A citizen lobbyist, who also happened to represent a passel of voters. I had the high heels and a sparkly barrette. I considered these vital, but not as vital as a couple of other things I possessed. A mission, and resolve. I enjoyed this mission, legislators can be quite tasty if bar-b-qued with BBQ sauce. /snark, remember, I’m a vegetarian.
It’s been a while since I’ve attended a rally day. In my state there has been a Second Amendment day at the Capitol for years. Usually towards the end of the season, and usually there is a major bill or two we are wanting big time bad, or a big time bad bill we want to see die an inglorious death. I started going back before my state had concealed carry, the lobby was packed full that day, it was standing room only. For years I went every year, even spoke at a couple of them. The last few years I haven’t made it, for various and sundry reasons. But I’ve made it the last couple of years, and this year was just grand.
I did the hike from the parking lot to the capitol and entered the door to the meeting area. The police were there with the airport style scanning machine. I was met by a young police officer when I placed my purse on the table. He regarded my purse dubiously.
Sir: “Ma’am, are you lawfully carrying concealed?”
Me: Yup
Sir: “I’m going to need a driver’s license and a concealed carry card”.
Me: You are an officer of the law, you should already have these credentials.
After a second for my brain to catch up with my mouth, I grinned at him and said, I’ve got to get them out of my purse, ok?
Sir: “Yep, I have a concealed carry. My friends ask me why I bother and I tell them because it’s the right thing to do.”
Me: I like you, I like the way you think.
He regards the depths of my purse skeptically after he studys my cards.
Sir: “Do you carry in your purse?”
Me: Nope.
Sir: “Good, I worry that if a purse was stolen you’ve now lost your defensive tools.”
Me: Oh I do like you, nope, no purse carry.
Sir: “Which side are you carrying on?”
I answer him, and he tells me after I set off the machine the officer at the other end will wand me. I go through, set off the machine get wanded and I’m good to go. I thank them both for what they do.
I went in, said hi to a lobbyist I’ve worked with, sat with some dear people that I haven’t seen for awhile and listened to some great speakers. The MC is well known in the Second Amendment arena as the guy that wrote the book on gun laws. Which is fair enough, he did write the book on gun laws.
It was interesting, the speakers were great, acoustics are always challenging in that room, but still it was good. Two floors up there was some sort of school event going on. A bunch of school children, I’m guessing pre-teen, or early teens must have disapproved of us being allowed to speak in public. When one of the speakers would start to speak, they would start yelling trying to drown out the speaker. Think there is much indoctrination going on in the tax payer funded schools? I’m telling you, Zehut has the right idea, school vouchers for everyone.
After rally we all split up to go speak with our legislators about the bills we want passed, and I also wanted to mention my extreme aversion to “Guilty until proven innocent” Red Flag gun confiscation. I had mentioned my aversion to my former lobbyist mentor and he said while of course the misogynistic mad mommies are pushing for it, it hasn’t gained traction. Good to hear. I don’t know why mad mommies hate women so much that they want to deprive them of a tool that even elderly women can use to equalize the situation, but they do.
Our MC ended the rally with his trademark line, “It’s a good day for liberty”. He always opened his monthly column with that line. And it was a good day for liberty, every day is a good day for liberty. But we must fight for it, there are forces that will not be happy until they have all the power they want, and as long as there are armed citizens, they know that won’t happen. They use whatever tactics they think will work, whether it is going after politicians sympathetic to us with blatant lies and accusations that their allies in the mainstream media help them spread or lies about “ghost guns” or citizens that defended themselves. Be it vote fraud or illegal immigrants voting, they will use it.
We must remain strong in our convictions and our determination. Where the room was packed a few years ago when we wanted, demanded, concealed carry it was now not as full. Attendance was good, but it needs to be bigger. I saw one old friend, he and his young son were there. This man and his wife want their children to learn about freedom and the legislative process and how the two go together. Those kids have been citizen lobbyists since they were probably 4 or 5 years old. Maybe even younger. The legislators sit up and take notice when large groups of people have taken the day off work and showed up to demand their rights be honored. G-d gives rights, legislators recognize or infringe on them.
My lobbying mission finished, I headed for the exit for the drive home. As I walked by the door to the exit I passed the door you enter, Sir and his partner were still there checking people, I smiled and waved at them and said thank you, they both smiled and waved back. It never hurts for the Second Amendment people to be the nice polite friendly ones.
So if you have a chance, and your state has a rally day yearly, go. See friends, network, make friends, talk to your legislative critters. Don’t let bloombergs paid harpies be the only voice being heard at your capitol.
