Dear G-d;
How do I stand before You and what do I say? Who am I that Your Ears turn to hear my words? My deeds and my thoughts and my desires are not Yours, and to stand here before You in your palace being treated as the son of a King is a fearful experience for me, Your daughter. G-d, why is it You have graced me with such good? I have come here to pray on the Day of Judgement not with supplications for a good year, but with a deep deep question: Why? Why did you give me all the good and blessing I had this year? Why was I chosen above all other people to recieve the gifts I did, one after another, with no end? Why is it that You chose me- Your honor, the King and Master of the Universe, Creator of all Creation and Maintainer of all Existence, Controller of the Heavenly Orbs and Mastermind of the Laws of the Universe, Contriver and Source and Be-All to all that exists in the illusion of reality and in the infathomable and incomprehensible laws of the abstract- Being of all Beings and Master of all Masters- Who I am that You should know Me?
G-d, my G-d, my awesome G-d- my love for You is beyond words, beyond feelings, beyond expression. There is nothing I could ever do for You that would come close to one second of what You do for me. My G-d, the only thing I could ever do for You is this- TELL THE WORLD WHAT YOU MEAN TO ME. G-d- without You I am nothing- a shell of a shell, a broken soul, an empty mask of skin and bones. You are my Everything and if I knew not of You my life would be null and void. G-d, my G-d, my dear dear G-d- if only the world could know You and Your Ways. Pain would turn to merriment, tears would turn to laughter, and hatred would turn to love. G-d, the world NEEDS You
even if they don't know it. You are the answer to their problems when they blindly search thoughg EVERYTHING, desperate, but stubborn, and insecure. To that same sin I fall prey, and that resistance I humbly admit I share. I would ask You put Yourself in our lives but Your system is the correct. We are not deservant of any more help than we already get. We get what we deserve, and we become who we want to become. May the words of our Prophets be fulfilled and may the day come when we are all united with Our Lover and Maker.
Yours forever,
Your daughter,
Mindel bas Tzipporah Yehudis
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
NY Times Op-Ed by Thomas Friedman
Hey, peoples. I haven't written in a while and even now I am not posting any of my own writing, just posting up an article my father alerted me to. It's an article rather indicative of my family's bent in political writing. Being that my mother is Isralei, we grew up with a fairly strong attachment to the news and troubles of Israle. Heated discussions at our Shabbos table generally revolved around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although thank God I can't say we had a contender from the :other side" that often. Recently I have not been doing much reading from the outside world, being rather busy with my seminary and plans for next year, Baruch Hashem. However, I did skim this basic opinio article through and deemed it worthy of being posted. This article summarizes my anf my family's basic attitude on the topic and is a mainstream way of thinking for us. Please enjoy. Thank you. Mindy
No Way, No How, Not Here
Thomas Friedman
Published February 17th, 2009
There are nine bodies — all of them young men — that have been lying in a Mumbai hospital morgue since Nov. 29. They may be stranded there for a while because no local Muslim charity is willing to bury them in its cemetery. This is good news.
The nine are the Pakistani Muslim terrorists who went on an utterly senseless killing rampage in Mumbai on 26/11 — India’s 9/11 — gunning down more than 170 people, including 33 Muslims, scores of Hindus, as well as Christians and Jews. It was killing for killing’s sake. They didn’t even bother to leave a note.
All nine are still in the morgue because the leadership of India’s Muslim community has called them by their real name — “murderers” not “martyrs” — and is refusing to allow them to be buried in the main Muslim cemetery of Mumbai, the 7.5-acre Bada Kabrastan graveyard, run by the Muslim Jama Masjid Trust.
“People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim,” Hanif Nalkhande, a spokesman for the trust, told The Times of London. Eventually, one assumes, they will have to be buried, but the Mumbai Muslims remain defiant.
