5784, Vaera

Exodus 6:2-9:35

There’s much I can say to this parasha. The idea of escaping the corruption of the city for wilderness especially speaks to me. But today I want to focus on something else.

We learned last week that Pharaoh intentionally made the Israelites’ work more difficult by not supplying hay for bricks but keeping their quota the same. The hay was traditionally supplied by the Pharaoh’s state, allowing the workers to form the bricks faster. Forcing them to gather their own hay and keeping their quota the same is unnecessary and serves only to break their spirits.

We know what happens when people try to break our spirits.

This week, Moses, selected by G-d; and Aaron, selected by Moses, are to implore Pharaoh to free the Israelites so they can serve G-d. Pharaoh, who enjoys free labor, as many in power do, doesn’t want to lose it. Also, just like many in power, he doesn’t just want free labor, but to show off his power. This week it results in the first six, out of 10, plagues. If we’re breaking up 10 plagues, why six and not five? That’s a different drash.

Instead my question is this: what happens when oppressors try to show off their power to us, today? We have Iron Dome, we have the IDF, we have associations and organizations to advocate for us. We are no longer dhimmi, the status the Ottoman Empire gave us, rendering us legally powerless.

What happens when Pharaoh tries to show off his power to us, then? We have G-d, Moses, and Aaron.

It took me longer than I care to admit, which is Thursday, to understand why Pharaoh’s sorcerers replicated the plagues at first. It was to say “big deal, we can make plagues, too.” It was a play to invalidate the power of G-d.

What’s the difference then, between the plagues that Moses directed from Hashem, and the spells Pharaoh’s sorcerers cast? There is, of course, the source. One is divine, one is from mortals. Just like the difference between human ingenuity and AI, one creates, the other is diminutive.

Humans have the amazing ability to create ideas and art. Whether we paint a fresco depicting a wonder or write a melody which leaves us speechless, our hands, our minds, our mouths, and even our entire bodies are able to drive an emotion, story, or thought. This might be for ourselves in the privacy of our space or publicly, for an audience.

AI doesn’t have this ability. It can only take in data, mix it up, interpret it as data instead of emotions, and put out something that incorporates elements of everything else put in. It doesn’t create, it just reassables.

We’re made in G-d’s image. We can create. We have breath, just as G-d has breath.

Back to plagues versus spells. Hashem creates, sorcerers cast. The only thing sorcerers can put out is what is already in the nature that G-d created. On the other hand, the depth of plagues is vastly deeper than anything mankind can direct or conjure up.

Okay, so I’ve talked about plagues and the power that the sorcerers ultimately found lacking against G-d. Let’s talk about something else.

There’s an idea called “‘b’ eating crackers”. The ‘b’ is a diminutive word which rhymes with “ditch” or “stitch”. This phrase is for when you have such a deep loathing of someone that even something as innocuous as them eating crackers will drive you mad. This is, obviously, hardening one’s heart.

And we’ve all experienced the ‘b’ eating crackers. When we’re sitting at the airport or on a plane and can’t stand the person sitting next to us. Or when we’re on the bus. Or when someone says something and we just can’t stand it, that’s the ‘b’ eating crackers phenomenon.

Pharaoh didn’t like us standing up for ourselves. Does that sound familiar?

In her 2021 book, People Love Dead Jews, Dara Horn writes about how people love Jews when they’re dying, but hate the idea of us standing up for ourselves.

I don’t want to get too deep into current events because we all know too much about what’s going on. We all know the insipid, antisemitic response of the UN and the Hamas enabling UNRWA. We all know about how the UN’s commission on human rights is headed by some of the world’s most egregious violators of human rights.

Please bear with me as we take a detour, for context.

Pharaoh hardened his own heart against us during the first five plagues. Moses cast his staff and G-d enacted a plague. Pharaoh’s sorcerers cast their spells and Pharaoh said “see, you’re not special” for the first two plagues. At the third plague, the sorcerers couldn’t create lice. And suddenly they understood their limitations.

At the fifth plague, the sorcerers deeply understood that Hashem, the source behind the nature they used for spells, was out of their influence. During the sixth plague, the sorcerers were afflicted like all their kinsmen. They were unable to recreate the boils because they were in too much pain from their own.

Pharaoh relented, after the swarms of insects, and said he would allow the Israelites to go out of his city to sacrifice and serve G-d. However, as soon as it became convenient and he wasn’t under pressure, he reneged. We were about to escape the corruption of the city to the purity of the wilderness, something I’m deeply familiar with, when Pharaoh decided he didn’t want to let us have respite, after all.

Pharaoh had taken the one thing that those who would oppress us don’t have: he had taken our autonomy.

Let’s come back to eating crackers and hardening hearts.

It was only after the fifth plague that G-d started hardening Pharaoh’s heart. During the first five, Pharaoh made his own choices. He made the decision to hurt us. After that, G-d demonstrated the error of his ways to ensure he couldn’t do it again.

We have entire groups of people who’ve been quietly advocating against us for years. We also have groups of people and countries who have been vocally advocating against us. Both silent and loud people conspiring against us.

Finally, after October 7, for a reason that can only be attributed to the world’s oldest hatred, we were perceived to be eating crackers when we were just standing up for ourselves. All these groups of people who hardened their own hearts should be starting to realize their sorcerers, their advisors, their allies are against something they haven’t been able to imagine.

Then, as Ezekiel, in this week’s Haftarah said
“Thus, said G-d,
“I’m going to deal with you Pharaoh
“Who said ‘my Nile is my own, I made it for me.’”
We have people claiming a river, the Jordan, just as Pharaoh claimed the Nile, is for them, when it’s for all of us. And today, the Jordan River, just as with the Nile, we will not allow it to slip from us.

