Burt Prelutsky (himself a secular Jew) once noted that religious Jews in America probably have more in common with devout Christians than they do with their left wing progressive brethren. Unfortunately, I knew that before I read his article, and in the intervening years I saw more and more examples confirming this sad fact. I pray for my lost brothers and sisters; I hope that they will be granted the clarity of vision to find the way back to the truth, to the real pride in their heritage, and to Heavenly Father - and I hope that I personally can (at least most of the time) teach them by example.
However, this is not why I remembered Burt’s observation; as we all know, Gd works in mysterious ways, and a lot of times His messages come from somewhat unexpected places.
These past two years have been extremely challenging to the USA, Israel, and the Jews - and each day seems to bring more and more bad news. I firmly believe that He has a plan that we can’t possibly see, and we should never, ever lose hope - or consider ourselves defeated (unhorsed, possibly, using a line from one of my beloved romance novels, but not defeated!); but sometimes the constant barrage of enemy fire gets to be a bit too much for my psyche.
A few days ago I caught a little video of Kayleigh McEnany talking about her upcoming book, the title of which is For Such a Time as This; Kayleigh pointed out that the title does come from the Bible, and kept asking the audience if they recognized the quote. Since I usually read the holy texts in Hebrew (or in the translation very different from King James or NIV), I could not immediately pinpoint the correct source - but something told me that it was from Esther. Sure enough, it was from Esther - and Kayleigh explained that the reason she used that phrase is because she firmly believes that she was put on this Earth, in her body, with her parents, with her family - for such a time as this.
Book of Esther - the first and foremost theme of which is Gd’s hidden ways! That was the message - I am Hidden, but I am with you! You know the truth, you know the enemy - and you were put here for such a time as this! You know the stakes of this fight; don’t stay silent, don’t put down your sword, keep fighting - and I am here with you!
Father chose this brave patriot and devout Catholic to send me a message of encouragement and hope! May He always protect His people, the people who truly believe in Him, the Holy Land, and this wonderful country! Blessings to Kaleigh, Baby Blake, and her entire family! We were all put on this Earth for such a time as this - let us keep our hope, and keep fighting!
