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THE VIEW FROM JINSA

Rice should be in Baghdad, not Annapolis

By Shoshana Bryen

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Sometimes it's hard to express anger clearly. No metaphor, no cliché gets to the very bottom of the well of helpless fury and frustration of watching the fiddlers while Rome burns. (See, clichés don't work.) But if we told you that we are forced to point out that John Murtha is right, would you have some idea of how angry we find ourselves with Condoleezza Rice and the juxtaposition of Baghdad and Annapolis?

The surge in Iraq is a military accomplishment of extraordinary dimensions. The skill, perseverance and might of our soldiers and their ability to understand and capitalize on new understandings in Iraqi society forced even The New York Times to acknowledge the positive changes in Baghdad. Our soldiers, and Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians paid in blood
Shoshana Bryen

to create the current breathing space for political progress.

At home, Mr. Murtha grumped, "We can't win militarily." He's right (although entirely for the wrong reasons). "Winning" as far as we are concerned, is the establishment of political stability in Iraq, consensual government, economic progress and the absolute assurance that al Qaeda won't find the land base in Iraq that Afghanistan had been. And, while we believe we can "win" in Iraq, the military can't, in fact, do it alone.

So where is American diplomacy? Why isn't our Secretary of State camped out in Baghdad, teaching, cajoling and pushing the Iraqi parties to do better for their people? Why isn't she encouraging and threatening the neighbors to use the opportunity to strengthen the center in Iraq, deal the deathblow to al Qaeda and push out the Iranians? Why isn't she cajoling our European friends (and we have friends) to provide economic and political assistance for the elected government of Iraq as a counterweight to Iranian aspirations? Why isn't she working to ensure that the political space our soldiers fought and died for isn't wasted by the diplomats? Where the hell is she?

She's in Annapolis, busily creating Palestine.

She's pushing and cajoling on behalf of semi-reformed terrorists who disdain America and our democratic principles. She's inviting 49 countries to midwife Palestine - don't mistake this for a conference to establish the legitimacy, security and permanence of Israel in the Middle East. She is wooing Syria, Iran's lapdog and North Korea's partner that is in the process of destroying America's democratic friend Lebanon. If she's going to invite Junior Assad, she might as well invite Hamas! (That's sarcasm, Mr. Solarz.) The Saudi Foreign Minister is invited - as if Israel should be impressed to share a table with a representative of a misogynistic, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian tribal autarch - all in the unfounded belief that Palestine will emerge from the muck as an enlightened, democratic and peaceful part of the neighborhood.

Palestine is a terrorist sinkhole, ruled in parts by a corrupt secular dictatorship and a corrupt religious dictatorship - which one rules how much remains unclear, but neither is a proper partner for American financial, military or political support.

Iraq is where the United States made its stand against tyranny and terrorism in the Arab Middle East. With all the mistakes and all the false starts, with all the death and all the destruction, we're closing in on an Iraqi consensus to be a country of its people. Iraq and its people should have first claim on the time, skill and attention of our Secretary of State.

That she's spending it elsewhere is infuriating beyond coherent articulation.

Bryen is special projects director for the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA)

Night Watch by Harmenszoon van Rijn Rembrandt


THE JEWISH CITIZEN

Appreciating all our Rembrandts


By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO—After bringing their children to Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School yesterday, a dozen or so parents and grandparents trooped upstairs to the library, where headmaster Rabbi Simcha Weiser invited them to engage in a bit of fantasy over snacks of fruit and coffee cake.

Imagine, he suggested, that they gave their child a wonderful Chanukah present—Rembrandt's painting "Night Watch," which hangs in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Further, he said, imagine discussing that piece
Donald H. Harrison

of art , which measures more than 11 feet by 14 feet, with the child during different stages of his or her life.

Weiser said he chose "Night Watch" as an example because it is "a work of art that absorbs people's attention, having layers of meaning." However, he added, any "exquisite" yet affordable, piece of art could serve a similar purpose.

