I am sitting here in the sunshine of Yerushalayim, ever so grateful that HaShem has allowed us to live in the most beautiful city on earth. However, my thoughts are flooded with concern for friends and our Jewish family of Yidden, and all peoples, in America threatened by hurricane Sandy as she roars through several states unleashing the ocean's waters from their boundaries. HaShem gave the waters on the earth on the third day of creation a directive not to go beyond their boundaries, set by the sands of shorelines.
But what are they witnessing before their visual amazement? The waters are overflowing their boundaries. In all the coverage of Sandy's strange path through the ocean ('hugging the shoreline,' 'veering strategically left,' 'unleashing her might surrounding Manhattan,' and then in a reversed question-mark path' continuing) onto land, I have not heard anyone exclaim that "the Hand of G-d, is G-d angry with us! He has loosened the boundaries of the sea."
This experience should produce introspection, a delving into one's psyche to grasp a message embeded in this mega-storm. An "ultra-shattering" event occuring between the Parsha of Lech Lecha where HaShem instructs Avraham to leave his country and family for the promised land, and the Parsha of Vayera and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Could there be a message here for the "undecided" Jews in America?
Who will lead the once great Republic away from a atheistic socialistic philosophy toward a restoration of G-dly values?
Unclear about one's heritage and one's Jewishness?
Ambivalent about supporting the holiness of our G-dly inheritance of Eretz Yisrael?
Antagonistic about returning home and living under the Wings of G-d's message to the world in the fulfillment of ancient prophecies, giving birth to the cities, farms, and Jewish babies on the Land.
How could one remain undecided about who Governs this world and what He wants from us! Who causes the sun to shine, Who loosens the boundaries of the seas upon the sands of the shores.
Midrash Bereshis on the creation of the waters:
"On the third day, the earth was as flat as a plain, and the waters covered the entire surface of the earth. And when out of the mouth of the Almighty there issued the command "Let the waters be gathered together . . . and let the dry land appear" (Genesis 1:9), mountains and hills rising up in different parts of the earth emerged over its entire surface, so that it became pitted with many valleys. As the core of the earth rose up, the waters rolled down into the valleys [and became seas]. Forthwith, swelling with pride, the waters rose in order to cover the earth as at the beginning. But then the Holy One rebuked them, subdued them, placed them beneath the soles of His feet, and measured out their extent with His own span, so that they should neither enlarge nor diminish. And as a man makes a hedge for his vineyard, so He made the sand into a hedge for the seas, so that when the waters rise and see the sand before them, they turn back and recede."
Time will tell, and we will wait to see if we have witnessed America's 'Swan Song,' after viewing the scope of the disaster inflicted on the commercial and financial hub of America, New York, reminiscent of the 9/11 impact on her psyche and as a 'world power'.
"Swan Song" has become an idiom referring to a final theatrical or dramatic appearance, or any final work or accomplishment. It generally carries the connotation that the performer is aware that this is the last performance of his or her lifetime, and is expending everything in one magnificent final effort. (Wikipedia)
Nearly the size of the United States, Hurricane Sandy was unstoppable:
(AP Photo)
True scale of damage just coming to light. "The full scale of the destruction caused by the 'superstorm' is coming to light, with row after row of Atlantic vacation homes on the horizon wiped out (pictured top before and below after) by the deadly force of surging waters and winds which reached peaks of 95mph. Deaths were reported in New York, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Atlantic City's historic boardwalk is in splinters, and this once-bustling New Jersey town is a devastated shadow of its former self." (Daily Mail)
Phenomenally sad pictures from and English (British) website:
HERE. It looks like 9/11 destruction spread here and there all over the NY Metropolitan area plus some (NY, NJ, CT, DE, MD, WV, PA, NC, ME & Canada). In Breezy Point NY alone, 80 to 100 homes destroyed by Sandy and uncontrollable fire. That means 80 to 100 families, children, without their home and possessions. Senator Ten Turner from NY is among the bereft.
In this picture, clouds and a rainbow hovering over Manhattan, reminiscent of Parshas Noah
W I D E S P R E A D flooding and utility outages, will take days
Compilation Video of iReporters' Sandy Images:
Long Island NY, Ocean City MD, Boston MA, NJ and Snow in WV Flooding in NY-NJ tunnels, subways et al Wild weather from Sandy travelled as far west as Pittsburg, Ohio, Detroit and Chicago and Indiana:
Could wreak havoc across 800 miles... "Tens of millions of people in the eastern third of the U.S. in the path of the unprecedented freak storm had hours Sunday to prepare for the first raindrops that were expected later in the day, to be followed over the next few days by sheets of rain, high winds and even heavy snow."
Meteorologist: Storm Could Be Bigger Than Worst East Coast Storm On Record Biggest Ever (!)
The Statue Of Liberty Crown Reopens on her 126th Birthday Sunday . . .
