This was a great article and I am in the process of finishing up my more detailed thoughts on the subject for publication. Thanks for the mentions!
I would just note for now that Americans get most of their ideas on war from their screens. They expected that this conflict was going to be over in a few weeks as the good guys won like they always do. And they were nonplussed when reality didn't match up to a Netflix series, so they're like "Hurry up and finish! I have to go to the bathroom!"
This is a beautiful post. I am not on your side but I am not against you. You have moved my heart in your direction. But please don't blame God. All evil proceeds from the hearts of men. It is actually not God's job to prevent them.
I thank you for the compliment. But perhaps in my writing an assumptions there is something that is unclear in that post. If you noticed I used quotes from a famous song by Sidney Wayser, called "Dear God". There is an inherent contradiction in those lyrics.. The writer is composing a letter to God full of valid complaints (at least to my mind they are valid.) You should look up the lyrics.
Yet the stanzas always end, "God I don't believe in you". So the question is right in front of our eyes. Why compose a letter to God if you do not believe in God?
I think the answer lies in the human condition. The singer, composer of the lyrics, does believe in God. They are having an inner fight with themselves tryign not to believe in God, and yet on the other hand, asking God to do something about the world he has created.
Maybe you cannot blame everything on God. But do not turn around and tell me to blame everything on mankind. If God runs the world, and if he cares about what happens, an he is watching what his creations are doing, then all I am asking is for God to give us a hint of what he wants from us. Religious, secular, and everything inbetween.
I am sorry. I must disagree. God has to shoulder some of the blame. Not all, not most, not even 90%. But that remaining 10% is in God's hands. So in the words of the lyrics:
"Dear God,
I hope you got the letter, and
I pray you can make it better down here
I don't need a big reduction in the price of beer
But all the people that you made in your image
See them starving on their feet
'Cause they don't get enough to eat from God
I can't believe in you"
You dont send letters and beg to make it better if you do not believe. It is a contradiction of the human condition. And pay attention to the words. It is not "I dont believe in you" it is "I cant believe in you" - There is a world of difference between those 2 sentences. A whole cosmos.
Yes, Israelis are fighting for the west too. I can’t imagine the collective PTSD within your narrow borders. I do feel a cultural loneliness with the rise of Jew hatred everywhere.
I wonder if the flippant attitude of get-it-done is out of anger. Maybe some of the stacks are written thru emotion. I’m sure the authors don’t understand the true ramifications nor do any of us comprehend the delicate politics involved with this war. Michale Oren is on Substack. I subscribe. He definitely has skin in the game.
Hubby asked me the other day if I could live anywhere in the world (besides Boston which is where my kids are) where would I want to live? I said Israel.
Boston is beautiful. Loved it when I spent a summer there.
I do not know where the attitude comes from. It is a very complicated shift from the 50's until today. Until the 90's the attitude was you cannot really be a Zionist if you don't live in Israel. That attitude has shifted. I could write volumes on it. The legitimacy of a huge diaspora is accepted today, and that is a good and correct thing to do. The mind of the ultra-orthodox who are called "Chardal" here, for Charedi but Dati Leumi, in other words they believe in and accept the State has also shifted in the last decades. It is a very sensitive topic to bring up or talk about. It pisses too many people off. Proof of the pudding. Within 1 hour, two people unsubscribed. Just like I said they would do in the post. But I don't write this for subscribers and it is free.
What I encountered on Substack though, was disturbing to me. It is not as if I want to silence them. I just want them to think about the consequences about what they are writing about. Think about it in "my" terms. That is all.
As to God. The end result there is "Thus says the Lord: My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways" as Isaiah reports in his famous prophecy. That is all I will say about God these days. But let me just end with this. I know he has forgotten me. But He knows I am stubborn and I will keep knocking on that door until I cannot anymore. Sooner or later God may peek through the rocks in the Wall and decide 'enough is enough.'
“G-d has His reasons” never worked amongst Holocaust victims and probably doesn’t help today. To say that G-d has forgotten you makes me sad. He’s just really friggin busy?
The one that I really do not like is "God never gives you something you cannot handle" - that is so patently untrue, so false and so demeaning both to humanity an to God, it drives me bonkers.
Because every day i see and hear of people who cannot handle the package God has laid on their laps. Been There. Done That.
They are not “fighting for the West”, please stop repeating this idiocy. They are fighting for themselves to create some Lebensraum, good for them, sucks for the vanquished.
This was a great article and I am in the process of finishing up my more detailed thoughts on the subject for publication. Thanks for the mentions!
