Just to pick a nit: Selichot are really not lamentations but penitential prayers ---asking for forgiveness. With my Chassidishe blood (on my Mother's zt"l side)I have always viewed this time of the year with joy, as God is giving me an opportunity to try and do better.

David:

Thanks for the correction. I wrote too quickly and incorrectly. In fact, Selichos are liturgical poems and are literally poems of forgiveness. They are immensely powerful.

Wishing you good Shabbos as well.

I've promised myself that I would no longer comment on political matters on your blog, because the vast majority of your readers and I are worlds apart on most issues, and so unfortunately there is not much room for real dialogue. More importantly, though, what I share with you is not our views on current events but our common experience as believing Jews trying to deal with the loss of a precious child.

Nevertheless, and without entering into a discussion of the issues themselves, I must protest Rabbi Wein's misrepresentation of the people who attended last Motzei Shabbat's rally - and of the kind of people who attend such rallies generally.

As a Jew who chose to live an observant Orthodox lifestyle and to live in the Land of Israel, I am proud to say that I attended last week's rally. While most of the other people at the demonstration were secular, I know many of them personally - and many others like them who did not make it this time - and can say that they care deeply for the Jewish people, the moral and ethical commandments of the Torah, and the Land of Israel. In addition, I know many other religious Jews who object to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and (previously) Gaza - admittedly a relatively small number but enough to belong to a movement (Netivot Shalom) and a political faction (Meimad). The fact that most Orthodox Jews disagree with us does not mean that membership in the "peace camp" and devotion to Judaism/Israel are mutually exclusive. And the fact that most members of the peace camp are secular does not mean that they do not care about their people, their heritage or their land.

Rabbi Wein's generalization from a newpaper interview of one extreme secularist to an entire public is like saying that all religious people, or all settlers, support violence against Arab civilians or even against Jewish leftists, as is the case with the most extreme religious rightists in Israel.

I wish you and all your readers a good and sweet year - and a year in which all Jews will judge each other "b'zchut" and avoid the temptation of demonizing those that disagree with them.

Very nicely said, With Love! In these troubled times, I find it easier to fathom the mysteries of "Hashem echad u'shmo echad" than it is to subscribe to the time worn and increasingly less believable platitude: "Kol Yisroel Echad."

Alan D. Busch

With Love:

Thanks so much for your comment. Yes, sadly we have tragedy in common. And I am proud to say that we are friends in spite of our deep political disagreements. Karen and I wish you a shana tova umituka.