Just in time to welcome a pre-election day horrendous hurricane hurdling up the east coast toward Delaware, DC, Penna, and New York, and beyond, that could put everyone in limbo for several days and might read something like this:
"2012 Election Catastrophe as Hurricane Sandy roars onto America's East Coast and inward toward Ohio to disrupt Obama's reelection plans, despite shipping van-loads of Somalis into Ohio to try and steal vote him in for the presidency again."
Meanwhile, preparations and evacuations are under way to shore up against the titanic and massive behemoth of a storm being sent to wake up those undecided voters (!) or is it to interfere and cancel the coming dangerous and farcical election.
America's East Coast is in 'preparation' mode, contemplating the aftereffects of the voting gargantuan approaching storm.
In New York the MTA is preparing for flooding shown in this AP photo. One headline has "60 Million people evacuating" :
The NYT has a great interactive map that you can enter your zip to see where your area is in Sandy's path.
"Thousands of people were evacuated from low-lying areas, governors across the region declared states of emergency, and federal officials issued urgent warnings for people to prepare, saying that the storm’s impact would stretch to the Ohio Valley."
From this NOAA graph of Sandy's path, she is estimated to decidedly turn into the DC, Penna, NJ area. Hurricane Centralexplains why this is not a typical storm.
Reuters: "The storm's hurricane force winds extended 105 miles from its center while its lesser tropical storm-force winds reached across 700 miles ... The storm could cause the worst flooding Connecticut has seen in more than 70 years."
The US Jews are blinded by Cognitive Dissonance between the past and the present. I believe their eyes and minds are covered by a cataract of wishful expectations from stagnant rhetoric about "programs" they have become dependent upon, the rhetoric of public pronouncements made to disguise behind the scenes dissolution of basic freedoms contained in the Bill of Rights, US Constitution, and Declaration of Independence.[1] These documents created the great American Dream for which immigrants have been flooding its shores ever since. [2-3] In November, the fate of the future of America will be determined. This is a choice between 'good' and 'evil'.
the American Way of Life... to be swallowed by collective socialism;
the Declaration of Independence... gone
the US Constitution ... to be usurped by Sharia Law;
the Bill of Rights dissolved... by a socialist agenda.
It is so sad to watch, from a 5000 mile perspective, the dumbing down of the American People.
An example of this cognitive dissonance is expressed by Dr. David Luchins (a former aide to Sen. Patrick Moynihan ages ago). He brings in a letter to Mishpacha Family Weekly magazine, a story from the days of Yitzchak Shamir and about the Israeli Prime Minister being 'friends' with an American President. And in the same letter, he says, "The [current] president has done a superb job of fighting terror, strengthening the coalition against, and subversive activities within, Iran; protecting Israel at the United Nations and partially righting an economy that was in virtual free fall when he took the oath of office ...." [7]
I am amazed by the lack of understanding of exactly what is historically taking place. It's been a slow trajectory toward disintegration; (from Woodrow Wilson, to) the present President is speeding things up exponentially. A leader with 34 Czars to put into place a probable European Style Socialist Government. All this is right before the eyes of the American People, the Jewish politicians, and the entire world to see. And Dr Luchins might uncharacteristically vote this incumbent into a second term[?] A second chance to do all he was not able to accomplish in the first four[?] And as he told Medvedev, he will have greater flexibility after this election (to destroy....) Freedom as we all have known it[?]
Insightful Glenn Beck has created a chart (not the first or last) for us:
"Glenn divided Obama’s record into two categories: the times he rushed into “help” with a gutsy call and the times he wanted to wait for all the facts to respond.
“If it is just a series of mistakes, this guy doesn’t think he’s making any mistakes. He thinks he’s fine, ... The guy is arrogant and mistake riddled when it comes to our foreign policy. But I don’t happen to believe that he’s making mistakes.”[8]
"Here’s the question Glenn wants you to pose to your friends: Even if this guy’s gut is so abysmal and all of the mistakes are just unintentional – why would you want to vote him back in with this track record?"
One of the ways that America has fundamentally changed from the original land of opportunity is the dumbing down in education. Have you even noticed (over the years) the dumbing down of America: [4-5]
Wikipedia on Dumbing Down: Dumbing down describes the deliberate diminishment of the intellectual level of the content of literature, film, schooling and education, news, and other aspects of culture.
"In Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1991, 2002), John Taylor Gatto presented speeches and essays, including “The Psychopathic School”, his acceptance speech for the 1990 New York City Teacher of the Year award, and “The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher”, his acceptance speech for the 1991 New York State Teacher of the Year. Gatto speculated:
"Was it possible, I had been hired not to enlarge children’s power, but to diminish it? That seemed crazy, on the face of it, but slowly, I began to realize that the bells and confinement, the crazy sequences, the age-segregation, the lack of privacy, the constant surveillance, and all the rest of the national curriculum of schooling were designed exactly as if someone had set out to prevent children from learning how to think, and act, to coax them into addiction and dependent behavior."
