Times Are Rough - Thoughts

Hi all,

I'm a very optimistic person, and I believe it is
rooted in my eternal belief in Hashem and in Nezach Am
Yisrael, but I'm having a very hard time lately not
becoming depressed and fighting off thoughts of
hopelessness.

I look around me, I listen to the news, I read the
news on the internet and all I see and read is
hypocrisy.

A war on terrorism that includes allies that are
countries that support terrorism.

A war on terrorism that does not include (at least
publicly) countries that fight terrorism.

A large part of the world that hides it's
anti-semitism by cloaking it in anti-Zionism.

A large part of the world that dares to say "cycle of
violence" with regards to Israel, when any sane person
knows that if one side would be pressured to stop,
then there would be no "cycle of violence" to lie
about.

A large part of the Jewish people who pray to return
to the land of Israel, but who do not return.

There are so many battles to fight, so many causes to
stand up for.

Belive it or not, the biggest cause dearest to my
heart is my concern that Jews complain about the above
issues, but leave the activists to act, while the
majority do nothing, but complain. Judaism is about
living an active life based on our beliefs, yet
"activists" are only a small segment of our
population, when instead that term should include all
of us. Too many of us suffice with just tzedakah to
let others do the hard work.

I'm tired of all this hypocrisy and I'm depressed by
it.

I don't know what to do anymore. Sometimes I really
feel hopeless. I can talk till I'm blue in the face
about these issues that concern me. I can send
emails, sign petitions, prod people to do more, to get
involved, but yet I still feel that I'm making no
impact - powerless in the face of so much hypocrisy,
hopelessness, apathy and inactivity.

Kohelet had it right "Hevel Havalim, Hakol
Hevel.....Et Hashem Yirah v'et mitzvotav shmore, ki ze
kol haadam". But I still wish more people would do
more besides their daily mitzvot, because there is so
much that needs to be done.

Maybe I'm not doing the right things, maybe I'm not
doing enough, maybe I'm not talking to the right
people. I guess that is why I'm sending out this
email: A plea for help, and a communication to find
out about other ideas, other avenues, other people to
reach out to.

Thanks for listening.

The latest project that I honed my frustration on is a
website called Americans for a Safe America. I just
put it together out of pure anger towards the
hypocrisy of America's war. Instead of putting the
focus on the hypocrisy towards Israel, I focused on
the hypocisy of the war strategy itself. If you have
any comments or suggestions, let me know. PS - it is
still under construction. What I will do with it, if
I will do anything with it, I have no idea, but I'm
open to suggestions and at least, for myself, I'm
trying to do something.

http://www.geocities.com/veryconcernedcitizens

With it all, emunah will carry us through, it just
isn't so easy all the time.


Avi