hodayot [thanksgivings] for today

8:30 My Body, my Partner, my God I give thanks to our vocal cords and the three systems of our voice (see image) which allow me to speak and to sing in general, and to cry and to scream -like late last night on the phone- when feelings need to be vibrated to such an extent.

I am grate-full for the heartfelt love from my three "partners" and friends,
and for their intent and endeavor - small as it was - to cooperate and cocreate
in realizing my vision of Peace-through-Desert-Hosting-Economy.

As if this info about Jews and Arabs under the auspices of Germans
was not enough joy for this early morning,
I came to the pool at 9:10 and learnt,
that in two of the five tracks 10 German youngsters were swimming.
I turned to one of the two teachers, Joerg Engel
(we laughted about me being "Adam" and he being "Angel").

They were from Bad Bergzabern, and between this town and the desert towns of Israel
an exchange takes place every year, based on swimming, :
"In March they come to us, and in May we come to them and usually live in Kibbutz Gvulot".
[Gvulot is a kibbutz near Gaza, from which came another "partner" called Yuval.
an organizer of one of the 3 "Mobile Partnership Workshops" in the seventies]

Since they already 2 years ago encountered shootings while lodging in Sderot,
they decided to stay at Arad this time - with their Israeli counterparts.
"After all we are responsible for the kids, the youngest ones are only 11 years old".
We talked about the responsibility of Germans
not only for healing fears and prejudices between Germans and Israelis,
but also for helping the two traumatized peoples, Jews and Arabs,
to cope with the prejudices against each other.

I now learnt, that Edith Stein let herself be baptized in Bad Bergzabern!
Am 1. Januar 1922 ließ sich die Jüdin Edith Stein in der katholischen Kirche St. Martin taufen
(am 11. Oktober 1998 von Papst Johannes Paul II. heilig gesprochen
When Joerg Engel told me that they planned to visit Masada,
I asked him to be critical concerning the Masada myth of self-sacrifice.
As if I had known about Bad Bergzabern's connection to Edith Stein, I said strongly:
"The idea of self-sacrifice - both in Christianity and in Israeli nationalism - is CATASTROPHIC"
[See EDITH STEIN who became SAINT TERESIA BENEDICTA A CRUCE
versus
EVA MARIA CHRISTA GUTH who became CHRISTA RACHEL MARYAM BAT-ADAM
or
Self-Sacrifice versus Self-Acceptance

Finetuning to my Present

Yesterday night , at 22:00 I wanted to see a doc about Macedonia,
a country I knew nothing about except that Alexander the Great came from there.
What greatly impressed me, was that and how the civil conflict in 2001
was solved by the Ohrid Agreement with the help from the European Council,
and that the leader of the rebellion today sits peacefully in Parliament.

"So neutral people sometimes really succeed in bringing about peace",
I said to myself and was happy.

It was then, that I got an SMS: "are you awake?"
And after 2 years or so of no expressive communication, Yuval-David and I talked:
"It's not yet the time for your child to be born", I laughed, "so why do you call?"
"We all, Paz, Tamir and I, so much long for you,
that we want to invite you expressively to finally celebrate Shabbat with us."
[put "Paz" in the "search of Ctrl/F" -in puzzle piece 5: Trapping Will]

I didn't say "no" rightaway, as usual, for in fact,
when Efrat had asked me long beforehand,
if I would accompany her the coming weekend to Acco by train,
while Immanuel would fly to Los Angeles for an entire week,
I had the idea: "Could I take advantage of the travel north, to see my 3 friends?"
{Efrat's plan was cancelled later}
We chatted about other transport options - all complicated and time consuming.
And when I had enough of this technical bla-bla I begged Yuval-David to update me.

