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Moshe Kempinski , author of The Teacher and the Preacher, is the editor of the Jerusalem Insights weekly email journal and co-owner of Shorashim, a Biblical shop and learning center in the Old City of Jerusalem.
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By Moshe Kempinski
May 14, 2006
Nothing makes sense anymore.
A tired and embattled Israeli people have chosen one of the most inept governments in its fifty eight year history. Hoping to avoid the larger more passionate and difficult issues of the struggle against terrorism and the fight for Israel?s survival, the people either abstained from voting or voted by their pocketbooks. Yet that will not stop the newly elected government from totally disregarding the economic issue and adopting a hard line against Israeli settlements and the faithful community that supports them. A man who never served any important time in the army becomes the Minister of Defense. A man whose only military experience was to serve as an army reporter is suddenly thrust into the role of a Prime Minister of a country under dire strategic threats.Olmert and Peretz team up to offer a leadership to a country beset with severe economic woes and serious security threats and agree that the first order of business is to continue to expel Jews from their homes.
The previous expulsion from the Gush Katif settlements brought the Hamas into power and brought their deadly missiles deeper into the heartland of Israel. Iran is leading a cheering Moslem world into the fray against the Infidels of the west and promises the ultimate destruction of Israel. Al Qaida has already established a terror force in the the Hamas led Gaza strip. The Iranian funded Hezbollah are seriously arming in the North of Israel. Yet these simple facts do not seem to deter our newly elected leaders from focusing their energies against their brethren in Judea and Samaria. The fact that such a plan of action will do nothing to alleviate the threats from their true enemies and in fact will probably do the opposite will not deter their blind rush into oblivion.
One is left shaking one's head, incapable of comprehending the ignorance.
Three families from Beit shapira in Hevron were expelled without recourse to the legal norms and solutions usually afforded situations of contested ownership. The failure of Israel's justice system to provide an apolitical and unbiased course of action is maddening. Yet what has been even more frustrating was that on the night before the expulsion, several border policemen stationed on the rooftop continued to spew unbridled hatred at the Beit Shapira families all night. They threw stones on the windows and yelled at the residents that they could not wait to come the next morning to "break some teeth and smash some heads". The children of Beit Shapira did not sleep that night.
One is left holding one's head in shame at the unbridled and unexplained hatred of these "brothers".
The price of bread and other essentials is on the rise and more families are sinking below the poverty line and one of Israel?s prime economic reporters explains how the next expulsion will cost every Israeli family over 70.000 shekels and the government remains unmoved. Olmert waxes eloquently how one wealthy Israeli family achieves the "Israeli dream" by being bought out by a major American investor. Olmert remains completely oblivious to the people of Israel's true dreams and aspirations.
One is left wiping a frustrated tear out of disbelieving eyes trying to understand
words and speeches that make no sense.
The Tractate Sanhedirn 98B describes a conversation between several great sages, thousands of years ago. Three great sages -- Rabba, Ulla, and Rav Yochanan -- said "Let him (Mashiach, the Messiah) come, but I do not want to have to live in that time." Rav Yosef said, "Let him come, so that I will see him. And furthermore, let me be worthy to sit under the shadow of the dung of his donkey!"
I used to understand that the great fear that seemed to grip the first three sages would be the thought of living during the days of troubles and tribulations of those final days. I am beginning to think that their fear was not about confronting the external enemy. Their great anxiety was about having to experience the callous disregard or hatred of brothers towards brothers.
That would be a pain too difficult to bear.
Rav Yosef declared that he was ready to withstand the stench and the onslaught of the dung of the donkey that the messiah will be riding on, even if that donkey may have been elected to be the Prime Minister of Israel. All the indignities inflicted by that donkey will be as naught when all will be made right. Until that time those that are faithful to that vision will do all that they can to minimize the damage. Protect what can be protected and remain steadfast on the long voyage.
As we travelled through the breathtaking scenery of the Lachish region to join some of the expelled communities from Gush Katif for Yom Haatzmaut, I felt cleansed. I felt as if we were entering a different, purer, and cleaner Israel. Yet the image that seized my soul most dramatically was the sight of one woman in prayer in the middle of the new wheat fields near Shomria.Shomria was a kibbutz established twenty one years ago by young pioneers of the leftist and secular Shomer Hatsair movement.
The young people and the movement had lost their ideological steam and had run out of strength. They were to be replaced by the faithful settlers of Atsmona who never seem to lose strength and vision. The sun was setting and we joined the long line of families festooned with orange and blue and white flags walking towards the central stage. I looked to the right and saw that a young woman had wandered deep into the wheat field in order to pray the afternoon service, the Mincha. The breeze was blowing and the wheat was swaying in the breeze. In the middle was this young woman dressed in flowing colorful clothes swaying in unison with the wheat, deep in prayer.
That image said it all. All those who come against the vision of faith will falter and fall. The lone woman in the middle of the wheat field turning towards Jerusalem in prayer represented the eternal strength of determined faith. Those that turn away from Jerusalem and what that city represents will inevitably weaken and falter. Those with faith "will rise up and be invigorated".
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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