"A personal question...boxers or briefs?" "Or"
Yeah, unfortunately, Fall Convention is over, just as soon as it started.
Let's run down some highlights.
Thursday night
-ROSS...getting lost and causing Zach to get lost
-Stuffing 225 envelopes Thursday night...just kidding...
Friday
-Getting everything ready REALLY EARLY...then forgetting the keys
-The melee that is...registration
-Opening ceremony...whaddup gangsta?
-The Jew for Jesus...except not really
-Welcome to the Tzahal went unbelievably...except that army costume was damn hot
-Daniel Bregman being in my room...what a crazy kid...not sure why he was at convention, but whatever
Saturday
-Chofesh chilling...in chilly weather...ha...ha....ha
-Mr. Seaboard...what an amazing event...probably the best I've seen in a while
-Hillary: "Personal question...boxers or briefs"
-Geoff Brown: "Or"
Sunday
-Trigger happy with the camera
-Keep it or Cut it, another successful program
In general
-Seeing Seth again, even if I lost the priceless recorder
-Making a couple new friends...mostly growing closer with others
-Seeing all your hard work pay off big time...this was the big one
As usual, convention was too short, but I'd have to say, it was the most organized convention I've ever been to. Encampment was a disaster in organization, and while Sam and Andrew adjusted very well, many programs failed and board members were bickering with each other. There was none of that at Fall. I also felt like I was the type of person I want to be; floating around, friends with many people, able to meet new people easily, etc. I never felt tied down to any group except for a little bit of time at the dance. Overall, my favorite fall convention, a lot better than last year's clicky-filled, shmirah fiasco fall.
I'm attaching a copy of my speech that I gave, apparently it was seen as contriversial by one particular person.
Boker Tov. So, after I heard the news of Yasser Arafat’s death this past week, I wondered, how should Jews react to his death? Should we rejoice? Should we be sad? Should we be indifferent?
My first inclination was to be happy that he is dead. Yasser Arafat was an extremely unstable leader who kept Israel and Palestine from reaching a peace settlement numerous times. One could even go as far as saying that he was a terrorist. He was a bad leader for his own people and was certainly a bad leader when negotiating with Israel. Why shouldn’t I be happy that he is now dead?
However, after thinking about it a little more, I realized that I should not rejoice in Arafat’s death. First of all, it is morally wrong to rejoice in another human’s death. I am reminded of the story of the Exodus from Egypt, where God tells the people not to rejoice for the death of the Egyptians, but rather for their freedom. To this day, at our Passover Seders, we set aside 10 drops of wine for the suffering the Egyptians went through with the ten plagues. The Exodus narrative thus offers a paradigm for the morally correct way to deal with the death of an enemy.
However, more importantly, we should not rejoice in Arafat’s death because we need to prove that we are not that barbaric. Anti-Semitism certainly is not a legitimate phenomenon, but it certainly has a basis. Anti-Semites do not hate us for the sake of hating Jews; they find something we do and blow it out of proportion. In the middle ages, Anti-Semites hated Jews because their living situation was bad, and we were mostly the money lenders, in charge of financial matters within the empire. Their anti-Semitism was unjustified, for sure, but it came into being because of the way we acted.
Today, it is very easy for us to openly rejoice at Arafat’s death. Many of us lost family members to terrorist attacks that Arafat could not control. But for us to eliminate the influence of anti-Semitism, we need to stand up and give them no reason to justify it. Sometimes, it is necessary to stand back and move on quietly. If the world sees that we are being civil about the death of our enemy, they will see Israel as a peaceful people and will be more willing to support our cause.
So yes, it is so easy to want to scream in joy at Arafat’s death. However, Israel has more important principles. Israel has the moral principles of the Torah, and the political principles of peace within her borders. If we rejoice in Arafat’s death, we lose sight of the two important principles that Israel was founded on. Those principles are what we should be focusing on. With Arafat’s death comes a hope for peace. I only hope that Israel will act on it.
-Pradamaster
-edit- Pictures can be found here
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/share/view?i=EeANGzlw5ctmz4Y&open=1&x=1&sm=1&sl=0
Let's run down some highlights.