Somehow, despite the vocal antisemites in academia, despite the vocal antisemites on social media, despite the antisemitism latent in governments, and despite the antisemitic bent in so much media, support for Israel is up. We still have a long way to go, but what we’re up against is not unprecedented. 

The danger may not be unprecedented, though luckily we’re able to take unprecedented care of ourselves. Instead of stealing aid meant for others to line our pockets as Hamas does, we invest in each other and ourselves. We strive for a civilization, which takes care of each other, while those who would see us gone fight within each other while fighting us.

Hashem gave a corrupt leader plagues upon his people. We did not suffer these plagues, and I believe deep in my soul that it’s because we operate as a people and as a nation, not as an oligarchy or dictatorship. We’re here for each other and we continue to be.

Only by being here for each other can we get through this. Hashem gave us each other, and we are a nation, as one, alone.

Am Yisrael chai and Shabbat shalom.



Context on the Israel-Hamas war by a left leaning Jew

A Not-So-Brief Something on Israel and Hamas

Here I am, writing at 3 am as an attempt to put down my thoughts on Israel to combat antisemitic tropes I see repeated in social media, mostly from the left. These are people who are supposed to be my allies, who fight for human rights, social justice, and getting people safety in their native lands.

This is not to absolve Israel of any wrongdoings, not at all. Nor is this an indictment of Palestinians. This is simply to offer context that I see missing in so, so many spaces, especially leftist ones.

So often I see these causes turn against Jews, against 0.2% of the world’s population, against a people who, in 2021 in the US, account for 51% of religious inspired hate crimes. (source). This number is expected to have increased in the last weeks.

In this, I’m going to talk about the indigenousness of Jews in Israel, how Palestine got its name, how modern day Israel was founded, the origins of Zionism, the start of Hamas, what Hamas is doing now, and how Israel has been trying to deal with it. I’ll also give a brief history of antisemitism, mostly to give it a definition that’s actionable. Everything is easily verifiable, though I’ll try to include links where I can to back up what I say. If there’s any confusion, just google it. I am not an historian, but I do know history. While I often will list only one or two sources, it’s easy to find many more backing up what I’ll say, when it’s not opinion.

 Jews in Israel

Jews have been in Israel since 1,900 BCE. We’ve had a presence there since we split off of the Canaanites. We never fully left. This is almost 4,000 years of history.

The area had been taken control of by the Neo-Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, Hellenists (under which the Maccabean revolt happened, creating the base for the holiday of Chanukah), and the Romans. The Romans maintained control from 64 BCE through the Jewish-Roman wars of 66-136 CE. These wars saw the creation of the Jewish diaspora due to their violence toward Jews. Violence, enslavement, forced conversion, and forced migration were the weapons the Roman, then the Byzantine empire used against us. This is one leg in the formation of the word “diaspora.” (sources: 1, 2)

The land has been through many names. Originally Canaan, then Judea, and then Palaestina. Palaestina was named by Roman emperor Hadrian to try and wrest away Jewish claim to the land after the failed Jewish revolt of 132 CE. This is the origin of the name Palestine. (source, but there are so many others) .

For modern history purposes, the Ottoman Empire controlled Israel, then called Palestine, from 1516 CE to 1918, save for a 9 year period, until the British took it over and called it British Mandate of Palestine. This changeover happened at the end of World War I.

Archeologically speaking, we are indigenous to Israel. Our ruins are there. Every year new areas are dug up with proto-Hebrew or Aramaic writings. Our presence in Israel is older than Christianity, and much older than Islam.

Every time Israel changed hands of controllers, it was due to colonialism. Whether it was the Romans, the Greeks, British, or Arabs, it was always an incursion onto Jewish land. For an exhaustively researched article diving deep into this, you can read this one by an historian of the region. I beg you to understand that not all colonizers are British.

If you’re looking at Jewish return to Israel, that’s exactly what it is: return. Jews have never tried to colonize an area. We’ve only been trying to get back to where we were forcefully run out of.

The founding of Modern Day Israel

To be clear, Jews were in Palestine. It derived from the name given to the region by Hadrian. They called themselves Palestinians, as did the Arabs that lived there. Anyone who lived there was Palestinian. Just like how I’m Jewish and call myself an American, Jews in then-Palestine called themselves Palestinians.

At the end of World War I, the British through the Balfour Declaration, sought to begin an “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” This makes sense as we had been driven out of the land through millennia of colonization and violence into areas that then committed violence against us. More on this later, though.

Arabs were, famously, opposed to Jews migrating back to the land they’d been living in (or, occupied, if you want to talk about Arab colonialism). They started attacking Jews before the foundation of the modern state of Israel, when the British had made their intentions known. But this is recorded only because it’s when the founding of Israel started. I suspect that Jews were second class citizens under Arabic rule in then-Palestine. It tracks with history, though I cannot find any sources to verify this.

When Israel was founded, the surrounding Palestinians called it a “catastrophe” or nakba. Of course it was a tragedy to them, and of course it was painful. They lost territory and land they’d been on for generations. I would argue that this was enabled by Britain and further perpetuated by Hitler (see the next section). Remember that Jews had been there for generations, though had lost control through colonialism. More on their status and relations with the occupiers of the time in the penultimate section of this post.

Yes, Arabic Palestinians had been in the area for a while, but it was only when Jews started migrating there during the 1800s did the majority of Arab migration happen (source). Only one of those people had indigenous claim to it — the Jews. Arabs were indigenous to the Arabic Peninsula, and remain so.

On May 14, 1948 CE at 4pm, David Ben Gurion oversaw the official turnover of the area to Israel and became the first prime minister of it. The surrounding Arab states immediately attacked.

During that ensuing war, Israel brought in shiploads of displaced Jewish war refugees who needed food, shelter, and medical treatment. This was after the Holocaust, where over 6,000,000 Jews had been systemically murdered in the diaspora.

