Winter is Coming

By Stuart J. Moskovitz

As we look around these days what we see is not good.

Obama is attempting to unilaterally wipe out sixty years of American foreign policy in Cuba by recognizing a government that has kept its nation in the nineteenth century and has served as a role model for America’s enemies in Venezuela and elsewhere in Central and South America. He is throwing under the bus hundreds of thousands, if not millions of legitimate immigrants who escaped the corruption and oppression of a regime that has shown no remorse and no intention to improve.

ISIS is gaining momentum and we are watching battles between various forms of the same Satanic invasion, whether it be the Sunni ISIS, the Shiite Hezbollah and Iran aiding Syria, the Turks trying to rebuild the Ottoman empire, all of whom seek to impose Sharia law throughout this Earth in a world-wide caliphate. It’s like watching the Green Bay Packers play Seattle. You hope they both lose and you know that won’t happen.

Europe has lost its way, its will, its morality, its strength. It is taking Hamas off of the list of terror nations, despite their daily pronouncements that genocide is their goal and they will spend whatever money is sent their way to build tunnels and manufacture weapons, not build schools or hospitals, except as needed to use as human shields in the next attack on Israel.

At the same time, Europe is progressively determining that it will support a Palestinian state, despite the fact that Palestine will not recognize the existence of a Jewish state, will not negotiate with Israel, will not make any concessions, will not allow religious freedom for Christians or Jews, will insist that the Temple Mount remain solely for Moslems. The Temple Mount is not only the most holy site in Judaism, but the site where Jesus came to prominence by standing up to the oppression of the Pharisees. Europe is voting to recognize “Palestine” despite the fact that historically there is nothing to recognize and the Palestinian Authority will not denounce its partnership with Hamas, the terrorist organization Europe now finds unobjectionable.

In the United States, for the first time in our history, a foreign nation is controlling what we see in our movie theaters. Threats by “anonymous” hackers against any movie theater showing “The Interview” because it criticizes the leader of North Korea has caused the stars of the movie to cancel all appearances and at least one major movie house chain is pulling the movie from all its theaters.

Financially, people around the world have not begun to emerge from the great recession, despite the protestations of Obama and other leaders that “everything is awesome.” In all likelihood, anyone reading this is surely aware of a friend or family member who is either unemployed or underemployed. That is not how one defines a recovery.

Racial relations have been set back five decades by the current administration. Much of the fault for this is that a news industry that was once the strength of this nation has determined it needs to be no more responsible, have no more integrity, provide no more service as an educator of the people, than the producers of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

On another note, all of us know at least one person and possibly several fighting a personal battle for whom we are each offering our prayers.

So, why am I laying all of this out in the middle of the holiday season?

It is not an accident that Judaism and Christianity both have holidays centering on the winter solstice. These are the shortest days of the year, the least sunlight, the darkest, the harbingers of winter. Psychologists understand that this is the time of peek levels of depression.

Both Christmas and Chanukah are celebrated to a large extent with light. Chanukah is referred to as the festival of lights. Drive down your street to understand the connection between Christmas and lights.

Light has many meanings. It stands for what is normally provided by the Sun. It also stands for understanding, for “enlightenment,” for hope, for relief, for miracles.

Miracles happen every day. It is probably not an accident that we focus on miracles more at this time of year than during the rest of the year. It is at this time of year, when people are historically more depressed than during the remainder of the year, that we need to be reminded not to lose hope.

The world has been through tougher times. Race relations have been worse. World financial problems have been worse. Jews have been endangered in almost every generation throughout history. We have had bad Presidents before from whom we thought we would never recover. We have seen devastating illness.

We have also seen miracles. Many, many miracles.

During this season of lights, we need to remember that one day’s oil can last eight days – but only if we have the faith to light that oil to allow the miracle to happen. We can turn foreign policy around, but only if people in Congress and even in the Courts are willing to fight for freedom, willing to preserve what our founding fathers left us; only if we as citizens are willing to make the noise necessary to assure our representatives do just that.

People have recovered from illnesses that were declared to be terminal. But they had to believe they could and refuse to stop fighting.

Winter is coming. But this is the season of light. This is the season of hope. This is the season of miracles. There are reasons to be concerned, but never to despair. While there is a single candle to light, a single ember glowing to build to a flame, the slightest hint of hope for a miracle, we have the obligation to ourselves and others, to light that candle, to fight the fight, to take whatever meager steps we can to build that glorious flame, to believe in that miracle, and give every effort to make it come about.

Winter is coming. Now, more than ever, is the time to make a joyful noise.

Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, and Seasons’ Greetings.

Posted: December 19th, 2014 | Author: admin | Filed under: Opinion | Tags: Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, Stuart J. Moskovitz, Winter | 2 Comments »

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