From Jerusalem with Love: June 2020

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

A thought

I study a lot for my profession recently, and there is also a lot of emotional processing going on within me. As a result of these two things, the intellectual and emotional activity, I dream a lot - our brains do this to process information when we sleep, and I find it fascinating.
Someone said, and I agree, that a dream is like an envelope containing a letter that is written and sent specifically to you. When you wake up, the memory of the dream is like that envelope containing the letter placed on your pillow. All you have to do is pick it up, open it and read the letter - that is, to recall the dream, live it a bit longer consciously, and try to figure out what it means and symbolizes to you. Some of it may contain prophetic contents (I've had a few of these dreams), but some of it may be just mundane rendering of themes from your current life. Some of it may be related to stimuli you encountered during the day, or elaborations of your emotional state.
I like doing it, to stay with the dream a bit longer when I wake up, but admittedly, not every dream makes me want to do that. Some dreams make me want to forget them as soon as possible, it is a relief to wake up and realize the bad experience I've just had was in the mind-dimension of the kingdom of dreams and not in my 'real' physical reality (and who knows if this reality we're living is not a dream in itself?).
Last night, not sure why, I had a horrible dream. I usually do not have a lot of bad dreams, but this time I had one, and it was scary. In my dream, I met Hitler, in person. I don't think I've ever dreamed of that monster in my life and not sure why now. Perhaps I saw a picture of him somewhere and it infiltrated my dream. I was sitting next to him, trembling with fear, and he was commanding me to do this or do that. All I wanted was to get away from there as soon as I could, and I took the first chance to do that and just left. So there's not much to the story (thank goodness), but what impressed me was that I was actually there with the person, I sensed his energy - dense, condensed, so tightly packed, that nothing else could go in. It was all just radiating "me, me, me" - all so full of himself, and no room for anything or anyone to penetrate that armor of selfishness and self-centeredness. It was as if his energy was so crude and thick, like that of an animal (if animals could talk I would apologize to them for the comparison). But anyway, it was repulsive. He was a repulsive man. When you hear of the atrocities that happened in WWII, it is hard to imagine that a person, one person, could start all this. It is hard to believe. But when I met him in the dream, I realized how it could have happened. It suddenly became clear. I could understand how someone like him would start something so horrible.
Strangest dream ever.
And of course, I was thinking of all the normal people I know from every culture, and how different they are: there's so much air between their mental, energetic 'molecules', there is room for other things and people but themselves there, this is what allows for goodness to come in, to the light of G-d to shine in them.

A concluding thought: I'm so appreciative of the fact that I live as a sovereign in a country of my own, not dependent upon other nations, like the descendants of Esau and Yishma'el, to host me in their lands, no matter how nice, kind and cultured they are.
Baruch HaShem.

Friday, June 26, 2020

Second wave

There is a second wave of Covid19 here. Yesterday there were 668 new carriers in one day. People go to the beaches, to restaurants, places where they don't normally wear masks, and the virus is having a feast.
The good thing compared to the first wave is that now at least the elderly people know that they must protect themselves, so they stay home, whereas the younger ones are out. Even if they get the virus, no harm is done to them, and as long as the elderly protect themselves, things can be more or less under control. Still, I think all of us should wear masks anywhere in the public domain and avoid social get togethers as much as possible. Yet, there is a feeling that life has started going back into normal again, more or less.
I resumed my volunteering in hospitals and this Shabbat I will do a whole shabbat with a patient who is in a serious condition and refuses to eat, unless someone is feeding him. The family paid a 1000 shekel to someone to be with him last Shabbat, it's a lot of money, but I said I'll do it as a volunteer. I'm a bit apprehensive because I know this patient and he may have his moods and may become very angry at times, but I'll give it a try. Also, the thought of being with a mask on Shabbat... I don't like it. It is hard to breathe with a mask. We'll see how it goes.
If you read my previous post about songs, you know I promised to update it from time to time to add more Hebrew songs with words from the Torah, the Prophets or Scriptures. I've added a few more since, and I'll add more soon, I hope. If there are any specific songs or any specific knowledge you'll be happy to read about, I'll be happy to hear it and see what I can do to help.
Have a blessed shabbat!
R.

Friday, June 19, 2020

Songs

In this post I will list Hebrew, Israeli songs that are taken from the Torah, Prophets and Scriptures, in short, from the Tanakh. I will update this list from time to time as more songs come to my mind, and you are welcome to check it and learn some new songs :)
Some of the songs have lyrics that are all from the Tanakh, whereas other songs have words from the Tanakh as well as other lyrics, a combination of both. The videos I chose are just the first ones I found, not necessarily the best ones out there. Some are older versions of the songs and some are newer. Some of them are composed and/or performed by secular artists and some are by religious ones. Anyway, they are all filled with love to G-d.

(update from May 20, 2021: This singer on her YouTube channel sings the Bible beautifully - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFPrj6w4p7Y).

So here we start:

Psalms 92:12

צדיק כתמר יפרח (Tzadik KaTamar Yifrakh):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P51ey6TVPYE

Psalms 150: 5-6

הללויה בצלצלי שמע (HaleluYah be'tziltzelei Shama):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKxjuK4zyvM

Genesis 32:11-12

קטונתי מכל החסדים (Katonti miKol HaKhasadim):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEVRSKH54fs

Song of Songs 5:8