Since the founding of Israel and the slaughter of Jews in the diaspora are inextricably linked to World War II and the Holocaust, I need to touch on the Nazi influence in Palestine.

Hitler and Palestine

I’m pulling a lot of this from the Wikipedia article on this, mostly because it’s an easy compendium of information with oodles of footnotes and sources. So here’s the link if you want it: source. This is just a well understood relation for most historians, and often overlooked for the political left.

The thrust of the matter is that the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, and Iraqi prime minister Rashid Ali al-Gaylani worked with Nazis to try and kill Jews in their regions. Here’s one statement from Hitler to al-Husseini.

Germany stood for uncompromising war against the Jews. That naturally included active opposition to the Jewish national home in Palestine, which was nothing other than a center, in the form of a state, for the exercise of destructive influence by Jewish interests. … This was the decisive struggle; on the political plane, it presented itself in the main as a conflict between Germany and England, but ideologically it was a battle between National Socialism and the Jews. It went without saying that Germany would furnish positive and practical aid to the Arabs involved in the same struggle, because platonic promises were useless in a war for survival or destruction in which the Jews were able to mobilize all of England’s power for their ends….the Fuhrer would on his own give the Arab world the assurance that its hour of liberation had arrived. Germany’s objective would then be solely the destruction of the Jewish element residing in the Arab sphere under the protection of British power. In that hour the Mufti would be the most authoritative spokesman for the Arab world. It would then be his task to set off the Arab operations, which he had secretly prepared. When that time had come, Germany could also be indifferent to French reaction to such a declaration.

Hitler and the Arabic leadership were united in exterminating the Jews. Luckily, left leaning Arabs were opposed to this, but they were sadly not in power. Many of those left leaning Arabs, opposed to fascism, did also hide Jews.

Wars in Israel

After the founding of Israel, the surrounding countries attacked it. Israel was able to defend itself with the aid of allies.

For a comprehensive list of wars started by actors outside the territory of Palestine, click this source.

This is not going to be a list of wars in Israel. That’s not really relevant for why I’m writing this. For this section I want to highlight that there is one Jewish state in the entire world. There are many Muslim, Christian, and Catholic states and countries, but only one Jewish one. This, plus its history as the birthplace of two of the largest three religions (Christianity and Islam, with Hinduism being the third) make it a prime target for attempted colonization. This is evident looking back in history, again from the Greeks and Romans, to the Inquisition and Crusades, to Arabic colonialism.

The borders of Israel have moved more than any other country’s borders I’m aware of after World War II. I’m probably wrong and I’m sure someone will correct me, which is fine. I’m always open to better data. That said, each time the borders changed, it was because of an attack on Israel where they won, and then gained that land to have more defensible borders. Remember, they’re surrounded by hostile countries that don’t acknowledge their right to exist. In 2020 Arabic countries Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen; ten non-Arab members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Niger, and Pakistan; and finally Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela all deny Israel as a state. 28 of those countries are members of the UN.

Most nascently, the Yom Kippur War of 1973, when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on the holiest day of the Hebrew year, Yom Kippur. This surprise attack caused massive casualties to Israel and the US had to send aid via airlift, allowing Israel to survive. The UN brokered a ceasefire and Israel ceded land gained from Syria some of Sinai. This really showed how vulnerable Israel remained. (source)

Egypt and Israel would go on to sign a peace treaty March 26, 1979. From Wikipedia:

The main features of the treaty were mutual recognition, cessation of the state of war that had existed since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, normalization of relations and the withdrawal by Israel of its armed forces and civilians from the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had captured during the Six-Day War in 1967. Egypt agreed to leave the Sinai Peninsula demilitarized. The agreement provided for free passage of Israeli ships through the Suez Canal, and recognition of the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as international waterways, which had been blockaded by Egypt in 1967. The agreement also called for an end to Israeli military rule over the Israeli-occupied territories and the establishment of full autonomy for the Palestinian inhabitants of the territories, terms that were not implemented but which became the basis for the Oslo Accords.

Let’s Talk about Gaza

The Gaza strip is an area of land bordering both Israel and Egypt. It is not recognized as any country, and, as I’ll talk about later, it hasn’t sought to be recognized unless as part of taking over the entire country of Israel (via its government, not its people).

Its population, along with Arab ethno-nationalists in the West Bank and Israel, are who call themselves Palestinians today. During politically stable times, up to 10% of the population of Gaza will cross over into Israel to work jobs there. These can be anything from tech work to factory work. As these day workers aren’t citizens and the border is so close, they are not allowed to stay overnight. Gaza’s internal industry is mostly agriculture, making cement, and textiles.

The government of Gaza is where things get dicey. The government of Gaza is a group called Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist group that was founded in 1988 and elected in 2006. Gaza hasn’t had an election since then. Hamas’ charter, their founding documents, have two incredibly concerning articles in it. These articles are basically what we would think of as amendments in our constitution. They’re guiding principles of the government. The full text of the charter can be found here: source.

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it. (Preamble)

This states outright that their charter exists to destroy Israel.

[Peace] initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement… Those conferences are no more than a means to appoint the infidels as arbitrators in the lands of Islam… There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility. (Article 13)

 This states outright that they will refuse to participate in peace talks, they only wish to achieve their goal through war.

The Day of Judgment will not come about until Moslems fight Jews and kill them. Then, the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will cry out: “O Moslem, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.” (Article 7)

They explicitly want to kill Jews. 

