Euphemisms, Sublimations and Lies

Part I – Mirror, Mirror …

As the need or whim arises, people lie about practically everything, and why shouldn’t they, we? The collective justification and self-exoneration being that all of us have been lied to for years, and are being lied to today about practically everything anyway. Also by now, it’s not as if most people are truly listening.

Successful people in general are first, good listeners and it’s the first tool of successful salespeople. Some become real estate tycoons and some stay snake oil vendors hawking anything from bedroom furniture to a bridge in Brooklyn from the back of the covered or station wagon. “Honestly, I can tell you straight; this is the best deal for the money…” In other words, until now I was dishonest, but from now on I’ll be truthful? “ Frankly, I’m not supposed to tell you this, but…” Then don’t! If it is OK to tell, then you were just lied to, to make you feel special and the speaker is about as straight as a snake. If it is not OK to tell you and you are told, then someone in management is being lied to either because you are special, or sorry, more likely the liar likes to piss on the office wall because he is sure that he knows the truth and they don’t; and he’s still a snake.

Like Ripley said, Believe it or not, we all know that the truth can be tricky? In many instances it seems that people are not interested in the truth; their justification and self-exoneration here is that they already know “it”. Whose truth? One or many; natural or manmade, individual, tribal, national or global perspectives create multiple truths and realities defying the laws of physics co-existing at the same time, in the same space. The History we know is only ‘his story’. The author that came to be most quoted, trusted and included in the canon was no doubt a good listener with the gift of gab. Fantasies and perjuries spewed forth without restraint becoming myths, legends and lore. Facts are fodder to be fucked with and stats are stacked according to need, no need to be naïve. One of life’s absurdities is that the bigger the mountain of bullshit you create, the more you get paid. White lies abound socially, but the illogical monster fabrications pay the bills.

And then surprise, the opposite occurs to what you would hope or expect? Disinformation among family and friends, tweaks and minor adjustments to reality, past, present and future; as far as we know, have no butterfly effect, don’t cause volcanoes to erupt or sandstorms to bury villages; and yet, if found out, are pointed at as treasonous betrayals and back stabbings with no statute of limitations while the incredible mega abuses and distortions of fact flourish, self-perpetuate and soar above any real questioning. What makes it work? In part, in order to make sense of the lies, of the reality in charge at the moment, and so as not to feel and behave like a lost soul or a complete schmuck; people allow themselves to be taken over and usually take over for the external liars and continue lying to themselves and one another, some Scandinavian Syndrome or the other, to eliminate the dissonance and keep things comfortable and familiar. Last century, some very organized and very many incredibly bad people devoted to one man and an ism promoted the strategy and tactic that if you’re going to tell a lie, make it a whopper, incredible and unbelievable and proclaim it with authority and conviction. They proved themselves right, pretty much everyone was seeing and saying the same thing, so this must be reality.

After a while, as crazy as it sounds, for people who have something to say; just talking becomes boring and frustrating. That’s when you’ve really got to watch out for yourself! People have done and will do anything and everything again and again to prove that what they have been saying all along is true, even if, especially if it’s not.

And they have every right to be pissed off since more than once, in successively louder tones of instruction and escalating throes of righteous indignation you were asked and told; Can’t you see the truth when it is staring you in the face?!? Pointing out the truth is overwhelmingly presumptuous, always hazardous and very often detrimental to the health of the Pointee.

The same strategy of the never ending grand lie is completely in use and successful in Israel today as well. It’s Netanyahu’s playbook. Rabin was dressed in a SS uniform almost 30 years ago, and it worked. Netanyahu’s grand lies are in all things. Mr. Security, Mr. Bribery would be more accurate, the only reason there weren’t more rockets fired from Gaza was because of $15M monthly payoffs to Hamas. Under his authority, the military operations were costly to us in life and ineffective, creating the need for another and another operation and still left hundreds of thousands of citizens, many his constituents for years under nearly constant rocket and balloon attack. He released thousands of terrorists and there are still MIA’s and citizens held in Gaza. It turns out Mr. Security kept himself very secure over the years and did not do very much miluim when most others in the unit did volunteer. He was written off as a chronic no-show and dropped from the unit roster. Netanyahu did not write the Start-Up Nation’s algorithms and codes nor did he dive to the depths of the Mediterranean with a lighter to find gas for us. He liked the role of ‘I am the state’ making himself an ism to himself and for the good of us all. Mirror, Mirror on the wall…

