Are ANY OF YOU Flipping Out That THIS is WW3???!

wantavaca

Tue, Nov 17 2015, 11:51 pm

How about an option that says: it's scary and awful but I know that this is all part of hashems plan. He has taken perfect care of me until now and I know he will continue to! Always!
You can't spend ur life worrying. After 9/11 I thought the world was over and it wasn't Bh. Imagine if I would have wasted all that time since then worrying and waiting! That's not called living. Hashem wants us to live. Channel your fears toward spiritual growth,and a development of a close relationship with Him.
This will both put u at ease and make you a better person:)

etky

Wed, Nov 18 2015, 12:46 am

I definitely feel that mankind is in a unique position that it has never been in before - the ability to completely self-destruct - and if not that, for one group of people to massacre entire populations or at least wreak havoc across entire countries, oceans away from their own power base. We've seen intimations of this in recent decades but unfortunately I think that was just for openers. As time goes by, the technology for mass annihilation is getting more sophisticated, easier to deploy and more accessible to random groups. The dictatorships and totalitarian regimes that used to keep these weapons in check are no longer around and have been replaced with regimes (or lack of regimes!) that are unscrupulous and those that adhere to extremist ideology. No need to elaborate on the last point - we all know who and what we're dealing with.
So yes, I feel that we - as in the world - are living in an era of unprecedented danger.
I also feel that we - as Jews - will have a special part to play in this script which is unfolding.
Here in Israel we've been living with Arab terror for many years: life here has alway had an edge.
However, I feel uneasy, disturbed and afraid for the world as I never did before.

DrMom

Wed, Nov 18 2015, 1:03 am

shoshanim999 wrote:

I've said this before and I'll say it again- in spite of the the terrible events going on in the world today, there is no time period in the last 1000 years that jews have been more prosperous and have lived in greater peace than in the last 75 years since the holocaust ended. If what I'm saying is not true please specifically identify what 75 year time frame was better than what we are enjoying now.

Why are we limited to 75-year time-frames?

I can compare Jewish life now with 20 or 30 years ago (ahem, or 7 years ago...) and say that there is more Antisemitism in the world today, and it is becoming increasingly accepted in the West, which was (say, 75 years ago) a safe-haven for Jews.

mandksima

Wed, Nov 18 2015, 2:11 am

etky wrote:

Exactly!

Times are definitely changing and quickly. My family is discussing getting together somewhere to celebrate our parent's 50th anniversary and I have no desire to travel now and frankly, am a bit scared to go anywhere overseas and even in Israel, I would like to stay away from crowded places. They are discussing for the summer or next winter and I keep thinking - there is NO way the world's terror activity is not going to increase. We have started on a path now that is not going to stop until Moshiach is here. This is not like earlier intifadas and wars. I feel that is so glaringly obvious and I can't fathom how people are planning fun celebratory activities for the future when our future is so unsure. Yes, wedding or bar mitzvah plans still have to be done, of course, but I still can't help thinking that whatever plans we make may likely be changed. Terror attacks could escalate in days, weeks or months and I think we should just take it day by day.

This Sunday, there are plans to say a worldwide tehillim together. Hopefully, a few million praying together can end these uncertain times quickly and bring the peace for which we have been waiting for so long.

ora_43

Wed, Nov 18 2015, 2:21 am

shoshanim999 wrote:

Literally any 75 years that didn't include the Holocaust, Chmielnicki massacres, or crusades?

Even the inquisition was better than the last 75 years. The last 75 years have seen Jews expelled from nearly every country in the Middle East. In the USSR millions of Jews were forbidden to practice Judaism.

Plus there were five full-scale wars against the Jewish state and several more smaller-scale wars. A lot of people died in those wars.

I agree that there's a lot of good in this time period, too. Huge amounts of good. The establishment of Israel, its survival in the face of all odds, the fact that Jews expelled from so many countries were able to find a safe home - there's a lot to be grateful for, and I am grateful.

But to say that Jews are more prosperous and live in greater peace than ever is, I think, insensitive to the suffering that's occurred in much of the Jewish world in that time. Yes, some parts of the Jewish world escaped unscathed, but that's always been the case, during any 75 years out of the past 1,000 that you can think of.

mandksima

Wed, Nov 18 2015, 4:29 am

DrMom wrote:

I think if this whole issue were addressed in a serious and forceful manner a few years ago, it would not have festered and metastasized into the situation we have today. Now that we have waited so long, WWIII is possible.

I disagree with that thought process because I don't think current events have that much to do with logic. Many years ago, perhaps, if Kahane's views would have been followed and all Jews would have been united, perhaps Moshiach would have come early and we wouldn't have needed to have gotten to this point but since we have become less and less of an united people with countless aveirot, don't you think this is Hashem's plan according to all the sources that explain the events needing to unfold before Moshiach's arrival?