“Indian Muslims are proud of being both Indian and Muslim, and the Mumbai terrorism was a war against both India and Islam,” explained M.J. Akbar, the Indian-Muslim editor of Covert, an Indian investigative journal. “Terrorism has no place in Islamic doctrine. The Koranic term for the killing of innocents is ‘fasad.’ Terrorists are fasadis, not jihadis. In a beautiful verse, the Koran says that the killing of an innocent is akin to slaying the whole community. Since the ... terrorists were neither Indian nor true Muslims, they had no right to an Islamic burial in an Indian Muslim cemetery.”
To be sure, Mumbai’s Muslims are a vulnerable minority in a predominantly Hindu country. Nevertheless, their in-your-face defiance of the Islamist terrorists stands out. It stands out against a dismal landscape of predominantly Sunni Muslim suicide murderers who have attacked civilians in mosques and markets — from Iraq to Pakistan to Afghanistan — but who have been treated by mainstream Arab media, like Al Jazeera, or by extremist Islamist spiritual leaders and Web sites, as “martyrs” whose actions deserve praise.
Extolling or excusing suicide militants as “martyrs” has only led to this awful phenomenon — where young Muslim men and women are recruited to kill themselves and others — spreading wider and wider. What began in a targeted way in Lebanon and Israel has now proliferated to become an almost weekly occurrence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It is a threat to any open society because when people turn themselves into bombs, they can’t be deterred, and the measures needed to interdict them require suspecting and searching everyone at any public event. And they are a particular threat to Muslim communities. You can’t build a healthy society on the back of suicide-bombers, whose sole objective is to wreak havoc by exclusively and indiscriminately killing as many civilians as possible.
If suicide-murder is deemed legitimate by a community when attacking its “enemies” abroad, it will eventually be used as a tactic against “enemies” at home, and that is exactly what has happened in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The only effective way to stop this trend is for “the village” — the Muslim community itself — to say “no more.” When a culture and a faith community delegitimizes this kind of behavior, openly, loudly and consistently, it is more important than metal detectors or extra police. Religion and culture are the most important sources of restraint in a society.
That’s why India’s Muslims, who are the second-largest Muslim community in the world after Indonesia’s, and the one with the deepest democratic tradition, do a great service to Islam by delegitimizing suicide-murderers by refusing to bury their bodies. It won’t stop this trend overnight, but it can help over time.
“The Muslims of Bombay deserve to be congratulated in taking this important decision,” Raashid Alvi, a Muslim member of India’s Parliament from the Congress Party, said to me. “Islam says that if you commit suicide, then even after death you will be punished.”
The fact that Indian Muslims have stood up in this way is surely due, in part, to the fact that they live in, are the product of and feel empowered by a democratic and pluralistic society. They are not intimidated by extremist religious leaders and are not afraid to speak out against religious extremism in their midst.
It is why so few, if any, Indian Muslims are known to have joined Al Qaeda. And it is why, as outrageously expensive and as uncertain the outcome, trying to build decent, pluralistic societies in places like Iraq is not as crazy as it seems. It takes a village, and without Arab-Muslim societies where the villagers feel ownership over their lives and empowered to take on their own extremists — militarily and ideologically — this trend will not go away.
A version of this article appeared in print on February 18, 2009, on page A27 of the New York edition.
No Way, No How, Not Here
Thomas Friedman
Published February 17th, 2009
There are nine bodies — all of them young men — that have been lying in a Mumbai hospital morgue since Nov. 29. They may be stranded there for a while because no local Muslim charity is willing to bury them in its cemetery. This is good news.
The nine are the Pakistani Muslim terrorists who went on an utterly senseless killing rampage in Mumbai on 26/11 — India’s 9/11 — gunning down more than 170 people, including 33 Muslims, scores of Hindus, as well as Christians and Jews. It was killing for killing’s sake. They didn’t even bother to leave a note.
All nine are still in the morgue because the leadership of India’s Muslim community has called them by their real name — “murderers” not “martyrs” — and is refusing to allow them to be buried in the main Muslim cemetery of Mumbai, the 7.5-acre Bada Kabrastan graveyard, run by the Muslim Jama Masjid Trust.