Thursday night
-ROSS...getting lost and causing Zach to get lost
-Stuffing 225 envelopes Thursday night...just kidding...
Friday
-Getting everything ready REALLY EARLY...then forgetting the keys
-The melee that is...registration
-Opening ceremony...whaddup gangsta?
-The Jew for Jesus...except not really
-Welcome to the Tzahal went unbelievably...except that army costume was damn hot
-Daniel Bregman being in my room...what a crazy kid...not sure why he was at convention, but whatever
Saturday
-Chofesh chilling...in chilly weather...ha...ha....ha
-Mr. Seaboard...what an amazing event...probably the best I've seen in a while
-Hillary: "Personal question...boxers or briefs"
-Geoff Brown: "Or"
Sunday
-Trigger happy with the camera
-Keep it or Cut it, another successful program
In general
-Seeing Seth again, even if I lost the priceless recorder
-Making a couple new friends...mostly growing closer with others
-Seeing all your hard work pay off big time...this was the big one
As usual, convention was too short, but I'd have to say, it was the most organized convention I've ever been to. Encampment was a disaster in organization, and while Sam and Andrew adjusted very well, many programs failed and board members were bickering with each other. There was none of that at Fall. I also felt like I was the type of person I want to be; floating around, friends with many people, able to meet new people easily, etc. I never felt tied down to any group except for a little bit of time at the dance. Overall, my favorite fall convention, a lot better than last year's clicky-filled, shmirah fiasco fall.
I'm attaching a copy of my speech that I gave, apparently it was seen as contriversial by one particular person.
Boker Tov. So, after I heard the news of Yasser Arafat’s death this past week, I wondered, how should Jews react to his death? Should we rejoice? Should we be sad? Should we be indifferent?
My first inclination was to be happy that he is dead. Yasser Arafat was an extremely unstable leader who kept Israel and Palestine from reaching a peace settlement numerous times. One could even go as far as saying that he was a terrorist. He was a bad leader for his own people and was certainly a bad leader when negotiating with Israel. Why shouldn’t I be happy that he is now dead?
However, after thinking about it a little more, I realized that I should not rejoice in Arafat’s death. First of all, it is morally wrong to rejoice in another human’s death. I am reminded of the story of the Exodus from Egypt, where God tells the people not to rejoice for the death of the Egyptians, but rather for their freedom. To this day, at our Passover Seders, we set aside 10 drops of wine for the suffering the Egyptians went through with the ten plagues. The Exodus narrative thus offers a paradigm for the morally correct way to deal with the death of an enemy.
However, more importantly, we should not rejoice in Arafat’s death because we need to prove that we are not that barbaric. Anti-Semitism certainly is not a legitimate phenomenon, but it certainly has a basis. Anti-Semites do not hate us for the sake of hating Jews; they find something we do and blow it out of proportion. In the middle ages, Anti-Semites hated Jews because their living situation was bad, and we were mostly the money lenders, in charge of financial matters within the empire. Their anti-Semitism was unjustified, for sure, but it came into being because of the way we acted.
Today, it is very easy for us to openly rejoice at Arafat’s death. Many of us lost family members to terrorist attacks that Arafat could not control. But for us to eliminate the influence of anti-Semitism, we need to stand up and give them no reason to justify it. Sometimes, it is necessary to stand back and move on quietly. If the world sees that we are being civil about the death of our enemy, they will see Israel as a peaceful people and will be more willing to support our cause.
So yes, it is so easy to want to scream in joy at Arafat’s death. However, Israel has more important principles. Israel has the moral principles of the Torah, and the political principles of peace within her borders. If we rejoice in Arafat’s death, we lose sight of the two important principles that Israel was founded on. Those principles are what we should be focusing on. With Arafat’s death comes a hope for peace. I only hope that Israel will act on it.
-Pradamaster
-edit- Pictures can be found here
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/share/view?i=EeANGzlw5ctmz4Y&open=1&x=1&sm=1&sl=0