And as ‘pride goes before a fall’, cracks in the Mirror, first Sarah pleads guilty, he gets indicted, goes to trial and he loses power. Perhaps the grandest and most productive grand lie is; I/we have enemies. It was used so horribly well last century, and now he never stops crying it. He was the leader of the country for 12 years and rants that he is the victim of organized conspiracies of the left and the media, one and the same in his smear defense campaign. It’s no coincidence that the criminal indictments against Netanyahu are regarding the purchase, bullying, quid pro quo for media control. Netanyahu to regain control, albeit temporarily, has mutated and grown a dozen or so arms, just as each of his ministers today have a hand at his throat, so he has at each of theirs. And if he needs to, he will grow another dozen arms and legs to run away from jail. Levin and Rotman are to run interference and litter the field with Get Out of Jail Free Cards.

A true grand lie was his courthouse exhibition on the opening day of his trial and the oaths of allegiance to him by his ministers then and again today by his new gang, making them all aiders and abeters. What are the wordings of the oaths of loyalty that Netanyahu has publically declared that his ministers have sworn to him, then and now? The ministers, members of Knesset also took an oath to the State. Are there no conflicts of interests? And what would happen if one or more ministers should break their oath(s) to Netanyahu, what’s the sanction? No more champagne cocktails with Sarah? Surviving politically, the public won’t forgive or forget, or not? Personal integrity or honor among thieves, both fallacies. What good is an oath if it’s not wrapped around a stick or titled IOU?

A long time Netanyahu partner in crime is organized from the top down religion in Israel. It’s a bust, bankrupt, and has no doubt disappointed, turned off and turned away more citizens than it benefits. The Rabbis and religious political figures at the top in Israel are just like other people, especially other Israel politicians; self-interested, exaggerating, power drunkards. And what a High it is when it is in the service of the Lord, or the Leader.

Proving again the wisdom of King Solomon’s adage that there is nothing new under the sun, this time it’s Israel’s side-locked Hill Youth Caricatures, Jewish Knights Templar wanna-bes running around the countryside saving the Holy Land by harassing Muslims, and setting up outhouses, outposts. Kids who think they lucked out, with parents not much older than themselves sharing delusion after epiphany including racist ideology. Nice Jewish boys succeeding to be terrorists.

Speaking of vanities, Forum Kohelet, Tea Party copycats. The Republicans wouldn’t let them in, so they made their own Tish. Even smart people do it all the time, the more you want to hide, the more you will expose, Freud or Spinoza? The grand lie, the total opposite. It’s like the ‘cloud’; which is actually a multi ton steel server the size of a 40ft. container buried underground or under water. A Lobby, shielding its mouth with its hand is always trying to whisper something into someone’s ear. A Forum is an open, outside place designed for discussion and debate; how does that jive with the speaker coming to preach a pre-determined agenda? It doesn’t and the Abrahams wouldn’t be proud.

It’s fairly passé or soon will be totally so, the last 100 days have made it clear; not only is the mirror cracked. The image is so fractured, so irrational, it could shatter with a crash or just fall in pieces to the floor at any moment.

Everyone from this day forward should carry his own veritas pocket mirror to remind us that collectively and individually we allowed Israel’s image, our face to be distorted, marred and scarred, also hopefully it will help guard against future hubris.

Euphemisms, Sublimations and Lies

Part II – Jews, Christians, Muslims

The fanaticism of any ism; political, socioeconomic, religious, seems to be inevitable and likewise inevitably destructive and self-destructive. Today, extremist fringe Islam is the clearest example of this, ask any woman in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Israel’s political farce and behavior coupled with government supported messianic cults, clearly shows how destructive and self-destructive the phase is.

Christianity had its day, actually many days of Crusaders, Inquisitors and Missionaries who were no slouches when it came to making those who didn’t see; see the light. Today, again, ask many women around the world who need an abortion.

