Golden Rain Tree
For When There Are No Words (+new link to the Hamas "covenant" so you can read about this organization in its own words)
People have to stop killing Jews. It just has to stop. Human sacrifice is barbaric. Kidnapping and killing civilians is barbaric. Any rhetoric that implies otherwise has to be called out for exactly what it is. Barbaric. The Hamas "covenant" has openly boasted since 1988 that Hamas' raison d'etre is to kill Jews. It is available for anyone to read. See link above. Some examples: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it;” “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews, killing the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him;” “Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its (Hamas’) wishes.” Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera — for 36 so-called “Articles”.
If any other sovereign nation on earth — with a charter (recognized by all governments of the world except possibly some factions in Iran) granting it national sovereignty and control of its own borders — was invaded and hundreds of innocent and defenseless civilians were bloodied and bound up and dragged into pick-up trucks by teenagers in blood-stained khaki t-shirts filming themselves in the act and pointing machine guns in the air and shouting “Satan is Great” … what would happen then?
What would happen next???!
There are simply no words and therefore I post the completely insufficient picture above, the last in a collection of dried up old seed pods drawn months ago.
The drawing is from a tree that really is named the golden rain tree. I ponder that as I post it. Painted this months ago but did not look up the name until today. Seems inexplicably apt. Golden rain will not fall in such a hate-filled climate. To the shame and the drought of all the world.
In the past my limited language skills and even more limited social media reach served to translate into English some of the German-speaking press during times of political turmoil in Austria, for my friends in the Anglosphere. (Such as the refugee crisis of 2015 in which thousands of Arabic-speaking migrants and war refugees fled here and were welcomed with open arms and much state funding).
This is my best effort at transmitting the words recently spoken by Oskar Deutsch, the leader of the Jewish cultural and religious community in Vienna, the IKG — formally organized in 18 {!!not 19!!} 52:
Dear ladies and gentlemen, dear members of the community,
A newspaper called this terrorist attack by Hamas on hundreds if not thousands of civilians “Israel’s 9/11”. While the world struggles to compose itself (+its narrative) after the shock, we see clearly that civilians — children, women, men, among them many elderly and vulnerable — are trapped in the violent hand of terrorists. To free them is the immediate priority, a task for all governments of the world that value life over death.
No more support or money for Hamas! Diplomatic and military pressure are needed now! We mourn the hundreds of innocent civilians, some who were tortured before being murdered. We pray for the quick and complete recovery of the wounded.
And I repeat myself with emphasis: We demand the freedom of the kidnapped hostages.
In Austria the security measures for Jewish institutions and facilities have been adjusted to the realities of the new situation. Many thanks to our security services as well as the constitutional protections, police, and national army of Austria. It has been possible for all prayers and services in all synagogues to continue as normal. Our schools and the facilities of the IKG are also secured.
This was not just an attack on Israel, but on the entire free world.
The messages of solidarity from throughout all of Austria provide Israel, and our Jewish Community here, comfort and hope. Thank you.
I invite you all to a ceremony at the Ballhausplatz on the 11 of October at 18:30. On Ballhausplatz we will commemorate the victims who have died, and pray for the wounded and missing.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, (of blessed memory) left us a thought several years ago that may help us in our current situation: Cultures that pay homage to and promote death, die. Those that honor life, continue to exist.
This is the reason Judaism survives. We will not allow ourselves to be dragged down.
The people and faith of Israel live on.
I highly recommend watching this wonderfully uplifiting interview about Jewish life and cultural traditions with Rabbi Jonathan Sacks titled “Life Worth Living and the Jewish Tradition” (scroll down about a page and a half to get to the video):
https://faith.yale.edu/media/rabbi-sacks-holiness-existence-jewish-philosophy
List of names of the Israelis who have died, as of 19 October, documented by Haaretz
More on the life and the theology of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks from the Times of Israel:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-exceptional-judaism-of-jonathan-sacks/