Hi carolla:

I wonder: Why only for the children of Gaza?

But I already know the answer: Because the children are totally innocent.

I'm speaking from experience. In post-war Germany, the Allied occupiers and former enemies were very forgiving toward us German children, but less so toward German adults. After all, children are totally innocent, right?

Ever since I've been thinking about the dividing line between innocence and guilt. At what age does an innocent child become a guilty adult? 12, 14, 16, 18 or 21?

Arminius, you are raising an important point that goes back to early Victorian England. Industrializing England was a terrible place with high crime(which explains the later interest in Sherlock Holmes), and stunning immorality. A frightened middle class looked for an island of goodness in this hell, and invented it in the innocence of children. That's why in CharlesDickens, almost all the children are good. It's the adults who are evil. The ultimate expression of it is Peter Pan - who will never grow up and become an evil adult.

The evil ingredient is, of course, sex. That's why lewis carroll adored children, but abandoned them once they reached puberty. That's why Baden Powell set 12 as the age for Boy Scouts, to catch them at the onset of a dangerous period.

The innocence of children is something we invented largely to comfort ourselves. And you're quite right. Adults are equally deserving of sympathy and help.

graeme

Arminius, you are raising an important point that goes back to early Victorian England. Industrializing England was a terrible place with high crime(which explains the later interest in Sherlock Holmes), and stunning immorality. A frightened middle class looked for an island of goodness in this hell, and invented it in the innocence of children. That's why in CharlesDickens, almost all the children are good. It's the adults who are evil. The ultimate expression of it is Peter Pan - who will never grow up and become an evil adult.

The evil ingredient is, of course, sex. That's why lewis carroll adored children, but abandoned them once they reached puberty. That's why Baden Powell set 12 as the age for Boy Scouts, to catch them at the onset of a dangerous period.

The innocence of children is something we invented largely to comfort ourselves. And you're quite right. Adults are equally deserving of sympathy and help.

graeme

Perhaps Arminius, we are all children - at any age?

Perhaps, children are the future ... these events of today are formative in their political and world views yet to develop.   Would that it could be different for them.

carolla

Beautiful prayer but I believe I would add the children of Israel along with the children of Gaza in my prayers; not the exact same format of course.

 A child is a child and the children in Israel also live in fear and insecurity. My grandson visited Israel last summer. He was afraid and happy to be back home in Canada. Everyone carries guns and I guess anyone can buy one or so he thought; off duty soldiers walking around carrying guns. He's only 12. There was a very crude bomb shelter near where he stayed.

He didn't see much of the cities of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv because everyone is too afraid to spend much time there re suicide bombers etc.

I was so happy when he arrived home safely!

God send your angels to love, surround ,and  protect  our children all over the world especially in war torn countries.

I'm not sure what I feel about this "prayer". I'm sure it was said with sincerity, but then I'd have to put this into perspective by picturing someone attacking my country and at the same time having one of their religious leaders pray for my children who are being endangered by it. I'm sure God recieves all prayers, but is this an extended "olive branch" that has fallen far from the tree?

I know we have seen conflicts in parts of Africa where the "enemy" will chop off the arms and hands of children becaue they want to send a message and to remove the capability to carry arms against them. They are scarred physically and emotionally and live in fear.

In Gaza they live in fear. They are "amputated" from their fathers, sons, brothers and sisters. It's all the same. Create fear and hopefully cripple a nation.

I think the rabbi catches our attention because he is addressing his prayers to children and who could argue with that? It's safe, it's commendable (initially) and it's  out there to suggest that the Lord really is on their side because after all they can pray for the children on the other side of a conflict. Can he pray for the Israeli soldier, the father's/mother's and older brothers of the Gaza children with the same conviction? Can he pray that either nation leads the way to peace without a barbarian conflict and risk being rebuked by his own nation?

Upon my initial read I'm just not sure about this prayer. Some prayers I think are only made for God to hear and once spoken out loud become political wedges that lose sincerity. 

Or am I being cynical and overreacting? I'm not sure.

 Well, Waterfall, I think it is very important that as we pray that prayer, we look with criticism & cynicism at the events happening to require that prayer.

We need to feel anguish and look around at the situation so we can be moved to change it.  Those negative feelings are an important part of our plea.

Arminius - good point, and Carolla - your answer was equally good.  