The Jews’ text in fairly self-serving and conclusive terms said they were Chosen by Him to be the Light unto the Nations; but they never really got involved in illuminating or proving anything to anybody. They always ended up debating and arguing amongst themselves, and really didn’t put out the Welcome Mat; perhaps buying into their own storyline and not wanting to share the Chosen People part. Over the years this claim to fame and isolationist policy has clearly annoyed a lot of people; and it usually turned out that the Jews had the real, bare fisted truth vehemently pointed out to them regarding being chosen or not and for what.

The location, location, location for the Jews’ enterprise is prime, beachfront and heights at the cul de sac of 3 continents and 4 climate zones, but the marketing was shitty. A few brandings were made for this side of the globe; monotheism, the Sabbath, no human sacrifices except for the end of the penis, and for some men after the wedding, the testicles as well. There are still some throwbacks that the Jews were supposed to take care of; idolatry, for example. It’s a tough sell, but the Jews probably could have done a better job in getting the message across. According to the Text, no images, no statues, reliefs, paintings, 2D and 3D that a man or woman created can have Divinity. It can be art; beautiful, grotesque, a momentary hype or ahead of its time. The artist may have been Divinely inspired and just seeing the ‘thing’ may cause some to an epiphany. OK God is in all things but also not imprisoned in a container, like a genie in a lamp. Not a cross, a statue or an icon, not a stone slab from a cave where a dead guy, the son of God or God himself depending on what side of the schism you are, was laid in preparation for burial, and then decided to be not dead and left.

He’s not in a meteorite or a home grown rock purported to be from the Garden of Eden inside a 40 foot high black box in Mecca that just happens to look exactly like a house size version of the Jews’ morning prayers phylactery. The faithful walk around the Kaaba, the black box, 7 times, which also coincidentally or not, is also the number of revolutions of the phylactery strap on the arm just below the box. Nor is God to be taken for granted re another rock on a hilltop in Jerusalem; a Foundation stone from the beginning of time that was almost Isaac’s or Ishmael’s sacrificial altar, then the floor of the Holy of Holies and then a horse and rider launching pad. And for that matter, there’s a whole wall of very many stacked rocks on the same hilltop in Jerusalem that Jews behave as if it was God’s P.O.B. and keep putting in little notes signed: F.U. From Us. Looking at it, the Jews failed miserably in their idolatry mission to the point where they themselves have paganized the wall making it something Holy, the Wailing Wall. It must be understood then that the wall does the wailing, crying over its lost people. Otherwise Jews would be violating one of the Patriarch Abraham’s first lessons when he smashed his father’s idols; explaining that worshipping eyes that don’t see and hands that don’t feel is really stupid. However now with political correctness the title is more of a GPS location, the Western Wall, and the people do the wailing and fondling only now organized and administrated.

All people wanted to know was; how do I exist, why do I exist? And what they got was; I Am That I Am.  It’s tough sometimes to grasp the concept; apparently rocks, wood, gold and silver, clay, dead people’s bones, relics of any number of materials supposedly imbued with Holiness are easier to accept. The Jews worship Words, the Christians are very heavily into relics and inanimate objects capable of absorbing, holding and transferring Sanctity and Blessing. If you place the Crown of Thorns which is large enough to be worn, purchased from the peddler/pickpocket outside the church of the Holy Sepulchre onto the Holy object of your devotion, rub it around a bit, it becomes a Halo of Thorns that is worn while floating along on a psychotic wave of the Jerusalem Syndrome 20cm above the pavement of the Via De La Rosa.

In order to add authenticity and realism to the experience of being on the street where Jesus was forced to walk what was thought to be his last longest mile to destiny the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Jerusalem Municipality interspersed original Roman period street paving stones found during excavations and infrastructure installations into the current street level; so theoretically, you could be stepping where Jesus stepped. If it is your interest to step only on the Holier pavement, each step is then precious and potentially miraculous.

