We have been getting tremendous feedback from Monday's Manhigut Yehudit Israel dinner. The dinner gave both newcomers and veteran Manhigut Yehudit members a glimpse of how real Jewish leadership would look. It left the crowd inspired and eager to register more and more people for the Likud as we redouble our efforts to make the dream of Jewish leadership for Israel a reality.
"This is the best and most meaningful dinner we have attended in years," one of our guests wrote.
"I attended the dinner and loved it. When the people from the film held hands on the stage, I cried, because I've prayed for Jewish unity and there it was in front of me. If anyone besides the Moshiach can bring about Jewish unity, it's Moshe Feiglin," wrote another.
Someone else called and insisted that we hold a similar event in the near future, because he doesn't want to wait an entire year for the tremendous shot-in-the-arm that the dinner gave him.
Manhigut Yehudit supporter Rafi Farber wrote a blog entry about the dinner that is a must-quote:
Last night I went to my second Manhigut Yehudit annual dinner. I can sum it up in two sentences. Last year, the Manhigut dinner was charming. This year, it was magnificent.
The hall was spectacular. Smack in the middle of Ramat Gan. The food was high end, complete with sushi and those chef guys with the hats and the big sharp knives with two-pronged barbecue forks. And of course, as per any Manhigut event, there were secular, religious, Haredi, all chatting, munching, sipping, admiring the chef guy with the big sharp knife etc.
We all went inside, and I counted 41 tables .That means 410 people, the room packed. The first course was already set up, and I couldn't help but notice the caviar on the plate. The statement was, "We're not some cute little group anymore. Now we're serious. We're in the middle of Ramat Gan. And we're just getting started."
But enough about that. Here's the heart of the matter.
We watched a video called "Awakening," a film featuring several Manhigut supporters from different backgrounds from Haredi to secular to former radical leftist. There was one part I will never forget, and that is when Likud Central Committee member Emmanuel Gertel spoke candidly about how he began as an unbelieving Jew, but now his faith has been rekindled. That - he doesn't understand why - but he feels a deep need to build the Holy Temple, the Beit Hamikdash. He was crying as he said it.
I started tearing, too. But not just because of the raw emotion of the film. I hear it all the time - we should build the Temple, yada yada, yada. It doesn't move me, because I know it's just lip service. But last night, tears welled up because I knew that not only does Emmanuel want to build it. He, a man who does not wear a kippah, is actually doing the work required to get it done. We all were. That, you rarely see these days.
Feiglin got up and spoke. In the middle, he invited all those in the video to come up with him. Moshe Feiglin in the center, surrounded by representatives of every sector of Jewish Israel. Somewhere in his speech, he said this sentence:
"We, in this room right here, right now, are building the new leadership that will lead this country."
He brought together the Haredi guy and one of the secular guys from the video. "Do you see what's happening here?" he asked us. "Do you see what Manhigut Yehudit has accomplished?" he asked again. This is true Jewish unity.
But the funniest thing is, the media is stuck yapping about Sarah Netanyahu's legal problems with her housekeeper. They don't even notice what's happening. The depth of it is beyond them. When we take over and change the course of Jewish history forever, when the country has its first leader that believes in the G-d of Israel and speaks from the Temple Mount, and instead of waving Auschwitz in the face of the world, he explains, politely, that we are the chosen people and this is our G-d given Land, the world won't even know what hit it.
It's better this way. G-d's salvation may be like the blink of an eye, as they say, but I think that's only true for those whose eyes are in permanent blink mode. Those of us at the dinner, those of us who see what's happening, our eyes are open, we know exactly what's going on, and we all know that there is nothing that can stop us now. We are too big. We are too diverse. We are too Jewish. We are too proud. It is only a matter of time.
No longer will we wait around hunkering in a bunker for our "sector" to demographically take over the country, or for the Messiah to come and save us and tell us that we were right and the other side was wrong. The work that needs to get done - we're getting it done. We've taken responsibility for the winds of history by putting up our sails.
Finally worth mentioning, there was a raffle at the dinner. My wife, at my side the whole time, told me insistently how good she is at raffles. She wins every time, she tells me. Well, OK then. I know how much skill raffles require, so I can't really argue with that. We bought ten tickets. Sure enough, the first number called is hers. It's a necklace of the Beit Hamikdash, the Holy Temple.
We're not so much into jewelry, don't really understand it, but what she said next hit me deeply. "I'm going to wear it on the Temple Mount at Moshe's victory speech."
I believe her.
Until next year's dinner - which, judging by the way things are going, may be by invitation only. I plan on being there, and earning it by signing up as many faithful to the Likud as I can. Want to be part of Jewish history? Sign up for the Likud right now.
The Manhigut Yehudit Annual Dinner Journal in New York is right around the corner:
Shushan Purim, March 1st at the New Yankee Stadium, Legends Suite Club, in the Bronx. Click here for details. We're sure you'll be inspired.
Click here for a short video (Hebrew) of the Israel dinner.
Click here for more pictures of the Israel dinner.
Click here for the text of Moshe Feiglin's speech at the Israel dinner.
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