Hamas War

Friday, March 31, 2006

Taking advantage of "chesed"

Chaza"l, our Sages, tell us that the world stands on, is supported by, three pillars: Torah, avodah (work) and g'milut chassadim (kindness to others).

Judaism is the only religion that synthesizes all of these factors.
  • We must keep religious laws
  • We must work, create
  • and we must help others

The YESHA communities are perfect examples of this with a large percentage of Torah-committed Jews, all sorts of business and other occupations and a social structure that supports all.

One of the examples of the help given to others involves giving rides, since public transportation isn't frequent nor extensive enough, and not everyone has cars.

Last night the terrorists took advantage of this chesed and murdered four Jews. He disguised himself as a Jew, was welcomed into a car and thanked them by igniting explosives and blowing up the owners and two other innocent Jews.

As a frequent hitch-hiker, trempistit, as I'm called in Hebrew, this obviously adds stress to my already difficult commute to work. There is no public transportation between Shiloh and Beit El, and my bosses insist that there is no budget to provide me any sort of "taxi service." If I were to take the existing public transportation it would take me hours to travel the twenty minute trip, and I would have to wait around unprotected. One of those murdered last night was a bystander, not even a passenger.

This week's elections had the lowest voter turn out in Israeli history. A very large percentage of Israeli citizens doesn't see the point in voting. Politicians are all crooks, and they change their opinions and party affiliations, so what's the point. Of those who did vote, many don't care that their fellow Jews are in danger, and that the danger is getting closer to all, wherever they may live.

Southern Israel is being attacked daily. Though it was hushed up until a half-hour before the polls closed, a Katyusha was fired in southern Israel Tuesday morning for the first time ever. Five Kassams were fired Wednesday morning.

The Jewish month of Nissan, miracles, began yesterday.

Chodesh Tov and Shabbat Shalom

2 comments:

Yoel.Ben-Avraham said...

For months now there have been "warnings" of designs by terrorists to kidnap "settlers" or soldiers in Judea & Samaria ... but does that stop these irresponsible people from standing on the main road in search of rides? Does this stop drivers from stopping to give rides on the main road - encouraging this phenomenon? Unfortunately, none of the above is likely to learn from this tragic incident.

And bottom line, there is not mot much you can really do to stop a suicide bomber once they are in motion.

Batya said...

For a long time, I was careful to wait inside Ofra and only take rides into Shiloh, but after finding myself wasting hours, watching cars stop outside Ofra and never in, running every 7 minutes to light the sign, since it's on the wrong side of the road, and getting sick being exposed in bad weather, I gave up.