Happy 250th Birthday, America! Chicken Soup on the Fire and Golda Meir’s Moral Clarity

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!! CHICKEN SOUP IS ON THE FIRE!

I am utterly fatigued by the waves of hatred crashing over the shores of our country —those very same designated 250 years ago, as safe Shores of liberty and justice for all.

However, I will not rest. I’m driven to keep sharing this message. I seek no “Rachmones” (mercy, or pity) from people whose minds have closed and whose hearts have become infested with irrational hatred towards the Jewish people and Israel, the eternal homeland of the Jews.

I seek no approval or validation from those of the rotted/ing neglected minds and shriveled hearts who have enthusiastically consented to a collective atrophy of basic human functional capacities for critical thought and fundamental empathy. I don’t pity you. You have made your bed and must now sleep in it.

Pseudo pity is nearly as pitiful as self pity. We as Jewish people, living in the states, are in need of neither.

I seek only my fellow Jewish brothers and sisters, and my Righteous Gentile friends who are my brothers from another mother named Mary.

As far as the rest, you have sold your souls and forfeited your credibility. I don’t forgive you. By screaming “from the river to the sea you sent a direct message of support and encouragement to murderers and terrorists. In that regard you are utterly complicit in the murder of my Jewish brothers and sisters. Most ironically, YOU are DIRECTLY complicit in the slaughter and destruction of any innocent palestinians ( and by that I mean those that weren’t cheering the murder and rape of women and children and elderly ) BY HAMAS who forced THEIR OWN PEOPLE AT GUNPOINT to become human shields.

For Am Yisroel, I will keep sharing the “good news” of your inherent “goodness.” I’m done doing “Hasbara (public relations) for Jewish Values to zombie like morons, who cannot understand them or apparently anything for that matter—chief among them being to love, champion, protect and exalt Zion and its people. And YES!! First and foremost I will champion Israels right and OBLIGATION to keep her people safe.

Ok, fine I WILL do a little “Hasbara”even if it falls on deaf ears. I’m not even talking to them. I am talking to YOU.

THERE IS NO GENOCIDE. There is only a sovereign state safeguarding its sovereignty in the aftermath of a rampage of rape, murder, and torture of innocent men women and children UNPRECEDENTED in our times. Hamas however has been systematically murdering and butchering their own people by utilizing them as human shields.

It’s not complicated at all. Golda Meir said all that needs to be said about the existence of the State of Israel and every word resonates today more than ever.

• The Tragic Cost of War: "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our sons. But we cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."

• Negotiating with Adversaries: "You cannot negotiate peace with someone who has come to kill you.

• The Aspiration Over Conflict: "We say peace and the echo comes back from the other side, war. We don't want wars even when we win."

• The Path to Ceasefire: "I have given instructions that I be informed every time one of our soldiers is killed, even if it is in the middle of the night. When President Nasser leaves instructions that he is to be awakened in the middle of the night if an Egyptian soldier is killed, there will be peace."

• The Reality of Survival: "If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."

There, a drop of “Hasbara.” Now, back to America on her 250 birthday.

This magical country, A “melting pot” it was called. Indeed it was so. However, this imperfect but nonetheless magical cauldron of tolerance, diversity, and safety—for the heady brew of immigrants, pouring into its midst, including my own parents and grandparents——is in itself in danger of melting away entirely.

However, on the momentous occasion of 250 years of this glorious country, forged in the valley of Forge as one nation, under G-d, indivisible, with justice and liberty for all— I offer my birthday prayer and blessings for her.

“May you reclaim your most beautiful and authentic self. May you rise up again in all your decency and tolerance.

May the “oneness” and “indivisibility,” under attack by the modern day “Trojan horse” and this generations homegrown version of the Redcoats (turncoats) —namely the greasy and sleazy podcast preachers, mere clones of the snake oil merchants of yesteryear—prevail, as it must and it always does sure as the rising sun.

Till then, I will celebrate the America that took in my family, and that gave me my childhood roaming carefree, and wild, through the streets of Northeast Philly in the seventies and eighties. I will do so in my fave Shul in the world with my fave people right here on Burrill Street in Swampscott. COME AND JOIN US!!

I will begin tonite, at home with my own family, including my newlywed daughter and son in law with some delicious chicken soup cooked right here in our own highly operational melting pot.

G-d bless you all and G-d Bless America!!

Sending much Love!

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Yossi