At first, Weiser suggested, the parent might discuss with the child who the artist Rembrandt was. Later, the parent and the child might discuss what it was like to live in Amsterdam in the 17th century. Perhaps, later, they might discuss how it might feel to be a soldier. As the child matured, they could examine technique, color, brush strokes, lighting.

Maybe later, the child would go through a rebellious stage, and say he or she hates the painting, and wishes that he or she didn't have to look at it all the time, and that too might be cause for a discussion. Finally, Weiser invited parents to imagine their child as a grown-up, and having a discussion as adults about the painting.

One way to gauge a person's growth as a human being is to measure how much that individual is able to appreciate the things around him or her—whether they be man made or Divinely made, the rabbi suggested.




Rabbi Simcha Weiser, foreground, discusses appreciation of art and the art of appreciation at Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School

No matter how wonderful a piece of art is, said the rabbi, after a while it can be taken for granted. If people actually had that Rembrandt in their house, and they had to pass it day after day, how long would it be before they stopped looking? Only by training oneself to look at a magnificent painting day after day and to try to discover within it new levels of meaning, can the art be truly appreciated.

The rabbi said that the same is true about human reactions to two of God's greatest works--the world, and a person's own individual soul. Too often people take these miracles for granted.

Today's Thanksgiving holiday in the United States—a holiday that in concept is fairly rare around the world—provides an opportunity for people to re-examine their world, and themselves, and to take stock of those things which they really need to appreciate, Weiser said.

Traditional Jewish teaching suggests that a person recite at least 100 blessings a day for the different aspects of their which they appreciate—from the time that they awaken to yet another day, to being able to go through their morning routines, to having the opportunity to go to work at a fulfilling job, and so forth, until they retire at night.

Weiser quipped that once the art of expressing appreciation is learned, one doesn't even have "to do a lot of snacking" to find a sufficient number of opportunities for reciting a blessing .

In what may seem to be a paradox, he added, the more a person grows, the more that person diminishes. A child may see a painting and imagine that she too could paint just as well, or watch a receiver snatch a football from the air and run more than 40 yards to the goal, and think he could just as easily have scored that touchdown. But as the child matures, she or he begins to understand the magnificence of other people's accomplishments. And, as they mature spiritually they comprehend how good is their portion.

Harrison is the editor and publisher of San Diego Jewish World

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RABBINIC INSIGHTS

'Who by fire'—when the words of our liturgy crackle beyond our doorsteps


By Rabbi Wayne Dosick

CARLSBAD, California—The recent San Diego County fires that destroyed so much precious to so many bubbled up the memories of the Harmony Grove fire that destroyed our house, back in 1996. 

Here is what I wrote then in my column in the San Diego Jewish Times.  Sadly, the lessons needed be taught and learned all over again.   May God comfort all those who were affected this time,  warp them in love, and bring them up from their despair.

1996:  I called the dean of my doctoral program.  I said, “You know, I was planning on finishing my Ph.D. in these next few weeks.   But something has come up.  You and I have been educators for decades, and we have heard every excuse in the book:  'The dog ate my homework;'  'My computer crashed.'  But I have a reason that I imagine you have never heard before:  'I can't finish my work right now because my house burned down.'”

I missed the deadline for finishing my doctorate; I missed a trip to Florida to speak at a JCC for Jewish Book Month;  for the first time ever, I missed the deadline for my column here in the San Diego Jewish Times, and in doing so, I missed you and our biweekly dialogue.  But, as I told the dean, I had if not a good excuse then at least a good reason:  my house burned down.
    
Most of you know that ours was one of the more than one hundred homes that burned to the ground in the Harmony Grove fires in late October. 
    
Our brave and heroic house sitter saved the dog and the cat, the Torah Scroll from The Elijah
Minyan,  the hard drives from our computers, and a few things off the walls and the shelves.  But other than that, we lost everything.  We lost all our personal belongings, all our pictures, all our memorabilia, all our keepsakes.  And since both Ellen and I worked at home, we lost our offices, all the “tools of our trade,” all the records of our professions and our professional lives.
    
