Either Or |
Our politics are nearly binary. That is, hopefully, a good thing.
I told my kids a factoid that was hard for them to swallow. In the 1970s, Howard Cosell was both the most liked and most loathed sports broadcaster at the same time. My kids wondered how such a state of affairs could exist. There is no question that he always seemed to be at the big games, with his famous yellow ABC jacket for Monday Night Football. He appeared with Muhammad Ali during those critical points in his career. Some loved him for his sports knowledge and NYU Law School erudition. Others could not stand his nasal voice and his often patronizing broadcasting.
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twersky tells the story of the relationship between the Jewish people and God as a story of a man and woman. The wife says that they have grown apart. The husband says that he has not moved; only she changed. There is a statement in the Old Testament where God states that He has not changed. And that is a fundamental concept in religion: God, the Omnipotent, does not change. He is as He always has been and always will be. If our relationship with Him has changed, then we only need to go to Walmart to buy a mirror to see where the problem lies. The former chief rabbi of the U.K. was once visited by a very big rabbi in Brooklyn and told him that he finds himself in difficult times. The rabbi told him that he put himself into difficult times.
Last week, we had the worst day of the otherwise joyous Jewish calendar: the ninth day of the month of Av. On that day, both Temples were destroyed in Jerusalem, one at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians and the second over 1,900 years ago by Titus and his Tenth Roman Legion. You can see the triumphal Titus Arch here with images of the menorah and other items taken from the Temple. The latter event is well documented, and burned wooden beams from the destruction of the First Temple........