Betsy,
I write to you from the parallel universe that is known in most places as Los Angeles. Some Mexicans and decedents of those tribes who used to live here probably call it something I cannot pronounce. But it has been Los Angeles for long enough that nobody really cares - at least nobody with bombs or threats to use them. It's certainly a strange world.
I hear from my sister-in-law, Margo, that things are rather insane in your parts, not to mention from the constant barrage of news reports on cnn and haaretz.com. I don't believe there's any easy solution to this problem, though I was forced into a rather depressive state cogitating the matzav as I sat on the floor listening to sefer eicha the other night. It told of our enemies laughing at us, at a God who had turned his face away. I was worried and frightened that I somehow merited to be in a generation of loss for am yisrael. And how ironic that the very same march of years, my 39+, have witnessed such a rollercoaster of events. Six days, Yom Kippur, Sadat in Yerushalayim, Lebanon, Intifada, Oslo, assassination of Rabin, Intifada II.
How can I contemplate the world descending into global violence and utter breakdown of all value and reason when there are so many signs of hope? My daughter Adinah as she marvels at a balloon or a lovely dress - and then I recall that cringing moment when the first plane smashed into the world trade center, and as if it were timed to happen a million years before, a flock of birds gracefully ascended from a traffic signal in the street below - - and charred love notes trickled down to the pavement. Indeed, there are many faces to the Almighty; she is at once a cherub, an autistic teen, a firefighter, and a murderous soul who's been bought.
I wish the face to turn once more in the favor of our children and history tells us it is only a matter of time. Thank you for relating things as they are in eretz yisrael. May many a peace come in our days.
Shabbat Shalom,
-Chaim
