tonk911

Friends,
This coming Wednesday, July 30, 2003, begin the nine days that will culminate in
the Ninth of Av on August 7, a fast day, and the worst day in the Jewish
calendar; date of the destruction of both our Temples, and the beginning of our
long years of exile and pain.
Each year on the Ninth of Av, we read the Book of Lamentations. This year,
considering what is happening around us, I have created a few new lamentations,
and woven them together with the traditional ones. I hope you will join me in
saying them.
May God watch over us and save us.

Naomi Ragen

LAMENTATIONS FOR 2003
Naomi Ragen

How does the holy city sit solitary. Her enemies triumph, day after day, as her
friends betray her, telling her: Break down your walls. Tear down your
roadblocks. Let the weapons flow in from Egypt to Gaza, to find their way into
your playgrounds and supermarkets. Open the jails and let hundreds of terrorists
out to kill once more. Betray the young soldiers who gave their lives to
capture murderers. Do it all in the name of a peace that has no legs, nor arms.

Those who see the future, weep sore in the night at the treachery of Zion's
leaders, who spread a net for those they lead into the quagmire of death and
destruction. The people are busy seeking bread. They are weary of fighting,
their minds cannot hold the enormity of the how they have been betrayed. The
false prophets of their newspapers delude them with lying visions, paint
pictures of delusion to bring them back into captivity. They promise peace,
even as they report the gathering of bombs; the arrest of bombers, who sit
protected from all harm.

Let tears run down like a river, daughter of Zion, as they pull down the homes
of your pioneers, throw the fathers of your slain babes into the pit, and let
the murderers walk free.

Youth and old men; young girls and grandmothers were slain in the light of
day, slaughtered unsparingly, and there is none to avenge them. Our leaders
are yellow with cowardice; our leaders set us up for more slaughter. There are
terrors on every side, and none to help us. The head of our army and security
forces sit with our enemies and speak kindly. They hand them towns and villages
torn from the arms of terror, so they may replenish their arms. "They will get
used to peace. Enjoy peace," these men who are supposed to protect us say of
our enemies, taking risks, risks, and more risks with our lives. Surrendering
without a fight.

All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us. Terror and the pit
have come upon us. Desolation and destruction. They are my enemies without
cause.
We walk in darkness. Our strength is perished.

I have no hope in any Israeli leader. They are all deluded. All corrupt. All
fools.
I have no hope in any Western leader. They are all self-serving, selfish,
short-sighted, without vision, or insight. They sacrifice us on the altar of
expedience, giving terror new hope, because they think the terrorists will spare
their land, if they consume ours.

I have no hope in the so-called righteous of the world. Their organizations for
human rights are beacons of darkness, spreading hate. They have forgotten the
Jews too are human. Their twisted lies betray all truth. There is no goodness
in them.

In whom do I trust, then? My soul has remembrance that the Lord's mercies are
not consumed. They are new every morning. Therefore I will hope in Him, as I
hoped at the foot of the great Red Sea, the Egyptians at my back, their swords
drawn. I will step into the water up to my nose, and still wait for His
salvation to part the seas.
I sit alone, in silence, and I wait, hoping that the Lord will not cast us off
forever. Hoping that our leaders will disappear, and better ones take their
place, and that the plans of our enemies will not be fulfilled. That He may
take away the cloud, and let our prayers pass through.

Amen.

pulver

Tonya -- when you post these articles, please reformat them
so that the lines do not break all over ...... and set your
line to wrap @55 or 60 characters tops
That will keep them readable through several reps.