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Israel, part III – what’s it gonna be?

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!  As if we haven’t been around this block before. Remember destruction and forced exile? Remember the rivers of Babylon? I do and I ain’t goin back. Unfortunately it’s not up to me alone; I need all of you to get along too. If women want to daven at the Wailing Wall with tfillin and tallit or if a Haredi wants to spend the entirety of his time on earth studying Torah – zay gezunt – be healthy, but be smart about it.  Trying to force one outlook or stream of Judaism upon another is disrespectful, inconsiderate, and flat out wrong.  Taking my rant one step further – the Judaism as is represented by The State is a Chilul HaShem, a desecration of God’s name, and void of God’s divine presence in every way.  Sure not all is so so bad, in fact there are amazing developments taking place here, Israel is presently making the world better, then again we all know it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch.  Here in Israel there are many bad apples.  Too many Jews being turned away for one reason or another, too many Jews forced to abide by a stringent interpretation of the sources and even more stringent practice of Judaism, the sages may be turning in their graves. Where is God in this? This is not the compassionate, loving God of Israel.  This is more like man’s ego doing damage.
Worlds are created through words, as in the case of our world according to Genesis and our prayers – ברוך שאמר והיה העולם; we ought to consider the words we speak, for words do harm.
A good word can uplift one’s spirit to the greatest of heights; a bad word can bring you really down.  The sages teach us in tractate Baba Metzia “המלבין פני חבירו ברבים כשופך דמים” – embarrassing someone is like spilling their blood.  The Jewish People are bleeding, we cannot afford to hate one another, and we must stop using language of hate, it seems as though we are actively seeking to destroy one another when in fact we’re destroying ourselves.  Rather than focus on what unites us, celebrating shared values, memories, identity and homeland – the Judaism of The State prefers focusing on our differences and that’s just crazy.  It makes no sense because we were all at Sinai, we are all partners with God and we are a People bonded by covenants of past and future.
I’m not interested in the re-occurrence of past calamities, and neither are you, “SO – let’s stop the competition now or we will all be losers.” (The Belle Brigade)  Tikun Israel now.

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