One of the things that makes a doctor a doctor is their training to read signs that could indicate some form of illness. A good diagnostician is a doctor who not only recognizes such signs, but what illness they might point to. That is crucial, of course, for knowing how to respond with the most effective treatment.
Let me state from the start this is not “I told you so,” even though I did. You say “I told you so” when there is something to learn for the future, or it is just gloating. I don’t think there is anything here to learn for the future, and gloating is not acceptable by the Torah and usually comes back to bite you.
It seems so simple. God gave Eretz Yisroel to the Jewish people and told Avraham that Yishmael and his descendants have no inheritance in it. This was an accepted fact even by conquering nations. Babylonia, Media, Greece, and Rome all knew that they were conquering the land of the Jews.
We’ve all experienced something like it. The doctor tells their patient, “If you don’t stop eating food like that, it will kill you!” Does the patient believe them? On some level, perhaps. Do they heed the doctor’s warning? Not even a little.
There are some negative events from which we can recover in time, go back to “normal” after a while. Others just change reality so dramatically that they shut the door on the previous one altogether. Try as we might to go back, we just can’t.
Let me start by saying that I had a great childhood, b”H. I tended to be an upbeat person growing up, and though I did not have as much as others, I certainly could not complain given what I did have, b”H.
It is hard to believe that foreign reporters would report IDF positions, effectively enabling the enemy to spy on Israel through their lenses. Are people that low? That’s worse than ambulance chasing, a lot worse.
What will be the outcome of this war? There are already over 1,200 dead, thousands wounded, and unspeakable atrocities have occurred against countless Jews. Will Israel just pulverize Gaza and Hamas and restore peace? Will Hezbollah join in and complicate the war? Will Iranian troops participate, widening the conflict and, perhaps, draw the Americans in? Will this war spiral out of control and into the final war of Gog and Magog?
In the meantime, what I am about to prescribe will not be easy, especially for people like me. I have a hard time shutting things out, and Hate (with a capital H) injustice. I Hate evil. I Loathe stupidity (with a capital L), especially my own. I am most relaxed when by myself and cut off from the world, which is very hard to be at times like this. That’s why I want to work on this.
Although we are no strangers to attacks from evil enemies, and we have had to fight for survival four millennia, each new situation is like the first time. This is especially true when it comes after a period of relative peace, and how much more so during a holiday whose theme is simchah, coming after our most heartfelt teshuvah and atonement of the entire year.