I AM AN ANGRY GUY. I think this comes out in my posts. I am in a constant battle with myself to be less angry but I must admit it is a real struggle. It is not just political issues that get me going.
It can be almost anything.
If you have not noticed, I am a highly opinionated guy, and as with others of my ilk, I believe that I am always right.
Believe is not really the correct word
I know I am right. In this respect I am exactly like every member of the liberal elite
Yes that is me , Aaron Menche, poster boy of the liberal elite.
But I digress, the ADD is strong within me today.
Everything pisses me off. It is not just dummies who talk in shul ( though as I have mentioned, it has been much less due to lockdowns) or bureaucracy, religious coercion etc.. .
I get mad if items in my fridge are in the wrong place.
And you better not mess with my knives in the kitchen ( dumb and dangerous)
Clearly I am nuts.
For those of you who know me a while, this is nothing new. For those of you who don't , sorry to shatter the picture you might of had of me, though if it was any different than just described , you are clearly a bad judge of character.
The Rambam says that anger is like idolatry and he quotes the sages as saying that people who have tempers - their lives are not lives.
I am seeing this more clearly all the time. I need to calm down and will try to make an active effort to do so.
What better way to start, but by discussing the holocaust.
Holocaust Memorial Day is this Thursday. It is not a day I do anything special. I feel connected to the holocaust everyday so no need to separate one day out of the rest.
That said I did want to use the opportunity to start what I hope will be a new way forward for me. I will try to write positive things and try to keep the anger out of it.
What better way to start a positive conversation than with the holocaust.
A friend of mine posted a blog today in which he says that the holocaust has taught the Jews two main lessons.
First, no matter how comfortable or important we become in a country , our days there are numbered. It could a hundred years or 500, we need to understand that there is no long term home for us anywhere.
The second lesson is that we can never truly be safe unless we are in our own country. I think the former is simply a historical fact, and you could use it to counter the latter and I don't want to go there today. I am completely aware ( too aware) of the precarious situation the existence of this country faces everyday
I have spent the last four years mostly writing about the things that make me crazy here.
I am a complainer ( an angry one) but I want to share a secret.
I love it here.
My wife recently called me out for saying something that could have been taken as a criticism or teasing of someone and she felt I offended them.
I told her that if that person knows me at all they need to know that is how they can tell I like them.
As a rule , if I don't tease you or say something obnoxious to you , it most likely means I don't like you .
The more teasing and criticism I do, the more it means I like you
Ask my kids
Anyway, I love it here and the criticisms and complaints come from a place of love.
I want to share two things that I think about and prove to me that I am living in a modern manifestation of a miracle.
Firstly , Hebrew
People here speak Hebrew ( I am working on it but now that Duolingo has Yiddish I am not sure what to do).
Ok, big deal
Well it is a big deal. Less than 150 years ago it was a dead language.
Dead for almost 2000 years.
No one spoke it, few read it or understood it.
Now there are close to 10 million people for whom it is their first language.
We take it for granted but it is nothing short of a miracle. It is the most successful resurrection of a dead language in history, and although I can't speak it fluently, I can also not describe in words the pride I feel hearing my grandchildren speak it or seeing their Arab teacher singing the song of the ten plagues with them before Passover in Hebrew
A miracle
Trigger warning
This next one might sound creepy but believe me when I say it is not intended to be ( well try anyway)
I am in awe of all the pregnant women and young mothers here in Israel. Israel has the highest birthrate among all OECD nations and this is not only because of the Haradi and Arab families ( side note: Jews had a slightly higher average birthrate that non Jews in Israel for the first time this year). Secular Jews are also jumping on the baby bandwagon.
It is beautiful and it puts a goofy smile on my face every time I see it ( ok a bit creepy)
76 years after the holocaust, these are miracles and for those of us who choose to, we get to witness them everyday.