At the street level, tour guides market a new tourist attraction and lead their groups through the activity; New Testament Hop-Scotch. You step only on the ancient street sections to proceed and/or you can throw a small Cross onto a modern paving stone and it becomes temporarily a Holy step in the right direction to the genuine stone you want to get to. The home version for Easter time family fun is a Via De La Rosa board game to visit all the Stations of the Cross progressing only when landing on the old stones. Versions of the dashboard Jesus, Mary and Saints, a lamb, a fish, a loaf of bread, no top hat, but a thorny crown as playing pieces that move along the Via De La Rosa according to the Will of God, a throw of the dice. There are Damnation Cards; Jewish High Priest and Roman soldier cards to accuse and torment you and make you lose a turn, and Blessing Cards like a cup of water card, or a jump a stone card. The object is to set up three crosses allowing you to move to your burial site, albeit temporarily. It’s called Follow the Leader, a great name for the target market.

There was a serious ecumenical stir a few years ago on the Via De La Rosa and some say proof positive that miracles still occur with the Revelation by the shop keeper who has one of these ancient stones just in front of his shop that the bowl shaped depression in the stone’s surface with the crack at its bottom is where Jesus’s knee touched the ground as he bent under the weight of the Cross. The shopkeeper made a fortune photographing the faithful, selling postcards and film until digital came along. He tried to get the stone designated as Station IV.I, a newly discovered Sub-Station of the Cross, but the Franciscans, Greek Orthodox and Copts couldn’t agree if it was the right or left knee, so the initiative was abandoned.

Since the cave drawings, first and foremost people need a good story. A picture is worth a thousand words, something physical to look at, to worship, to idolize, maybe even dare to touch and then say to themselves and everyone else; this golden calf is God. The concept is so dysfunctional that it serves as its own lesson. Everybody is calling everybody else Pagan, Idolater. The Jews think a lot of things, but out loud, the name calling is strictly within the tribe. The Jews are accused of doing it once big time, giving up Jesus of Nazareth to the Romans as a subversive calling himself King of the Jews; because you need a villain to make the story work better; and they have been damned for it ever since. In the secondary and tertiary revisions of the Christians and the Muslims, it was and still is to a degree open season on everyone; Jews, other Christians and other Muslims as well, fair game, practically a mitzvah, a good deed to educate or eradicate the heretic.

All in all, the Light from Zion was pretty dim, few saw it and fewer showed interest. The majority said at best the Jews were mistaken and didn’t understand but more likely were guilty of bearing false witness. The best proof, here we go proving things again, that there wasn’t malicious intent just poor marketing is the story the Jews went with. The contract offered by the God of the Jews comes with 613 Clauses of do’s and don’ts, strict adherence to SOP’s, compulsory surgery for tips only, sanctions and rewards, promises but no guarantees, and a free will take it or leave it approach. Genesis, Exodus and parts of some other of the 5 books are fact and fiction stories with all the elements inherent to a good read; sex, a lot of begatting in the Beginning, jealousy, violence and murder starting with the first family. There are pages upon pages of fantasy, magic, adventure, sarcasm, irony and priceless human nature biblical blogs constantly presenting the choice between good and evil, often to the credit of the stories with the heroes coming up way short, Abraham and Isaac had no problem only ‘sorta’ pimping Sarah and Rebecca in order to get ahead. There’s a lot of good material introduced in Genesis; God, creation, procreation, a near planet killing hurricane, wine, nudity, compassion; the stuff of life. Creation is so important that it’s described twice. In one version, it’s emphasized that God created the great sea creatures, maybe crocodiles as it translates today, maybe it’s biblical paleontology? Perhaps the ancients found dinosaur bones too? All you need is one T Rex skull to convince you that there are greater powers.  And the dragons found in the cultures in every part of the world are the revitalization with armor scales, serpentine eyes and fiery breath of the massive heads with rows of razor teeth, skeletons the size of houses and talons as long as daggers. The discovery of one 10 meter wingspan pterodactyl fossil and dragons were airborne.

The rib taken from Adam to fashion one version of the Eve story bothers some, perhaps an option might be to imagine the generations of real Fred and Wilma couples that stood together, each in their turn over the tens of thousands of years at the mouth of their cave and even up to the first Adams and Eves at their Garden gates watching a dawn or a sunset or an approaching lightning storm. If everything is OK at home, where are Wilma and Eve going to be? Protruding from his side, out of his rib with his arm around her shoulders because that’s usually the best fit. There’s nothing derogatory, socially or sexually demeaning about it; it’s biology, evolution, anthropology, humanity and comfortable.

