I'm not even sure how to start this;
As a Jewish Israeli, I have to say it's been a rough week. Whilst i didn't know any of the three boys who were kidnapped personally, I felt a sting when i heard about what had become of them. This country wept, prayed and sang for the return of these boys. But the boys were returned in the most horrifying of homecomings.
A lot of my non-religious friends heard this story and asked "and where is G-d now?" or " see how your prayers weren't answered". Truthfully, through the eyes of a devout religious Jew, this definitely was a slap in the face. Everyone has moments in their life when their faith is tested, but I don't think that G-d is who we should be focusing on at the moment.
Let's take a look at the last few months on earth, shall we? A few months ago, two middle-school girls from Wisconsin lured their friend into the woods and tried to stab her to death, all in attempt to impress an internet character: Slenderman. In Nigeria, more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped and held hostage. hence the Facebook trend #bringbackourgirls . People in China committed suicide because they will no longer be able to be buried in a coffin upon their deaths. I am positive more things have happened that I may have not mentioned or I am just not aware of.
Now, back to the two events concerning the Middle East.Three Jewish, Israeli boys were kidnapped by terrorists and murdered. As mortifying as this story is, what shocked me the most was what happened after the boys' bodies were found; people began to talk about getting revenge. They started making Facebook groups about revenge, completely oblivious as to how they appeared.
How is it that Israelis will preach of the Palestinian's horrible nature and upbringing, of how all they want is our blood. Then 30 seconds later, the Israelis will behave exactly as the people they have just preached against. There's something very wrong here. On everyone's part.
I don't believe that all Arabs are bad people, nor do i believe that all Palestinians are bad people. There are extremists and terrorists however that are bad. But I also recognize hypocrisy. Jews cannot continue to complain about how savage the Arabs are, proceed to lighting Arab cars on fire. Where is the logic in that?
After the boys were buried, the body of a Palestinian boy was found in a forest outside of Jerusalem. I, like many others of my peers, just assumed that this was an act of revenge by Israelis. Except, it appears that the police believe this boy was murdered for being a homosexual, in what is called "honor killing".
Did the murderers see this week as perfect timing to commit this crime? Regardless of why he was slain or who were his murderers, we should focus on the loss of an innocent life and not on the politics behind it.
It seems that half the world says it's Israel's fault that we don't have peace yet, while the other half says it's the Arab's fault. I say that no matter who's fault it is, everyone needs to calm down and start thinking about how to change things.
When people get angry they tend to do reckless things, make bad decisions. Those decisions have a ripple effect that affects hundreds. Going back to the events around the world, we can't keep blaming things on others. We need to start seeing how we can help ourselves.
I'm not very impressed by humanity right now and whether you think there's a G-d or not-- i don't think he/she would be either. If we stop acting so harshly to others, they will stop acting so harshly towards us.
The book of Proverbs (Sefer Mishlei) that says:"A man of loving-kindness does himself good, but a cruel person troubles his own flesh". I learned this year that a possible interpretation of this phrase means: "A man who is good to others is a good man, and a man who is cruel to others is a cruel man".
We all need to take a minute to really think about the things we say and the way we treat people, things could be a little better.
