THE YEAR OF THE ROAR

2020 is an Extraordinary Year!

2020 = 40 = MEM  = Water, Choas, Blood

2020 = 400 = TAV = Cross, Sign Covenant

5780 is the year of the roar!

CANCER AND COVID-19 - THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE

COVID-19 is to the world a bit like cancer is to an individual family. 

If you have ever been through a health crisis, such as a serious cancer, you may be noticing some similarities to being locked down for COVID-19.  

With cancer, because of the effects of chemo one has to wash their hands and be far more careful about exposure to germs.  There are periods of time when your shut in. 

I remember when we went through Mary's cancer. The cancer was a curse but it was also a blessing in a strange sense too.  Of course there is the fear of the unknown. Concerns about survival. Questions about the future. But there was a bright side. Always look at the bright side! 

Human beings respond in certain basic ways to a crisis. 

Some with fear, anger, hate and blame. Others positively resetting their lives and seeking constructive ways to use their time at home. Generally speaking, all & all, adversity changes us for the better.

The breast surgeon said to Mary and me that it was going to be a very long year and to take it a day at a time.  Patience is key at times. 

That was a long year. Much longer than the "lockdown" we have now with COVID-19. But I notice now some similar aspects to the psychology of coping.

Here is little lady Charlotte sanding with my son Alex who is making shelves. Alex is also a major gardener. Covid-19 has given him time to get ahead. Whereas I went the route of flowers and trees, Alex went the root of vegetables. (Pun intended if you caught my spelling mistake.) 

I love what I see people doing in response to the virus crisis. I see people bonding every which way. Last night during a virtual Havdala service, I played "Rock, Scissors, Paper" with Rabbi Victor and friends from Temple Beth-El. Families are cooking a dinner together. Folks are doing household projects. Some are taking hikes. What a great time to go fishing or read poetry. 

With cancer, even though we had loving support, we pretty much had to go through it ourselves.  While our world turned upside down, everyone else's world was the same. 

Whereas with Covid-19, the entire world is upside down together. We are in it together. We are being brought together. 

With cancer and the chemo one can lose the taste of food, but gain an appreciation for the taste of life. 

🙏STAY CALM🙏

CAN LAUGHTER SAVE YOUR SOUL?

Laughter is good medicine. Laughter 
reduces pain, increases job performance, connects people emotionally, and improves the flow of oxygen to the heart and brain. 

It seems like God gave us laughter to heal our body.  Why would God stop there?! 

In today's terribly divided world we need laughter to heal our soul.  

Look at all the problems we have between us over our differences. You must have noticed how mean spirited people are to those who disagree with them about President Trump. 

Do you remember President Obama during the 2016 Correspondent's Dinner?  His jokes about Trump were so mean.  Personally, I believe that was THE precise moment when Donald Trump decided to run for President. 

For three years comedians, Hollywood, news anchors, latenight and daytime TV hosts have been obsessed with mocking the President of the United States. They make fun of his hair, hands, weight, wife, children, intelligence ... every single thing about the leader of our country! It is shameful.

Aside from the fact that he is our President and 60+ million support him, there is a deeper problem as I see it.

To begin with, the constant mocking in the mainstream media has been engrained in the public's mind.  Making jokes about President Trump has become part of American culture. It has gone well beyond just Trump.

When we go to extremes to mock others, as has become much too common, we misuse God's gift.

Here are some questions to ask ourselves to see if we are benefiting or misusing laughter:

• Are we able to laugh at ourself? Or are we mostly making fun of others?
• Do we see your own faults or do we only find them in others?
• If others disagree with us, do we mock them or try to learn what they see?

I believe God gave us a laughter to help us cope with pain - to heal both our body and our soul.  I opened this post with a little explanation of the physical health benefits of laughter.

Here is how laughter can heal our soul. When we laugh at ourselves we see our own faults.  When we see our own faults it easier for us to repent.
Repentance saves the soul. God gave us laughter to save our soul.

"Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves for they will never cease to be amused."