I have this discussion with my dh all of the time. He just sees it as political and national events and not as events leading up to Moshiach...

DrMom

Wed, Nov 18 2015, 4:53 am

mandksima wrote:

I agree with your DH. Your p.o.v. implies that there are no implications to choices humans make.

mandksima

Wed, Nov 18 2015, 5:28 am

DrMom wrote:

I agree with your DH. Your p.o.v. implies that there are no implications to choices humans make.

There definitely are implications. All of our choices affect our outcome in life even with Hashem as the one in charge. Free will is what makes us human. Hashem's master plan can have different outcomes based on our actions. Moshiach could have come earlier had we acted differently.

The State of Israel and the IDF unfortunately too often mistake our success as a direct result of our strength and ingenuity. I know that Hashem has our future planned out and the Arabs will either be able to harm us more or not based on His mercy, not based on our military actions or government policies. We need to have those actions or policies, of course, as our hishtadlut, but to assume there is no correlation between them and the outcome of our future is ignoring the hand of G-d in all of this.

imasoftov

Wed, Nov 18 2015, 5:49 am

None of the above, but let me count the ways.

I can't sleep- I am petrified Not petrified. I live in Israel, the only thing I've changed is looking over my shoulder more. I haven't changed a single plan, except for the shiur I skipped on "Esav soneh at Yaakov" because I didn't want to hear more about hate.
I am taking Xanax to deal with the events I'm going on with my life to deal with the events, just like I do with what happens here.
Things that occur in Europe will NEVER happen in America Learn to live with uncertainty, because the alternative is self-delusion.
I believe Moshiach is HERE and will reveal himself at any moment... I don't know what HERE means but aren't we supposed to always believe that it could happen and not seek any more information than that because a) when it doesn't happen, it decreases belief and b) see above regarding self-delusion. But if it did happen I would read about it on twitter, not head out to see it in person, with or without a change of clothes.

I'm not finished with the last one. Let's say you were around a few days after the archduke was assassinated, would you have said "yep, looks like a world war, better pick out clothes"? Well maybe we'll give you a pass since there had up to that point only been the regular sort of war and no one thought of a world war.

So let's skip forward to Germany invading Poland in 1939. Would you have known it was a world war then?

But let's say this does turn out to be the start of WW3. Only in jokes is the third time guaranteed to be the punchline.

GramaNewYork

Wed, Nov 18 2015, 6:18 am

pesek zman wrote:

How about 'going on with life as usual because my worrying won't change anything'

That's me

I learned long ago, in the midst of a terrible personal event, that there is no point in worrying about something which you cannot control. Do your hishtadlus...after that put it in HaShem's hands. That's the beauty of being a believer. I've learned not to torture myself by listening to the news. Some people can handle it; I cannot. I don't want to spend my life being angry, scared and upset. I want to be cheerful for my family and friends who need me. Yes, prepare your bottles of clean water and do whatever you can do, but then LET IT GO!!!!!

esther09

Wed, Nov 18 2015, 7:06 am

DrMom wrote:

I actually think we've created and nurtured this situation. We wreaked havoc in these middle eastern countries and then left them to clean up the pieces. Unstable governments, poverty, a whole generation of young men with anger, lack of prospects, and no education.... Throw radical Islam into that mix and it's the perfect foundation for the creation of extremist groups.

The problem is, a. I don't necessarily disagree with our military interventions, like going into Iraq and b. Even if I did, it is what it is now, we can't go back in time.

To answer the OP, am I nervous? Not to the extent you're describing but I definitely think about it. You have to try to just live your life though. Not to sound corny or cliche but letting it rule your thoughts is what the terrorists want, it's letting them win.

Also, everyone mentioning for us Americans to realize that "it could happen here too..." - of course it can! I lived in NYC through 9/11 and every time I get on the train in the morning it crosses my mind "that it could happen here too." What does saying that it o us accomplish? Please stop making us sound sheltered and naive.

DrMom

Wed, Nov 18 2015, 7:38 am

mandksima wrote:

But it sounds like this is what you are doing. You say that politics and military activity are pointless because HaShem controls everything. You appear to be ignoring hishtaldut.

I don't know if this is connected to Moshiach or not -- but that has no impact on the political/military actions I favor.

FranticFrummie

Wed, Nov 18 2015, 9:22 am

Can't happen in America? Seriously? How quickly can you forget 9/11 and the Boston marathon? shock

Not to mention the everyday attacks on Jews everywhere in the US, and the rampant war on Jews on college campuses?

For those of you in Europe, what about the attack on the train in Spain, and the London Tube?

WHERE IS YOUR MEMORY? This is all recent stuff, people. It's happening, and there's no denying it.

The potential for Moshiach lives in every generation. We have to do our part to be ready, by being the best Jews we can be. Daven as hard as you can, because we need it!