“People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim,” Hanif Nalkhande, a spokesman for the trust, told The Times of London. Eventually, one assumes, they will have to be buried, but the Mumbai Muslims remain defiant.
“Indian Muslims are proud of being both Indian and Muslim, and the Mumbai terrorism was a war against both India and Islam,” explained M.J. Akbar, the Indian-Muslim editor of Covert, an Indian investigative journal. “Terrorism has no place in Islamic doctrine. The Koranic term for the killing of innocents is ‘fasad.’ Terrorists are fasadis, not jihadis. In a beautiful verse, the Koran says that the killing of an innocent is akin to slaying the whole community. Since the ... terrorists were neither Indian nor true Muslims, they had no right to an Islamic burial in an Indian Muslim cemetery.”
To be sure, Mumbai’s Muslims are a vulnerable minority in a predominantly Hindu country. Nevertheless, their in-your-face defiance of the Islamist terrorists stands out. It stands out against a dismal landscape of predominantly Sunni Muslim suicide murderers who have attacked civilians in mosques and markets — from Iraq to Pakistan to Afghanistan — but who have been treated by mainstream Arab media, like Al Jazeera, or by extremist Islamist spiritual leaders and Web sites, as “martyrs” whose actions deserve praise.
Extolling or excusing suicide militants as “martyrs” has only led to this awful phenomenon — where young Muslim men and women are recruited to kill themselves and others — spreading wider and wider. What began in a targeted way in Lebanon and Israel has now proliferated to become an almost weekly occurrence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It is a threat to any open society because when people turn themselves into bombs, they can’t be deterred, and the measures needed to interdict them require suspecting and searching everyone at any public event. And they are a particular threat to Muslim communities. You can’t build a healthy society on the back of suicide-bombers, whose sole objective is to wreak havoc by exclusively and indiscriminately killing as many civilians as possible.
If suicide-murder is deemed legitimate by a community when attacking its “enemies” abroad, it will eventually be used as a tactic against “enemies” at home, and that is exactly what has happened in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The only effective way to stop this trend is for “the village” — the Muslim community itself — to say “no more.” When a culture and a faith community delegitimizes this kind of behavior, openly, loudly and consistently, it is more important than metal detectors or extra police. Religion and culture are the most important sources of restraint in a society.
That’s why India’s Muslims, who are the second-largest Muslim community in the world after Indonesia’s, and the one with the deepest democratic tradition, do a great service to Islam by delegitimizing suicide-murderers by refusing to bury their bodies. It won’t stop this trend overnight, but it can help over time.
“The Muslims of Bombay deserve to be congratulated in taking this important decision,” Raashid Alvi, a Muslim member of India’s Parliament from the Congress Party, said to me. “Islam says that if you commit suicide, then even after death you will be punished.”
The fact that Indian Muslims have stood up in this way is surely due, in part, to the fact that they live in, are the product of and feel empowered by a democratic and pluralistic society. They are not intimidated by extremist religious leaders and are not afraid to speak out against religious extremism in their midst.
It is why so few, if any, Indian Muslims are known to have joined Al Qaeda. And it is why, as outrageously expensive and as uncertain the outcome, trying to build decent, pluralistic societies in places like Iraq is not as crazy as it seems. It takes a village, and without Arab-Muslim societies where the villagers feel ownership over their lives and empowered to take on their own extremists — militarily and ideologically — this trend will not go away.
A version of this article appeared in print on February 18, 2009, on page A27 of the New York edition.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Tehillem for our Brothers + Other Ways of Helping
Dear friends,
I would like to post a few packets concerning the war in Israel.
1) I'm glad I'm here. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
2) Living in Israel for close to seven months and interacting with the soldiers who are an everyday reality has made me realize just how much of "home" this situation is.
3) There is much to be said and done, and I will point you to only a few of them.