A NEW DAYENU

One of most beloved songs in the Passover seder is "Dayenu" – meaning, “it would have been enough”.

Our life is filled with miracles, beginning with us - our life, our first breath. Miracles are all around us, beginning with every Sunrise and the songs of creation that nature signs to us every day.

Miracles are given to us, our health, our family & friends.  God has given us so much. We are not worthy, but God provides more than enough. 

Yet, we are often blinded to our abundance by fear and desire. We wait for miracles, when we have so many to rejoice for. If we didn't receive one more miracle we would still have enough. Dayenu!

Even in life's storms, our miracles are many.  There is Light between the rain drops. There is peace within chaos.  

Everyday, and especially this particular Passover and Easter, remember to never forget all the miracles in our lives. Do not miss the whole point of gratitude and grace. Do not miss the whole point of Life itself. To give all the Glory to God. Seek a reason to be grateful, a reason to say “Dayenu.”

CHALLENGING THE WAY YOU THINK

I am going to challenge the way you think.  More specifically,  I am going to challenge the mainstream media's perspective on COVID-19.

Before I do I have to preface what I mean by the expression "the way you think."

I know how MOST of America thinks! Most Americans think like they are told to think. They think like their media sources tells them to think. They think like CNN, MSN. the NY Times, Washington Post OR, they think like FOX. They think like Democrats or Republicans.

People think like those who control the message want us to think.

In order to truly THINK for yourself you need to do much more than listen to the media or Hollywood. And sadly, even go to college!  Do you think a Liberal College Professor teaching a gender studies class wants you to think? They do not!  They want to fill your brain with how they want you to think!  Then again, so does a accounting or physics professor.  Both the Gender Studies professor and the Physics professor are teaching WHAT to think.

People don't have time to truly THINK for themselves!  So they upload their thoughts from the mainstream media every day.

People turn on the TV like we go to the gas station. We pick our pump and filler up!

In order to THINK one must do three things:
1. Pray - One must begin with an honest desire for truth and a deeper understanding. One must formulate questions in their mind and call out to something greater than themselves for inspiration and guidance.

2. Contemplate - One must look thoughtfully for a long time at the situation and ponder the possibilities. One must be open, curious and receptive. One must explore, observe and be patient!

3. Expression - Thoughts must be processed.  We need to formulate our thoughts. This requires the hand. That's right - One must perform their thoughts through acts of creation involving the interaction between our heart, mind and hand.  We must write. It could be a letter or an article or blog post, or a song, a poem or painting. Possibly even a dance, though I'd suggest that dance is a better way to process emotions than thoughts.  In order to process thought one needs to use their hands.  Facebook posts are a shallow and inadequate substitute for the process that I believe is required to THINK.

I believe that a person who is not praying, contemplating and expressing, they aren't seriously "THINKING." 

Discussing your thoughts can be an effective means of expression. Discussions typically fall quite short more often than not.

I have said enough about the challenges and shortcomings of "thinking" in America today.  Now I want to challenge the way much of mainstream media is telling us what to think about Covid-19.

1. First, a fact:

~80% of deaths associated with COVID-19 have been adults aged ≥65 years with the highest percentage of severe outcomes among persons aged ≥85.

If someone who is 80+ years old dies from the virus is that considered a "premature" death?

If someone who is 85 years old dies from cancer, heart disease or influenza and pneumonia is that considered a premature death?

Murder is premature death.  Being killed by a drunk driver is premature death. Suicide is premature death.  Those ddeaths are the result of Man's actions. Viruses are a fact of life. They part of God's design.  (If COVID-19 was engineered by the CCP, that is a case of mass murder!)

2. Suppose that over the next 12 months there are 10,000 deaths in the USA from Covid-19.  Let's say that during the same period there is also a 100,000* increase in the number of babies attributed to Covid-19 and social distancing. Was there more death or life as a result of the virus?

*In a typical year there are approximately 3.8 million births. In 2016 the number of births hit a 30 year low.

