By Faige Lobel
(Ed. Note: These observations were written by long-term Manhigut Yehudit supporter Faige Lobel following pilot trips to
Israel in 2004 and 2006. After reading, ask yourselves, have things changed?)
When in Israel, I like to sound people out, to find out what they are thinking and how they think.
In 2004, we spent a Shabbos at the home of a very nice
family in Rehovot…English speaking, frum. The woman was Israeli born, a nurse.
Her spouse was learned, a Talmud chocham. Before we left them on Sunday
morning, I asked the wife about the right wing Gush Katif stickers I’d seen on
the bedroom closet door in the room where we had stayed. “Are they your son’s?”
I asked. I was hoping to hear of his political involvement.
To my surprise, my hostess was embarrassed. “I have to take
those down,” she said, “It isn’t nice.” End of discussion. “Not nice” to oppose
the evil actions of the government. “Not nice” to express your opinion, even in
the privacy of your own room. Maybe she was just nervous about it. People in
Israel seemed intimidated and afraid.
________________
In 2006, I visited a friend of many, many years…a woman who
made aliyah a long time ago. She has accomplished much. All her children and
grandchildren live in Israel, and also her mother and a brother. She was the
catalyst.
I hoped to bring her to the Manhigut Yehudit Chanukah event
in Yerushalayim. “No,” she responded. “I
don’t believe in political involvement. My role now is to pray, study and do
good deeds.” Then she added, “I’m registered in the Likud and I vote for Moshe
Feiglin.” Okay… that’s okay. Not everyone has to become an activist. We can
only wish that there be many more like her.
________________
We spent a Shabbos in Ma’alei Adumim with another nice
family. Our host had participated in Zo Arteinu, in the Doubling Action,
although he now regarded it as a youthful adventure.
He then told us the following story: On the first Shabbos
following the expulsion from Gush Katif, our host was in shul. He was waiting
to see what his rabbi would do at the point in the service where the congregation
normally says prayers for the welfare of the government and the army. (His
rabbi had been at Kfar Maimon – actively opposed to the Disengagement.) Our
host related – with pride and awe – that the rabbi never hesitated, but led the
congregation in those prayers as always.
I felt that there was something wrong about this, but he was
my kind and gracious host, so I said nothing. I felt that the rabbi was taking
it on the chin, turning the other cheek, asking G-d to bless the very people
who had expelled his fellow Jews. And even if that was not the rabbi’s
intention, it seemed to be the reaction of our host.
Even if one can forgive what was done to himself, who has
the right to forgive what was done to his fellow? My host’s lovely home was
intact and his job secure, not the case for Jews expelled from Gush Katif.
We can be certain that if non-Jews would demand that our
host enter a church and kneel, he would refuse, even to the point of death.
(Chas v’shalom.) He would refuse even
the outward symbols of Christianity, such as their holiday trees, etc. But
turning the other cheek? Have we internalized the Christian message in our
hearts, thus weakening our resolve and our spirits? The Christian message was
always intended for the “flock,” not for the masters. Are we so quick to join
the flock?
______________
Many years ago, I worked for a government agency in the U.S.
An older man came in one afternoon, barely able to walk, even with a cane. He
was an immigrant from Haiti, Jean-Pierre Jean – if I remember correctly.
Monsieur Jean had gone to Kings County Hospital, not the best of medical
facilities, to have cataract surgery. The anesthesia was not properly administered.
As a result, Monsieur Jean now had Parkinson’s disease and was no longer able to
work. He was disabled and impoverished.
I asked him if he had sued the hospital. He told me, No,”
that he had not and wasn’t going to do so. “They didn’t mean to do that to me,”
he said. My fellow employees, all Christian,
were in awe of this man. For them, he was a symbol of the Christian ideal: a man
who had put his Christian beliefs into action.
Jean-Pierre Jean chose to forgive that which had been done
to him – an inadvertent, unintentional injury – no malice intended. He chose to
live out the rest of his life in pain and in poverty. His choice. The injury
and subsequent illness were unexpected. There was no advance warning. No one
else got hurt. No prototype was established.
The Disengagement/Expulsion could not have been more
dissimilar: Deliberate, politically motivated, anti-Jewish, anti-religious,
affecting every Jew…weakening, destabilizing the country for the benefit of the
Arab enemy (and the Christian enemy as well). We do not forgive and we do not
forget! And we do not whitewash the people and the institutions that brought it
about.
______________
I asked my Ulpan teacher whether she thought that Israel won
the war in Lebanon. She said that as long as there will be quiet, Israel won.
Then she added that she had been in favor of the Disengagement and she now
realizes that she had been mistaken. A thinking woman, somewhat secular,
somewhat left wing (she “won’t live in Jerusalem because it’s full of
extremists”), nevertheless, she admits that reality has changed her opinion.
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