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December 26 The Quality of Mercy is Very Much Strained9:15 A.M. I really should stop listening to the news in the morning. It's a sure-fire way to send my blood pressure soaring. Not a good way to start the day.
And what, my friends, was the rocket fuel that sent said blood pressure practically through the ceiling this morning?
Simply this.
As you probably know, if you watch or listen to the news (well, maybe not, if your source of information is the BBC or CNN), since the end of the so-called "ceasefire" on the Israel-Gaza border, Qassam rockets and mortar bombs have been constantly bombarding Israeli settlements along the border and way beyond (not that they ever stopped, even during the "ceasefire" - although you might not know that, if your sole source of information is the bleeding-heart European press or the notoriously anti-Israel CNN). On Wednesday, over 60 Hamas terrorist missiles rained down on Sderot and other settlements in the western Negev. Last night alone, over a score of rockets targeted civilian settlements well inside Israel and this morning, another five added to the trauma of Israeli children who have the misfortune to live within the range of the terrorist missiles. Yet despite all that, despite the fact that Israeli Military Intelligence has issued top-level alerts of an impending terrorist attack on one of the border passes, the Israeli Government has decided to open all three of the passes to allow supplies to reach the Palestinians. Even as I write these words, dozens of trucks carrying "humanitarian aid" to Hamasland are making their way through Israel to the Gaza Strip.
Let's be clear on this, my friends. Even if the supposed recipients are "civilians", those "innocents" are the people who elected a Hamas leadership, they are the people who put the terrorists into power.
And will we get any credit for our humanitarian gesture, when all's said and done? No, we won't reap even that benefit. We will continue to figure in the eyes of the world as those wicked Jews who, for no reason at all, are starving innocent Palestinian children. You won't hear about the Israeli children who, night after night, are forced to sleep in bomb shelters. You won't hear about the sick and the elderly Israeli civilians, suffering from severe trauma and anxiety. You won't hear about the family saved by a miracle when a Qassam rocket went right through the roof of their house and landed on the bed of one of the children who had got up minutes before. You won't hear what it's like to live under the constant threat of a 15-second incoming missile warning. Yes, that's right. 15 seconds.
Why don't you click on the link and let the citizens of Sderot tell you for themselves?
I find the "humanitarian" gestures of our government totally inexplicable. Their "humanitarianism" seems to stop short of defending our own civilians and is reserved for our enemies. Clearly they have forgotten the teaching of our sages: "He who is compassionate to the cruel will end up by being cruel to the compassionate." December 13 The Response to EvilThe Talmud teaches us that the proper response to Evil is to put Good into the world.
I felt I had to share this short video clip with you all. No further words are necessary.
Shavua Tov שבוע טוב
December 12 Ship of FoolsSome of the most popular stories in Eastern European Jewish folklore are the tales of Chelm, a town populated by fools. Several news items this week convinced me that I am living there. Certainly they give cause to doubt the mental ability of those navigating the Ship of State. How, for example, can one explain why it is that the Israeli Government cannot find the money to fortify homes in Sderot against the regular barrage of mortar fire and Qassam rockets emanating from the Gaza Strip (otherwise known as Hamasland), but has just authorized the transfer of funds to Gaza, where the banks were supposedly on the point of collapse, in order to pay salaries to (Palestinian) government employees (in other words, Hamas terrorists)?
Why is it that kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has spent over 900 days in captivity in the hands of the Hamas terrorists, and our government has been apparently unable to come to an agreement with his captors over which murderers to release in exchange for his freedom, and yet saw fit, not for the first time either, to release dozens of convicted terrorists from Israeli gaols as a "gesture of goodwill" to Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), who gives us nothing in return and who even has the hutzpa to complain that more should have been released?