Tonight starts Pesach, Passover. We each leave our own slavery in Egypt behind. I believe it is a constant process, sometimes easier, sometimes harder. But I don’t want to be one of the Jews that chose to stay behind in Egypt rather than face the unknown. I believe that G-d does want freedom for us. This year is a very meaningful Pesach for me, and I hope that you all will have a very blessed holiday as well. Thank you for being with us, The Zelman Partisans as we travel this path together.
Leaving Egypt and slavery
My friend used the line “It’s a good day for liberty” to open his columns, I wrote him and told him I was poaching it for a column. He wrote back fried, poached or boiled, if it’s for the cause it should be used.
I always ride for the brand and I always ended my columns with my own sign off.
But after years of living in a country where your life was valued as cheap, the children left. Time served, onto a new life in your homeland.
When you are at the Pesach Seder it is supposed to be as though you were there, on that night. It’s part of your history, part of your life story. Then Pharaoh decided good help is hard to come by, and he is going to chase the Hebrews down and dispatch them. Either back to work or _____. You know, one might have thought the year or so of plagues would have given him a clue. But some are just so blinded by hate they are will to sacrifice their own people to achieve their goals of killing Jews.
And this year in Israel, it seems somethings may not really change all that much. I think obama’s and soros’s community organizing friends had buddies within Hamass. I guess Hamass has been looking at all the left-wing “marches” that have been taking place in America with envy. Because they decided to have their very own! Yep, a “million man Gazan march” for the “right of return”. Mind you, Gaza is Jew free, there are no Jews in Gaza, not since 2005 when the IDF pulled Jews from their homes in Gaza and shipped them out in compliance with the final phase of the Oslo accords signed in 1994. So basically Gaza is your two state solution. Already there done deal. But, it’s not enough. You can read a nice summary of the history here.
Hamass had been warned not to try to breech the fence. Hamass said the only solution is “The Right of Return” and the plan was to simply swamp the border fence and the IDF stationed there with a mass of people. Putting women and children first, of course. Being the cowards they are.
The leadership of Gaza wants them to overwhelm our soldiers in sheer numbers with the goal of getting as many of those “men” across the border. Armed with whatever they can bring – guns, knives, explosives, axes, they have one order only. Should any of these attackers manage to circumvent our border, they have instructions to kill. Anything. Whatever. Have a nice time.
And what should be the response? Now, at once.
And the moment, that individual touches the fence – that’s it, really – just TOUCHES the fence, our forces have orders to shoot to kill. No, we will not yell out “STOP!” in Arabic and English and Hebrew. We will not fire in the air. Forget firing at their legs. Shoot to kill.
It’s difficult to say how many Gazans have been sent to their death by Hamass to achieve the desired result for the media and the U.N. Partly because of the efforts of Pallywood that the media always falls for. But one source says 25, I think it’s more by now. Pallywood? You don’t know? Well, here is a photo in fine Pallywood style and a video. Two different incidents. Both are from Israellycool and Dave points out problems with both. Things that one would have thought the photographers from the mainstream media would have had enough intellectual curiosity to look further, but I guess not.
“The State of Kuwait, with full knowledge that our Permanent Mission, Israel, and Jews everywhere were observing the first night of Passover, hijacked the consultations, forced an open session and invited the Palestinian delegation to present remarks that they had been advised to prepare well in advance. Israel was not given the same advance notice and was barred from taking part in the deliberations due to the observance of our religious holiday,” wrote Ambassador Danon.
The ever impartial UN was all set to release a statement on the riots, which the U.S. blocked, thankfully, as it seems all the statement was concerned about was that Hamass sent people to be killed and the IDF was forced to do so. Are they worried about the invasion? Meh, not so much.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused Israel of being a “terrorist state and occupier,” and its army of “inhuman cruelty” in its crackdown on Palestinian protesters.
“Oppressor Israel and its army are only courageous against the oppressed in Gaza, Jerusalem, they are cowards when it comes to facing others,” Erdogan said at a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) congress in the southern province of Adana on April 1, addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu according to Turkey’s Hurriyet.
Oh yes, the man who is attacking the Kurds who are fighting ISIS has a plenty to say about the Gaza riots.
I shall propose an entirely different approach to resolve the conflict, a reversion to the strategy of deterrence and victory associated with Zionism’s great strategist, Vladimir Jabotinsky (1880-1940): Israel should aim not to please its enemies but to defeat them. Counterintuitively, I shall show why Palestinians need precisely such an Israel Victory to slough off their current oppression, extremism, and violence, and to become a successful people.