I would have liked to include a line that asked for wisdom & longing for peace for all the people who are inflicting that darkness on the children.  Not just a ceasefire, but a deep longing for peace that brings a new vision of cooperation & respect.  

I agree with the prayer and to pray for all children. I always sense cynacism when someone tries to do something like this. Why are people so cynical of loving actions.?

Waterfall: your quote:

Or am I being cynical and overreacting? I'm not sure.

I'm not sure  about myself either. Rather than unity I think I sensed the same old separation line between Israel and Palestine. I'm positive the rabbi would be offering up another and a different prayer for the children of Israel. I think this is what bothers me.

Peace : John Denver

Hello everyone God bless you.....

I also agree with this prayer and add all the children of the world who suffer needlessly for they are innocent ........amen .....

IJL:bg

Yes, carolla, we all are children: Children of God; Children of the Universe; Children of nature.

Sure, our children are our future, but the values which they go by are implanted into them by us adults. If we desire social change, then the socializers need to change along with the socialized.

Horror, however, is its own teacher. The horrors I experienced as a small child in war torn Germany prompted me to do everything I can to prevent such horrors from happening again. Europe has learned from the horrors of the 20th century, and entered into a profound interethnic and pluralistic union that precludes such horrors from ever happening again.

Israelites, appearantly, did not learn from the Holocaust, which was caused by ethnocentricity and racism. On the contrary, they repeated the mistake of the the European regime that had persecuted them the worst—the mistake of establishing a racist and ethoncentric state—by establishing the rascist and ethnocentric state of Israel. The belief by Jewish fundamentist that Israelites are God's Chosen People, and that God had given their land only to them, does not help.

Arminius

Through the past 60 years I believe both the Arabs and the Jews have been so badly psychologically scarred  that there is no hope that they can ever live in peace. You know I don't read the bible literally and yet I often believe things are shaping up in the middle east according to biblical prophecy, but of course it is being carried out by the actions of mankind or people. Its a very scary scenario.

I do think about the children because like yourself my husband grew up as a child in Germany. He was 5 when the second world war ended. His memories are of bombs flying overhead, hiding in the basement, begging the U.S. soldiers for a bite to eat, seeing dead babies. He was so badly traumatized that he has nightmares for his life. War is a hellish thing and nobody walks free.

Yes, the beliefs perpetuated by the ultra orthodox Jewish fundamentalists is a tragedy in itself. I'm confused because my understanding is that Israel is a secular modern state  with perhaps 60% of the pop. not adhering to any particular religious beliefs or not being very interested. The orthodox Jews are surely a minority. Yet my grandson tells me that everywhere you go in Israel you will see these people praying. They pray on the airplane, at the airport, wherever there is a wall of any kind they are praying. They are at the  wailing wall approaching individuals and offering up prayers on their behalf.

There is another class of orthodox Jews who believe it is not God's will that Israel should ever have engaged itself in war of any kind. They are against war; period.

I guess the question for me is will anti semitism ever cease regardless of what happens in the middle east? As you know I live in a Jewish community. My highrise has been spray painted  in red with  swastikas, 10 or so tombstones were overturned and vandalized in a Jewish cemetery close by, windows were smashed in the synagogue down the street and on it goes. A terrorist from Montreal was detained at the Buffalo border crossing into the U.S.with explosives in his car.  He had planned to come to my neighborhood  in Toronto to take out a few Jews but he changed his mind.

I'm not Jewish but I understand how they feel  and I understand why my Jewish grandson calls himself a Christian and wishes to change his Jewish name when he grows up. I also sympathize very sincerely with the Arabs and what is happening in Gaza. I can't even begin to imagine the terror and the heartbreak of those living there.

P.S. When those committing acts of vandalism are caught it usually turns out that they are simply young delinquent  rabble rousers not related to any cause but even so.....

I find it all so unspeakably sad......

Hi stardust:

When I farmed chickens, I observed that there was no such thing as a "pecking order." Rather, the one poor chicken that was pecked on, and looked bedraggled from being continuously pecked on, was pecked on by others just because it looked pecked-on.

One can also observe that behaviour in bullying. Once a bully singles out a victim, other jump in on the act just because there is a victim. I don't know how psychologists explain this kind of disgusting behaviour.

Arminius

Did you ever have a mad rooster?  I recall being a little girl on a farm  of sorts and having a rooster come along and peck me on top of the head!  I must have been bending over; after that I was terrified of roosters.

Me too Stardust, me too.