 | An Open Letter to American (Orthodox) Jewry |
An Open Letter to American (Orthodox) Jewry
from Orit in Tel Avivhttp://israelnn.com/article.php3?id=5679
sent by HaDaR-Israel@verizon.net to OhaveiEretzYisrael@yahoogroups.com
First, I'd like to thank you, America, for being a wonderful host to
me after the terrible Disengagement. It was nice to spend time with
my family in sunny Los Angeles, relax with manicures and pedicures,
and zone out to the latest TV shows. I was able to gather new
strength, gain new perspectives, and clarify my mission to go back to
Israel and change a country.
However, it was less fun to go to shul on the High Holidays at my
folks' Modern Orthodox synagogue. Services were terribly boring. But
what really annoyed me was that no one talked about Gush Katif. The
sermons that I heard (or didn't fall asleep to) mentioned Katrina a
lot, but rabbis were eerily silent on the topic of the Disengagement.
I find this a little disturbing, because all throughout the holidays
we pray for the joy and peace of Israel; yet, while thousands of
Israelis are in a state of suffering, uncertainty and confusion, no
one seems to care, even though the liturgy expresses otherwise.
It was also interesting that on the holiest day of the Jewish
calendar, when we're supposed to reflect rigorously on the state of
our soul, no one really talked about the fate-altering Disengagement.
This certainly should have been a hot topic on the Day of Atonement,
but again, it was easily evaded, if it was even on anyone's minds.
And still, we prayed - all day - for righteousness, honesty and peace
of mind - personal and national.
But, in America at least, Judaism is not about the Jewish people
anymore. Judaism is about having a nice life and wearing nice outfits
to shul, where you can network with equally smart, successful and
well-dressed people. It's about saying morning and evening prayers
because it feels holy and idealistic, and, hey, everyone wants to
feel good about themselves.
For many American Jews, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur seemed all about
how to continue living a nice, suburban life. The Torah might as well
be a Tony Robbins self-help book, because it outlines great
techniques for living, sprinkled with a few historic traditions and
ethical codes.
I realized, during my nice stay with you, that you say you care, but
deep down, I don't think you really do. You say you love Israel and
that you are Zionists, but I don't think you really are. You see,
Judaism is not about nationalism to you. Judaism is not about a
people living free, independent and strong in their homeland; it's
about having a nice house, a good parnasa, and a way of life that's
safe and comfortable.
That's why many of you (and there are exceptions), didn't really like
talking about the Disengagement. That's why some of you were even
happy that it occurred, and that America was appeased, because God
forbid, your generous host - your real nation -- would be mad at you
otherwise. As soon as you have to take a stand or interrupt your
lifestyle, you retreat to your prayer books and everyday say words
like:
"Blessed are You, HaShem, Who redeems Israel, Who gathers the
dispersed of Israel, Who loves righteousness and judgment, Who breaks
His enemies and humbles wanton sinners, Who builds Jerusalem, Who
sprouts the rays of redemption, Who restores His Presence to Zion."
These are supposed to be your values, but are they? Do you mean these
prayers? Do you want these blessings? No, you do not. Because if you
did, you'd be taking a lot more risks for Israel than you are now.
You'd seriously consider - and what a thought! - fulfilling the
mitzvah of living in the country. You'd save some money, pick-up your
family, and take part in realizing your prayers - the ingathering of
the exiles, the building of Jerusalem, the restoration of Zion - no
matter how difficult it will be.
Or maybe the flaws are in the prayers and the Diaspora Jews who
penned them long ago, because it's easy to absolve all responsibility
to HaShem and just say, "HaShem restores Zion, HaShem breaks His
enemies, I don't have to do a thing!" But HaShem once said, through
his prophet Isaiah, "Of what are your great many sacrifices to me? I
am full of the burnt-offerings and the fat of fed beasts." Prayers
are considered the modern-day substitute for animal sacrifices, and
HaShem's sick of them. He doesn't want your new moon and Shabbat
invocations - HaShem calls them "iniquity." He says that you can pray
all you want, but he won't answer them.
HaShem wants us to do what's right and to seek justice - thus says
Isaiah.