The basis for both revisions that came is the program the Jews presented. The Christians first depended upon and used it and then abused it. The Muslim revision, comes with 16 tons      of chutzpa. More than 1,300 years before Islam’s appearance the text was known, told to the people at the city gates and in the countryside by Judges and Prophets, and read into the Kings’ ear by courtiers. It was translated by 70 in Egypt to the lingua franca of the world by the world, and put to parchment about 800 years before Islam came north. Likewise, with a lot of blood, sweat and tears give or take 600 years before Islam, Mary’s kid JC Superstar nailed The Boards and went international, eventually becoming Italian. Islam says the Testaments, Old and New are faulty, to scrap 99% of it. It is true that precedence is no guarantee of veracity, but being copied and delegitimized at the same time? This is the new text, and the proof is that we will slit your throat on the spot, poison and blow you up if you are a female going to school, if you don’t agree and accept, and even if you do. How’s that for proof?

In Israel, there are some really strange, scary and probably dangerous Jews who, if given the chance would slit the throat of a lamb or a kid (baby goat) on the Temple Mount as in the good old days, and are always on the lookout for an unblemished red cow. Some might say as is said in Delhi, Holy Cow! Have you taken your meds today? if you look forward to the opportunity to spill blood, it’s problematic. Times have changed, devotion doesn’t require carnage.

In the beginning, the Christian Church used a welcoming soft sell and knew how to grab the crowd and sell a story with grandeur and promise. It’s unfortunate, but like every monopoly once the branding was accomplished and the market share attained, the strategy deteriorated down to disrespect, bullying and eventually domination of the faithful. Even without the thousands of gold and silver icons in the East and the marble statues and oil paintings from the Masters of Europe; the idea of a young virgin maiden delivering a rosy cheeked, curly haired cherub is a much more appealing, simply prettier miracle than the image of the Matriarch Sarah at 99 squatting at the birthing pole in the tent. In essence it’s the same miracle, both women shouldn’t be able to be pregnant and give birth. It’s written that Sarah ceased to have the way of women, and Mary as a maiden betrothed to an older widower, was a virgin before immaculate conception, during pregnancy and after birth. I guess this is where the expression ‘will wonders never cease’ comes from. In Sarah and Abraham’s case, God and 2 angels passing by in the desert on their way to overturn Sodom and Gomorrah made Sarah laugh when they foretold the blessed event and Abraham apparently still had to do his part. The Angel Gabriel had to chase Mary all over Nazareth before she understood that she wasn’t going to be just any surrogate Mom, but The Mother Superior. This absolutely unique and eternal IVF procedure prepped by the male nurse with the wings would today make the front page of The Enquirer as alien medical experimentation. It wasn’t painful, and from a few different sources, it became clear to her that this was going to make news in the neighborhood. The Christians made life easy, the do’s and don’ts in the Old Testament were passé; now in the era of the New Testament, believing was enough. The Muslims said fuck that; not only will you believe in our recently come to light but original none the less protocols or else and from now on do or not do only the do’s and don’ts of Islam or else and or else.

Euphemisms, Sublimations and Lies

Part III – Enough

How we use a word, the same word, words, phrase for so many different meanings and emotions, it’s a regular Tower of Babel. On the face of it, ‘or else’ offers an alternative. You can choose this or else you can choose that, otherwise. But today, say to someone ‘Or Else’ and the gauntlet’s been thrown down!  You have threatened or been threatened and all aspects of hope or choice except one are off the table. When things are serious but before they go nuclear, Or Else is not alone, it has a suffix, the sanction is identified and attached. Finish your homework and clean up your room or else no going out with friends, Stop doing that or else you’ll go blind. The most nebulous and fewest words sound the most ominous; Behave yourself, or else! Do it now, or else! To be inflicted.