I would just note for now that Americans get most of their ideas on war from their screens. They expected that this conflict was going to be over in a few weeks as the good guys won like they always do. And they were nonplussed when reality didn't match up to a Netflix series, so they're like "Hurry up and finish! I have to go to the bathroom!"
TY. I must admit you were the impetus for the article, as I hope i made clear. Sometimes it is the little cliches that stick in your mind.
This is a beautiful post. I am not on your side but I am not against you. You have moved my heart in your direction. But please don't blame God. All evil proceeds from the hearts of men. It is actually not God's job to prevent them.
I thank you for the compliment. But perhaps in my writing an assumptions there is something that is unclear in that post. If you noticed I used quotes from a famous song by Sidney Wayser, called "Dear God". There is an inherent contradiction in those lyrics.. The writer is composing a letter to God full of valid complaints (at least to my mind they are valid.) You should look up the lyrics.
Yet the stanzas always end, "God I don't believe in you". So the question is right in front of our eyes. Why compose a letter to God if you do not believe in God?
I think the answer lies in the human condition. The singer, composer of the lyrics, does believe in God. They are having an inner fight with themselves tryign not to believe in God, and yet on the other hand, asking God to do something about the world he has created.
Maybe you cannot blame everything on God. But do not turn around and tell me to blame everything on mankind. If God runs the world, and if he cares about what happens, an he is watching what his creations are doing, then all I am asking is for God to give us a hint of what he wants from us. Religious, secular, and everything inbetween.
I am sorry. I must disagree. God has to shoulder some of the blame. Not all, not most, not even 90%. But that remaining 10% is in God's hands. So in the words of the lyrics:
"Dear God,
I hope you got the letter, and
I pray you can make it better down here
I don't need a big reduction in the price of beer
But all the people that you made in your image
See them starving on their feet
'Cause they don't get enough to eat from God
I can't believe in you"
You dont send letters and beg to make it better if you do not believe. It is a contradiction of the human condition. And pay attention to the words. It is not "I dont believe in you" it is "I cant believe in you" - There is a world of difference between those 2 sentences. A whole cosmos.
Thanks, I had not appreciated the subtlety of your point.
Sobbing here. I love your letter to G-d.
Yes, Israelis are fighting for the west too. I can’t imagine the collective PTSD within your narrow borders. I do feel a cultural loneliness with the rise of Jew hatred everywhere.
I wonder if the flippant attitude of get-it-done is out of anger. Maybe some of the stacks are written thru emotion. I’m sure the authors don’t understand the true ramifications nor do any of us comprehend the delicate politics involved with this war. Michale Oren is on Substack. I subscribe. He definitely has skin in the game.
Hubby asked me the other day if I could live anywhere in the world (besides Boston which is where my kids are) where would I want to live? I said Israel.
Boston is beautiful. Loved it when I spent a summer there.
I do not know where the attitude comes from. It is a very complicated shift from the 50's until today. Until the 90's the attitude was you cannot really be a Zionist if you don't live in Israel. That attitude has shifted. I could write volumes on it. The legitimacy of a huge diaspora is accepted today, and that is a good and correct thing to do. The mind of the ultra-orthodox who are called "Chardal" here, for Charedi but Dati Leumi, in other words they believe in and accept the State has also shifted in the last decades. It is a very sensitive topic to bring up or talk about. It pisses too many people off. Proof of the pudding. Within 1 hour, two people unsubscribed. Just like I said they would do in the post. But I don't write this for subscribers and it is free.
What I encountered on Substack though, was disturbing to me. It is not as if I want to silence them. I just want them to think about the consequences about what they are writing about. Think about it in "my" terms. That is all.
As to God. The end result there is "Thus says the Lord: My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways" as Isaiah reports in his famous prophecy. That is all I will say about God these days. But let me just end with this. I know he has forgotten me. But He knows I am stubborn and I will keep knocking on that door until I cannot anymore. Sooner or later God may peek through the rocks in the Wall and decide 'enough is enough.'
“G-d has His reasons” never worked amongst Holocaust victims and probably doesn’t help today. To say that G-d has forgotten you makes me sad. He’s just really friggin busy?
The one that I really do not like is "God never gives you something you cannot handle" - that is so patently untrue, so false and so demeaning both to humanity an to God, it drives me bonkers.
Because every day i see and hear of people who cannot handle the package God has laid on their laps. Been There. Done That.
Oh yeah. I hate that one as well. It’s also an insult
They are not “fighting for the West”, please stop repeating this idiocy. They are fighting for themselves to create some Lebensraum, good for them, sucks for the vanquished.