hoping to inspire and awaken you. I write not because I have the strength to write, but because I do not have the strength to remain silent." -Rav Avraham Yitzchok Kook zt'l
We always think somehow that we can secure ourselves in life. Have an account in that bank, don’t go out that late, keep your city face on, don’t ride motorcycles, and you’re safe. Like there’s a formula to follow, like there are natural laws to rely on. But when we see Teva as the curtain of G-d that is just as easily manipulated as miracles are by Him, we recognize that there are no certainties tobe taken for granted. The clouds can drop acid instead of water on me tomorrow, my car can get hit by a moving signpost, my pet fish can walk over to me, and my dog can meow. And there is no logical reason for the believing Jew not to walk out of their house expecting mountains to dance, or pens to type. The only way we can rely on the standard pattern of nature continuing is if we have faith in G-d. And honestly- the only way for me not to break down in freak out mode, terrified that even in my house the shadows on dark walls are terrorists, not teddy bears, is to lean against Him as my Mishenet- my cane/staff/stick. If the Fogel family could get killed on that night in that place, then anyone could get killed on any night, in any place.Nothing really distinguished them. And so the only way to feel safe in this world, and not as a paranoid phobic everytime you hear bad news, is to realy, really, in an internalized, integrated way, feel Emuna and live in Hashem’s embrace. In Shemona Esrai we say, “VSim Chelkenu Imahem, ViLo Neivosh Ki Bicha Batachnu… Hashem Mishan UMivtach LaTzadikim.” Rav Shwab says that when we put ourselves among tzadikim- Imahem, when we learn from them how not to Neivosh even when all seems to point to fear, then we become tzadikim, as the end of the tefila calls us, for whom Hashem is, and is perceived as, the Mishan, our trustfall and supporting system.
Daughter of Zion once precious princess
Left hers father house
To walk streets that never rest
Maybe they’ll hear me in metropolis
So I’m sending an SOS
Fighting with her “ta”
She wants out of this mess
And those big city lights
Might brighten up the darkness
You know that I’m tired and you know that I’m sick
You can’t stop me and you can’t stop this
You could call the police try to make an arrest
Today is the day that I repossess
Leaving on the first bus that I can get
Now its rings around eyes sopping wet from rain droplets
Window shopping for some solace
No address and penniless
That’s the price you pay for running away from the stress
Feeling the pain like dance by the DJ
Reminds me of a time when things were ok
Frightened by her own shadow
Now she wants to go home
Many names for one G-d
Trotting on, through the façade
You were all my children
Got a dig for that feeling
Love will break through concealment
Strip away the serpent’s skin
We came to win
Dispatch the troops
Send the captain
My gem is held captive in the dungeon
Don’t come back till you end the mission
If it takes a long time
Don’t lose the vision
If you’re stuck
Check the blueprint
Look within
Reflection
Got to find the rhythm
Won’t you please return child
Where you been
She says I can’t come home because he won’t let me in
And besides we don’t need no more friction
Uses to look so nice, how’d you get so thin?
With a heart like ice, it’s a heart of sin
Skin white like a ghost with a pale complexion
Pray to g-d for the dead we need resurrection
Don’t you know wherever you go thick and thin
You are still my children
Since you’ve been gone my soul’s been hearting
Wondering through this world
We are just boys and girls
Many names for one G-d
Trotting on, through the facade
