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DebbieWinks – Debbie’s Blog from Israel # 11

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Yossi

DebbieWinks — Blog #11 — Noveber, 2023

A proclamation: Debbie Winks is now to be renamed Rachel Devorah from Israel

On October 3rd, 2023, I celebrated my 63rd birthday. I spent that afternoon at Rambam Hospital doing routine CT scans of my chest, stomach, and pelvic areas. That evening we had dinner in our daughter Shani’s sukkah. She lives with her family in Amirim in the northern part of Israel. That day was the 4th day of the festivities of the joyous weeklong holiday of Sukkot.

Since 2016 I have been living with the cancer diagnosis of Clear Cell Sarcoma, one of the rarest of subsets of sarcomas which represent 1% of all cancers. My body has housed the cancerous cells in 3 different areas of my body. Each subsequent operation prepared me emotionally and spiritually to getting closer to the Creator and to the meanings of living life and dying death.

In Hebrew we have the ‘nefesh’ and the ‘neshama’. As I understand it, the ‘nefesh’ is the body and mind while the ‘neshama’ is the soul.

On October 7th, 2023, Hamas, a blood thirsty terrorist organization invaded, slaughtered, raped, maimed, tortured, and decapitated the bodies and souls’ of 1400 innocent Israeli civilians while injuring thousands. It savagely kidnapped 240 men, women, and children. This ‘Black Sabbath’ traumatized an entire Jewish nation and peoplehood. In Israel and beyond we are all reeling in pain, our bodies, and hearts aching. The collective soul is panting, gasping, and breathing heavily.

Within the Hebrew word of ‘neshama’ lies the root of three letters: ‘noon’ ‘sheen’ and ‘mem’. To breathe, to resuscitate and breath are words with the same letter derivates.

Aghast, Hamas is an organization with cells worldwide waiting to destroy the Jewish state and anyone who gets in their way. What is fundamentally necessary is that we cannot let these cells multiply as they influence university campuses, the young adults and professors who are ignorant of the complicated Arab/Israeli conflict and blinded by the lies that are being told. And alas all this has been fueled and propagated by the United Nations in 1975 that supported the birthing notion that Zionism is Racism. (Watch Michal Cotler Wunsch’s address to the United Nations on youtube.)

The moral compass of humanity is in question as the forces of evil are prevalent in the minds of many who are antisemitic and supporting Hamas. We must stop this ‘cancer of thought’ from spreading.

During these dark days since October 7th, 2023, I often think of our beloved father/Aba Mr. Leon Broitman z”l who was one of the 200,000 Jewish Russian soldiers who fought the Nazis. He was injured during battle defending Leningrad and was shot in his left arm. All his family were murdered by the Nazis except his surviving brother Abe. Our father proudly and painfully proclaimed to his 4 children that if he had a chance to kill the monster Hitler and lose his life, he would unequivocally do so!!!

Our beloved Israeli soldiers find themselves in a relentless battle defending and fighting for our existence to continue to live as Jews in our ancestral homeland. Historically as a nomadic Jewish people in the Diaspora for over 2,000 years we have not been immune to hate. We have faced many enemies that persecuted, waged pogroms, spread lies and created the atrocities of the Holocaust which killed 6 million Jews from 1939-1945. In 1948 the Jewish nation was created from the ashes of crematoriums like Auschwitz.

Wait…. Do you smell or hear something? Is it the burning bush that is talking again?

“Hee-ne-nee” …. (Hebrew) Here I am.

And it is our dormant or active Jewishness that replies ablaze with horror, anguish, and anger.

“We will answer to the barbaric acts of Hamas and proclaim: Here we are in Israel and beyond where our Jewish internal flames will never be extinguished.”

Amen.

 

Yours soulfully,

Rachel Devorah from Israel

 

Debbie Winks 😊

 

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11 Comments

  2. scott douglas

    Be well my old friend…You and Israel are in my thoughts daily during this horrible time!

    ‘Peace be with You’

    SD

  3. Shira Macklin

    Dear dear Debbie,
    This post felt like a salve on my wounds. It has been terrible, feeling so completely helpless, so far away.
    I wish you healing for your body and for your heart.
    Thank you for your precious words.
    Much love to you, Yossi, and your family,
    Shira
    And yes, please keep me on the list.

  4. Chana Weiss

    Thank you Rachel Devorah for your inspirational words

    You are a strong woman keep going to kick that crap called “C” to the curve
    I love to read the way you find yourself connecting to the land and Hashem

    Thank you for your words during this times of collective suffering

    Chana Weiss

  5. Paul Brosgall

    Please keep me on your mailing list. I hope there is a way to improve your health. Paul Brosgall

  7. Karen Rose

    Shalom Debbie

    Always thinking of you over there in the orange groves. Continue to stay strong and keep sending your beautiful thoughts and prayers.

    Love,
    Karen

  8. Ruth Stewart

    Dear Rachel Devorah,

    Thank you for your insightful blog. Thinking of you and your family and wishing you all the best in good health and to your beautiful family. Belated Happy Birthday. Rose sends her love

    Please keep mean your separate distribution list for your blog.

  9. Melanie Wasserman

    Dear Rachel Devorah,
    I appreciated your spiritual and factual letter to all, and hope that you will feel better and be well, to experience victory and good health, and to see peace in Israel and in the rest of the world.
    I truly hope you will be spiritually elevated and continue to receive healing treatments.
    Since I am a latecomer to your blog, I will go back over the messages from the beginning.
    I Wish You a complete Cure, a Long Joyous Life, and Peaceful Spirituality.

  11. Myrna Rabinowitz

    Hi Debbie
    Thinking of you and wishing you and your family well during this terrible time.
    With love
    Myrna