But Torah is not about doing what's right anymore, is it? It's about
making enough money to send kids to Jewish day schools, so that one
day, they could also have a big house and two cars in the same
neighborhood and send their kids to the same school and shul, and so
on and so forth, forever.
And when Israel is at war with her neighbors, and her people are
dying, they'll continue to send their kids to Jewish day schools, and
say the same prayers in the same shul, and maybe they'll send some
money to Israel, but they'll be glad they are in their beloved
America. When Judaism is too difficult, why put yourself on the line?
Why risk your life or your lifestyle? Why shed blood? After all, it's
only a religion.
And I wouldn't want you to risk your life for a religion. But it's
not a religion we're talking about. It's about a nation - the Jewish
nation and its people - me, you, your spouse, your kids, your
parents. It's about fighting for what is right and pursing justice.
But that doesn't seem to be too important these days.
So, farewell America. I had a good time. You're a good friend, you
can be there for me in difficult times, but I have to catch a plane
and start finding myself some justice.
Be`ahavath Israel
from HaDaRA Torah-wing Jew ("religious fanatic, gun-toting settler")
from Qiryath Arba Hebron
=====================================================
=========
He who is merciful with the cruel, will end-up being cruel to the
merciful - Kohelet Rabba 7:16
=====================================================
=========
When terrorists kill a Jew in Erets Israel , there are two responsible
parties: the terrorists
and the government that allows it. - Rav Meir Kahana
=====================================================
THE TORAH ON WALLS AND FENCES:
"He [your enemy] shall besiege you in all your gates, until the fall
of the tall and fortified walls in which you trust throughout your
land..." -- Deut. 28, 52
Ezekiel Chapter 13:
10 Because-, even because they have led My people astray, saying:
Peace, and
there is no peace; and when it buildeth up a wall, behold, they daub it
with
whited plaster; 11 say unto them that daub it with whited plaster, that
it
shall fall;
=======================================================
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!"
-Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790) US Founding Father-
=======================================================
Every drop of Jewish blood spilled by Arab terror, is on the hands of
ALL those who refuse
to work for the removal of these blood-thirsty beasts from among us.
They cannot say:
"Our hands did not spill that blood." - HaDaR -
=====================================================
"The question is not how can we remove the Arabs, but rather how can we
not"?
Rabbi Meir Kahane, ZTUQ"L, HI"D, "They Must Go", 1981, p.245
=====================================================
Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil.
(Isaiah 5,20)
=====================================================
"At a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary
act." (George Orwell)
=====================================================
"You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are
merely anti-Zionist.
And I say, let the truth ring forth from the highest mountaintops.
Let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth.
When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews.
Zionism is nothing less than the dream and ideal of the Jewish people
returning to live in their own land." (Martin Luther King)
=====================================================
"Lots of bad editorials are better than a beautiful obituary."
-an old Israeli saying from the times before "Lemmings Disease" and
"Osloporosis" struck most of the country-
=====================================================
"The strength of the prophets of Israel lay in the fact that they
proclaimed the Truth
when everything was against it." - Andre Malraux -
=====================================================
Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense.
If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help out
that of the other.
(George Orwell, Partisan Review, 1942)
=====================================================
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it
cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less
formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But
the traitor moves among those within the gate freely, his sly
whispers rustling through all the galleys, heard in the very hall of
government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor - he speaks
in the accents familiar to his victims, and wears their face and
their garment, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the
hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation - he works secretly
and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city - he
infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer
is less to be feared." -Cicero, 42 B.C.E.-
===================================================
"No Jew has the right to yield the rights of the Jewish People in
Israel. No Jew has the authority to do so. No Jewish body has the
authority to do so. Not even the entire Jewish People alive today
has the right to yield any part of Israel.
It is the right of the Jewish People over the generations, a right
that under no conditions can be cancelled. Even if Jews during a
specific period proclaim they are relinquishing this right, they have
neither the power nor the authority to deny it to future generations.
No concession of this type is binding or obligates the Jewish People.
Our right to the land - the entire land - exists as an eternal
right, and we shall not yield this historic right until its full and
complete redemption is realised."
-David Ben Gurion - at the Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in
1937
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