Since my trip to Israel in August, actually the place of my birth, I have begun seeing my religion as a way to interconnect with my ancestors.

This didn't happen all at once actually, it really started a few years back at an Inipi( sweat )ceremony where I began to see the importance of those who came before. The Lakota Native Americans believe the rocks from the lodge are ancestors, and when heated, they begin to express the things they could not say to you before.

So imagine, when I went home for the first time in ten years, how many cold rocks at my feet were just aching to scream. Imagine also, my amazement, when the rocks of the Western Wailing Wall began to speak to me as if by magic telepathy.

I really could feel the vibe man. Since then, I have searched for a way to combine all of the wonderful things I learn from other religions with the one I was born into.

Reading the weekly Torah is sort of like getting a weekly sermon. On the net, you can find a thousand different sermons by different Rabbis for every week.

There are liberal perspectives and conservative ones, ones by women and ones for children.

This weeks portion is about Moses, and the choosing of Moses as the leader of the Jewish people.

I read interpretations ranging from Moses being chosen for strength and decisiveness, to the interpretation that the passage is all about the molding and shaping of the Jewish people through labor in Egypt.

Still, the most striking part of the story for me was the part about the burning bush. Yes I am a quasi-liberal, and burning Bush does sound very good. But that's not why.

I began to think about energy. The bush burned, but was not consumed. Keeping the light alive, without being consumed.

You can imagine the thoughts in my Sci-fi brain, "the bush wasn't on fire, there was really a bright Alien spacecraft behind it. "

But no, the real moral, I feel, of Shabbat, of the day Moses stood on the mountain, is that we have an obligation to keep the light of the world burning, without it being consumed by negative vibe.

I feel, particularly in the Palestinian conflict, that liberals and conservatives no longer see the light of the issue. Israel is a place aglow with the light of divinity, a trinity of nations racially intermixed and faithfully hoping.

Jews, Palestinians, and Christians there come from all different places, in all different colors, each religion it's own melting pot.

Here, in this land of G-d, evil takes it place on the battleground in the form of mistrust, on all sides, terror, anger, consumption of love with hatred.

Still, there are little known places, in schools that teach peace, in factories that make bread when they are open, where a human is a human, and no one hates. These people somewhat ignore the outside, at least to the extent that they do not let the outer evil hatred make them live a certain way. Instead, they live righteously. They are Israeli soldiers, off duty, on duty, and resisting. They are Palestinian farmers, managing to get a small portion of their olives through hell. They are Proffessors in Jerusalem, teaching Arab, Jewish, and Christian theologies to kids from all sides, teaching all the best students to be doctors and save lives regardless of where they come from.

We fail to recognise, with all of the fires we've stoked, all of the hatred we propogate on T.V., that there are those among Israelis and Palestinians alike who work towards the light.

In America also, we have a large group of those working. Julia Butterfly, burned like a diogenisian bulb in a tree for two years.

They say there are seventy interpretations to the Torah.

I'd like to think I have my own for this passage.

That we, all over the world, remember to be the light that is not consumed by hatred, that stands the test of fire, that follows G-d by example....

Calm down, Mymicz, baby, and come back to earth. Why don't you ask some Palestinians with amputated limbs and dead children or parents how they are experiencing peace and love in the Holy Land?

And be careful you don't take any long bus rides in Jerusalem while you read the daily Torah lesson - some dispossessd person driven to desperation by grief and rage might blow himself/herself into the great Promised Land in the sky - and you, too.

Here's someone who's actually Jewish AND Isareli and who, by all accounts is very supportive of the State of Israel, trying to admit the faults of her own people in regards to the two-sided situation in an attempt to promote peace between every culture who lives there, and all the typical IMC add can say is some quip about how awful Israel is and how justified "palestinians" are in their terrorism.

It's unbelievably typical. Just as I laid out my thoughts yesterday to Hex (I know...a waste of time) about what I see as a possible solution which included concessions and acceptance of responsibility from Israel more than "palestine", and he had nothing to say other than to post more of his silly pictures of dead Arabs, Meyer has agin illustrated his utter racism.

People like Meyer and Hex and most of the other typical IMCers don't want peace, they want an end to Israel. As we post here and each take sides, it's ONLY the pro-Israel side who EVER take any responsibility for the actions of the side they support. I've yet to read even a single sentence from anyone like Meyer even hinting at the idea that maybe the acts of Hamas et.al, are racist and designed to keep peace from developing.

Meyer has spoken volumes with his reply.

It is becoming more and more clear that peace is the last thing that the IMC crowd want. They want an ongoing struggle so they can continue to vilify Isarel and Jews. They obviously are mute and utterly unconcerned about human rights and struggles anywhere else in the Arab world. And why do you suppose that is? Because if they can't attck Israel they aren't interested.

The transperancy of the outright racism of the left is stunning.

Do not assume that because Meyer is an EGIT as my Irish gramma friend would say, that all liberals are one-sided and fundamentalist in the other extreme.

The point of my article, which I thank you for pointing out that Meyer completely misunderstood, was that we are capable, and willing, on both sides, to get rid of people like Meyer, to ignore their wastefull selfishness, and to eliminate the power of the hatred they spew.

Meyer is an example of what the left must avoid, yes.

He is consumed with hatred that comes from a place of ignorance, having obviously never been to Israel before the Intifada when things were relatively docile and the economies of both sub countries was growing into prosperity for both. Nor did he go after the intifada when the people of whom I speak, the proffessors, children and workers, held together their tiny organizations of peace and kept working through the storm.

Meyers reaction is obviously to dwell on the hatred and allow it to justify every evil. Don't we all wish he knew better by now.

By his reckoning, every man who has been alienated by a government has a right to go and slaughter innocents. Can you imagine the horrific nature of Meyers world should it ever come to pass?

There is no justice if it's just one side feeling justified. Justice is when all peoples come to an agreement and are satisfied.

To say that the Jewish people do not have a right to justice and security is as ridiculous as saying Rush Limbaugh should work for DARE.

To say the same about Palestinians, as some right wingers have, is of equal folly.

But to say that I hope, in all my heart, that those Palestinians and Jews who work every day to promote peace and resolution grow and are strengthened through education, and a shift from hatred to love and light between cousins, now that is something I hope all IMC readers have gotten out of my article.

As far as Meyer is concerned, I feel he definately needs a spiritual enema, and a more balanced reading of the situation.

It is people like Meyer who throw a blankett of darkness on every window, so that everyone looks as dark and sad as they do.

Meyer, "can you see the light, is it shining too bright, can you see the light, at the end of the tunnel, I know I can, I know I can."

Be A Head, Not Behind.

you talkin' to me ?

don't drag me into your mud slinging wrestling thing

I just stated my solidarity above with peace - look at the signs above - I'm with those people...

Excellent post. Thank you.

nonanarchist

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The comment was rejected because it was too grateful.

The comment was rejected because it was too grateful.

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