i can agree with some of this, but not all. we have an obligation no matter who else wants peace to try for it or we become like them. we must see the wrong we do and correct it not excuse it because we have been hurt. the demonstrators in genoa in some cases were doing nothing when the police attacked them, i have read account after account of police brutality against people who were eating and sleeping. a lot of these people are frustrated at the way the world is going also and believe that if it isn't stopped we are all doomed. globilization is a threat to us all. if we look what the corporate world is already doing here perhaps we could understand their actions. poor people are not served by standing by and letting the world be over run by corporate greed and politics. i do not know what the answer is in israel, i have left ever jewish chat room i have been in with frustration and saddness as i listen to hate and anger and uglyness from both sides. there is no talking no working it out no nothing, and i do not know any more who is wrong and right. i know what arafat is doing is wrong but i question sharon and his taunting and baiting, building on the west bank, if these people have no hope they are desperate and fear nothing. we had no home once, they have none now. and i know most of that is their own fault, but some of it is ours and we must address that part we can fix. i just see no middle road any more. i dont want jews to be mad at me for speaking my mind and i know they don't care if i care (the palistianians) which i don't except for the death and uglyness. i do care about that. the children and that. perhaps you are right and we are all of us mad. -0/8-/2001
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The comment by R.L. is the nut in the shell; so to speak! -0/8-/2001
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When will the leaders of Israel grasp the simple fact that if you are bitten by a poisonous snake in your garden, you kill it; you do not allow it to slither away to bite you again. Ultimately, Israel must stand alone with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.That is a combination that cannot be defeated. - R. L. -0/8-/2001
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I am saddened that such powerfully religious and spiritual people are forced to rally behind violence. - A. F. -0/8-/2001
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Just as I'm ready to throw in that proverbial towel the enlightenment of Rabbi Berel Wein washes the world clean and all is understandable again.
Thanks Rabbi Wein for shedding your G-d Light on us. You truly show us that Israel is a Light to the Nations, no matter how dark others try to paint it.
Shalom,
Dorothy - D. C. -0/8-/2001
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Go into any bookstore, even a Judaica one. The serious books all deal with the "How?" and "What" questions. Very few if any ask the traditional Jewish question,"Why?".
Why is ths night(mare) different from others?
We cannot know the full answers, but our obligation is to search - "nachpesha darkeinu venachkora...venashuv ad Hashem."
Grandma said, "Point a finger, and notice, three are pointing back at you!" The Jewish world is asking "How?" and "What?" I think Rabbi Wein is hinting at the "Why?" at the end of his article.
When a Jewish "Rabbi", a Reform Congregation minister, and a Founder of "Rabbis for Human Rights", who is active in Jeusalem for Arab rights, can publish a book in which he states a wish that a large section of the Jewish people be deleted like a computer file (the "Hareidi" Jews), and this is but one example of many of our internal madness, then we must know the world may be mad, but perhaps it is we who have given them the crazy grist for their mill.
Let us follow Rabbi Wein's advice and recognize that it is we who are the prime crazies, by not following that which we have been promised will lead to ultimate and True peace and fulfilment. -0/8-/2001
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The world has always been mad, crazy and the like. Good and evil has always existed and so have the Jewish people. However the scales have dipped lower to evil and good has prevailed for the most part of history, the jewish people are undeniably here on a mission.
i.e.The chosen people, part of that mission is to repair the world elavate time to holiness. This is our mission on the outside. On the inside it is to accept one another, to think of each of our fellow Jews as family and abolish interdenominational rifts and divisivenes. Without cleaning up our own act how can we BEGIN to think rationally about how the outside thinks... - r. . -0/8-/2001
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These remarks truly sum up the state of the world today. -0/8-/2001
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This is the most truthful representation of the world today that I have yet to hear. -0/8-/2001
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You're right on the mark! - P. Y. -0/8-/2001
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Well, at least you attacked all of us. -0/8-/2001
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It is funny you have an article titled "A world gone mad" because this is exactly what I have been saying. Israel is NOT a state WON it is a state promised in a book, which gave birth to most religions. Barak offered 98% I believe it was. THEY DO NOT WANT PEACE. They want us in the sea! All these Arab nations do not care about the Palestinian’s they are poor little tools being used as another excuse. World opinion is everything nowadays. And sadly enough the world could care less about Israel. - y. e. -0/8-/2001
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Bravo! -0/8-/2001
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Agreeably the world is turned upside down right now, but sarcasum is a character trait, that we are supposed to avoid. It's our obligation to our forefathers, and to ourselves to be human, even if nobody else will be. -0/8-/2001
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Your erudite commentary is without match. I was enlightened by its lucid observations and analogies. Right on the Mark!
But now I would ask you, where do we go from here? For missing in the best of laments, and that's what your brilliant essay amounts to, are the recommendations. Explanations without recommendations are like going to a competant physician who tells you "Yes, you are sick, too bad, goodbye."
Sometime ago, during my 76 years on this planet, I made this simple observation: People of reason listen to reason. But that failing after all attempts to reason with an adversary are exhausted, there is only one alternative: "Eat or be eaten" Simple but not simplistic truth.
Think about it. Millions of words are expended in lament over the sad estate of affairs all over the world, but like the weather, "nobody does anything. about it."
I would not change one word of your essay...I would ADD to it the exploratory dialogue as to what we, the reasonable can actively do to combat the mad behavior of the unreasonable.
One thing I would do in the case of Israel, would be to have Ariol Sharon literally address the world at large with a long, carefully detailed speech outlining the history of Israel's dillema with the Arabs and why Israel has come to the point where abject reasoning has run its course and patience (150 or more innocent men, women and children slaughtered by mad bombers and sharpshooters etc.)has been shredded.
Shalom - H. H. -0/8-/2001
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