"I did testify on HB1153 and how the 'internationally benchmarked' Core Curriculum standards opened the door to control by the United Nations of America's history. The point seemed not to bother six of our Senators who voted against HB1153 in South Dakota's Senate Education committee yesterday. We heard arguments that HB1153 violated America's democracy by Ed Pogeny from the Department of Education and Dianna Miller, lobbyist for the "Large School Group". Both are paid with taxpayers' dollars. No one during the committee corrected them as to the true founding of America as being a "Constitutional Republic". I was not given the opportunity to point out that the testimony proved that we not only needed to pass HB1153, but we needed to do much more. America's history has been severely misstated, and I question as to whether or not that is by design. The question of the day, who is controlling today's American history?"
"One way to change the direction of a nation is to keep people ignorant. The public schools have done a great job in shifting worldview thinking from theism to humanism right under the noses of parents who extol the virtues of America's government education system" ... "When law professors get in the act of distorting the role that religion played in the founding of America, we are in serious trouble. It's these law professors who are teaching lawyers, some of whom will become judges and make rulings of what can and cannot be taught in our nation's schools."Historical Revisionism, an eBook by Gary DeMar.
In the opposition to this cognitive dissonance and dumbing down of America, there are courageous people who are speaking out, historians, politicians, and regular people.
"As the most consequential document of freedom in human history, the Declaration of Independence is the most important document ... The Founding Fathers believed that our rights as human beings come from God, not from the kind or the state. Thus, they rejected the notion that power came through the monarch to the people; but rather, directly from God."[6]
Footnotes and additional reading (some out of order above):
2 "Between 1836 and 1914, over 30 million European immigrants entered the United States of America ... They left in search of freedom and opportunity of a degree not found in their native Europe .... How the majority of immigrants arrived in New York, Philadelphia, Boston ...." by Nicholas J. Evans, Work in Progress.
3 Jews of the United States 1654 - 2000 by Hasia R. Diner. Some relevant chapters:
1820-1924: A Century of Migration, ... Jewish Life, ... Jewish Politics; and 1948-1967 A Golden Age? A book to definitely read for Jewish perspective.
4 'The Florida State Board of Education passed a plan that sets goals for students in math and reading based upon their race. " More here.
7 Mishpacha Family Weekly Magazine, Issue 428, pages 28-29, September Surprise, and Issue 429, pages 10-11, Romney's Real Point, and Inbox, page 7, Letter by Dr. David Luchins, "... I have not voted for a second-term president since 1972 ... I am more comfortable with my vote this time around...."
"Romney could so easily win were he to attack Obama on any of the following significant events that every voter would understand as significant:
For releasing Guantanamo Bay detainees, one who even pleaded guilty to killing a U.S. soldier;
His repeated voting record for sanctioning the murder of babies who escaped an abortion attempt;
His association with America haters, American convicts, and even foreigners known to be on the FBI list of terrorists;
His "Fast and Furious" scandal; Or his "Libyan Embassy" coverup.
His association with America haters, American convicts, and even foreigners known to be on the FBI list of terrorists;
His dismantling of American technology's crown jewel, NASA, turning it into a Muslim propaganda agency;
His shameless taking od credit for killing Osama Bin Laden and the quick sea burial;
His whitewashing the Jihad war and the "terrorist" threat - all while posting TSA agents to invade our privacy at every airport in the U.S.
Or how about the idiocy of blaming a murder on a video clip that was viewed on Youtube by twenty people, whereas a Batman movie, in which 23 people met their death a few months ago by a Batman impersonator, was never blamed by this mindless president.
... the list is too long to enumerate, the abuses too many to count - by this arrogant criminal." Visit Hezbos
His top speed initially was estimated last October at 834 mph, or Mach 1.24.
"Red Bull Stratos is a mission to the edge of space that will try to surpass human limits that have existed for more than 50 years. Supported by a team of experts, Felix Baumgartner will undertake a stratospheric balloon flight to more than 120,000 feet / 36,576 meters and make a record-breaking freefall jump in the attempt to become the first man to break the speed of sound in freefall (an estimated 690 miles / 1,110 kilometers per hour), while delivering valuable data for medical and scientific advancement."
"Enough with the two-state-solution. Land for peace is over," Danon said. "We don't want a Palestinian State. We need to apply Israeli sovereignty over all Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. It's been about 20 years since the Oslo Accords. It's finished and now we're ready for new ideas."
"If you go to the Arab populated cities in Judea and Samaria, you will hear them speaking like they do in Jordan," he said. Danon asserted that the Arab population of Judea and Samaria have Jordanian accents and often travel to and from Jordan. "It's the same with the Arabs of Gaza and their connection to Egypt, he stated.
PS Yes, PM Netanyahu, I too, believe Barak is stirring up discord between America and Israel.