3. The challenges America and the world faces as a result of Covid-19 are causing long and extremely needed changes in the public and private sectors, as well as in individual lives.  Here are some examples:

• New systems and capabilities for testing are being introduced. So are methods for managing and distributing medical care such as telemedicine and mobile testing. 
• Planners are evaluating our supply chain. There is greater appreciation of the need for stockpiling critical supplies.
• America is reducing our dependence on China and elsewhere for drugs and other critical supplies. Many new jobs will be created in the USA. 
• People are considering their priorities in life and making more conscious choices about how to value and protect relations and what is meaningful to them.
• People are using the time they have at home in constructive ways such as cleaning, organizing and doing projects.
• Some people are deciding they want deepen their relationship to God and Yeshua. 
• America and other nations will be far more prepared to handle future health crisis.
• There is incredible improvement in the cooperation taking place within government at all levels as well as between the government and the business sector. It is reminiscent of the WWII wartime spirit that enabled us to defeat the enemy and win the war. America emerged out of the Depression as well as WWII stronger and better.  We began some of most prosperous years in our Nation's history. 

So, if all these positive things and many other beneficial consequences come from Covid-19, are there more reasons to be pessimistic or hopeful?

There are different ways to look at the situation with Covid-19.  It depends on how we choose to THINK about it. It depends on whether we do the THINKING or we let others tell us what to THINK.

WHAT IS THE FIXED POINT IN THE WORLD?

Reigen Magazine, 1927 Republic Weimar Erotic Magazine

Society and culture has a tendency to oscillate between one extreme and another, like a pendulum.  With it, society and culture dictate politics. Together they carry the weight of history.  As with a pendulum, history repeats itself.

With a pendulum there is a weight hung from a fixed point.  What's the fixed point from which the world history hangs?  I contend that it is God. 

In no other "story" does history repeat itself more than the Bible.  That is how people are able to draw parallels from one ancient time to another, and from one ancient time to today.

One of the special natures of the Bible is its framework of time and space.  It is not uncommon to find parallels separated by hundreds or even thousands of years and vast areas of space.  In fact, it is the tremendous difference in the way humans perceive time & space which makes it so difficult for us to understand God's ways!

The ancient prophets in the Bible drew the parallels for us mostly in highly metaphorical and obsure ways. Sages and rabbis interpreted their writings.  Christian pastors contextualize the Bible to help us understand the Bible and relate times in it and Yeshua to today.

Any time one wants to project the past into the future we are making predictions.  When we do so as it relates to the Bible one must see the world in the spiritual.  To do so, and keep it true, they must be guided by two essential things: Faith and the Spirit of God, also known as the Holy Spirit. Such is the Deliverance of prophecy.  Or as unbelievers and skeptics would call it, "crazy talk."

I have a little crazy talk for the skeptics. I will leave it to faithful believers to decide whether what I have to say qualifies as prophecy. But first I need to draw the scene. 

In Gemany in the 1920's, the decade prior to the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust, there was the a tragic pendulum swing.  

in Germany during the interwar period between Germany's defeat in World War I in 1918 and Hitler's rise to power in 1933 there was the Weimar Republic.  

By 1919, an influx of labor had migrated to Berlin which lead to a boom in trade, communications and construction. 

Average people began using their backyards and basements to run small shops, restaurants, and workshops and even the first modern department store sprung up. There was a large move to the cities with an "urban petty bourgeoisie." The middle class was growing and flourishing. The times provided a fertile ground for the modern arts and sciences. 

The Weimar Republic came with a socio-cultural environment that was known as Weimar Culture. Berlin was at the center of the hectic Weimar Culture.

Although not part of the Weimar Republic, German-speaking Austria, and particularly Vienna, was viewed part of Weimar Culture.

Weimar culture saw the emergence of the arts and sciences. Germany, and Berlin in particular, was both the center and beating heart of Weimar Culture. It was highly fertile ground for intellectuals, artists, and innovators in many fields.

