#140 Going On

Musings #140
September 7, 2005
The 3rd of Ellul

Going On

Yes, we’re going on. We’re continuing to live here and fight when need be. We lost a battle. We lost the battle for Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron, but that doesn’t mean that we’ll lose the war.

We’re a very impatient generation. “Instant” is a popular marketing adjective. We want everything now, whether it’s service in a restaurant or the “Moshiach.” Going from slavery and galut, Diaspora mentality to a strong independent nation in a few short decades is beyond our, or anybody’s capabilities. In Biblical times it took hundreds of years, and that was after wandering the desert for forty.

Yes, hundreds. Joshua and then the Judges and Priests ruled from Shiloh for three hundred and sixty-nine years. Only after that did King David establish the Nation’s capital in Jerusalem. That totals four hundred if not more. And then what did his son, King Solomon do after building the Beit Hamikdash? He gave away cities. That’s right; giving away our Land is nothing new. You’d think that after having lavished so much on The Holy Temple, King Solomon would be been in constant communion with G-d. He should have known how to rule, but he didn’t. Later he wrote Kohelet, Ecclesiastes in which he laments his mistakes, his focus on the material and his haughtiness, that thought he could do what’s forbidden and not be damaged.

We were so sure that the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and less than twenty years later, the Six Days War heralded the Moshiach, the Final Redemption. The most important places in our ancient history were in our hands: “Har HaBayit B’Yadeinu!” The Temple Mount is in our hands! Some of us were ready to start building the Beit Hamikdash, the Holy Temple, but then it was given away. We relinquished sovereignty. As a nation we just weren’t ready.

Remember, some Israelis saw the establishment of the state as something very different. They wanted to be a “nation like all others.” They thought that having a government on our own land would give us legitimacy. They didn’t and don’t want to be Jewish, to be different from other people. For them, the growing number of Torah observant Jews is a nightmare. The State of Israel was supposed to herald a “new Jew.” This “new Jew” wasn’t supposed to need Shabbat and kashrut. He was supposed to be free to do what he wanted in a country that didn’t suffer from anti-Semitism.

Every year when the Ministry of Education announces the percentages of children entering the first grade, these people get upset, because each year the percentage of religious and chareidi children goes up. The great Israeli liberal can’t accept that others have different life-styles and values. He feels threatened, because there is a growing percentage of people who want the freedom to be different, the freedom to be free Jews in our Holy Land.

Remember, about half of world Jewry doesn’t live in Israel. As a Jewish Nation we’re not united. We’re not one, not at all. That’s what I felt when I was in the states this summer. It was a terrible disappointment. With the exception of few individuals, most American Jews were disengaged from what was happening in Israel. With all of the modern communications systems, we’re all living separate lives, and I’m not even referring to those who don’t live as Jews. There are many strong Torah communities around the world, and they have everything they want. And they don’t see why they should be in Israel.

Here in Israel, we’re disappointed, upset, broken-hearted—but not broken! We’re going on building the country and the Land we love. There’s a need to change direction, tactics. Many need time to heal, to recharge our batteries. But we haven’t given up.

Shabbat Shalom,

Batya Medad, Shiloh
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