When he was in the process of telling about each of the three,
he mentioned - in a casual voice:
"So far I haven't succeeded in bringing (religious Jews)
into our ecologic community"
(at Neve-Eitan, south of the Lake of Tiberias)
[In this moment, just before "coming to the point" of Yuval-David's casual remark,
an SMS reaches me - from Tamir:

"We've reached good times, if you are again so much triggered by me...
In any case this brings up longing in me and reminds me
that such a trigger is like a fragrant orchard for growing and flowering.
I love you, Rachel."

I'm touched, of course!
Yuval-David's reaction to my raging fury was similar:
instead of backing off (like Ya'acov did in October concerning the same issue
of not becoming himself and therefore not becoming equal to me),
he expressed yearning for my "otzmah" [power, puissance, intensity, intensiveness]

What should I do now?
Not say more about what triggered me than what I sculpted on my "altar"?
Not give power to what caused me to scream at Yuval-David
and to finally ask him to let me freeze the relationship with Paz and Tamir and him?

I'll let it all sink in before writing anything, either here or as a response to Tamir.

17:30 a phonecall from a woman in Arad, Shoshana:
"Do you remember, how you helped Daniela, my foster daughter
to receive money from the friends of her dead parents in Germany?
I'm arranging her wedding, she now is 22, and I want to invite you."
Of course I told her, that I didn't even attend the wedding of my best friends...

On the other hand I was "not excited" , to say the least,
about "the Future of Cyberspace".
"In 20 years we'll hardly know,
if we are playing or working",
some genius said, and another:
"When people play those games,
90% choose the roles of the "good guys".
But they'll have to learn,
that being good means to sacrifice things,
how will they act , if ..."
And he mentioned a ghastly dilemma.
It is like what little science fiction I watched
for lack of patience:
they plan miraculous technology!
but the belief systems of today stay the same,
and the feelings stay as unevolved
and therefore destructive as today.
The dualism of "good and evil", for instance,
is not even questioned by those "scientists".

2008-05-26~~~2013-05-26 DELICIOUS      DELETION

2008-05-25~~~2013-05-25 DELICIOUS      DELETION

Another passage in Yael's Bat-Mitzvah booklet
was this little article by Moshe Greenberg
"The Value of the Human Being in the Bible".
I remember Greenberg as one of the few scholars,
from whose writings I benefitted during my PH.D. studies.


The third value of which Greenberg speaks here,
the uniqueness of each human being in Judaism ,
is not an abstract value!
It is the logical result of the fact of mutual dependency.
As I have learnt through the 5 years of my PH.D. studies,
and through the painful experience
of what is missing in Christianity,
the unique accomplishment of ancient Jewish thinking
was the recognition of this fact;

Since I'm constantly suffering for what others do or don't do,
and others are constantly suffering for what I do or don't do,
there is only one solution:
that I take responsibility for everybody else.
"If I am here, everybody is here,
if I am not here, nobody is here."
One of the sayings, which is known to most Israelis, is:
"Whoever looses one soul, has lost the entire world,
whoever helps one soul to live, helps all the world to live."

See the English Digest of the 4th chapter
in the 2nd part in my book ["bundle" refers to the German & Hebrew text]
Fourth Chapter
 The  S a g e s '  C o n c e p t u a l i z e d
T e a c h i n g   of   S o l i d a r i t y
[bundle 16]
1. The solidarity of the individual with the community
a) The warning in the Law
b) The solidarity and responsibility of the individual
c)The identification with the community at all times
[bundle 17]
2. The solidarity of everybody with his fellow
a) The lesson of history
b) G: Identification as motivation in rabbinical ethics
b) H: "A big rule in the Torah" : The Sages' estimate
c) G: The meaning of
"Be-loving to your fellow (as one) like you" (Levit. 19,18)
c) H: "your fellow like you", the meaning of the rule
[bundle 18]
d) G: The application of the "Rule" in the Torah itself
e) G: The application of the "Rule" by Israel's Sages
f) Solidarity in the face of death
[bundle 19]
3. The solidarity of the community with the individual
Summary