Some of you may be wondering why I never blogged anything on the Tsnunami disaster, but I did blog on the piguah (bombing) at the Gaza border. t Okay, you probably weren’t wondering, but I’d been thinking about it.
The first part of the answer is that–well, as Rabbi Mickey Rosen said in a drash at Yakar Dec. 31st (and this is absolutely a paraphrase, not an exact quote, I don’t remember the exact wording), “there are two kinds of numbness around a disaster. The first is the numbness wherein you can’t comprehend the numbers of people who have been affected by a disaster, the enormity is just so overwhelming that your mind can’t take it all in. The second kind is a narcissistic numbness, wherein you’re so caught up in your own little life that you can’t get out of it to connect to the people who are hurting and the suffering that’s happening. I (he said) am trying to move from the second category to the first.”
Around the same time I was trying to do the same thing. I probably still am, frankly, though there have been moments when I’ve been in category one. And there’s been a lot written about the disaster in the media and the blogosphere, I wasn’t sure that I had (have) any great hiddush (new thought) to add to what’s already out there. But yeah, I’m thinking about it.
As for the piguah, well, obviously as that’s closer to home it’s easier to let in through my tough little skin. So that’s part of it. Another part is that I have this deal with some friends and family that whenever anything explodes on this patch of land, I’ll blog here when I hear about it so that they can check as soon as they hear about it, to know that I’m OK. So in a way, those posts are a secret code, as well as being a genuine expression of sorrow.
That is all. Time for school.