The social environment was chaotic, and politics were passionate. German university faculties became universally open to Jewish scholars in 1918. Jewish intellectuals and creative professionals were among the prominent figures in many areas of Weimar culture.

Here is a list of some of the leading Jewish intellectuals on university faculties included physicist Albert Einstein; sociologists Karl Mannheim, Erich Fromm, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse; philosophers Ernst Cassirer and Edmund Husserl; political theorists Arthur Rosenberg and Gustav Meyer; and many others. Nine German citizens were awarded Nobel prizes during the Weimar Republic, five of whom were Jewish scientists, including two in medicine. 

One sociologist described the Weimar Culture this way. "Remarkable for the way it emerged from a catastrophe (WWI), more remarkable for the way it vanished into a still greater catastrophe (Nazi Germany and WWII), the world of Weimar represents modernism in its most vivid manifestation." 

Cultural historian Bruce Thompson, describes Berlin's postwar mood as depicted in a famous 1922 film by Fritz Lang called Dr. Mabuse the Gambler as "A world that went from the world of the slums (after WW1) to the world of the stock exchange and then to the cabarets and nightclubs–a time when chaos reigned, authority was discredited, power is mad and uncontrollable, wealth inseparable from crime."

The most modern depiction of the base and promiscuous atmosphere in the times of the Weimar culture is captured in this scene from the Cabaret.

Cabaret is a 1972 Academy winning film directed by Bob Fosse. It depicts a 1931 cabaret singer Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) who meets a British academic Brian Roberts (Michael York), who is finishing his university studies. Despite Brian's confusion over his sexuality, the pair become lovers, but the arrival of the wealthy and decadent playboy Maximilian von Heune (Helmut Griem) complicates matters for them both. The story of their love triangle plays out against the rise of the Nazi party and the collapse of the Weimar Republic.

Some say the culture of the Weimar period was later reprised by 1960s left-wing intellectuals. Maybe so, but I think it may be more accurate to say history is repeating itself today. But here's the thing. The history of the Weimar Republic lead into the rise of the National Socialist German Workers Party (the Nazi's).  So if there is a parallel that can be drawn to Weimar Culture and today, what is the parallel that can be projected for the Holocaust that it ultimately lead to?

In the Bible, when history repeats itself there tends to be one of two things. God is trying to teach us something or Man and God are fixing something. 

With the Passover and the Exodus, God and Moses are fixing 400 years of Hebrew bondage and fulfilling God's 1st Covenant to Abraham. With Easter, God and Yeshua are fixing God's design and fulling God's 2nd Covenant without violating God's Law concerning remarriage.  

What of today and the future. Is history repeating itself?  How will God, the "fixed point," swing the pendulum?

As I project it, God and the Messiah are going to repair the world, fulfill God's 1st and 2nd Covenant, and complete God's original plan, all while managing not to violate God's promise not to destroy the world again.  

As with the plagues before the Exodus and Yeshua's suffering and death on cross, there is price still to be paid for the suffering of the Holocaust.

On 04■08■2020 this Passover and Easter are being joined. Christians will be Jews and some Jews will find Yeshua.

On 04■08■2020 as Jonah, I myself will try to explain. I pray that the words will come to me as I lead a special Seder.  Perhaps the most important Seder I was meant to lead.

Baruch Hashem 

WARTIME MENTALITY AND SOCIAL DISTANCING

Fighting this Virus and getting through this pandemic, is like a nation experiencing wartime.  We all need to develop a wartime mentality.  Everyone has to make sacrifices.

In wartime there is the enemy.  There are often multiple enemies.  There are the warriors.  There are casualties and wounded. We each have roles to play. There is a wartime economy during which major elements of the economy are realigned. Sadly, there is also DESTRUCTION. But eventually we will have victory and recovery -- REBIRTH.

In life and society each of us has roles we serve in. Such as parent, child, employee, teacher, healthcare worker, soldier, volunteer, etc.  During a war, our roles are amplified. In wartime our contribtion to society is more important than ever.