The word ‘Enough’ works so well across a wide spectrum even when it’s the only word and not part of a phrase or sentence. There is the wonderfully sated ‘Enough’ that comes just before finally pushing away from the Holiday table, the ‘Enough’ that’s exhaled in disgust, despair and desperation or yelled in a screaming tantrum at the TV news. Here it can be anything; international, national and local items; terror attacks to starving, bloated bellied African babies, again. Politicians illicit ‘Enough’ by consistently telling us how lucky we are that they are there in place for us and then being arrested for not being able to keep their hands in their own pockets or their zippers closed. It’s a clinched fisted command, ‘Enough’ or a taunting HAD ENOUGH from above when you won a street fight. ‘Had Enough’? in collaboration with feathers applied to the soles of the feet, followed by; Say Enough is always fun. ‘Enough’ is ‘Enough’! Enough is different for each person.

There are even more than enough people who say that there was no Holocaust, it didn’t happen, that it’s another Jew lie, Wow, good one! They clearly know that there was; there are accurate German records, more than a few buildings left standing, and even one or two people still around with ID number tattoos to refute their claim. Unsaid, but on the tips of their forked tongues is that it didn’t happen ‘Enough’. There wasn’t ‘Enough’ of a Holocaust. The original way to express the sentiment; Hitler should have finished the job became less politically correct for a few years but has made a strong comeback nowadays. No doubts here, you know who is talking to you. Denying the deniers is demeaning to the dead and to the living, but there is no choice. If it’s not done, with the tattoo bearers all but gone, there will be only one truth to choose from.

When the Holocaust is the topic, there’s always some smart aleck who will ask: Where was God?  How could He let this happen? These are easy and even comfortable questions. The non-religious ask rhetorically as their proof for the secular position that man is the only god around. Perhaps the religious also ask but secretly, only in their heart of hearts that is between them and their God. However when verbalized publically, it’s only to confirm that there is no understanding the ways of the Lord. Where was God? It’s not the right question. The real stick your head in the ground and avoid the whole dilemma is; where is the onus? A true believer in God’s total omnipotence, righteousness and involvement, His authorship of the written texts detailing the concept and contract between Himself and His chosen people regarding punishment and reward according to adherence by the people to the specified behavior must inevitably lead to the real un-sublimated question:

What did the Jews of Europe do that God decided to dehumanize and punish them so severely? Smiting them so Biblically and publically! It must have been pretty bad to deserve near total annihilation? According to the texts, after the exodus from Egypt, but before entering into Canaan, on more than one occasion God wanted to finish the Jews, but Moses was there to intercede, make excuses and placate. The Sinai Peninsula is not that big and can be crossed comfortably on foot in 10 to 14 days. The 40 year shpatzir in the desert wasn’t because Moses didn’t have a compass. The punishment was meted out to eradicate the generation that were slaves, had sinned with the golden calf and then again with the spies libeling the land making themselves unworthy to enter the Promised Land that God had promised to the Patriarchs. God must have changed His mind since He Himself told Abraham that killing children was a definite no-no and the Children of Israel would inherit the Land also because the Pagan nations inhabiting Canaan defiled the Land by throwing their babies into Moloch’s fires. The starvation, torture and murder of one and a half million children was only to punish the parents or to do away with the generation, or both?

There was no dilemma for Christian Europe regarding their active participation in the genocide of European Jewry. It probably made perfect sense to them as their whole gig started with The Father sacrificing The Son. And because it was so organized, all-encompassing, overwhelming, and so chastising, it must be ordained, Divine Will, the Jews were clearly being punished. It must have been very cathartic for many of God’s agents on earth as they sang the German, Polish, Ukrainian and Hungarian versions of Onward Christian Soldiers. And also may be why it was so fucking commonplace for so many thousands of military and civilian men and women to work at every job from the clerical administration of death to dropping the poison pellets into the gas chambers and then have dinner at home with family and friends.

Prior to the Holocaust, the Jews in Europe managed to physically and religiously survive the exile and slavery of Rome, the passage of the Crusaders to and from the Holy Land, mini and maxi expulsions, neighbors who were seldom welcoming and friendly, the Inquisition and Expulsion from Iberia, pogroms and Church fostered persecution as the norm. They even flourished, building and expanding their communities and institutions and creating their own sub-cultures including language, financial power bases that Christian Europe eventually depended upon and centers of learning that became like the courts of their Christian hosts focusing on the word of the Lord, the Rabbi, the Head of the Yeshiva. There is a very specific admonition in the Bible warning against the king having too many horses, too much wealth and power; the Rabbis didn’t have horses, they had students.

