Spread the news -It's ok to be sad sometimes

Note : this list is a bit boring , so you are welcome to skip the first part ,and read the last paragraph

:)

It is now that time of the year, in which observant Jews mourn the destruction of the temple. For three weeks , Weddings and celebrations do not take place, observant Jews do not listen to any instrumental music, or buy new clothing , and there are other customs ,which I can't think of at the moment

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Starting the first day of the month of Ab, which was last Wednesday, certain people will not eat meet (Unless on a Shabbat - Saturday), or enjoy a good shower . It is said that a short shower with cold water is allowed , which is what I do anyway considering the weather. Pious Jewish men will not shave their beard - not shaving your beard in the Jewish calture is also a sign of mourning. And all of that is because many many years ago there was a temple,and it was destroyed .Twice .The first temple was destoyed and burned by a cruel Babilonian king ,. The heavenly reason was because the Jews were corrupted. They worshiped idols , shed blood ,and fornicated - which means ,they had sex other than with their wives , or before they were married, as is common in our day and age. The second temple was destroyed by a Roman leader ,but this time the reason was SINAT CHINAM. It is basically means hatred in vain . I confess , that I find myself hating people who think differently than I , on certain issues .Sometimes when I feel threatened by someone's success , I feel this naughsty feeling too.

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what is hate?

according to The book , hating is when you are disengaged from someone, when you on purpose ignore him ,or don't care about him - this is hate. The book's definition of hatered is much more suttle than what you would think.

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Shy Dromi a Jewish farmer , who killed an Arab intruder - innocent

Shy Dromi is an Israeli farmer who lives in the Negev . On January 2007 he shot thieves that broke into his farm.It was in the wee late hours of the night. One of them died ,the other one was badly wounded. The case braught up a public debate , weather it was a moral thing to shoot a thieve , an invader into one's house. Shy Dromi was found innocent of a murder charge ,but guilty of killing and of holding weapon without a license . The Israeli court let him go free.

I'd like to share here , my own little story :as a Jewish person who lives in Israel - my home town is my one and only home in this big planet. I live in a nice neighbourhood . I don't sleep well at nights. The truth is , I'm a real night bird . Even when I do sleep , it is usually a light sort of sleep. Over the past 10 year there have been about four breaking entries into our house . The first time ,they broke ,they stole among other things a cellular phone . Appearently they used some kind of smoke or gas to numb people. Luckily I wasnt' there . I was at the time 27. When a member of my family called them, they laughed at his face(They stoll his doctor kit and fled in his car) , their accent left no place for mistake. They were Arabs from a nearby village. That was the first time...then there were a few others . Some when we weren't home . Other's we could stop . Luckily they weren't violent. These are not considered to be falonies based over differences of nationality , but in fact they are.

We always get the police's sympathy -this is where it ends. No policeman would dare going into certain Arab villages .

I know of one farmer who had great losses time and again , when Arabs kept stealing his cattle . One time he and a friend decided to ambush the thieves .When he caught the thieves , he and his partner stripped them naked ,and coloured them green. Then they reliesed them near thier village. That man spent 10 month in an Israeli prison ,with criminals and people of dubious deeds.

But even if the robbers are not Arabs . We live in a state that does not defend innocent people from criminals. I have never heard of one person who got his property back . So , yes I have a stand in this matter. I am on Shy Dromi's side.

Gay people

I have recently learnt that a modern orthodox guy I knew was gay. His reveeling it to me was short and painfull. (I'll name him 'A' for reasons of privecy). A confessed to me that he had had a rather long term relationship with another man . The next day I couldn't stop crying . Why was I sad? because of my Jewish upbringing ? Well ....Yes, but not only. My heart went out to him , knowing he lives his life in complete solitude. His loving family will never know. Getting married is an important part of Jewish life. So A lives his life knowing he is a "low-life and a sinner".It seems he feels guilty for his mere existance. I don't think A is a low-life. He is a nice guy actually, a bit gentle and faminine... and a good hearted guy . I have searched through the internet for some remedy. Some religious organizations believe that what they call "reversed tendencies" can be changed , at least in some cases.many gay people think that psychological methods for trying to change peoples' tendencies are dangerous. In any way the bible forbides the sexual act ,and it is indeed considered a sin . Judaism always leaves a leeway ,but not here . For a man to have sex with another man is strictly forbidden, and considered abomination. Other books claim that if a man finds this tendency in himself , he should look for a woman who is especially gentle. It is also reccomended to dwelve into learning of holy books to help one who has the forbidden desire.

The notion "Tikkun" in Hebrew means plainly in English "repair". It is believed that every person came to earth in order to repair something or rather some things in their soul. Is the tikkun of homosexual people is to deny themselves from having sex with their own gender? But millions of people all over the world don't live their lives like that. Millions of people think that being Gay , and leading gay life is being honest with yourself, "getting out of the closet".So what are the chances of someone who is gay to lead a life according to biblical standards ,if he has no guidance? I wonder why the Almighty gives people such a strange tikkun? When I asked A what he thought of the Pride Parade , he said there was nothing to be proud of .

He said he would like to have a family ,but he doesn't think any woman in her right mind would agree to mary him. "We'll have to find you a crazy woman then " I answered.