In wartime it takes the combined strength of the society to fight the enemy. But we also must maintain and strengthen the homefront.

The homefront is as important as the frontline! In this pandemic, the frontline and the homefront are one in the same. We are truly all in this together. 

During wartime especially, our survival depends on our ability to come together.  Each of us must do the best we can to manage and get through a wartime period. Regardless of which role we may be in, we need to rise up for the greater good, as well as our individual benefit.

This is truly what Patriotism is all about!

As citizens, parents, families and households we have a role too. We try as best we can to adjust to the new reality, to make the best of it and keep our spirits up.

We all must make sure that we do not make it more stressful and difficult on those leading and fighting the war, as well as others who are helping the war effort. That means we must be willing to make sacrafices.

Patriotism calls for sacrifices.  

A Pandemic is a different kind of war. So how we need to fight it and how our roles come into play are different too. But there are plenty of parallels to a military wartime. 

As citizens and households our roll is to do what our leaders say they need us to do.  We also need to try to maintain a positive attitude as best we can on the homefront.

Our government leaders and healthcare "generals" have told us to practice social distancing.  But we also need to maintain a healthy and positive attitude.

As individuals we should consider the things we can do to successfully deal with social distancing. I made a list of things I can do. As you can see, on one hand social distancing doesn't have to be so aweful. Here are some things I can do:

Gardening, home improvement projects, going to parks, taking a pleasure drive, a family bbq, reading and writing, cleaning out my garage.

We must considering how to deal with social distancing in all our roles. Here are two other personal examples.

1. I am a company owner and president. My business has customers to serve. So I thought about how my customers and I could to deal with effects of social distancing. I wrote a blog about that which speaks to some of the things I can do. 
2. I serve as volunteer for a non-profit in the role of Vice President of the Jewish Federation of Dutchess County.  I am still actively considering what we can do other than cancelling events.

The millenials, the younger generation, would typically be the soldiers on the front lines in a military war. They would be asked to make great sacrafices as soldiers. In this war, in a pandemic that requires us to practice social distancing, they have the most difficult time psychologically with the practice of social distancing.  They are learning a powerful lesson about the meaning of patriotism!

During World War II there was a phrase that started in England and became a mantra for that wartime.  It is still quite popular to hear or see it since then. It speaks to the mental state one has to maintain during difficult and trying times.  It is:

Some today have been promoting a spin off on that for these times.

Last summer before the virus came around, when I started speaking about an upcoming period of DESTRUCTION and REBIRTH which foresaw starting in 01■01■2020, I created my own mantra have been using for sometime.

Patriotism is tremendous!  It is essential.  Without it one will not survive, let alone win a war.  But Patriotism is not enough to be victorious in life.

In life, I believe we also need God. We need to believe in a power greater than ourselves or our country.  We need to be grateful for life and for the Creator of all life. That calls for prayer.

I believe a nation united in prayer, let alone a world united in prayer has a powerful advantage.

During wartime there are miraculous events.  There are many stories of superhuman efforts and amazing turns in events. Prayer has played a part in wartime for as long as the Bible and in much of history.

America is a nation founded on faith and the Father of our great nation, General George Washington gave all the glory to God!  George Washington and witnesses around him attributed many moments which turned the course of events in the Revolutionary War, to Providence.

Social Distancing is something we can and are doing. But the effects it is having on our economy is actually FAR MORE DEVASTATING than any war America and the world has EVER FOUGHT.  We need social distancing to stop. In order for that to happen we need a vaccine that prevents the virus and/or a therapy that stops the virus.

We need a vaccine faster than mankind has EVER come up with a cure for a virus.  We need to end this plague against mankind before social distancing destroys us. We need a miracle!  And we need it now -- not in four months from now or even two months.

WARTIME IS SUSTAINABLE. SOCIAL DISTANCING IS NOT!

Please join in pray for the scientists and doctors and others who have been gifted with great minds to find a cure.  That is the miracle the world needs now!

(For my Jewish friends I offer the following regarding the Unetanah Tokef.)