And from the national to the personal level. Why is it that the Minister for Homeland Security is constantly making speeches about how the fight against organized crime is going to be stepped up, and the police budget will therefore be increased accordingly, but when it comes to putting criminals on trial, prosecutors such as myself often have to work without even the most basic equipment? For example, there are four internet terminals in my department, for direct contact with the courts. First and foremost, they serve for downloading the daily Cause Lists, as well as checking and printing out copies of summonses to defendants and witnesses, (without which, there is no way of proving that a defendant or witness who doesn't put in an appearance received a legal summons). Of the four, one has no printer, another (the newest) does have a printer, but the printer isn't connected to the computer (it was connected, but there was some problem and it is now disconnected), a third, in the Library, is connected to the printer but there is a problem with the internet connection so it has nothing to print, while the fourth has a printer which doesn't work, because it is out of toner. You might think, (as I did) - no problem, order more toner. Unfortunately, since the equipment with which the Powers That Be see fit to provide us is so ancient, hardly anyone supplies the necessary cartridges any more, and acquiring the right kind of ink therefore requires what is almost a military operation!
It's enough to send even the sanest person flying over the Cuckoo's Nest.
 December 06 Food for the SoulSUNDAY NOVEMBER 30TH: A frisson of excitement ripples through the choir, as the first violinist calls for silence. The orchestra is tuning up, first the violins, then each section in turn. After weeks of rehearsals, first a cappella, then with a pianist, this is our first rehearsal with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and with all four choirs. I love the sound of a full symphony orchestra tuning up, especially when it's the first orchestral rehearsal. This is the moment when all the weeks of preparation start to come together and you feel it's really going to happen.
We've already had two rehearsals together with the Rubin Academy of Music Chamber Choir (their conductor, Stanley Sperber, will be conducting the two concerts), but this is the first time the Kibbutz Artzi Choir and the much smaller Tontine Choir will be joining us. It seems to go well. At any rate, rehearsal ends much earlier than I had expected (feared
 , in fact). There is to be another rehearsal on Tuesday, the General Rehearsal. Just as well. It takes time to get used to Stanley's rather exuberant conducting, after Ronen's more restrained style.TUESDAY DECEMBER 2ND: This time, the soloists will be joining us. One of the sopranos seems to have absolutely no sense of rhythm or tempo. Another has a most irritating vibrato. The counter-tenor is excellent. The tenor and the bass - acceptable. The tenor, in fact, proves himself in his solo aria, and especially in the recitative section, ringing out loud and clear as he asks, in notes that remind one of the oratorio "Elijah", also by Mendelssohn, that we sang two years ago: "Hüter, ist die Nacht bald hin" (Watchman, will the night soon pass?). The choir's triumphant response - "Die Nacht ist vergangen" - is one of my favourite sections of the Lobgesang. I slip off the stage to listen from the front of the auditorium, taking the opportunity to record it. My batteries are almost flat and I am forced to make two takes. Splicing and editing is going to take some time but when it is done, I promise to post the final cut on YouTube and embed it on this site as well.
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 3RD: Tonight is the first of two concerts, in Jerusalem's Henry Crown Symphony Hall. First, the Bach Magnificat, performed by three only of the choirs. Then, we are joined by the Kibbutz Artzi Choir for the Mendelssohn Symphony no. 2 - Lobgesang (Song of Praise). There is hardly a vacant place in the 750-seat auditorium and the applause at the end is loud and prolonged.
THURSDAY DECEMBER 4TH: Tonight's concert takes place at Tel Aviv's Performing Arts Centre, home of the Israel Opera. Here, too, we have an audience of several hundred. The concert doesn't sound as good to me as yesterday - possibly because the vastness of the stage makes it difficult for the various sections of the choir to hear one another and because of the distance between the conductor and the choir. However, at least we have chairs to sit on when we are not singing, unlike the previous evening, when we were crowded together on tribunes imediately behind the orchestra. (The seating arrangements of a full symphony orchestra are such that the sopranos are always directly behind the brass and percussion sections, and while perspex acoustic barriers are placed between them and the string section in front of them, we are exposed to the full body of sound - which, in the case of the Mendelssohn, is very, very loud!)