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p.sThe entry was written in June 2009. I write the following lines in June 2010: Eversince this revelation , I believe I am more tolerant to gays. I thought being gay was a crazy fassion invented in San Franciso , but I look at it now as a dificiency (Hope I'm not offending anyone) that should be treated with tolerance. I look at it as a godly test for me , to see how accepting I can be towords someone who is very differnt than I . I believe in what the book says , that for a man to sleep with another man is a sin- but people have many sides to them. I may not like someone's life style ,but I love his soul. This entry is dedicated to A- a gay man , who will never read it.

Pass Over

It is the last day of the Pesach Holiday . One of the main messages of this holiday is that every humen being on this planet was born free and have basic right to freedom .

People interpret freedom as the ability to do whatever you want whenever you want ,but it's not exactly so. One might confuse Freedom with slavary . You can easily be slave to your desires and needs or slave to your fears . Being free means freedom to choose to follow the ways of the Creator no matter what the circumstances are . Being a slave to him is the ultimate freedom...so they say. The story goes , that many slaves from the People of Israel , didn't want to leave Egypt . Yes , they were slaves ,but at least they knew where they were. At least they had a clear definition of themselves , and they could predict the future. They would live as slaves , die as slaves , and their children would be slaves too. I can relate to that easily . Becaues it is Pesach after all , I pretend to be free , but I too am a slave to many things . I'm afraid internet is becoming one of them ;-) .

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Happy Purim

What's in a Name

My mother is a refugee. She is a Jewish Refugee from Lybia , one of more than Million Refugees from Arab countries. My mother was born in Lybia in 1933. She was about 10 when she had entered a Natzi concentration camp called Jiado. It was located in Lybia for the usuall purpose of sending the Jews to death camps in Eastern Europe. When she left the camp she was twelve . Not too long afterwards Arab riots took place in Lybia . Jews were murdered , raped , kidnapped , attacked . The government tacitly encoureged the riots. This was the reason why my mom and her older sister were sent to Israel first . The year was 1949, they were two girls alone here in Israel. Two years later the rest of the family joined them. Like so many other Jews in other Arab countries , the Jews of Lybia left behind land , property , money and a long long past .

Because of the riots, my mother's family had to leave as quietly as possible in the middle of the night . They owned a beautiful big house ,which they left behind . I remember my grandmother talking about her beautifull dishes, carpets and furniture all were left in the house..If people meerly suspected that a Jewish family was about to leave for "Palestine" then , that family's life was in danger (It didn't really matter what they did , their lives were in danger). There was also a two stories supermarket that belonged to my grandfather and many acres of land that belonged to his parents. They had no choice ,and they couldn't take much except for a few suitcases.

Here in Israel along with other refugees my mom's family lived for 10 years in a shack. Other people lived in tents and badly built  little tin  huts. The young state was not ready for the mass of homeless people . They were put in special camps called Maabarot (Passage camps) .  Many think that Israel is a desert land ,but the fact is that in the winter of 1950 for example all of Israel was covered with snow. Have you ever tried living in a tent with children when tempratures are between 15 -5 ? There was a price to pay ,and it was paid.

What was the price?

well...agony , poverty ,humiliation. Most of Israel's criminals were born and raised in those camps. By now there is a second generation... So how come we are not as miserable and hateful as the Palestinians ? Why didn't we attacked Lybians for example - in demand of  our stolen land and property ?

Well...We simply couldn't afford it.

So much for now :)

Something about the Poet Avraham Halfi

I don't know much about Avraham Halfi except that he was a unique poet. Some of his poems are well known in Israel as they were set to music and heard on the radio. I think he liked to drink ,because he wrote a lot about it ,and he must have been very lonely and melancholic since many of his poems deal with loneliness and solitude . He is very Jewish in that that he deals with the riddle of life , with humor mixed with agony. He constantly talks to the almighty and somehow he used birds as metaphore for people or for freedom

,. Here is a few opening lines of one poem that became a song

I'll buy myself a parrot ,
His name will be Yossi
I will talk with him

when nobody listens
And then I will tell him

I'll say..
Sadness is like a glass
and in it bitter wine
made of grapes of the soul

...So that's how Yossi got his name

Yossi and I

It's hard for me to start . I use English so rearly these days . I am surely bound to make mistakes. Would you be so kind to correct me?

My life is not so magical, or exciting . As of now , at the age of 38 I live in the same house I was born in . My dreams are somewhat shuttered . Maybe it's still not to late ,but we'll get to that subject later.

Here is something that has happened a few weeks ago . It was pretty late in the morning ,about nine Am , when my mom came to my bed (Oops , you caught me)   ,and said to me , "Wake up ! there's a parrot outside,  and he doesn't let me hang the loundry" . Behind my parent's house there is a big yard . It is not the kind of neat and tidy gardens that you see , rather a yard that is covered with green wild flowers and weeds that just grow there. There are these polls with loundry lines on them ,and indeed on one of those lines a green parrot was sitting and scrimming...So I got near it . It didn't seem to be frightened ,but was somewhat coutious. I went back home into the kitchen and grabbed a fistacio and when I got back,the parrot was still there on the loundry line as if naturally waiting for me to supply breakfast. When it saw the fistacio seed it got nearer ,and slowly but surely with its beak and funny tongue , took the fistacio from my hand . While holding it with one of its legs , it started gnewing on it ...and I guess this was the beggining of a friendship.

Till next time : )

Nira