The enemies have been scheming for a long time … and have accumulated huge and influential material wealth. With their money, they took control of the world media… With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the globe… They stood behind the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution and most of the revolutions we hear about… With their money they formed secret organizations – such as the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs and the Lions – which are spreading around the world, in order to destroy societies and carry out Zionist interests… They stood behind World War I … and formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains… There is no war going on anywhere without them having their finger in it. (Article 22)

These are age old antisemitic tropes. Jews were not behind any of those revolutions, we didn’t found any of those organizations, we didn’t start World War I, we were victims in WWII, and we lost 6,000,000 people in the Holocaust not to mention countless businesses, property, and so much more. This is just antisemitic nonsense.

Zionism scheming has no end, and after Palestine, they will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates River. When they have finished digesting the area on which they have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion. Their scheme has been laid out in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. (Article 32)

The “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” is antisemitic fiction written  in the late 1800s or early 1900s. You can learn more about it here: source. They also mischaracterize Zionism, which will have its own section in this page. The thrust of Zionism, for spoilers, is that us Jews want safety in our homeland.

Finally, in Hamas’ charter:

The HAMAS regards itself the spearhead and the vanguard of the circle of struggle against World Zionism… Islamic groups all over the Arab world should also do the same, since they are best equipped for their future role in the fight against the warmongering Jews. (Article 32)

 They not only want to eradicate Jews in the Middle East and destroy Israel, they want to kill all Jews worldwide.

Hamas changed their charter in 2017 to try and make it less-genocidal sounding. It keeps antisemitic tropes and still wants violence against Jews. You can read that here: source.

More about Hamas

Hamas is a brutal terrorist group. Not only do they oppress Jews, they oppress LGBT+ people. Hamas will imprison any queer person for up to 10 years, and you can easily find videos of them throwing gay people off buildings to execute them (no I’m not linking that, you can search for it if you really want to).

Hamas has a history of intercepting international aid to turn it into weapons to indiscriminately fire into Israeli cities.

The UN and Israel have a joint apparatus to supervise the use of the materials, but as Hamas is in control of the Strip, it has managed to overcome this obstacle. Fertilizer is used to produce explosives, for example, Michael says. In addition, medical equipment is disassembled for parts, and oxygen tanks intended for medical care are repurposed to serve the organization’s military needs. (Source)

 

Even just a day or two ago, the aid organization UN Rights and Work Agency (UNWRA) had a truck stolen by Hamas. Their agreement in the region states that anything they bring in is strictly to be used for humanitarian purposes. It was stolen. UNRWA even tweeted about it. It was confirmed multiple times that it was stolen, then something convinced them to delete that tweet (source).

Hamas builds legitimate military targets into hospitals, schools, and apartments. They do this to increase the number of civilian casualties when Israel retaliates, which Israel must do to protect their own people. Israel has been documenting this maneuver for years (source).

I want to emphasize this. Hamas is using their own infirm, their sick, their children, their residents as human shields. This is documented even by NATO (source). They do this to enrage sympathy for them.

When Israel retaliates, they warn these targets of strikes. They plead for people to evacuate. We don’t want deaths; we just want life. We want to be able to live in peace and we want our neighbors to be safe. But Hamas prevents people from evacuating these strike zones. Again, Israel is the main documenter of this because they see it going on and often adjust plans based on how effective evacuations are (source). The source I listed has every listed claim annotated and linked, if available.

 Hamas has called for the extermination of all Jews. They fire rockets into civilian areas of Israel and many of those rockets fall short, hitting Gazans.  My link here will be one of the few times I feel Human Rights Watch got it right (source).

Hamas and peace talks

If you remember Article 13 of their original charter, you’ll recall that they refuse to participate in peace talks. True to their word, they’ve lived up to this. They haven’t come to a table for peace talks in almost a decade, since 2016. Each time peace has been offered or proposed as part of a two-state solution, they’ve refused it. Remember, their charter, calls for the destruction of Israel, effectively advocating for a one-state, Palestinian only, “solution.” With that in mind, it really shouldn’t be a surprise they haven’t entered peace talks since 2016.

Hamas’ leadership

 The leaders of Hamas are well known for not repairing damage done in retaliation to their terrorism operations. Damage from operations in 2014 and 2021 have been left unrepaired, despite having resources to rebuild (source). Providing the materials for reconstruction is well within their means, and employing Gazans would boost their economy. Instead, as outlined earlier, they use these resources to build mechanisms of terror to attack Israeli civilians, Jews and Arabs alike.

The average daily wage of workers in late 2022 in Gaza was about 90.7 ILS or $26.6 USD each day. That’s despite unemployment rates over 51% (source). This is all while they bring in over $12,000,000 each month from taxing goods that come in from Egypt (source). Abu Marzook, the deputy chairman, is estimated to be worth $2-3 billion. Kahled Mashaal, head of their political wing, claims to be worth $2-5 billion. Hamas, again, siphons off donations of international aid, which is what constitutes the majority of their budget. They profit off of their smuggling organizations and even publish fake employees to international sponsors to collect salaries of fictitious people (source). 

Do the leaders even live in Gaza? Of course not. They’re stinking rich. They live in Qatar in luxury. And if you think my source for this is biased, it comes from The Arab Times (source).

While Gazans suffer at the hands of Hamas, while they starve from sanctions enacted to prevent terrorism from their government, while they languish unemployed and underpaid, their leaders don’t even have the decency to be there. Their situation is so that they’ve been abandoned and rejected by every Arab state, and even their own leaders.

This should well illustrate how Hamas is a terrorist organization whose sole mission is to kill every Jew they can, and every person who gets in their way. Their goal is peace, but for them peace means permanently silencing 7,000,000 Jews in the Middle East and another 8,000,000 around the world. If that’s the peace you want to support, then you’re not interested in human rights.

General antisemitism

I need to talk about antisemitism and it’s tropes, because this is something that keeps coming up. First, I want to address the term “antisemitism.”

Many people say “this doesn’t make sense, because Arabs are also Semites.”

