See, I have a conflict going on inside of me.
• One the one hand, I have inherited some of the Meir Kahane militancy. Kick the enemy’s ass. Scream, fight, be loud, etc. We are Jews, we couldn’t be prouder, and if you can’t hear us, we’ll shout a little louder. Abba ima, ima abba. Mi ani, Yisrael. Been there.
• On the other hand, there’s the question of What Would Shlomo Do. Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach ע״ה instilled the same sense of Jewish pride as Rabbi Meir Kahane did. R' Shlomo was actually just as FOR Israel and Jews as R’ Meir was. But Shlomo didn’t do it with screams, shouts, and sit-ins. He did it with song and Torah. Not by might, not by power, but with spirit.
• And there, of course, is also R’ Avraham Greenbaum and his Torah about the חצוצרות. See, as an artist and as a musician, I gravitate toward those. Yes, real enemies who are coming to physically harm us CAN be turned away with the sounds of music and Torah. The trumpets blown by the כהנים\לויים caused our enemies to scatter. It can be done.
• But there is more. There is הֱוֵי מִתַּלְמִידָיו שֶׁל אַהֲרֹן, אוֹהֵב שָׁלוֹם וְרוֹדֵף שָׁלוֹם ... "be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace." See, I seek peace. I don’t seek war. Yes, I recognize that sometimes war is necessary. No, I don’t seek peace at any price. I don’t believe in appeasement. But I really don’t like getting into stupid, useless Facebook arguments and battles that only give me chest pains. Not only do they give me chest pains, but they distract from what I really ought to be doing, like my music, writing, and other creative endeavors.
• But beyond that. I seek peace. When there is a genuine peace feeler from the other side, with no “buts” in it, I am interested in it. I want to see it through. I want it to succeed. I am not about hating all Arabs, I am not about hating anybody, except perhaps the actual enemy in the time of war. But I’m not going to live like certain people I know, so consumed by hate that it can mess up my personal and creative life and DISTORT MY VIEW OF TORAH. For me, it’s about the Torah of Shlomo more than about the Torah of Meir. The arbiter of that conflict is the Torah of Aharon, that which seeks peace. Sometimes you can use the hands of Esav so much that you don’t know when to put them down and speak once more in the voice of Yaakov. Right now, the IDF has to use the hands of Esav, and let’s pray they accomplish their mission and UTTERLY DESTROY HAMAS ONCE AND FOR ALL so that we can once more speak in the voice of Yaakov and make peace with those who genuinely desire it, while fully accepting the right of the Jewish people to live in its historic homeland.
So I support Israel and the IDF fully. But I also accept that there are genuine seekers of peace on the other side—I don’t condemn the entire Arab people the way Meir and some other people I know do. And so I will continue to do my music and writing, always hoping for peace and security, and always, unequivocally, supporting my people and country and army.
And so, with the publishing of this blog, I am formally exiting the realm of activism to focus on my artistic endeavors—music, writing, art, and whatever else may come. In their own way, these endeavors will stand up for the things I believe in and against those who would destroy them. I will leave protesting and counterprotesting to those whom protesting is their mode of expression and action. I will leave the speechmaking to those with the knack for public speaking. I will leave the politics to the politicians, politicking to political junkies, and policies to policy wonks. I will leave the lobbying, legislating, and lawyering to the lobbyists, legislators, and lawyers. I will leave activism to those whom activism is the force that animates them—and I won't take any guilt or guff from anyone who presumes to tell me that my way is somehow wrong or insufficient, or that I "should" be doing it this way or that way. For me, there is only my way. And that's all.
This blog is based on my "morning pages" of July 20, 2014, written a full decade before the current war in Gaza, that of Israel vs Hamas and its fellow terror entities.
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