The whole column is very good.
But you can’t imagine a sovereign nation under threat of invasion by a large group of people.
“We demand of the Mexico and the United States: that they respect our rights as refugees and our right to dignified work to be able to support our families,” the statements reads.
The second demand is “that they open the borders to us because we are as much citizens as the people of the countries where we are and/or travel.”
Um, no. But we will soon be facing a similar situation, and the world will judge us as harshly.
But today, Israel is a free, sovereign nation that came from 12 tribes that went into Egypt and came out as that one nation, as one people that received the Torah from Moshe who received it from G-d
Moses ascended Mount Sinai, and G‑d spoke to him the following words (Exodus 19:3-6): “So shall you say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and [how] I bore you on eagles’ wings, and I brought you to Me. And now, if you obey Me and keep My covenant, you shall be to Me a treasure out of all peoples, for Mine is the entire earth. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of princes and a holy nation.”
We are one.
So I have two songs for you this Pesach season. This one I sing almost every day, even though poorly, because I love it, and well, really it applies. It has subtitles.
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
פסח Pesach 2017 has concluded. I hope everyone’s was blessed. I learn things every year, and this year I did some deep reflecting and thinking, just sort of processing some of the things I read.
While I realize my life, and our lives in America today, have little if anything in common with the Israelites held captive in Egypt all those years ago, in the Haggadah, it says “In every generation each individual is bound to regard himself as if he personally had gone forth from Egypt”. Hmm, I’ve never been to Egypt, and I have no desire to go there now. But I have watched The Mummy movies several times. Even the old black and white one. But that’s not what it means. Turns out, we all have our own Egypt, Pharaoh and Moshe.
In each one of us there is an Egypt and a Pharaoh and a Moses and Freedom in a Promised Land. And every point in time is an opportunity for another Exodus.
Egypt is a place that chains you to who you are, constraining you from growth and change. And Pharaoh is that voice inside that mocks your gambit to escape, saying, “How could you attempt being today something you were not yesterday? Aren’t you good enough just as you are? Don’t you know who you are?”
Moses is the liberator, the infinite force deep within, an impetuous and all-powerful drive to break out from any bondage, to always transcend, to connect with that which has no bounds.
I wonder, how many of us are in chains of one sort or another? Work situations, relationship situations, health situations, financial situations? There are no limits to the things that can bind us. I might take a minute to mention that former Congressman Bob McEwen points out that when you look at the effect of taxes, working and not being allowed to keep the fruit of your labor is slavery. For those fans of Hillary and Bernie.
How could I make such a statement in the middle of talking about Pesach? Well, because Rabbi Tsvi says
Tell it in first person, in the now. Don’t say, “Long ago, the ancient Hebrews…” Say, “When we were slaves in Egypt, the perverse socio-bureaucratic system thoroughly crushed every individual’s sense of self-worth!” Everything that happened there parallels something in each of our lives. We are truly living it now. We are simply examining our own lives in the dress of ancient Egypt.
See? It’s relevant!
There is a point during the Seder where the youngest child present asks four questions. Hmm, would this present a problem? Cowgirl kitty refused to ask the right questions. No problem, Rabbi had the answer.
No children? Let an adult ask. There’s just you? You be the child, and G‑d will be the father. While you’re at it, ask Him a few other difficult questions for us all.
Oh, I’m good with this! I’m so good with this! What’s more? We’re not limited to four!
Part of the Seder is eating Matzah. My Kosher for Pesach Matzah came from Israel. I’ve been eating Matzah since last Monday night, the 10th. This is a mitzvah, a commandment. Yep, until there is another Holy Temple, this is the only mitzvah we can eat. And according to Rabbi, this is an incredibly powerful thing. An amazing thing. Matzah has been called the bread of faith or Emunah.
Emunah is when you touch that place where your soul and the essence of the Infinite Light are one. It’s a point that nothing can describe. Where there are no words, no doubts, no uncertainty, no confusion—nothing else but a magnificent oneness before which all the challenges of life vanish like a puff of vapor.
I should have ordered like a gazillion cartons (5 boxes to a carton) of this!
We too began buried in Egypt, all but losing our identity. But that furnace of oppression became for us a firing kiln, a baker’s oven, the womb from whence we were born in the month of spring. In our liberation from there, we brought our fruits of freedom to the world.
Miracles happen when Divine energy from beyond the cosmos enters within. Why did miracles happen in Egypt? Because we believed they would. Those who didn’t believe in miracles saw only plagues. To see a miracle, you need an open heart and mind, open enough to receive the Infinite. That is the opening we make when we thank G‑d for the miracle of our food.