Antisemitism isn’t hatred of Semitic peoples; it’s hatred of Jews. Every dictionary acknowledges this (source, source, source).

The origin of the word was created specifically to name Jews. From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

The term anti-Semitism was coined in 1879 by the German agitator Wilhelm Marr to designate the anti-Jewish campaigns underway in central Europe at that time. Nazi anti-Semitism, which culminated in the Holocaust, had a racist dimension in that it targeted Jews because of their supposed biological characteristics—even those who had themselves converted to other religions or whose parents were converts. This variety of anti-Jewish racism dates only to the emergence of so-called “scientific racism” in the 19th century and is different in nature from earlier anti-Jewish prejudices.

 

It was created to target Jews.

Antisemitic tropes 

 There are a number of antisemitic tropes that persist. That Jews run everything, including the media (there would be better shows if that was the case). That Jews are money hungry. That Jews are bloodthirsty.

I’m going to address these one at a time, maybe briefly.

Trope 1: Jews run the world

First, we don’t run everything. This was originally made up in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an antisemitic serial published in 1911. It purports to be the minutes of a meeting of the Learned Elders of Zion, a cabal (“cabal” being a word coined specifically for a secretive group of Jews) meeting and conspiring to destroy Russia and bring in capitalism. It was often referenced to promote antisemitic acts, including pogroms (violence against Jews) in Russia and Russian territories. You can read an English translation here: source.

Its conspiratorial nonsense made its way from Russia to England, then to America in 1920, where Henry Ford (yes, that Henry Ford) published them under the name “The International Jew: the World’s Foremost Problem”. This was used to foment antisemitism in the US (source).

The Third Reich seized on these publications that made their way around Europe to help Hitler enact the Holocaust.

While the Protocols of the Elders of Zion should be relegated to ugly parts of history, sadly it is still often quoted, even making an appearance in Hamas’ original charter.

Trope 2: Jews are money hungry

 This has a really unique historical origin.

During around 1,066 CE, Jews living in England and other parts of Europe, under British rule, were subjected to intense antisemitism. They were often wrongly accused of crimes and were often victims to riots which rose up and destroyed the little they owned. That’s not where this trope comes in, though.

They were not allowed to own land. The Christian Church deemed money lending with interest was unclean and, thus, illegal for Christians. It was not illegal for Jews to do that, though. It ended up being the only industry Jews could actually own stake in, as they could work farms but not own the land. In addition, their interest was taxed heavily (source).

This trope persisted for millennia, even being referenced in Alexander Dumas’ novels.

Trope 3: Blood Libel

Blood libel is a really unique one, and it started off as a specific idea and turned into something more general. It’s origin is in the rumor that Jews use Christian blood in rituals, especially for making matzoh (unleavened bread for Passover) (source). It’s patently false.

My personal opinion is that this has metastasized into something grosser and more insidious. That Jews are murderous and want to spill blood. I have no concrete proof of this, but it’s a trend I’ve seen emerge in the past 10 years or so.

Didn’t Jews and Muslims Get Along Before the British?

 No.

This is an often repeated idea I used to subscribe to. It seemed too good to be true, and I had to do a lot of research to go through an Instagram post I saw about this and verify it was true. The post can be found on Rootsmetals’s blog here (source). Additional information here with extra links (source).

Jews, under the Ottoman Empire, were denied full citizenship. They were given dhimmi status, which means they were second class citizens. New synagogues couldn’t be built and those which were, couldn’t be taller than nearby mosques. Jews had to show deference to Muslims, so if a Muslim wanted to be where a Jew was, the Jew was legally obligated to give up their space, like where they were sitting. 

Jews weren’t allowed to lead, govern, nor employ any Muslims. They had to pay a special tax called jizya. Their eyewitness testimony wasn’t allowed in court. It was built really similarly to South Africa’s apartheid.

These laws giving dhimmi status officially ended in 1856, but we all know how giving up bigoted laws can take time to unravel. Look at the period of time from when the US ended slavery to the end of Jim Crow. And we still have systemic racism baked into the country. Jews had been living under those laws for 1,200 years. Violence didn’t stop. Pogroms didn’t stop.

Jews had been taxed into poverty and many relied on money from people in the diaspora to get by.

Jews were not equals. They were second class citizens whose safety, property, and security could be taken away at any moment. They didn’t get along — they were subjugated.

Israel’s Response

The way I see it, Israel has three options to respond to the Simchat Torah massacre.

1. Do nothing and let Israelis die en masse.
2. Maraud into Gaza and kill wantonly.
3. Continue their normal route of warning civilian areas that had military targets built into them about strikes, and do what they can to minimize casualties.

I’m fond of the third option, considering Hamas’ call to kill everyone and never sit down for peace talks.

 



Challah recipe

Bread machine directions

1. 1 C (8 oz) room temperature water
2. 2 large eggs
3. ? C (3 oz) sugar
4. ? C oil (3 oz)
5. 1 ½ tsp salt
6. 1 ? C (8.7 oz) white wheat flour
7. 2 ? C (13.8) bread flour
8. 2 1/4 tsp yeast

(for glaze)
1 egg yolk
½ tsp water
pinch of sugar

Preheat oven to 325º.

Combine ingredients 1-5 in the container for a bread machine. Add the flours and make a well in the dry area of the flour. Put the yeast in the well.

Place container in the bread machine and set it to the dough cycle. If wanted, you can use a stand mixer and use 110 degree water instead of a bread machine.

After cycle is through divide dough into equal parts and form into desired shape (braid, yud-bet, 7 day, etc), glaze with beaten glaze ingredients, and bake.

Larger challahs (braid, yud-bet) bake 27-30 minutes on parchment paper lined stone
Smaller challas (rolls, smaller loaves) bake 17-20 minutes on parchment paper lined stone

For small ball pairs, divide into 16 even balls.

