Passover is the quintessential Jewish holiday.
Israel is actively fighting in Lebanon and aggressively bombing Iran. On the home front, we receive warnings generally on a daily basis and dart over to the parking lot/bomb shelter once or twice a day. I always found strange the stories of normalcy during the height of World War II: college graduations and people eating out in London. Life must go on, and the holiday of Passover starts this week, and with it a good deal of preparation.
Passover cleaning is to regular house cleaning what a root canal is to teeth brushing. Everything is eyed not only for its potential of holding some leavened component but its continued usefulness in one’s life. “We’ve had this thing for five years and never used it. Maybe, let’s give it away?” And so, a good deal is either thrown out or given away. As the kitchen moves into Passover mode, there are still a few more days before the holiday when it would be a good idea if one continued eating. Much of our food preparation moves to the gas grill outside, which includes one burner on the side for normal pots. It has its challenges, but Jews have been doing this for thousands of years, so there is always a way to do it. One can complain, but everyone else is doing the same things, so kvetching will fall on deaf ears.
Passover has an enormous amount of symbolism, and none of it is lost on the Jews during this period: an evil ruler bent on destroying the Jewish people, Divine intervention, the challenges of the “stiff-necked people” in the desert, endless complaining about the leadership of the Jewish people, and finally getting to our destination. The “seder” on the first night of Passover takes a good 3-4 hours (more for some people) from start to finish, with a lot of matzah and wine being consumed during the process. The story we read is in a “Haggadah,” with some of the earliest versions of such books being from the 1300s, with fragments identified from the 8th and 9th centuries as found in Egypt. The present versions of the story are virtually identical to the ancient texts and match up for Jewish communities from Germany to Yemen. Maxwell House—yes, that Maxwell House—has provided an English/Hebrew Haggadah for a hundred years, which has been a big help for those in the U.S. whose Hebrew might be a little rusty. When we made Passover by my father in the last years of his life, I ordered Haggadahs from Amazon. What a world.
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As in all things Jewish, everyone has two or three opinions as to the future direction of the war: there will be a ground component, they’ll seize Kharg Island, they’ll send in troops to pull out the 60 percent enriched uranium, etc. Because so many have a vested interest in Donald Trump failing and Israel not winning anything ever, the reporting is skewed. I saw a Wall Street Journal headline that talked about the “billions” in losses related to three F-15s shot down by a Kuwaiti pilot, one lost tanker due to a collision, an F-35 that may have been damaged by an attempted shoot-down, and destroyed radar systems. The Democrats, the media, the Weirdo Right, and the Looney Left all want Donald Trump to lose, which means having the U.S. military lose. It drives them nuts that the U.S. and Israel are attacking furiously and have dropped tens of thousands of bombs on the Iranian regime. The ones who seem to be cheering are MAGA patriots, Israelis, the Gulf states that want Iran neutered, and oh, yeah, the regular Iranian people. The Iranians are thrilled that someone is whacking the same IRGC and Basij terrorists who killed tens of thousands of their friends, family, and fellow citizens. A bunch of geriatric hippies got an afternoon pass from their nursing homes to attend “No Kings” rallies supposedly about Donald Trump, who was elected by a large margin in a kosher election and follows the law and rulings of the courts. Sounds like a real king, just as he is supposedly an antisemite with a Jewish daughter, and a fascist dictator who cannot get his program through the Senate. Since the Left has nothing positive to offer the American people, it invents a caricature of Donald Trump that it can actively hate. Of course, their description of Donald Trump the despot more fits their loser politicians like Bernie Sanders and Gavin Newsom. Bernie flies private or first class to get down with the regular folks. Gavin can’t be bothered by billions in fraud, as it’s his custom to destroy California by any means possible.
The story of Passover has always been central to the Jewish existence. My father always cried during the retelling of the story, as he added his experiences as a child in Nazi Germany. I try to imagine the Jewish slaves getting ready to build some new pyramids, when some guy comes over to their bunks and says, “Moses says we’re getting out of here tomorrow. Bake some matzah and be ready to move.” “Oh, leave us alone. More idle talk about exiting Egypt. Every year is the same, and we never get out of here. Let me get some sleep so that I can lift those massive boulders tomorrow.” But then it happened. The Jews got up, left, and never went back. The formation of the modern state of Israel also lacks easy natural explanation. Many of those who fought were only a few years out of concentration camps and had very little martial knowledge or experience. The combined British-trained armies of Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, etc., should have crushed the Jews easily. It is accepted that half of the local Arabs who fled during the 1948 Israeli War of Independence did so at the urging of the invading Arab armies: get out of the way, we’ll finish the Jews, and then you come home to safety. They never came back. The other half were driven out by the victorious Jewish armies, doing what every army had done until then, but since it involved Jews winning, it became forbidden. The Palestinians can never make peace because it’s not the land won in 1967 that bothers them; they’re still furious about what they lost in 1948 and want Israel to vanish, poof.
The United Arab Emirates is emerging as the most intelligent and pragmatic Arab country in the region. I know that it’s not a very big competition, but the Emir of the UAE wants Iran neutered and understands that Israeli and American bombing is good for his people. I hope that they join in the bombing, because they need an Iran that does not threaten them every Monday and Thursday. They need to safely develop and deliver their vast energy resources, and they are not ashamed to have diplomatic relations with the country that is doing a great deal to make such a situation a reality on the ground. Donald Trump has also suggested that the Gulf states start putting some mileage on their shiny American fighters.
The Looney Left and Weirdo Right thrive by telling half-stories. Israel is killing Iranians and destroying their country! They always leave out the part of “Death to Israel” for nearly five decades, and the active financing and support of Hamas, Hezbollah, etc., with the aim of killing Jews and wiping out the state of Israel. They talk about the damage in Lebanon, but always gloss over Hezbollah choosing to attack Israel at this time and thus invite the response that they are presently receiving. They hate Israel, and they don’t want Donald Trump to win. No Kings? How ‘bout No More Losers?
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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