Friends of Itamar

Leah’s Blog – Ki Tetzeh 2024

Ki Tetzeh September 2024   Leahs blog

There is a junction, a one minute’s drive from ours into Itamar that soldiers guard and check Awarta (home of the Fogel murderers) vehicles going into Shechem. At the meeting point where traffic continues straight for us we face each other- we in our cars – they in theirs. They run their fingers across their throats, we in turn put up our middle fingers. A percolating bubbling over crossroads- this is our life here. Soldiers are car rammed here. It has been twenty four years since we gave up our integrity HERE in the heartland of Israel. Two forces colliding with each other, one of evil one of good. They try to brand it symmetrical. This is the place of the blessing and the curse. There are forces of Amalek surrounding us. It began with talking about and then implementing scooping out the very core spiritual and physical places of our pumping heart. They are pressing down now on us even as we have not healed from the pogrom of October 7. Gaza in its horrors are only barely revealed now. The Galilee is being burnt alive. Threats from the east bare down on Israel’s longest fence, wobbly and not secure. So what do we do? What do we do?!! I for one, in my tiny capacity, put on music, garden, enjoy our family -as much as I can in my spare time. With my other time- I’m on a mission- trying to fix the lobotomy people have had in this last generation. Thank you for helping me fortify our bodies and spirits- dearest Friends of Itamar. You give me strength.

I don’t know if you know this about me, but I am an English teacher by trade, loving literature and teaching English as a second language. To think that I completed my degree with five small children as I worked leaves me bewildered at myself at times. It was during the cruelest days of the Oslo Accords that I would be on the dangerous roads either on a bus or hitchhiking (!) to college. Inevitably I left teaching although I enjoyed it, loving to play games and songs with my students. Within a very short time I found myself teaching other things completely to other people completely. Catapulted out of Itamar into the wide world, I found myself teaching about Israel in Norway Finland Italy Holland and all over the USA even taking a short trip to the USSR. As a result of multiple terror attacks here I have had to face the press from countries all around the world. What I found at first were people who loved G-d and Israel- an important base for support and a bridge between our community and wonderful friends. Shocking though, I discovered- a great portion of liberal Jews and most of the world were not on our side. My mission widened as I saw SOS the narrowmindedness of illusion imprinted on the psyche of these people. I had comments like “But you LOOK so normal!” (What did they expect to see- horns?) or “But YOU are the aggressors” (after people bludgeoned to death in their homes here) Ground control to Major Tom we have a major problem here. Hasbara was not working as the media continued to brainwash. As a matter of fact, Israel was not innocent either as the major channel spewed forth imaginative false impressions of a fool’s paradise of Israelis wiping houmous in Damascus and coming to gamble in Jericho. The idolism was feverish and the murdered by PA gunmen were called “sacrifices for peace”. Lord knows I have known too many.

When we think of war- as is the topic in the Parsha- Ki Tetzeh- what comes to mind is soldiers, tanks, missiles, tactical moves. I, however know that the essence of the war is the narrative. Evil collaborates with the mouthpiece. WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN-the fundamentals of understanding the story- Adam Eve the snake- let him just convince her! The garden- exile- Your thoughts first become confused, then taken over. The Mantra of false reality has you banished from truth. This is the real cruel battle.

What our grandparents could never fathom is that we have returned home. The Land is good very good- but someone forgot something. These places, these foundation stones that Abraham and Yosef tread upon- the ones that became our covenant everlasting – someone was willing to forfeit. Now, all our defenses are fallen.

We need faithful intellect- this is achieved through memory. The Torah has us reading over and over. The coming time of the high holy days and the inevitable final battle has the passuk of the Talmud (32A) calling to mind. “Who is wise? He who sees the nolad” (what will be born) (the future) What will happen? The future can only be reborn by remembering the past. Justice reigns from above but we have to choose between good and evil in order to win this war. We listen to the songs of the Torah over and over and over again- the shofar blows now as it did on the walls of Jericho. Let the sound crash through the shackles on our minds.

Shabbat shalom! Leah xoxoxoxoxox