Non-bread machine

1. 1 C (8 oz) room temperature water
2. 2 large eggs
3. ? C (3 oz) sugar
4. ? C oil (3 oz)
5. 1 ½ tsp salt
6. 1 ? C (8.7 oz) white wheat flour
7. 2 ? C (13.8) bread flour
8. 2 1/4 tsp yeast

(for glaze)
1 egg yolk
½ tsp water
pinch of sugar

Preheat oven to 325º.

Proof yeast according to directions on package (or add yeast to slightly warm water [110ºF] with a pinch of honey, stir well, and wait for it to foam)

Combine ingredients 2-5 in a bowl. Add flours and yeast/water mixture

Mix dough until it forms well and you can stretch a piece of it thin enough to show light behind it without breaking.

Cover and let rest for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Divide dough into equal parts and form into desired shape (braid, yud-bet, 7 day, etc), glaze with beaten glaze ingredients, and bake.

Larger challahs (braid, yud-bet) bake 27-30 minutes on parchment paper lined stone or sheet
Smaller challas (rolls, smaller loaves) bake 17-20 minutes on parchment paper lined stone or sheet

For small ball pairs, divide into 16 even balls.



36 year in review

2019. 36.

What a year.

My birthday goals for that year were to continue building myself up and to find things which would make me happy. That, I did.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to find a new theme song for that year, though it didn’t really seem I needed one. Double-chai (18 + 18 = 36) is auspicious enough that it seems I was really lucky already.

Work Narrative

Canvassing

I started 36 in Richmond, CA. East Bay, near San Francisco. I had just gotten hired with a fundraising company. The interview I had prior, with a home health care company, ran absurdly late, and I was late to my interview with the company. Luckily, I’m weird enough that they wanted to talk with me when I checked in late at the front desk.

The interview was fun, and I was hired. Obviously, I mean, I spoiled that in the prior sentence.

My interview was 3/25, I believe. My hire date was 3/27.

I started off as a canvasser for Amnesty International, but I needed to change charities when I learned of some underlying moral conflicts they had with my beliefs. Basically, they’re antisemitic as fuck. I don’t mess around with that, and I don’t have the energy for it. Sadly, much of the Bay Area is really antisemitic. I have never run into so many problems as I have there.

That said, the company I worked for (worked, past tense, because they terminated my position during the covid-19 pandemic) was pretty good and opened up a different charity in the Bay for me, Heifer International. Heifer is freaking great. I loved canvassing for them.

I worked as a door to door and street canvasser, raising monthy funds for these charities. I got to meet some incredible people who came to the Bay to help train us. Most of the people who came were significantly younger, in their early or mid 20s, but they were incredibly capable, bright, and empathetic. This company was really great at finding quality talent.

My teammate, Mark, is basically one of the greatest guys ever. He has a rich, intriguing story full of heartbreak and triumph, and he was the best street fundraising companion I could have asked for. He was only 20 when we met, but we got along famously. We both made supervisory positions the same week, and that was done with both of us helping each other. We hired some really great people, but sadly lost them when the rigors of the job were too much for them.

Canvassing isn’t easy, but it’s hell of a lot less easy to burn out on that than insurance.

The company needed a supervisor in Seattle, and Jalisa wanted a position there, so that’s where we headed in November.

I started off as a street fundraiser for Covenant House, a homeless youth transitional services provider. We moved to a door to door campaign. It was interesting and fun. My immediate boss, Divina, is an incredible woman. We recruited and trained a few people whom I’ve grown close to. During this shut down, I miss working with them.

Insurance

Through no fault of my own or Kimi, the transition of selling my book of business to her was incredibly rough. To this day, we still don’t know how complete that has been. It’s frustrating.

All that said, it’s nice to have been done, as I’ve been able to take a remote producing position with her during the pandemic. It should result in a decent amount of income while I go to school and it’s flexible enough that I don’t have to worry about making up school hours.

School Narrative

I’ve been tired of making crap money and working crap jobs for a while. I’m not that fond of insurance any more, but I still love helping people. Canvassing is much the same — I like the cause but the hours and wear on my body isn’t worth the pay.

Jalisa helped me realize that physical therapist assistant training might be a good route for me, and after a lot of reasearch I fell in love with the idea. It ticks all the boxes of what I want in a job and nicely ties together a lot of the skills I’ve learned in the past, namely massage therapy, communications, and customer service.

The biggest irony is that I enrolled in a Tucson based school (Pima Medical Institute [PMI]) in Seattle, after moving to Seattle from Tucson. It’s an irony only I seem to enjoy, but I get enough enjoyment out of it for everyone.

I started the enrollment process in late 2019, around December 23 or so, and started January 27.

Classes are interesting and my instructors are great. My classmates are a wonderful group of people. I miss them terribly during the lockdown.

What’s really frustrating for me is there is no way to know when we’ll be able to go back to school. We might need to take an incomplete for the semester if we can’t take the final, because the final needs to be in person for accreditation purposes. Another hiccough is we had to move everything online, and I don’t really learn this kind of material well online. I’m lucky enough to have massage school and years of anatomy and physiology schooling under my belt, but many of my classmates don’t. I’m struggling enough, even with that history, and I am genuinely worried for my classmates.

All that said, I’m currently maintaining straight As about 2/3ds of the way through the first semester. I hope I can make honors. Next semester is going to be an intense one with a number of difficult classes, namely pathology.

Hiking Narrative

Hiking near the Bay was pretty nice. There were a lot of ticks (ick) which is a lot different, and potentially more dangerous, than the fleas of San Diego. Luckily plenty of flea and tick medication is cheap, accessible, and super effective. There are few things so wonderful as watching a tick try to latch to one of our beloved dogs, then fall off and start dying when the medication hits. It’s beautiful.

