It was quite a week.
I had another near-disaster on the freeway. The alternator died, with the result that by the time I was able to get off the road and stop, it was just me, 2 tons of car, and the laws of physics. Still a good day because I lived to tell about it.
Friends have had unhappy things happen: serious bicycle accidents, skunks under the house, car accidents, failures of technology with consequences, illness.
The Jewish People have had a hard week: violence in Jerusalem, rising anti-Semitism in Europe, nasty stuff on the internet. We remembered a very difficult week 19 years ago, when we lost Yitzhak Rabin, one of our heroes.
We are coming up on an anniversary this weekend: the 76th anniversary of Kristallnacht. If you don’t know about it, or are only vaguely clear about it (“a Holocaust thing”) then follow the link and read about it. We should reflect upon it before slinging around the word “Nazi.”
Many heavy burdens to carry, but tonight the sun will go down, and we will welcome the Sabbath in all her glory. Let those burdens drop from our shoulders, take a deep breath, and let us welcome the peace, if only for a little while.
If we make our best effort to experience the Sabbath, perhaps we can carry some of that peace into the week that follows.
Kein y’hi ratzon: May it be the will of the Eternal. Amen.
I’m so glad you wrote about “slinging around the word ‘Nazi.'” I speak up against constructions like “grammar Nazi” whenever I have the opportunity. The impact of that word should be visceral horror; it shouldn’t be diluted by using it to describe something merely annoying.
Oooh, good point! Dilution is indeed an issue there.