Ever on the Brink

We are on the brink again, with subtle warnings that the Middle East is about to explode again. How many times in the last 30 years have we been here? How many times have we been able to back away and how many times have we fallen over the edge and tumbled down?

The answer is...I don't know. I can't remember. So many times it seems impossible. There were times I knew it would be war, and then it wasn't. And times I thought, this will end, and it didn't. 

And then there was October 7, when I longed for the brink...that tiny bit of warning that we were about to tumble...but it never came. There we were picking up speed and flying down into the chasm with no warning, no brink.

And still here we are again...the damn brink with the crumbling, treacherous edge. The warning that all it takes is one soldier to fire, one plane to go too close, one thing to explode, one lunatic in Iran to set our world on fire.

The ground and air around us is shaking with the rumble of US military equipment amassing around Iran. Jordan and the UK and the US have formed a coalition to defend Israel. 

I want to laugh and say we can defend ourselves. 

I want to cry with thanks. 

I want to pray that we get through this safely and that for once, my daughter will actually be home when the missiles start streaking above us again.

I want to sleep and wake up when it's over. I want it to start and end rather than wait and wait...unless this is another brink that will disappear and the road ahead will feel solid...but we don't know.

We opened our bomb shelter window. I told my son we need to close it. He said, "I know". But it remains open. A prayer that this blows over...it takes a second to close, but I want him to close it now.

And if it doesn't happen now, in the next few days, this weekend...will it come back in a few weeks, a few months? Is this our destiny to always have that brink so close to the edge of our todays?

The Iranians will never agree to fully disarm, to give up their ballistic missiles, let alone their nuclear intentions. They won't stop the systematic attack on those who courageously demand their freedom.
We measure time in a different way than others. This many days to Shabbat. This many days to Purim. This many days to Pesach...

And now we ask ourselves...how many days to the first missile? 

How many days until they start calling our sons? 

How many days until the next war?