How do we begin to contemplate the loss of a childhood teddy bear, a 100 year old Knobe grand piano, a painting by a 1900s woman Impressionist whose works hang in museums throughout the world;  a 6,000 volume rabbinic library, a baseball signed by Babe Ruth, a grandfather's pocket watch, another grandfather's tallis and tephillin, my rabbinic s'micha hand-signed by my rabbis, so many of whom are now in the Great Beyond, jewelry passed from generation to generation, letters and mementos from very dearest ones who are long gone?
    
I surely do not mean to imply that our losses were greater than anyone else's.  More than one hundred families - some of them very well known in this Jewish community - lost everything too.  It is just that this short litany of our losses serves as an example, a prototype, of the utter destruction and devastation that this fire caused.
    
Even now, even more than two months since the fire, it is still hard to hold in consciousness for very long.  Bad things happen.  People die;  people are in horrible accidents;  people suffer through debilitating disease.  Trauma and tragedy are part of every day, part of every life.  We are, somehow, at the deepest level, prepared for these kind of disasters.  They are painful and agonizing, but, somehow, we know that they are coming, for one day, they come to all lives.  But a house burning down?  In beautiful, sunny, tree-lined suburban San Diego?  Impossible.  It just doesn't  happen.  But happen it did.  And two months later, we still find ourselves saying, “I just can't believe it.”
    
Needless to say, the question I am most often asked is, “How does a person of faith respond to such a tragedy?  How could God do this to you?  Why didn't the protecting, loving God protect you and love you?”
    
This short question requires a much longer answer than these pages permit.  I will be writing about both my practical and my theological response to the fire in a book that will be published later this year.  (That book is When Life Hurts, currently out of print, but available from used books sellers.)   But for now, let me say this. 
    
God was not in the fire.  Fires happen.  Fires especially happen in places like Southern California where hot dry Santa Ana winds blow.  Had people not chosen to build homes across from a canyon that could easily burn,  this fire would have been just one more brush fire, eating up acres of empty land. Had we insisted that the owners of the canyon cut back the brush, had we put tile roofs on our homes, our homes might have been saved.  But the fire became a disaster because people were there, because people were affected.
    
God does not micromanage the world to the extent that a heavenly decree was issued:  “Dosick's house will burn down.”
    
Nevertheless, I keep hearing the poignant question posed in the High Holiday liturgy: “Who by fire?”  We have not died by fire, but, kama ya'avroon, “we have gone through fire.”    God never promised a life without pain, a life without anguish.  The prayer gives us a litany of some of the terrible things that can befall us.  This year, one of them happened to us.  “Who by fire?”  This year, Wayne and Ellen.
    
So if God was not in the fire, where was God when this painful experience befell us.  God was in  three places. (I later changed this to five.)
    
First, God is in an overall plan, a large blueprint, an ultimate design for me, for Ellen, for our world.  From our tiny world view, we cannot see the overall plan; in the midst of the pain we may not appreciate the ultimate design.  But it is there, and, eventually, it will be for the greater good.  We are on this earth plane to serve God, to be players and partners in God's plan and will, not ours.  We may not know or understand the plan, but even with our free will (we didn't have to buy a house across from a canyon; we could have insisted that the brush be cut back; we could have put on a tile roof) we are actors on God's stage.  As Abraham Joshua Heschel so correctly put it, “Man does not seek to impose his will upon God; he seeks to impose God's will and mercy upon himself.” 
    
God was also in the hands and the hearts of the community of  family and friends that surrounded us and enveloped us in support and love.  Ellen and I thank you, each and every one of you, who sent us your kind words, your good wishes, your most generous gifts, your  prayers,  and your spirit.  It was your goodness that sustained us.  God was in you, and you were doing God's work.
    