But the greatest of barriers turned into the greatest of miracles. Not only did the sea become an ambush for the enemy, but also a path that led the children of Israel to their ultimate freedom.
So it is with every obstacle. When you’re out to do the right thing, the entire world is there to assist you—including the most formidable threats, the most impossible challenges. The bigger they are, the more impossible to traverse, the greater the miracle they will provide.
That is the true reality of everything in this world: to serve you on your mission. What is your mission? To make this world miraculous.
And obstacles are miracles waiting to happen.
So, I think we all struggle with slavery of some sort, perhaps this will give you some hope, and maybe a different perspective. The children of Israel went into Egypt as 12 different tribes, and came out a nation. These are just some of the things that really struck me this year, and I’m still chewing on some of them. Unlike the matzah which I am now loading with my leftover yummy charoset which I munch right down.
I’ll leave you with one final Pesach thought, because A) it’s a really good one, and B) it has a picture of a camel.
Leaving Egypt and slavery
Got the popcorn?
Here’s a song I learned in school, I love this version. I know it’s by a group called Tractor’s Revenge, but the words are wonderful. I have it on my phone, so I sang it at the end of my Seder.
Echad Mi Yodea אחד מי יודע
It has the meanings in English, it’s wonderful!
Then there is this one, wonderful thoughts, Passover: I’m in Love with the Taste of You, this year’s Aish Pesach video.
And lastly, just for fun. Pesach Funk. “Freedom! Oh man! Gonna live my life the best way I can!” Boy can they dance!
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” 4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.”Exodus 5:1-4 Shemot 5:1-4
The original Pesach began when G-d decided his children had suffered enough of living in a land different than that he allotted to them. G-d sent Moshe to those in power over them to let them go and worship him as he had instructed them.
A quick history lesson. The first Temple was built by King Solomon in 957 BC. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Construction on the Second Temple was authorized by Cyrus the Great and began in 538 BC. It was completed 23 years later under the reign of Darius the Great. See the Purim story for more on this little gem. It was destroyed again by the Romans in 70 AD.
Mohammed the founder of the religion of pieces known as Islam lived from 570 AD – 8 June 632 AD. Around 613 AD he started preaching Islam. The first two Al-Aqsa mosques were built in 705 AD and 780 AD. They were destroyed by earthquakes. The third and still standing was built in 1035 AD. It is the 3rd holiest site is islam, and interestingly, at least to me, is there are Arab scholars which say that the mosque located on the Temple Mount is NOT the Al-Aqsa talked of in the Koran, it is not in the right location.
So, just in time for Pesach, the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic UN branch, specializing in anti-Israel actions, known as UNESCO has released a new resolution. It denies Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. You know, the Temple that was constructed to replace the Tabernacle Moshe built in the desert? But it goes a lot further than that. It
refers to Israel as the “occupying power” at every mention and uses the Arabic al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram al-Sharif without ever calling it the Temple Mount, as it is known to Jews. The text does refer to the Western Wall Plaza but places it in quotation marks, after using the Arabic Al-Buraq Plaza.
And
The resolution accuses Israel of “planting Jewish fake graves in other spaces of the Muslim cemeteries” and of “the continued conversion of many Islamic and Byzantine remains into the so-called Jewish ritual baths or into Jewish prayer places.”
Currently on the Temple Mount, holiest site in Judaism and holy to Christians, THIRD holiest site to muslims (if it is the right mosque, debate on that) Jews and Christians are NOT allowed to pray, recite verses from our Tanakh/Bible or wear any religious or Israeli symbols on our clothing. The Israeli police, yes Israeli will arrest you in a heartbeat. Yours or anyone’s. The muslim waqos, (hmm, may have left an “f” out of that somewhere) make sure the screaming harridans can yell “allah hu akbar” at visitors and safely stash rocks and incendiary devices to throw in their sacred Al-Aqsa. Pretty much like most Synagogues and Southern Baptist Churches, right?
Ok, I’ll stop. But the point is, Pesach began when the children were told to go and worship HaShem as he had commanded and the ruling powers tried to prevent it. Thousands of years later and what has changed? Moshe Dyan, you were an IDIOT!
But, there was a Pesach, and tomorrow night there will be a Pesach and I believe HaShem has still got a plan and has this covered. And so I will wish you Happy Passover, Pesach.
חג פסח שמח
Jews. Guns. No compromise. No surrender.
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