1) An article by Harav Moshe Shternbuch, which can be read here. http://drop.io/TheRedAlert
2) The opportunity to give to soldiers in a hands-on-way. A Package From Home sends soldiers packages with basic supplies, food, and letters. My friends and I went to help pack for them last week, and they are waiting for more money to come in so that they can organize another packing. Enclosed is part of the letter they sent to their mailing list:
"Since the beginning of the war, 16 days ago, we have packed and delivered more than 4,300 packages. By evening, I started to receive many telephone calls of thanks from the soldiers and commanders.
One soldier said he had been in his tank for six days before it was safe to come out. He said that when he came out he sat himself on top of his tank and began to open up his Package from Home. When he saw the package of 80 wet wipes he quickly took off his boots and stockings and began to wipe his feet with them. He said, “I know the word in Russian to express the feeling I had, and I know the word in Hebrew, but I do not know the word in English to express the joy I felt.” He said he called us to say his whole tank unit wanted to express its appreciation for the fantastic Packages from Home. He asked me to tell the people who made the packages possible that the tank crews bless them with Elef Brachot (a thousand blessings.)
Another call came from Commander L. He described the joy of his troops when they saw the packages being unloaded from the trucks. The soldiers opening their packages began to shout “maxim, maxim” (the Hebrew slang for fantastic, the best.) I heard their shouts of joy on my cell phone. I asked him how many more packages he needed. His response was simply “Barbara, keep packing.”
A Golani soldier told me that when a soldier eats the sweets from the package he is nourished by the thought that people from around the world made these packages possible and it gives him hizuk (strength) to face whatever comes.
I hope that this sample of the many responses I receive each night after a packing will give you a sense of the appreciation felt by the soldiers when they receive the packages.
Yesterday, 45 yeshiva boys from Shvilai HaTorah in Jerusalem hosted a packing of another 1030 Packages from Home for combat soldiers plus an additional 70 packages for the newly wounded. (see attached letter written about this packing from Rabbi Dan Jacobson) The packages for the wounded soldiers were specially put together because some of the wounded had lost limbs and others had lost the ability to chew and swallow.
As I write this, the sound of the army helicopters is overhead as they deliver the wounded soldiers to Hadassah Hospital. May Hashem protect Am Yisrael and our soldiers.
Next week, we will follow the orders of Commander L. We will continue to pack. Your support makes it possible.
I wish you a Shabbat shalom and as the soldiers say, Elef Brachot.
Barbara Bloom Silverman
Founder of a Package from Home
emess@netvision.net.il
011-972-2-623-2548
www.apackagefromhome.org"
Please take the time and consideration to donate a small amount of money and to write a personal letter to the soldiers. Your effort is much appreciated.
3) A girl named Tali has opened a blog with updated lists of the Tehillem names for soldiers. It is a wonderful way to recieve the names of the soldiers with their specific injuries. Please visit: http://tehillimforourbrothers.blogspot.com/
Thank you to all, and may our efforts result in the ultimate safety and peace for our people.
Mindy
I would like to post a few packets concerning the war in Israel.
1) I'm glad I'm here. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
2) Living in Israel for close to seven months and interacting with the soldiers who are an everyday reality has made me realize just how much of "home" this situation is.
3) There is much to be said and done, and I will point you to only a few of them.
1) An article by Harav Moshe Shternbuch, which can be read here. http://drop.io/TheRedAlert
2) The opportunity to give to soldiers in a hands-on-way. A Package From Home sends soldiers packages with basic supplies, food, and letters. My friends and I went to help pack for them last week, and they are waiting for more money to come in so that they can organize another packing. Enclosed is part of the letter they sent to their mailing list:
"Since the beginning of the war, 16 days ago, we have packed and delivered more than 4,300 packages. By evening, I started to receive many telephone calls of thanks from the soldiers and commanders.
