Friends of Itamar

Leah’s Blog – Shemini

For two thousand years, Israel was incorporeal for Jews as the bulk of our prayers did ask for return to the physical form of land and government. Bodiless, the nation of Israel scattered throughout the world yet held passion of imagination of what it would be like to return. And we were dreamers- The memory, we are commanded to recollect- every Passover – how we left slavery, every Shavuot how we keep the agricultural feasts of the land with celebrating the giving of the Torah – the material and spiritual, every Kiddush Friday night, every Shema Yisrael. For those that endure and remain persistent grasping the chain that links to all the generations of Israel that hold us in a marvelous, fantastic and even psychic hope that one day Hashem’s promises would indeed come to be.

We are in a surreal moment now.

Like Yosef’s dreams, the visions became reality.

The omnipotence of a dream needs a plan.

Shemini- Eight is a spiraling number, the shape of it swiveling in two directions, one loop going up, one going down, reminds me of a quote by my favorite author, Eudora Welty: “It is our inward journey that leads us through time- forward or back, seldom in a straight line, most often spiraling.” All of us are moving and changing; I believe faster now. Our dreams and our reality have at this time converged into one. Natives of Papua New Guinea are screaming out “Shema Yisrael!” while many assimilated Jews don’t even know the Shema or how to say it. Violent demonstrations erupt all over Europe and other places as well – all in support of the brutal pogrom that murdered and maimed thousands of Israelis, a rampage that still holds 134 hostages in Rafah, and 600 of our precious soldiers dying in their boots. On the day of the killing, raping and mutilating of innocent Jews, Hamahs leaders publicized a clip of themselves prostrating in passionate religious zeal to Allah in thanks. Today Iran has publicized threats of ballistic missiles on Israel. Their passion to annihilate the Jewish state has reappeared as it hid under the guise of the war its proxies are inflicting upon us here. –Two distinct polar plots appear in the weather of the world, the mood of the world, the two finite forces come out of this spiral- one direction taking a new form of life, and yet the other having energy flow out, dissipating, or in severe as now cases on an uncontrolled mission to destroy. Pay attention- the world is obsessed with Israel.

I live “down the block” from Itamar and Elazar, the two remaining sons of Aaron. When we read the Parsha here we SEE the Parsha. Yet, there are only two times a year that we can enter that place, being that it is a village of pro Hamas terrorists, some of which came out on a foggy night to murder the Fogel Family. In Israel’s exuberance to “make peace” during the Oslo accords, all Jews were cut off from many of our holy sites. Offering a strange fire that had us at first perplexed then endangered, the power of government and authority in our land failed. More concessions, more deals with the Palestinian authority that pays life salaries for killing Jews has led us to this moment. As we hang on with our fingernails in the earth of this heartland we live here not only in patriotism and love for our land but we are preventing a tragedy. Just a stone’s throw from major Israeli cities- it should be in Israel’s best interest that the strength power and sturdy anchor begin here in the heart of this Land. Spiraling now even closer to geulah, we need to change the plan.

Aaron the High Priest did not succeed in preventing the sin of the golden Calf. The repercussions of that affected also the happenings in Shemini. If you have a passion- make sure it aligns with Hashem’s will.

Shabbat Shalom! Leah