Tuesday, May 31, 2011

BANKERS AND MAIDS

Mahmoud Abdel-Salam Omar, the former chief of Egypt’s Bank of Alexandria, was arrested in New York City Monday night for sexually assaulting a hotel maid.

What is the worth of money? Paper money has no intrinsic worth unless backed by silver or gold; gold has a long history of value because it is a malleable metal that does not tarnish – silver is harder, tarnishes and is less valuable.

The value of paper money, a promise issued by governments trillion of dollars in debt, wheels power through investments taking place at breakneck speeds around the world. Maids are required to clean up after the bankers who have become famous for their assaults.

Investments are like the bugs that surround the earth, if they all fell to the ground at one moment, they would be miles high; Perhaps, bankers feel as if they are doing the world a favor keeping everything afloat and deserve special pampering? Money inspires ego.

When the transparency of glass is coated with a thin layer of silver it produces a mirror that reflects the self; when you see yourself you see nobody else. The Cabala describes the individual as unique – it is through uniqueness that equality is realized.

Monday, May 30, 2011

MEMORIAL DAY

At least 259 women say they were raped by Muammar Gaddafi’s militiamen. "First they tied my husband up," one woman wrote. "Then they raped me in front of my husband and my husband's brother."

What is the connection between sex and war? Soldiers for thousands of years have been raping women as a spoil of war; if war is Hell to a man then rape is Hell for a woman – there is no spiritual Hell, a place where souls suffer forever – Hell is here.

One commonality between sex and war is neither is logical; animals fight for domination but not to kill; Even more ironic, is how death in war promotes life through rape. Rabbi Akiva famous in the Talmud-Book of Law says, Love is the main Torah generality.

Love in Hebrew is Ahava made from the word Hav/Give, the letter Aleph in the beginning makes it, I Give; hatred and war is I Take – taking lives, forcibly taking women. American soldiers are trained to curb their killing and to respect life.

The Torah teaches, In the end the lion will lay down with the lamb; the Cabala explains that the lion will remain a lion and the lamb will remain a lamb, but war and rape will end. While honoring the perpetrators of war it is also needed to remember the victims of war.