One soldier said he had been in his tank for six days before it was safe to come out. He said that when he came out he sat himself on top of his tank and began to open up his Package from Home. When he saw the package of 80 wet wipes he quickly took off his boots and stockings and began to wipe his feet with them. He said, “I know the word in Russian to express the feeling I had, and I know the word in Hebrew, but I do not know the word in English to express the joy I felt.” He said he called us to say his whole tank unit wanted to express its appreciation for the fantastic Packages from Home. He asked me to tell the people who made the packages possible that the tank crews bless them with Elef Brachot (a thousand blessings.)
Another call came from Commander L. He described the joy of his troops when they saw the packages being unloaded from the trucks. The soldiers opening their packages began to shout “maxim, maxim” (the Hebrew slang for fantastic, the best.) I heard their shouts of joy on my cell phone. I asked him how many more packages he needed. His response was simply “Barbara, keep packing.”
A Golani soldier told me that when a soldier eats the sweets from the package he is nourished by the thought that people from around the world made these packages possible and it gives him hizuk (strength) to face whatever comes.
I hope that this sample of the many responses I receive each night after a packing will give you a sense of the appreciation felt by the soldiers when they receive the packages.
Yesterday, 45 yeshiva boys from Shvilai HaTorah in Jerusalem hosted a packing of another 1030 Packages from Home for combat soldiers plus an additional 70 packages for the newly wounded. (see attached letter written about this packing from Rabbi Dan Jacobson) The packages for the wounded soldiers were specially put together because some of the wounded had lost limbs and others had lost the ability to chew and swallow.
As I write this, the sound of the army helicopters is overhead as they deliver the wounded soldiers to Hadassah Hospital. May Hashem protect Am Yisrael and our soldiers.
Next week, we will follow the orders of Commander L. We will continue to pack. Your support makes it possible.
I wish you a Shabbat shalom and as the soldiers say, Elef Brachot.
Barbara Bloom Silverman
Founder of a Package from Home
emess@netvision.net.il
011-972-2-623-2548
www.apackagefromhome.org"
Please take the time and consideration to donate a small amount of money and to write a personal letter to the soldiers. Your effort is much appreciated.
3) A girl named Tali has opened a blog with updated lists of the Tehillem names for soldiers. It is a wonderful way to recieve the names of the soldiers with their specific injuries. Please visit: http://tehillimforourbrothers.blogspot.com/
Thank you to all, and may our efforts result in the ultimate safety and peace for our people.
Mindy
Monday, December 22, 2008
A Freilechen Chanukah
Hello everyone, and joyous journeys from the land of the Maccabim.
Well, as most of you know, I'm here at Neve. If you know me a little better, you know that I am thank God loving it here. Excepting Shabbos mornings in bed reading, I don't think I've ever been enjoying myself more in my life. I sleep in the dorms with a bunch of girls (more or less) my age. I have friends. I go to class in the mornings and evenings listening to people I have grown to respect explain the precepts of our ancient religion. I have Rebbes. I schedule meetings with my favorite Rabbis and ask my questions and get my answers. I have mentors. I sit in the cafeteria and collect my bread and water and put my dishes away at the end of the meal. I have food. (I know, very important, right?)
There is much more to say but I feel no need to say it. It's inside of me and staying there, for once. I contemplated putting down this blog, deleting it, erasing all signs of its existence, and ulimately decided to leave the status quo: It's up, and it's here to stay. If I feel I have something to put up, I will (particularly in the art and photo blogs). If I don't, I won't. Those who wish to contact me know my address. Thank God I am busy and happy here and frankly, have found outlet for my social and intellectual needs which previously were filled by blogging. I owe blogging a lot for helping me out at a time when I needed it, but thank God- God has given me much in the present from which to drink and be sated. And with that, I sign off:
A Freilechen Chanukah, blogosphere!
L'hitraot in Eretz Yisrael!