Still, I am told that the sound out front is much better than it seems to us, on the stage - and here too, the applause is enthusiastic. So that's all right then.
The concert starts right on time (they are fussier about that in Tel Aviv) and finishes at 22:10. By 22:25, we are on the coach, heading back to Jerusalem. This coming Sunday, there will be no rehearsal. We have earned a holiday
. Next Thursday, we shall meet again. I wonder what our next project will be...December 04 The Seventh CandleThe final death toll of the terrorist outrage in Mumbai is still not known. Besides the Jews murdered at the Chabad Centre, the victims at the Taj Mahal and Trident Oberoi Hotels, and at the Cafe Leopold, and the scores gunned down at the Victoria Terminus railway station (its old name, from the time of the British Raj), we may never know the number of "secondary victims", those who will now never see the light of day.
With one exception.
Six lives were snuffed out at the Chabad Centre, six candles extinguished.
But there was a seventh candle, one whose flame will now never burn.
Two year old Moshe Holtzman, the son of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzman הי"ד lost not only his parents, but also his new brother or sister. Rivka was five and a half months pregnant at her death. December 03 More on the Mumbai MassacreAccording to the news now coming out of Mumbai, it appears that the Jewish victims at the Chabad Centre, were singled out for "special treatment". Pathologists who examined the bodies report that they were tortured, before being tied up and then butchered in cold blood. A senior pathologist declared that despite having dealt with many dead bodies over the course of his career, the sight that met his eyes at the Chabad Centre had left him traumatised.
Lest anyone doubt that the murderers were motivated by anything other than Jew-hatred, let it be noted that they even desecrated the Torah scrolls, riddling them with bullets.
Back here in Israel, today witnessed the funerals of the six Israeli victims of the vicious, Islamofascist attack. In Jerusalem, thousands attended that of Rabbi Gavriel Holzberg and his wife, Rivka, on the Mount of Olives. Their son, two year old Moshe, miraculously survived, rescued from the slaughter by his Indian nanny.
The Torah is stronger than bullets. As for the Holzbergs and all the other innocent victims of this latest instance of Islamofascist terror - may G-d avenge their blood.
December 01 Murder and Mayhem in MumbaiThe murderous Islamofascist terror attacks in Mumbai should have made it clear to the world, if nothing else has yet done so, that these people are well-organised and well-funded. We are not talking about isolated terrorist cells, but an army. I find it revealing that they targeted Jews and western nationals only. Jews - because the Islamofascists hate Jews more than anyone else; the mass media and official government sources in Muslim countries spew out Jew-hatred on a daily basis. As for the West - has anyone wondered, as I have, why Western countries, (where Muslims are not persecuted but, on the contrary, treated with a mind-boggling tolerance that includes a willingness, as in the UK, to actually consider incorporating "some aspects of Sharia law" as the Archbishop of Canterbury put it, into the local legal system) are targeted, but countries such as China, where Muslims are actively persecuted (as are Christians, for that matter and as no doubt would be Jews, if there were any Jews in China) are apparently immune to Islamofascist terror attacks? I suspect the reason is that the West is perceived by the Jihadists as weak. I have little doubt that while the immediate reaction of those countries whose nationals were butchered has been one of indignation and anger, within weeks, they will be asking themselves (as did the British, shortly after the July 7th attacks): "What did we do wrong? How have we sinned against the Muslims? What can we do to make amends? How can we abase ourselves so as to earn their forgiveness?"
Or maybe: "What is needed is dialogue with the Muslim world" (Obama-style).
Perhaps they need to be reminded - it takes two to tango.
I am reminded of a comic sketch by the late Israeli comedian, Shaike Ophir, in which he plays an Arab schoolteacher, trying to teach his class about the Shakespeare play, Hamlet: "Dialogue, my dear Hamid? Yes, I shall explain. Dialogue is exactly like monologue, except that in the case of monologue, it is one person talking to himself. Dialogue - two persons talking to themselves." |
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