Cache Creek

For my birthday hike (a week late, 4/6), we went to Cache Creek Wilderness. It was gorgeous, and we were the only two people we saw for two days. There was a couple we ran into on the way in, but after that it was incredible solitude.

Rye did great, Mia did great, Gatsby stayed at home with our landlord.

We tried to do a trail called the Cowboy Camp Loop, but we lost the trail at a really poorly marked area. We went up and back over a bunch of areas, including some overgrown, soggy ground that was likely closed to foot traffic, and just couldn’t find a damn trail! We ended up turning back so as not to lose our light, and went and set up camp where we started. And it was just gorgeous.

Rye started to become really good off leash, and he started to become somewhat trustworthy.

It was really fun the last day when he ran off and came back after we hollered at him to return. He came trotting back with his pack on and a dumb smile on his big old face.

One of the most compelling things about Cache Creek was the isolation. There’s a beauty in being able to just absoltely disappear only an hour from civilization. No people, no pollution, no noise. Just us. Hell, the first day was warm enough we were able to strip down after setting up camp and didn’t need to worry about being seen. That’s isolation!

Tahoe Rim Trail

This is probably one of the things I’m most proud of, and I’m still working on documenting my experience.

There was at least a year of living and growth  packed into those two months. Between the successes and struggles, the beauty and fear, and just embracing so much self afflicted suffering, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sufficiently say what it did for me.

We started planning this trip in earnest in January of 2017 with the leader of a San Diego dog hiking group, Shannon. Shannon, Jalisa, and I had been talking about this since 2016, though. We all wanted to do a thru hike with the dogs and the TRT is completely dog friendly.

The crew: Shannon and Travis, with Cappie the vizsla; Jalisa and Eddie, with Rye the German shorthaired pointer and Mia the chorkie.

The destination: South Lake Tahoe all around Lake Tahoe with a stop in Tahoe City, back to South Lake Tahoe. Clockwise.

The first day was one of the most amazing days. Rye became, truly, my trail dog. He would run ahead, wait in the shade for us, and then go ahead. If we took too long, he’d come back and check on us. He made friends with a Girl Scout troop, he relaxed at Star Lake, and he accompanied me while I took a dump (well off trail and with a 6+” cathole, Leave No Trace, baby!). It’s the best feeling to have a trail dog, and Rye is a great one.

Shannon, Travis, and Jalisa had to get off trail the fourth day due to all the dogs getting injured. It was heartbreaking but necessary. We didn’t go all the way out there to bail, so I soldiered on as the crew found accomodations and recalibrated.

We were in Desolation Wilderness, one of the most incredible landscapes I’ve seen, when the decision was made to split. We had picked up a lone hiker, Forrest, the day before, and some of Travis’ friends joined for a couple nights, at that section. They all went on that morning while I accompanied the crew and the dogs back to the water taxi that services Echo Lake, where we were. That added about four miles to my trek that day and set me back about three hours.

I had lost the trail so badly near Lake Susie that I had to have a day hiker show me where it went. Honestly, that was a lot of fun. I went off trail up the side of a mountain trying to find the trail, and it was something I never thought I’d be able to do. The conversation and random camaraderie of the people who I talked to was a pleasant relief, and getting back on track felt wonderful. 

After that I had to cross Dick’s Pass, and I lost the trail due to the snow and the fact that I was so green in those conditions.

 That was an exhilarating, terrifying, triumphant, 25 mile day. And I made it. I fucking made it as the sun was going down. I was alone going on exposed trails with 1,000+ foot drop offs, crossing the top of a mountain pass with snow that could dump me down the side, and a fear of heights that was tamed by determination and trekking poles.

The temp-crew went to the campsite and waiting…and worried. Because I was wearing an aloha shirt, they assumed I was Hawaiian and asked a bunch of people who went by if they saw me. A few had, but most hadn’t.

I rolled in about 30 minutes before sunset, enthralled and relieved. And with massive chafing.

Forrest and I finished the first half of the trail, to Tahoe City, alone, after the temporary crew took off according to all their own plans.

I took a zero day at Tahoe City. We took Mia to the vet for a cough. We all found dog sitters for the critters. We resupplied, reconfigured our pack loads, drank and ate a good bit, celebrated my completion of the first half, and we set off the next day for the second half.

We completed the second half together. It was wonderful.

One night, Travis and I sat up and watched the Milky Way rise over Lake Tahoe. I took my first successful timelapse photo series over that night.

There were a number of wonderful moments: battling mountain bikers, 16 mile water carries, wonderful campsites. But I’ll recount those later.

At the end, on the final half mile, everyone let me go ahead so I could pull us all in and fully complete the trail. It meant the world to me.

 Intermission.

Desolation from Kingsbury b/w

Desolation Wilderness from Kingsbury North

Rye at Star Lake

Lake Aloha

Milky Way over Lake Tahoe from Mt Rose

Desolation Wilderness from South Camp

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I really could go on and on about the TRT, and I will eventually. There’s so much that happened. I want to finish covering my year, though.

Yosemite

 We went to Yosemite a number of times. The first time was right when the snow started melting, so the rivers were swollen and the waterfalls were brimming with massive energy. The second time we went things were tamer.

We stayed at tent campsites, at a semi-permanent structured camp shelter (Housekeeping Camp), and at Camp Curry, which was a heated tent cabin.

We hiked up to the top of El Capitan, we saw Bridalveil Falls a few times, we overlooked Glacier Point.

We kayaked in Tenaya Lake on Jalisa’s birthday.

Honestly the emotional intensity of Yosemite, like the Rim Trail, deserves its own post and I’ll have to do that when I can devote the focus to it.

Vignettes: general stuff

I really was glad to get out of the Bay. I met some great people there, but I also met a lot of atrocious people.

