It is Time (Again) To Save (Our) Humanity—In Five Parts

I was really mad last week. And wrote a writing that I planned to share last Monday. I had already written the ‘My Back’ piece as the writing for last Monday’s writing, but then Hersh Goldberg-Polin was brutally murdered along with six other young and beautiful people and my heart broke. And I was mad.
 
And I wrote a piece that I thought I would post. And then, last Monday morning, I woke to the clarity that this anger, while it serves a part of me and while we need it—we need to be angry— this anger, coming out on this page and shared, it puts me in this place of possibly alienating others. 
 
And in this moment of grief for the loss of these six brave souls, and for the continued trauma of my Jewishness, and for the constant violence against my people, and the violence against all others who are the focus of this organization that calls itself Hamas, but is really a cancer, I don’t want alienation from others. I want inclusiveness. 
 
I want light. I want connection and understanding. And love.
 
And so I posted the ‘My Back’ piece, that I had written first, knowing that this newer piece, that came up out of me in response to my grief , and in response to my grief camouflaged as anger, and in response to my anger too, that I would sit on this piece over this week and rewrite it in this way that is more in alignment with where all of me is at. 
 
So I’ve rewritten this piece. This piece that I wrote last week after all six beautiful souls, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, age 23 and Eden Yerushalmi, age 24, and Carmel Gat, age 39, and Almog Sarusi, age 26, and Alex Lubnov, age 32, and Ori Danino, and age 25, were murdered. 
 
I rewrote this piece so that, while there are parts in here that embrace this anger, there is also possibility. There is responsibility. There is humanity. There is saving our humanity. There is honoring the existence of our humanity.  
 
Honoring the existence of our humanity because perhaps if we notice it is here, it will appear.
 
2.
 
“Nothing happens to you. It’s happening for you.  There are times where you might find yourself buried in a very deep and dark place. But just know, that maybe you have not been buried at all. Maybe you’ve just been planted.”--Berel Solomon
 

3.
 
I wrote a piece a while back. A long while ago, November 23, 2015. I wrote a piece called It’s Time (Again) To Save (Our) Humanity.
 
This is that piece, edited for now--
 
I have been thinking a lot about the pain that surrounds us these days. Whether the violence that has hit upon every shore of every country, the silent weeping of birds and beast, or the deep, soft murmur that echoes from the earth as her essence is ignored and we soil her skin. 

At first, this pain, it pained me. To the extent that I could not take it in. It was too much. The news hurt my soul. The information was toxic to my spirit. My skin, like the earth, was tender. And so I shut it down. I stopped letting the information in. I checked out. And felt, for a short but sweet time (or so it seemed sweet in the moment of it) that I was separate from it all. And so safe.

But this is not my truth. 

It was merely a temporary rest. A getting ready. For my opportunity to save myself. 
 
Because what is really going on, whether man against man, against beast, against earth, it is a trigger for us to tap into our higher selves. To rediscover our connection to each other and to Spirit, God, One. Call it what resonates within you. 
 
And let it resonate within you. 
 
Because this is what this time is. It is not about saving others. It is about saving ourselves. It is about finding our true essence. Embracing our beauty. Seeing our potential. Our power. Our grace. Our love.

And so when you see the news on the television, in the papers, on the ever-in-use computer, see it for what it is. A wake-up call. Our wake-up call. A kick to our soul's ass into getting going again.

The world—earth and animal and air—it has aligned again to move us to see the work we need to do. Because we have lost ourselves. And the little reminders, they did not work. We needed something big. Something our bodies and our minds and our egos cannot ignore. Something that shocks us so we can get out of our own way.  So that we see again. So that we wake up. And so the Universe—Spirit, God, One— it has given us this.  
 
This moment. 
 
The Universe —Spirit, God, One—has given us this moment. The Universe—Spirit, God, One—is begging us to wake up.

If we believe, as I believe, that we are here, in this physical body on this sweet, soft ground called earth, to reach our fullest potential—find our true power, embrace the light within ourselves—then we can see clearly that all of this, the mess of it, the pain and sorrow and loss of it, it is here before us to move us forward towards the place where we are journeying.

And at this moment when we rediscover ourselves we will remember each other. And see (again) that we are not alone on this journey. That we are connected. To each other. That we have been connected all along. 

All of us.
 
4.
 
Julia Haart released a video last week. In response to the murder of the six hostages that were found in Gaza. The six hostages that were murdered by Hamas only shortly before they were found.
 
Let this sink in. These six beautiful souls didn’t just die. This was a deliberate killing because, Hamas, these heinous humans, would rather these six beautiful people be dead rather than be saved. 
 
When I first heard that Hersh Goldberg, age 23, an American citizen, kidnapped and tortured in Gaza, had been deliberately murdered before he could be saved, along with Eden Yerushalmi, 24, and Carmel Gat, 39, and Almog Sarusi, 26, and Alex Lubnov, 32, and Ori Danino, 25, my heart broke.
 
My heart is broken. And I am angry.  And I feel paralyzed. And hopeless.
 
And angry.  
 
A friend of mine sent me a text. “Fuck Hamas. And fuck these stupid college kids.”
 
And I thought, yes. Fuck those stupid college kids. And anyone else, anywhere in the world who, in anyway, supported Hamas. Which means not denouncing Hamas. You don’t have to just be raising the banner for terrorism to show support for Hamas. Complacency shows support. Silence, silence shows support. 
 
And then my sister shared Julia Haart’s video. Yes, I said, when I listened to this.
 
Yes.  Their blood is on your hands.
 
If you are not repulsed and angered by the murder of these six beautiful people, shame on you. This is not about who’s side you are on. This is not about your political beliefs. This is about your humanity. 
 
If you are not repulsed and angered, shame on you. Shame on you. Any of these hostages could be you. If you are not repulsed and angered, shame on you. Their blood is on your hands. 
 
Please watch Julia Haart’s video. Please share this video.  It is a call for our humanity. It is a call for our humanity. What is happening right now, it is call for our humanity.
 
5.
 
 
“If you want to see God save the innocent, you must get off the couch and save the innocent. If you want to see God feed the hungry, you need to feed the hungry. If you want to see God stand by while innocent suffer, all you need to do is stand by and do nothing yourself.”  —Rosh Hashana service prayer book commentary
 
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