Wisdom from a Clone

As you sit on the stage of war, and the masters of war do what they do, and metal flies so fast that no one can see it and it goes into people...realize that you and all of you who stand witness are there now with a cause and think about your effect. This experience of life and living sometimes places us in the most ackward, backward, hard and painful classrooms...sometimes...but for some reason, realizing that you are there to learn something, to take something away, to learn and share a message, for some reason, this can bring something to chew on.The earth is trembling over there from the bombs and bullets, the earth is literally shaking....and we can't sit still anymore .This war is about Israel and Lebanon and others, and its also about you. Let war teach you peace-let war teach you peace-let war teach you peace, so that you know it, know it. Let this insanity blossom a bloom of clarity. The bullets fly so fast that we can't even see them, but we can see them,,,each one,,,what is its intention, what is its impact, its truth. Countries shouldn't fight and neither should we. When human to human to human knows this lesson that you are hopefully fortifying, when it is whispered, told and then shouted and then known from person to person to person, then we'll stop fighting with each other and war will become a myth.
-Yoni

Tsfat diaries

July 31st 2006, Tsfat

Driving into Tsfat was intense. We came in at night. I was driving with a carload of stuff and people. It occurred to me as I was driving, that to most people in the world my actions were insane, driving into CNN Breaking news northern Israel. I wasn't afraid, but rather respectful of the gravity of the situation.
A temporary cease fire began an hour after I arrived.
I didn't do it.
These cobblestone streets usually filled with wide eyed tourists and meandering mystics have become barren.
I've learned more then I've ever wanted to know about Katushas and how to take cover. My bedroom has a mini shelter in it and is less then half a frisbee throw to the main shelter.
We all come in pieces.
Shalom, Shanti, Paz, Vrede, Paix, Maluhia, Peace, Heiwa, Salam, Pyoung-hwa, Pokoj, Mir, Santipab, Fred, one day...
Me

Northern Winds

Jerusalem July 30th 2006

A cataclysmic wind is blowing in from the north these days, and its leaving my soul unsettled. It goes deeper then the news. With each passing report I feel a strange connection to my ancestors who had to survive against the Romans, the Babylonians, the Crusaders, The Inquisitioners, The Nazis (to name a few), who all worked so vigilantly to destroy the Jewish people.
Today, as I write, my old neighbors in Tsfat are getting explosive missiles that burst into searing shards of shrapnel dropped on their houses from people who dont want them to exist. Most of them have been living underground now for several weeks with there families, and there is work to be done.
Cars with goods and supplies need to be driven up north. Food needs to be made and delivered. Dilapidated bomb shelters (now homes) need fixing. The elderly need tending and touching. The kids gotto sing. Hospitals need visiting.
So I'm heading back up North, into the tempest, ten miles from the line, back to the smokey little town I once ran from like a refugee. I go with my guitar and (Native American) flute as my weapons of choice as I'm a lover not a fighter. And when the sirens ring Ill run for cover.
The organization that's running the relief efforts in Tsfat is Livnot (http://www.livnot.com/), the same non-profit organization that I've been working with for the last two months running spiritual adventure trips. The campus, whose space is usually home to rampant singing, heart and mind expanding conversations, has been turned into a civilian command center. There are even a few officers on campus to assist.
Check out the web page if you wish to help out.
Also, feel free to add questions or comments to this blog.
I'm OK. Just doing what I feel needs to be done. And if not me who?
I'll be as safe as I can up there, you have my word.
Please try not to worry, just send me up as much of the positive energy you can muster.
I leave tonight.
Love you
Jeremy/Pesach (my Hebrew name)

I saw war today

I saw war today.
I felt the ground tremble.
Last night I couldn't sleep because of the noise of explosions.
I am leading a 3 week "hike and explore" trip for a group of thirty 25(ish) year olds. We were staying at our campus up north in Tsfat.
A Beautiful coble-stone sleepy town where Kabalah originated.
Its the place I always go to to get away from the noise of the cities.
Its where I go for some peace.
From our balcony we could see a mountain on fire.
Cobra and Apache Helicopters flying overhead.
Every few minutes, a deep, rumbling BOOM....

We decided early this morning to move our group out of Tsfat even though there had Not been a terrorist attack or missile attack there in over 25 years. An hour after we left, the missiles exploded in Tsfat. An absorption center for new Imigrants where I volunteer sometimes, got hit. One Died, many wounded.

My friends who stayed in Tsfat and who live there heard the shriek of the impending missiles and then the crash of the impact, as they scampered with their families to the bomb shelters.

On our way to Jerusalem, we stopped near Tibereas on the Jordan river (at the place where they say JC was baptized). We were passing around a talking stick and having a sharing circle, when we learned that Haifa had been hit with longer range missiles and therefore we were still within missile range. So we packed up and headed to Jerusalem. I felt strange, and almost refugeeish, to leave somewhere because of war. To leave a town I love. To drive away from a sky chard with smoke. To be driving in one direction while gunships headed in the other.

Some of us are ashamed to be called the chosen people. We think its haughty or arrogant. The truth is, one of the main things we've been chosen for is to have it rough. It's never been easy for us Jews, and as soon as it starts getting easy, thats when it gets rough again. The Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians, Asyrians, Crusaders, The Spanish, The Nazis and now our current adversaries have all come after us. Maybe it's all to keep us sensitive. Maybe to keep us tough. Maybe its a scenario set up to test our faith. I like a teacher of mines idea that once we get our act together as a nation, once we learn to love one another as we would want to be loved, To speak words of kindness, to give what we would want to get, our enemies will desist. Anyway, Its probably worth a try.
Last week I sat with my Chevre(friends) in a Bar-Chochvah dug-out cave where the Jews hid out from the Romans 1700 years ago. Tonight my friend and his wife and four kids are sleeping in a dug out bomb shelter tunnel under their house.

I'm safe now.
War is no longer only something I know of from the TV.
War sucks.
It's the ultimate party pooper.
I hope I never have to smell it again.

The whole entire world, is a very narrow bridge.
I'm not afraid.
I love Ya'll
Pesach