Zionism is perhaps the only nationalist movement by a people physically detached from the land, from the nation state trying to be established. For two millennia Jews prayed towards Jerusalem, to Zion. There is not a page in any prayer book that do not have the words, Jerusalem, Zion on the page, usually in phrases regarding the exile from, the glory of or the returning to. The rafters of the great yeshivas of Vilna and Gur and Munkacz shook with the prayers of the generations of breast beating students yearning for Eretz Yisroel as they recited Psalm 137:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, we also wept when we remembered Zion.

It was for God and God alone to collect the Children of Israel from the 4 corners of the world and bring them to the Promised Land, again. And like in the good old days, it had to be totally public and ostentatious, with seas parting and pillars of fire. Totally vindicating, leaving no doubt who was right all along, Who’s in charge; and the goyim are going to get theirs now!

They waited for the Messiah to proclaim God’s Will on earth regarding His people. Some got tired of waiting to be collected and had the integrity to start out on their own. In the end, we all know that even with most not making it out of the waiting room alive; the prayers are answered. Leaving the pillars of fire behind, remnants return to the Promised Land, albeit not on eagles’ wings with angels blowing shofars but completely miraculous nonetheless.

In spite of the Christian stepchildren who took their best shot but failed and our Ishmaelite cousins who haven’t exactly exhibited our supposedly mutual Abrahamic tradition of welcoming a stranger, especially if he may be a relation, the Jews do get back to Zion and make it theirs again.

The world used to look to the East, to the Orient, to where the day begins, to get its bearings, an orientation that could be trusted. As Europe took to the seas circumventing the earth without falling off the edge, the North Star and the Southern Cross told you where you were. Unique, bewildering and totally insulting is the orientation of the Orthodox, Hassidic communities by way of 18^th century Poland.

There is no doubt that there is a God, probably the One God. Only He could devise such a Divine irony.

By the river Ayalon in Bnai Brak, on the hills of Zion there we sat, we also wept when we remembered Mine Shtetele Dorten. Psalm 137a – Revised

Dortenism. Once we/they finally get to Zion, a lot of Jews, even one is too many, those who profess to know the prayer books by heart come with an obscene attitude. Still distinguishing and linking themselves with Poland, they refute the legitimacy of the Zion that came to be because they didn’t hear the shofar blasts, see the Angels or meet any resurrected ancestors; meaning absolutely no disrespect to the dead, just to their idiot descendants. Could it be a remake of the Exodus story sans a Moses with the fleshpots of Egypt now the cholent pots of Poland? For hundreds of thousands of people, Gur, Vilna and Uman are more real than Tel Aviv, and in contrast to all roads leading to Rome; the only sure and safe roads to Jerusalem are via Lithuania, Poland or the Ukraine.

It’s completely nuts. The Jews really are a stiff-necked people, a nice way to say; exacerbating stubborn jackasses who are touted to be the People of the Book but apparently never learned how to learn the easy way, or just, never learn.

There are endless traditions, some sweet and valuable as lessons in life. Blessings are beautiful. Before you eat or drink anything, and after as well if it’s a meal and not just a snack. Kids are taught that if you remember to say a Blessing before eating a fruit, it will be sweet and juicy; it doesn’t work all the time, but it’s a cute thought. Blessings for everything, after using the bathroom, after escaping danger, doing something for the first time, getting married, burying a loved one, you name it; the goal being a sense of proportion, humility and gratitude. Whereas many practices and rituals deteriorated to superstition governing behavior and thought lacking any logic or common sense, but pervasive enough to create the required comfort zone and the tools for control and domination. Unique uniform dress dating back to 17^th and 18^th century northern and central Europe with only slight variations used for coding association and identification are fashion statements and no one seems to ask aloud: Why are we still dressing like this when it’s so hot outside? Of course, swinging a live chicken above your head, while reciting a prayer that transfers your sins to it, then killing and eating the chicken makes a lot of sense, not too pagan?. Far less sacrificial but equally symbolic of the desire to be rid of sin is the practice of going to a flowing body of water and psycho drama emptying your pockets of your transgressions along with the lint into the current to be carried away. Every year before Succot, tens of thousands of people spend days shopping for an etrog and lulav. Examining and comparing, spending hundreds and even thousands of shekels to purchase the best, the most unblemished fruit and the greenest, freshest palm leaves and erecting huts on balconies and in parking lots to honor the harvest festival, the Feast of the Tabernacles. And they have never been to a kibbutz or moshav?

