Defiance
“Our revenge… is to live.”
Lately I have been very angry with what I see, read and hear around me. Moreover, my teacher today at the Tuesday Zohar class told a crowd of 200 people, “This world we live in, is the worst of all worlds; we cannot trust our leaders, our friends, our financial institutions.”
Just before class, one of my counselors asked to see me for a chat. “Joelle, what is your personal dream?” he asked. “I am practically there ,” I replied. He looked, with the deepest depth his blue eyes can muster, straight into mine and pronounced the following statement: “You think you are getting there, but in reality your dream hasn’t come true yet. You must still work very hard for it.”
I gasped. Speechless at such a comment but with a large smile on my face, I finally felt relieved. In a few seconds the ’spiritual master’ in front of me would give me the secret and the tools I’ve always fought so hard for and deserve. I would finally fulfill this dream of mine and get it over with.
Obviously sorry for interrupting the enlightened expression on my face, he added: “Come and see me in two weeks. If I can, I will help you figure it out. As I am very busy at the moment with another project, I may ask one of my colleagues to help you sort it out.”
What I understood at the end of our brief encounter is that once guided by the more available master, the answers would finally be given to me by the universe itself, leading me to recognize my correct path for eternity – and possibly to immortality. With a sense of frustration, I left the Kabbalah center towards my supposed immortality, feeling much farther from my dream than when I had stepped through that door earlier.
Recognizing one’s path is not necessarily an easy task to do. An example can be seen in one of the most expressive movies I have ever seen in my life. It’s called Defiance and it’s directed by Edward Zwick portraying the movie’s principal hero, in my humble opinion, the sexiest man alive – actor Daniel Craig.
Based on an extraordinary true story, Defiance is an epic tale of family, honor, vengeance and salvation in World War II. The year is 1941 and the Jews of Eastern Europe are being massacred by the thousands. Managing to escape certain death, three brothers take refuge in the dense surrounding woods they have known since childhood.
There they begin their desperate battle against the Nazis. Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell star as brothers who turn a primitive struggle to survive into something far more consequential-a way to avenge the deaths of their loved ones by saving thousands of others.
At first it is all they can do to stay alive. But gradually, as whispers of their daring spreads, they begin to attract others-men and women, young and old-willing to risk everything for the sake of even a moment’s freedom. Tuvia (Craig) is a reluctant leader and his decisions are challenged by his brother, Zus (Schreiber) who worries that Tuvia’s idealistic plans will doom them all.
Asael (Bell) is the youngest – caught between his brothers’ fierce rivalry. As a brutal winter descends, they work to create a community, and to keep faith alive when all humanity appeared to be lost.
The Bielski brothers started one of the most noted Jewish partisan groups. They were famous because, unlike other partisan groups who were focused on mainly fighting the Germans, the Bielskis first and foremost wanted to save Jewish lives. To do so they had to fight battles on a daily basis.
Tuvia, among the greatest heroes of World War II, a man who led the most stunning Jewish rescue and resistance operation of his time said, “I would rather save one old Jewish woman than kill 10 Nazi soldiers.”
If you look in the dictionary, the definition of the word resistance is “The act of resisting; opposition, passive or active. The quality of not yielding to force or external pressure; that power of a body which acts in opposition to the impulse or pressure of another, or which prevents the effect of another power; as, the resistance of the air to a body passing through it; the resistance of a target to projectiles.”
Jewish resistance took many forms during World War II. One of the least known Jewish groups, but with some of the greatest impact, was the partisans. 20,000 to 30,000 escaped from the ghettos and camps all over Europe to form organized, armed resistance groups.
They blew up thousands of German trains and convoys, and saved thousands of lives. Other forms of resistance included spiritual (studying Jewish Texts, praying, keeping Jewish holidays and traditions), artistic, intellectual (creating underground newspapers), and economic (labor stoppage).
The forest was not only a battleground, but it was a land of survival and a place the partisans called home for two years. They built very strong and long-lasting relationships.
There were relationships between men and women, and people even found their true loves in the forest. Several scenes caught me with tears in my eyes, when there were opportunities for occasional celebrations in the community created in the woods.
There was not too much time for the partisans to enjoy each other, as the enemy could attack at any point. They had to constantly to change the location of their base camp, as they were afraid if they did not do so the Germans would find them easily with their numerous aerial surveys.
Defiance is known as the act of defying, putting in opposition, or provoking to combat; a challenge; a provocation; a summons to combat. A casting aside; a renunciation; a rejection. A state of opposition; willingness to fight; disposition to resist; contempt of opposition.
I called Adrian Gray, a stone balancing master and photographer as well, in London and requested an interview. One of his sculptures features a large stone balancing atop another. When I asked him the reason he had titled this work “Defiance” he answered:
“With sea water from the previous wave still running down the stones, I was amazed that this very delicate balance defied nature to the end and resolutely held on until the final wave of the set, shown powering towards it, finally brought it down.
For what seems such a simple picture there is so much in it – the various deep colors, the rock-steadfastness of the stones against the movement of the water and the lonely defiance against the inevitable. It breaks your heart.”
The meaning of balance is to equal in number, weight, force, or proportion; to counterpoise, counterbalance, counteract, or neutralize. To compare in relative force, importance, value, to estimate. To settle and adjust, as an account; to make two accounts equal by paying the difference between them. Equipoise is reached for a certain period of time.
Equipoise is universally understood as equality of weight or force; hence, equilibrium: a state in which the two ends or sides of a thing are balanced, and hence equal; a state of being equally balanced; said of moral, political, or social interests or forces.
And it’s because of the laws of equipoise, balance of the Jewish partisans and the Bielski brothers’ efforts that over 10,000 people are alive today. 1,200 individuals were saved and were thus able to have numerous children and grandchildren accomplishing survival in one of history’s severest points. Jewish partisans were able to fight back against the Germans and their oppressors and this gave tremendous amount of pride to Jews as well.
Some like Bishop Richard Williamson dare to deny the holocaust with statements such as this, made last week: “I believe that the historical evidence … is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler.”
Vocal denunciations of Israel by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez encouraged last Friday’s armed group attack vandalizing Caracas’ oldest synagogue, shattering religious objects and spray-painting walls.
As long as Hamas leader Khaled Meshal continues to deny and fails to acknowledge the right of Israel to exist as a state, just watch, Jewish defiance will take place.
By the way, I must call my counselor at the center, and simply thank him for giving me the opportunity to need his guidance no longer.
He was actually right. I hadn’t quite reached my dream yet, and that is because I have defied my opponent’s gravitational energy only in order to survive.
I realize now the lesson I have learned: My path from now on is to defy that opponent for good so that I can, as I have for centuries, surrender peacefully into the sacred immortality of my own existence.
Amen
Joelle’s Picks:
The movie: Defiance
The Stone balancer and Photographer : Adrian Gray
The Us Memorial:Â Holocaust Museum
Jerusalem : Yad Vashem
International Day of Commemoration to honor the victims of the Holocaust. January 29 2009
Photo Credits all Copyrights reserved: Adrian Gray/Reuters Images/Paramount Vantage/Karen Ballard