Mindy
Well, as most of you know, I'm here at Neve. If you know me a little better, you know that I am thank God loving it here. Excepting Shabbos mornings in bed reading, I don't think I've ever been enjoying myself more in my life. I sleep in the dorms with a bunch of girls (more or less) my age. I have friends. I go to class in the mornings and evenings listening to people I have grown to respect explain the precepts of our ancient religion. I have Rebbes. I schedule meetings with my favorite Rabbis and ask my questions and get my answers. I have mentors. I sit in the cafeteria and collect my bread and water and put my dishes away at the end of the meal. I have food. (I know, very important, right?)
There is much more to say but I feel no need to say it. It's inside of me and staying there, for once. I contemplated putting down this blog, deleting it, erasing all signs of its existence, and ulimately decided to leave the status quo: It's up, and it's here to stay. If I feel I have something to put up, I will (particularly in the art and photo blogs). If I don't, I won't. Those who wish to contact me know my address. Thank God I am busy and happy here and frankly, have found outlet for my social and intellectual needs which previously were filled by blogging. I owe blogging a lot for helping me out at a time when I needed it, but thank God- God has given me much in the present from which to drink and be sated. And with that, I sign off:
A Freilechen Chanukah, blogosphere!
L'hitraot in Eretz Yisrael!
Mindy
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
To My Dear Readers
Worry not. I am not dead. I am merely busy. I will be back soon.
PS- Neve is AWESOME.
God is good.
Fondly,
Mindy
PS- Neve is AWESOME.
God is good.
Fondly,
Mindy
Monday, October 13, 2008
Chag Sameach
Hello, y'all. Time to write those long introspective posts about the past year? Not really.
Time to put up photos of Jerusalem Erev Sukkos? Definitely!
Hop on over to the photo blog at http://tchelesvargaman.blogspot.com/2008/10/chag-sameach-from-yerushalayim.html and enjoy your pre-Sukkos- uh- I keep wanting to say treat, but that sounds corny beyond belief, so... just enjoy. (feel free to send it out... :))
Chag Sameach!
Mindy
Time to put up photos of Jerusalem Erev Sukkos? Definitely!
Hop on over to the photo blog at http://tchelesvargaman.blogspot.com/2008/10/chag-sameach-from-yerushalayim.html and enjoy your pre-Sukkos- uh- I keep wanting to say treat, but that sounds corny beyond belief, so... just enjoy. (feel free to send it out... :))
Chag Sameach!
Mindy
Sunday, October 12, 2008
FS: Say what?
Setting: computer room in grandmother's house.
Characters: Mindy, a young rather adorable girl who usually gets her way.
Yanky: her 23 year old uncle who has a heart of gold and a very hard time saying no.
Mindy (sitting at computer busy with five different things at once): Yanky?
Yanky: Yes?
Mindy: You in the mood of doing me a favor?
Yanky: Am I ever in the mood of doing you a favor?
Mindy: (click click) Yes.
Yanky (Pause. Groan.) What do you want?
Mindy: Could you please get me the black portfolio on the left side of the desk in my room?
Yanky: I don't know what a portfolio is.
Mindy: It's like a folder, like that thing that- (turns around and points to desk behind her, where she expects to see a clean and clear surface upon which rests a black portfolio belonging to her other uncle. Instead, she sees-
)
Yanky: (follows gaze) ?
Mindy: Uh. Just go to my room.
Characters: Mindy, a young rather adorable girl who usually gets her way.
Yanky: her 23 year old uncle who has a heart of gold and a very hard time saying no.
Mindy (sitting at computer busy with five different things at once): Yanky?
Yanky: Yes?
Mindy: You in the mood of doing me a favor?
Yanky: Am I ever in the mood of doing you a favor?
Mindy: (click click) Yes.
Yanky (Pause. Groan.) What do you want?
Mindy: Could you please get me the black portfolio on the left side of the desk in my room?
Yanky: I don't know what a portfolio is.
Mindy: It's like a folder, like that thing that- (turns around and points to desk behind her, where she expects to see a clean and clear surface upon which rests a black portfolio belonging to her other uncle. Instead, she sees-
)
Yanky: (follows gaze) ?
Mindy: Uh. Just go to my room.
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