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Tamar Yonah is a creator, producer and radio show host at Israel National Radio.com. She also assists with immigrant absorption in her community, as well as in Israel at large.
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By Tamar Yonah
April 24, 2006
It was supposed to be a happy occasion. We were celebrating my son's Bar Mitzvah that fell in the week of Passover, and since we knew we wouldn't be able to host all the extended family in my house for a Passover Seder and a Bar Mitzvah Sabbath, we came to the conclusion that we would find an affordable hotel that would be able to sleep and feed the family here in Israel, and those coming from abroad. All was well and good. We arrived at a Jerusalem hotel, where I got the keys to room 617. We excitedly took the elevator up to where our new lodgings would be for the next few days. After glancing around the room, I sent my kids and family down to the dining area where they had a light meal offered before the Passover Seder. I stayed behind to unpack their holiday clothes and to make up the beds for the children.
I liked having some quiet after the brief chaos. We were 8 people crammed into two small hotel rooms with an adjoining door. There was lots of luggage, and little space to spread out. Two of my kids would have to sleep on the floor, I decided. I took up the two cushions from the couch bed that was in our room, and decided to make it a mattress. Then leaning over to pull out the couch-bed, I spotted a folded piece of paper between the mattress and the metal support springs.
"Hmmm, what's this?" I asked myself. "What a strange place to store paper". Taking it out and unfolding it I found it was actually two pages, stapled together, typewritten, in Hebrew. I began to read it.
"Kinah" was the title (Kinah means 'lamentation' in English). No author's name. I started to read, and after the first three lines, I took some weak steps backwards, fell onto the main bed of the room and started to cry.
It was a poem someone had written. Someone who was living in my hotel room before I got there. Someone who for 8 months was crammed into this room with his family, bewildered, hurt, and forgotten by his countrymen. He or she, had written a poem, a poem of their pain and anguish, and I happened to find it. Was it left for me, the 'next occupant' purposely? Or was it forgotten in the rush to evacuate the hotel to let new guests take over even this temporary abode for Passover?
I had heard that many of the families ensconced in these Jerusalem area hotels for an "indefinite time", were now being forced to move again to make room for Passover and Easter guests. "Oh my gosh, this room belonged to a family from Gush Katif!". I was shaking. I read the poem:
Kinah -- a Lamentation / Dirge
(loose translation of the Hebrew below)
On the Expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif, The Gaza Strip and Northern Samaria, I will lament every year with a broken and bitter heart.
How is it possible that a Jewish Prime Minister -- Ariel Sharon, can give away a land brimming with wisdom and talent to Arabs, oppressors of Israel, as a gift and present?
How is it possible that he cheated his voters by expressing his love saying, "In my days, you will sit safely on your land", and then betrayed our trust, saying "To them it belongs (the Arabs) -- not to you"?
How is it possible that people were sent to build, work and settle, affirm by self sacrifice the building of the land and now they were betrayed and disinherited, .their land handed to Ishmaelites?
How is it possible that he made covenants with murderers and gave the land of G-d with no recompense, to rapists, and then he reproached and blasphemed, saying, there is no G-d in the 'Land of Judges' -- ( the land of Israel.)?
How is it possible that he attempted to cover his, and his sons', crimes with much cunning, and shed shame on those goodly ones who toil over Torah, -the people of The Land? They will concentrate on the disengagement, and his sons' guilt will be lost in oblivion and turmoil.
How is it possible that the heads of Parliament, gave a majority to the decision -- a parliament that was chosen by the nation.... to end the quiet dwelling of the old, and the playing of the children from their streets.... to expel them, shame them, and give what belongs to THEM, to a BLOOD THIRSTY nation?
How is it possible that he scorned the laws of the Torah, he and his company of friends, and he despised the lovely land and legislated laws of his own desire?
How is it possible that police, soldiers and judges all stood by his side and participated in the joys of all his evil deeds and did not say, "Enough. Our will is an evil one."?
How is it possible that they announced to pioneering Jews settling the land: 'Enough -Stop! You have already sat many years in your settlements and now we will give this land to your enemies -- your oppressors'.
How is it possible that Israel, a holy nation, cried out in tears to undo and revoke the decree of insolents and criminals and G-d concealed His face and left His land to traitors?
How is it possible that we stood in prayer and supplication and poured out our hearts, perhaps G-d will spare His nation and remove the decree of an evil government and the nation of G-d will lament, for the land was given to the hand of the vain and evil?
How is it possible that Jews were forcibly expelled from their homes, tossed onto busses.... people, women, and their children and no mercy was shown for their property and their hard work?
How is it possible that they enacted a violent order.... police and soldiers, to remove their brothers -- the sons of Israel -- from their homes? Land, (Eretz) don't cover their crimes until sins cease.
How is it possible that they destroyed out of hatred, houses, synagogues and schools full of Torah and mercilessly threw people out on the streets?
How is it possible that without any explanation or reason they destroyed factories, green houses and every growing field and gave their places to savages and the dishonest?
How is it possible that he raised his hand upon synagogues and yeshivot (Torah centers) and put an end to houses of study (batei midrash), and the chatter of infants, while saying:... Thus the world's nations will love us more?
How is it possible that he invaded graves and extracted bones
of holy ones killed by bullets, fire and stones and he did not feel he would be hit by a curse -- shchik atzamot -- where his bones are pulverized, ground , and pounded.' ?
How is it possible that they gloated in the shadow of our sorrow, all his companions and lovers saying "G-d left the land, the house is empty of its Lord. Va-avdah B'haf -kaira nicha leya (in Aramaic) , Everyman should do as he sees fit."?
He who has mercy on the poor.... (please) have mercy on the afflicted and return them to their legacy, for in You, they trust. And bring closer the redemption, for Israel shall be redeemed by G-d, for Eternity.
(End)
I finished the poem and I wanted to know.... Who were these people who lived in room 617 for 8 months? How many children did they have? What were their jobs before they were sacrificed by the politicians who came to power? Were they happy to leave the hotel for a 'caravilla' (trailer home), or were they victimized once again, but this time, too tired and too broken to fight? Did they leave this poem purposely for the next occupant of the room to find, which happened to be me, or was it left behind by accident? Why didn't the maid find it, everything was cleaned well before Passover, even the carpets were recently shampooed, I could feel the dampness in the rugs with my feet. Did G-d want me to find this, to share this cry with others?
There was no author's name or the name of the person who it belonged to.
Yes, I cried in room 617, I wonder how much crying there was in this room the last 8 months before I got there.
Since the expulsion, I have prayed every morning that Hashem (G-d) should bless our brothers and sisters from Gush Katif and the Northern Samarian region, with even more wonderful and happier lives than before and that things should start improving immediately for them.
Crying is good. It's not a solution, although, it's a good start to bring us to action. On behalf of our brothers and sisters who were wrenched from their homes, lives and communities, please, let us all do a special act of kindness in their merit. One can choose to:
1) Pray for their well being in your morning or evening prayers everyday until they are settled.
2) Make a donation directly to these families to help them re-build their lives (I can help make this connection, please email me at: Tamary@IsraelNationalRadio.com )
3) Visit them, write them or make a 'twin city' with them to show that you care.
4) Make a firm commitment to act in the future, to prevent anything like this from happening again.
May any future crying in room 617 be from cries of joy from new occupants who have come to visit Israel to herald in the Moshiach (Messiah) and help bring in the redemption that G-d has promised us all. May we all cry from joy and not from sorrow. And, may we start these positive actions now, to ensure it comes speedily in our days, Amen.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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