Finally, God was - and continues to be as He/She always has been - our companion, our friend.  It was - and continues to be - God who brings us through the pain toward the healing.  When we were at the very lowest, when all seemed so bleak and forlorn, when all our own energies and abilities and will were gone, when, in the words of the psalms, we called out  min hametzar, “from out of the depths,” it was God who answered.  I said, “God I can't do this.  I can't get up from the depths of despair.  I can't do this alone.  Please help me.”  And God shared with me some of His  wisdom, strength,  fortitude,  and insight.  God enveloped me in Her sheltering presence, her nurturing, her compassion, her love.  Alone I could not have done it, but with God at my side, I was able, slowly, to come up from the depths.  I am not yet in balance;  reconciliation, acceptance, full healing will take much longer.  But I have begun, because, “in the valley of the shadow,” God is my friend, my guide, my shepherd. 
    
What now? 
    
For every door that closes, another door opens.  For every opportunity that is cut off, another possibility arises.  In the canyon were seeds that have lain dormant for hundreds of years. 
Only in the intense heat of the fire could their shells crack open.  They have taken root and begun to grow. 

From out of the inferno that destroyed so much that was precious,
new life - never seen before in living memory - has come,
and the landscape is forever changed.
God will come,
put you on the anvil,
fire up the forge,
and beat you and beat you
until brass
turns into pure gold.                  
    
Dosick is the spiritual leader of the Elijah Minyan and author of numerous books on Judaism

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SAN DIEGO JEWISH WORLD THE WEEK IN REVIEW

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20
Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: Rabbi at interfaith service denounces tactics of Minutemen against migrants
J. Zel Lurie in Delray Beach, Florida: Calling Israel a 'Jewish state' a misnomer
Melanie Rubin in San Diego: Another Jewish license plate: 2Nudnix
Dan Schaffer in San Diego: Look! Look! Dick and Jane’s new authors
practice a vicious brand of partisan politics
Isaac Yetiv in La Jolla, California: Three reasons for saying no to the Palestinian 'right of return' demand


MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19
Peter Garas in Canberra, Australia: Jewish knowledge and information on the web: can it be indexed for researchers?
Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: TV Phenomenon personality materializes at Soille San Diego Hebrew Day fundraiser
Joe Naiman in Lakeside, California: Is Ryan Braun baseball's first Jewish rookie of the year? It depends...
Sheila Orysiek in San Diego: 'What could not sustain them but the spirit of G-D and His grace?'

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18
Shoshana Bryen in Washington, D.C.: Every veteran is Hal's best Koster-mer; JINSA backs him for citizen's award
Cynthia Citron in Los Angeles: Lessons assures that audience learns too
Rabbi Baruch Lederman in San Diego: 'Pearing' our perceptions and reality
Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal in San Diego: Notice Divine presence all around us

FRIDAY-SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16-17
Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: Beau's Geste: Student gives up bar mitzvah money so others kids can have a school
Ira Sharkansky in Jerusalem: Jewish shtetl mentality is understandable
but dangers to Jews often exaggerated
David Strom in San Diego: The saga of a Muslim woman seeking a modern life that her society would deny

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15

Shoshana Bryen in Washington D.C.: Parsing Secretary Rice's Mideast outlook
Joel and Arlene Moskowitz in La Jolla: Two centuries of U.S.-Muslim conflict dissected by author Michael B. Oren
Fred Reiss in Winchester, California: Fictional rabbi become a detective— as if her life wasn't already crazy enough
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson in Eilat, Israel: The joy of wintering on Israel's Riviera
Isaac Yetiv in La Jolla: Two myths will color Annapolis confab: "occupation" and "illegal settlements"

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14

Garry Fabian in Melbourne, Australia: Former Labor prime minister slams Liberals' pot shot about Israel .... Stark memories of Kristallnacht
Gaylene Fisch in Solana Beach, California: KLS: A rare syndrome affecting Ashkenazi families for which there is no known cure
Gerry Greber in Solana Beach, California: Baptist minister shares 35 years of Israeli memories with Women's Ort lunch group
Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: Strolling through the knotty questions of inter-religious and inter-Jewish relations
Sheila Orysiek in Costa Mesa, California: Tango's repetitive dance moves and lack of color in costuming can tire audiences
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson in Eilat, Israel: The quieter voices at Israel's playground


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