Jalisa and I got to see Hamilton! It was just stunning. I got to see it also with my friend Sarah, who is just a great person all around.

I got to catch up with a friend from high school and someone who helped get me into photography, Bella. I forgot how fun it was to hang out with her.

I met a person, Emilie, who is outdoorsy and has become someone I can talk with randomly. She moved to Portland, OR shortly before we left for Seattle.

We found some really great restaurants in the Bay, namely Uncle Wong’s, Los Moles, H. Salt Fish and Chips, and Richmond Pizza House.

We found some incredible breweries in the Bay, my favorite was Armistice Brewery and Anchor (yes, that one).

I found a few fun karaoke spots, but nothing worth naming outright.

We had a few fun little trails in Wildcat Canyon near where we lived.

Rye loved eating the tomatoes off the plants in our backyard.

The dogs got skunked a few times.

The synagogues in East Bay kind of sucked, but the ones in SF proper were rad and amazing.

Piedmont is full of a bunch of rich assholes who have no hearts.

We walked across the Bay Bridge, and it was exhilarating.

The food scene is ridiculous, though the Mexican food is lacking, all the other culinary regions are well represented.

While it’s dog friendly there, it’s not as dog friendly as they want you to believe.

The tech scene is overwhelming while the humanitarian work is uplifting.

 The hospitals generally take really good care of their nurses. 

Fog is beautiful or annoying. Sometimes both. Depends on the day.

Dolphins and whales can pop up out of nowhere.

Alcatraz is an experience.

 



Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT), Part 1

It was about four hours into the hike when I started to scratch the surface of why I wanted to do it.

Jalisa got me into backpacking about six months after we met. I had always been interested in backpacking, but I was never able to explore it due to various circumstances. We hiked Mt Wrightstown, outside of Tucson, with the dogs, and camped in Baldy Saddle. I used a duck canvas backpack from the 70s or 80s, Jalisa used a nylon blend one from the 80s or 90s. The gear we had was heavy, the tent was unreliable, but the trip was amazing.

After that, she introduced me to the idea of thru-hiking, trekking from one point to another. It was an idea I was immediately enamored with. Up until that trip hiking was always a day hike. Something you drive to and back from, a single event to be conquered in a short period of time. I enjoyed being in nature, but day hiking was too rough on my brain. Driving out somewhere would inevitably trigger my vision problems, and then I’d be useless when getting back in town. Plus, so much can be done in the time you have to take to go there and back, and then clean up after.

Yes, I enjoy hiking, but day hikes often felt more like a burden than a joy.

Backpacking was just the answer. Having the opportunity to get out and sleep out there would reset my vision, take me away from the painful and exhausting triggers that slow me down, and let me get truly immersed in the experience. I wouldn’t be sucked away into the stress of screwing up my face or my eyes just to try and focus on something. I wouldn’t have the all-too-familiar moment of sitting in the car and feeling my eyes stop working properly in tandem.

Day 0

We went up to Tahoe City the day before so we could do some water drops in areas where we wouldn’t have streams to refill from. We also did a little exploring, but nothing extraordinary.

The day ended in the city of South Lake Tahoe at a Motel 6 (dog friendly!). Shannon, Travis, Jalisa, and I went to get pizza, beer, and wine at a local spot.

Day 1

We met around 8 am at Kingsbury South Trailhead in Nevada, just outside of Heavenly Nevada, a well known ski lodge. We got started around 8:45 or so, and headed off to Armstrong pass. Star Lake would be our first little stop, and we took off with the zeal only new thru-hikers on their first inexperienced day could have.

A few hours into the hike is when I had my first moment on how magical this would be for me.

Since getting him, Rye has never been able to be an off-leash dog. His prey drive is far too high and he gets into the chasing tunnel too easily to be recalled. But this…this was different. After a few hours on trail I was able to let him off. He would run ahead to a shaded area and wait for us, then run ahead to the next one. When I needed to break, he would come back and check on me and wait with me.

We ran into a troupe of girl scouts who were going to go camping at Star Lake. Rye greeted them, gave all of them doggie love, and then followed us along. He also gave me the distinct pleasure of demonstrating how to property bury dog poop, in front of them, but that’s just how it goes.

For the first time in two years, Rye was a proper trail dog, and we might be able to move to a tent style that doesn’t require poles.

We got to Star Lake and it was gorgeous. Truly resplendent. I’ve never seen anything like it. Granted, much of it is probably due to the context of a warm hike and the euphoria of watching my dog evolve into a critter I can actually trust.

 Rye at Star Lake

We took about a half hour break there: cooled off our feet, refilled our water, and let the dogs rest and play. After that we were off again.

Somewhere along the way, Jalisa and I stopped to rest and Travis and Shannon continued on. We wouldn’t see them until later that evening, when we made camp.

We went along, chatting, enjoying the day, and started losing daylight after crossing the Freel Peak trailhead. This put us in the shadow of the mountain, and we hadn’t seen Travis or Shannon for a few hours.

Sometime just before the golden hour, we ran into three women who thru-hike together. They did the John Muir Trail (JMT) the year prior, and had set out to do the TRT when we did. We were all on day 1. They advised us that the stream we met them at was the last one for a while, and if we were going to refill, to do it there.

That ended up being solid advice. We took 10 minutes to refill, since worrying compounds exponentially. It was enough to worry about finding our friends before dark, setting up camp, and hopefully not hiking in the dark; throwing water on top of that possible predicament was just unnecessary.

Armstrong Pass was just a mile or two ahead. Our friends were faithfully waiting for us, though they were starting to fret a little on when we’d show up.

We scouted around to find the least buggy area, set up camp, and had our first dinners on the trail.

The dogs were tired, our legs were invigorated, we were set. Day 1 was complete. And I was hooked.