However, the masterpiece of manipulation, the instrument of control and the social sledgehammer of domination is exemplified by the simple question: Is it Kosher? Telling you what you are allowed and forbidden to eat, how it must be prepared and when you can eat. What a tool! What a business opportunity!

There are numerous whole sub-industries in the mega conglomerate of Kosher. If something is Kosher, it’s OK, if it’s not, it’s not. Nothing can be only a little un-kosher, you are or you aren’t. As the guideline states: if there is a doubt, there is no doubt, it’s not. Anything and everything pig is out from a luau down to a BLT; you’re not allowed to cook or eat a kid (a baby goat, not a human kid) in its mother’s milk. The problem is; the only thing that makes sense was that the interpretation and translation was intentionally misrepresented, ‘fixed’ on purpose. In the dozens of citations in the Torah dealing with the make-up of the sacrifices, the word attributed once, some say twice to be milk is understood and accepted everyplace else as the fat off the internal organs of the sacrifice. The sentence was meant to teach the reader/listener a way of life, ethics, not a recipe. If you want to have any success at animal husbandry; raising a flock, having milk and cheese on the table, a barbecue now and again, animals for compulsory sacrifices, skins and hides then don’t roast the mothers. Likewise, easily read between the lines, the sin of Gluttony is pretty clearly warned here. The location is the Middle East, try using olive oil for cooking like everyone else in the area; Beef Stroganoff was not on the menu. Going with the milk version, the sentence is to teach you the concept and ideal of compassion. If you consider the feelings of the she goat and not eat her child in her own milk not to turn the knife, so to speak; then it goes without saying, in your behavior, you will consider the feelings of another human being since another human being, will appreciate your consideration. Pretty lame that the moral takes effect only if someone is watching! And there’s a bit of a contradiction with the compassion for animals bit when considering the blood bath that took place with the daily compulsory animal sacrifices, additional atonement, bodily discharges, general uncleanliness sacrifices, with doubles and triples on holidays and special occasions.

It’s much more likely and human that a Temple Priest, Rabbi or even Scribe had a ne’er do well brother-in-law with a struggling pottery business who came up with the idea to switch milk for fat establishing the ordinance for 2 full sets of dishes, plus a second set of 2 full sets for Passover. The business in marketing terms, claimed to be answering to a Higher Authority which impressed some and browbeat most. The expansion to cutlery, utensils and cook ware was a logical, natural progression and brilliant examples of merchandising and product differentiation.

Or the real Protocols of the Elders of Zion

The goyim are right, at least partially right. There are protocols but they are not what they think. They are not the by-laws of a cabal to rule the entire world but guidelines drafted by the elders to keep the common Jews in line. Probably a hand down from the Sadducees.

The deviation, eventual abuse probably arose with a simple, sincere question: Rabbi, what does that mean? Portions of the Bible are read and in response, legitimate, probing questions leading to thought evoking discussions to try to interpret His words and intent. The Rabbinical Authority understood the power and opportunity inherent in the innocence of the question and how to position themselves as the sole arbiters of His Words; they themselves authored the precept that their authority is Authority and since only they have the Authority to interpret and explain God’s Supreme Authority as written in His Holy Texts, everything is under control.

A man goes into a kosher restaurant in NY, gets greeted and served by a Chinese waiter speaking perfect Yiddish. When not serving or clearing tables, the waiter sat and talked with the owner. While paying the check, the patron asked the owner sitting at the cash register; “where did you find a Chinese guy who speaks such a good Yiddish? The owner answered; Sha! He thinks I am teaching him English.