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Yesterday I was stunned at what I had seen on LinkedIn.
A picture taken in Auschwitz, a woman sitting on the rails, her head turned to the sun and a picture of it taken as if she were in an amusement park, rather than in the camp sitting on the rails, where so many of our people, literally, drove to their death. And then I receive a blog post... "Is two minutes of silence the answer?" I gave a response but today I write again, and you, as my readers can read the conversation.
You find the link to that blog underneath my message.
Dear Mordecai,
Today I visited your blog for the second time.
The many reactions you received. And among them also mine.
But by reading your story and all the responses again and taking into account the peace I find myself in today, other words come to mind.
There are emotions and thoughts born in the moment, evoked by someone else in a certain situation, and there are emotions born in you by a certain situation that you consciously experience.
My first reaction
Yesterday I was stunned at what I had seen on LinkedIn.
A picture taken in Auschwitz, a woman sitting on the rails, her head turned to the sun and a picture of it taken as if she were in an amusement park, rather than in the camp sitting on the rails, where so many of our people, literally, drove to their death.
The reactions that followed, especially from the one who described so eloquently, how he visited the camp, to remember his family and to mourn there, while it felt like walking in an amusement park, with people licking ice cream, talking loudly and laughing, made my "hairs stand on end".
And exactly at that moment I received a message in my WhatsApp.
With the article "Is two minutes of silence really the answer?"
I immediately reacted, which in retrospect I should not have done.
So today I read your article again and also with the same intense attention, the different reactions.
And I realize so deeply that you can use "the pen" to divide and destroy or be a building block to unite and heal.
To connect through and with understanding, to look at things from different points of view.
My memories
Not so long ago I shared my story about life with a traumatized mother on one of my websites.
I remember it like it was yesterday, the time a plane flew over our house and she immediately picked me up and stood in front of the mirror.
And I remember how I looked, wrapped in her arms, at that white face in the mirror, with the dark eyes in which you could read the panic.
And I especially remember her voice whispering, “Not again, please, not again.”
I remember cleaning the house, which she did day in and day out, and how she talked about the words someone had shouted at her:
"Lamb-Ray," "Vermin", and "Beast" I remember someone telling me how before The Main Movie started Short films about rats were shown in cinemas, which were then compared to Jews. And how they were shown again and again so that the poison of hatred could do its ugly work. How Jews were said to be dirty, pathogens.
Hence what I only understood much later, is the eternal cleaning and sterilization of almost everything in the house.
Today's response
Now, from the tranquility of a new day and, as I said, having calmly gone through your article and the many reactions, I realize better and more deeply that there are so many views. So many different points of view. Zelensky's visit, Corona and how the government has dealt with it, etc.
I don't have a ready answer, but what I can do now is thank you for what you wrote from your heart and because of that keeping the dialogue going.
Because that is certain, the end of two minutes of silence is not yet in sight, but looking at how to proceed together, by writing and talking about it, is not either!
There are so many things involved, but precisely because of your blog, you see things that you previously passed by. And you will also understand the other a little better. Now I understand the text I have read so many times in the Torah.
Tehillim 45
1 5 (To the one who leads Shoshannim, to the Bnei Korach. A Maskil. Shir yedidot, i.e. a love song). My lev is stirred with davar tov; I speak my verses to HaMelech; my leshon (tongue) is the et (pen, stylus) of a sofer mahir (ready writer, skillful writer)
How do I speak and write the word? Will it divide, and spread hatred? Or connect and especially is it showing HIS unconditional love?
Thank you, Mordecai.
Here is his blog. You can read it in Dutch English and other languages.
D'Vorah Meijer