As I sluggishly fast on the 17th of Tammuz, my mind has begun to wander in wondrous ways...
Even before the Seventeenth of Tammuz, which officially commences the period of mourning for the destruction of our (Jewish) ancient Holy Temples in Jerusalem we're considered in that tragic time frame.
Among the religious Jewish objections to birth control and abortion is the idea that preventing life is related to murder.
We're close to the end of the "building freeze," that unilateral proclamation (shades of Disengagement) Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced late last year (goyish calendar.) He, or whoever is pulling his strings, envisioned it affecting small contractors and private families in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. He forgot about the major builders in places like Maale Adumim etc. They demanded financial compensation. He miscalculated about foreign reactions. Obviously he expected lots of praise. He didn't calculate that foreign countries and international bodies would insist that Jerusalem would be included in the freeze.
Luckily in Shiloh we had some already approved and begun housing projects which have been allowed to continue construction. Other projects are on hold, frozen.
Every new family absorbed in a community like Shiloh is new life. By freezing construction, the government is killing new life. But it's not Shiloh which will suffer in the end. It's the State of Israel which refuses to fully live and thrive.
In the big picture of history, the state may end up just a pathetic footnote, like the generation which died off in the wilderness on the way to the HolyLand.
2 comments:
Didn't a rav or tana say something like:
"Whoever has not built The Temple during his lifetime is considered to have destroyed it."?
I can't find a quote, but I definitely remember learning something to that effect.
Sounds right. Hadassa, thanks, why hasn't anyone else reacted to this?
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