Rant #3,548: I Really Need To Know

Happy new year to all my Jewish friends and everyone else!

The year 5785 began yesterday at sundown, and we are now in the middle of the two-day celebration of Rosh Hashanah, followed up by Yom Kippur next week.

Yesterday, as the old year was turning into the new one, my wife and I spoke to pur insurance broker, and we settled on two plans for our heath insurance in the coming year--

One that is better for my wife and one that is better for me.

It just worked out that way, related to our doctors, which don't always overlap.

Funny, I had a sneaking suspicion that we would have separate plans, and my thought came to fruition.

We can sign up for these plans on or after October 15, and they don't begin until the regular new year dawns, on January 1.

So we have continuous coverage, no lapses.

After what I have been through the past year, I simply cannot afford a lapse in coverage, even for a day.

So even if this is a nuisance, by mid-month, we will put this problem to bed, and we hopefully won't have to worry about this anymore ...

Fat chance, but one can hope.

Otherwise, the last day of the Jewish year rolling into the new Jewish year was uneventful.

I will bet that in Israel, that isn't the case.

Air raid sirens and missiles permeate the air, and I cannot possibly imagine what the people there are going through.

It did not have to be this way.

The free world should have galvanized itself with Israel a year ago, and the conflict would not have escalated to the point that it is at right now.

But the world dragged its feet during the ensuing days and months, and it gave terrorists and their followers time to galvanize themselves.

And what's worse, many world leaders began to blame Israel for the carnage and for the overall situation in that part of the world.

Factions of terrorist groupies were able to form around the world, and their actions against sanity--and specifically against Jews--were unfathomable.

During this new year, we must hope that Israel is victorious, that the hostages are freed, and that terrorist organizations pay a stiff price for their insipid behavior.

This new year, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur will be a bit different.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are holidays of introspection, but this year, we must also look outward.

And the question we must ask is very obvious.

"How could something like this happen?"

A simple question, but not a simple answer--

But it is a question that must be asked, and it is a question that must be replied to, as succinctly and as honestly as possible.