When silence is a sin
For months visitors to Gush Katif — may it be speedily rebuilt — were reporting that the people in Gush Katif had tremendous Emunah, faith in G-d.
That was before the catastrophe. Back then I questioned, was it really Emunah? It seemed to me that with the thousands of bombs falling and the miraculously small number of dead and injured, it was more like G-d was ‘in your face’ type of relationship. Gush Katif was a land of revealed miracles. No need for Emunah when there are multiple miracles every day. And you can add to the miracle of the impotent bombs, the miracle of growing world quality produce in sand.
But today I see Emunah. Today I see strength. Because today I don’t see the miracles, but I still see the beauty and faith of the people of Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron. Hashem is hidden, his kindness is hidden. Now it takes faith to carry on, and today’s miracle is that the Churbanikim, the ones thrown whose homes have been destroyed, they are carrying on with faith.
The latest revelation is the kindness of Jews around the world coming to the assistance of the churbanikim — the destroyers. But it is a bittersweet kindness. Some of these rescue teams were the front line fighters to save Gush Katif from the beginning. But others held their piece and let the disaster take its course. But now? now that there is a humanitarian cause, they are on the scene. Excuse me if I sound bitter, but I am bitter, these people remind me of a murderer who kills the father and then gallantly rescues the orphans. The fight for Eretz Yisroel is not over. I hope these people realize that unless they want to keep supplying refugees for years to come, they have to take action before the next tragedy, Heaven save us, not just after the fact.
Sharon wants to keep his coalition together. If the next sacrifice is Hevron, so be it, in his eyes. And the MKs are all on board — may they all be brought to justice very soon for every vote with Sharon and every abstention that should have and could have thrown him from power.
Let us not be placated by helping the survivors. Helping the survivors is a major undertaking and must be done properly and completely, but we cannot let it be a cover up. We cannot feel that since we are sending money, supplies and love to the survivors that we are satisfied we have done our part.
Let not the humanitarian cause act as a pain killer that hides the symptoms and ignores the disease. The disease is still rampage and in order to know it, we have to experience the pain. That is how we will be motivated to act, as opposed to being lulled to a state of satisfaction and inaction.
‘When it hurts you have to scream.’ That sounds logical. Do we really need the Lubavticher Rebbe to tell us to scream when it hurts? Unfortunately, from seeing the limited response to the Churban, the answer is ‘yes.’ The Rebbe said, ‘The reason for crying out is not that it will be effective, but rather because the situation is painful — when we are dealing with matters of life and death we cannot be silent!’
We have to feel the pain. Understand the loss and the evil. Look again at the pictures of the columns of black clad men and women as they marched into our peaceful, productive Jewish communities in the Jewish homeland to remove fathers, mothers, sons and daughters from their rightful homes. Understand the darkness of this Golus that defies reason or compassion. Examine the government that committed a heinous crime against its most loyal citizens. Feel the pain and cry out.
I read that Eli Weisel was asked what the world learned from the Holocaust and his answer was ‘They learned they could get away with it.’ Is this going to be the lesson that the successive Likud and Labor governments will learn? That they can get away with it?
They intend to make the evacuated areas Judenrein.
They made our police into Kapos.
The ones in the Knesset who made this decision appear democratic, are Judenrat. They do the opposite of what Jewish law requires, because they sacrifice the few in hopes of saving the many. We all know how successful the Judenrat were with that tactic.
Meanwhile, we suffered from denial, similar to the Jews of Germany in the 1930s. We could not imagine it would really happen.
And the soldiers reason for carrying out the atrocity was that they were ‘following orders.’ D ? vu, alright. What a tactic. It worked for the Germans against the Jews now it worked for the Israelis against the Jews.
I am not saying that Sharon is a Hitler and the Likud are Nazis. I am not calling the Disengagement a Holocaust, because I do not want to belittle the Holocaust. But I will ask my fellow Jews, is half a Holocaust relevant? Do we wait to see ovens and smoke stacks before we will defend ourselves?
Six million Jews perished in the Holocaust. Giving Gaza and the Northern Shomron to terrorists places five million Jews in danger of the blood and gore of terror. Is that significant?
As the area of Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisroel becomes smaller and smaller, I don’t even want to think about the word ghetto.
On Chof Av, the 25th of August, a coalition of Herut America, Crown Heights Vaad HaKohol, www.truepeace.org, Americans For a Safe Israel and Chabad Chassidim to Ensure the Safety of Jews in Eretz Yisroel, made a rally in Manhattan across from the Israeli consulate. The theme of the rally was ‘When Silence is a Sin,’ the same name as a book of the Rebbe’s teachings, that has just been released.
Rabbi David Hollander was one of many dynamic speakers. I am pretty sure Rabbi Hollander has past his ninetieth birthday, but he came for the entire rally and he spoke with brilliance and force.
“Why are we here?” Hollander asked. “It’s over! So why are we bothering ourselves and pestering the consulate? The answer is in the Torah.” He went on to explain how when Yaakov was shown the bloodied shirt that made him draw the conclusion that Yosef was no more, Yaakov mourned but he did not accept consolation. Yosef was still alive.
“We are mourning, but we are not allowed to accept consolation for that which is still alive!” declared Holander. “The land will come back to us!”
