Where to Point the Finger

The scenes of the past few days have been nothing short of frightening.

The sight of Israeli soldiers dragging Jews out of synagogues, or young Israeli children weeping on buses as they bid farewell to their homes, should leave us all shaken to the very core of our being.

It would be easy to point the finger at Sharon, at the Likud, at the Government - and they surely are to blame for inflicting this disgraceful expulsion on our brothers and sisters in Gush Katif - but as believing Jews we know that it is not all that simple.

We know that if G-d has allowed this to happen, it is because WE are doing something wrong, something very, very wrong, that warrants reflection, repair and repentance.

Each of us, as individuals and as communities, must examine our own deeds and our own behavior, and correct whatever it is that we are failing at. And we should make sure to channel the anger, the bitterness and the fury that we feel into positive and productive efforts aimed at one goal and one goal only: to heal our people and our Land.

Shabbat Shalom - and may the scenes of this past week in Gush Katif never again be repeated.

Comments

[Yehoshua]

We must reach out to the secular and make them feel at home in Yehuda and Shomron, make them feel part of the whole Land of Israel so that no government would ever again dream of expelling Jews from their homes.

[Troy]

Yes, you are doing something wrong. Israel as a whole is doing something terrible. Namely, you are tolerating a government that is worse than the terrorists themselves. You need to kick Ariel Sharon's butt out of office, completely revolutionize the whole system, and determine who's defending whom. I thought the IDF was there for DEFENSE! Who would have ever thought that the Israeli armed services would be the ones destroying Israeli homes, raiding Jewish synagogues, up-rooting and devastating Israeli lives. It make me so angry I just want to put my fist through a wall or something! If these people you've got in government wanted a communist, totalitarian regime, then why'd they move to Israel? They needed to move to Russia. Do you realize the WHOLE WORLD is watching this unfold? The people of Israel against the people of Israel--what a reproach!

Troy

[Madzionist]

Perhaps we must accept the fact that the reason for God's ways are often hidden from us.

Maybe we are not as a people ready to take on the obligations of Torah and Godliness at a sufficient level to reclaim the Land at this time.

Then again, maybe we must overcome our own demons on earth, the kind of self destructive inclinations that led us to enact this tragic Expulsion.

I don't know the answer. It could be this will be someday understood as a necessary stage that we had to endure before reclaiming Eretz Yisroel.

Whatever it may be, I do know that Ariel Sharon will go down in Jewish history as one of the most wicked men the Children of Israel have ever known.

-MZ

[Nofyah]

I personally took part in a Garin Nachal as part of the Bnai Akiva movement. Our kibbutz was kibbutz Netzarim, in Gush Katif.

My husband and I are former residents of a settlement in the Shomron and we left for the following
reasons as well as others. We see them as the cause of the impending downfall of
the settlements.

We all know Sharon will not stop at Gush Katif and northern Samaria
- and if you think so you are fooling yourselves! This is a partial list that comes
from many years of deep introspection and personal accounting.

Many settlements are insular communities that admit only religious Jews, and some of the
residents speak Lashon Hora about others - even in their own communities - whom they see not living up to a certain standard. There is also a general attitude prevalent among settlers that all American Jews are rich; so that if an oleh chadash is living in a settlement and he is poor, he is made to feel wretched - both by the other American olim and the Israelis. Often he is plagued with poverty and a sense of feeling ignored.

Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook spoke against insular religious communities and said that the citizens of
such a community would be engulfed by their own pride and would be destroyed by
Hashem. Our duty as Torah observant Jews is to spread the light of Torah through Am Yisrael, not to cut ourselves off and live on the top of a hill.

Many settlements foster an environment in which the native born Israeli is always
superior to Olim. When we had a property argument with an "Israeli" neighbor
we were villified as "the Americans." People began saying I wasn't even
Jewish! and that my children God forbid weren't Jewish! I am a descendent of the
Dovrashah's brother and they dared say I am not Jewish? (The Dovrashah was the first
wife of the Chofetz Chaim) Not only that, but the neighbors were beating my six
year old son and he wound up having to be hospitalized in a psychiatric facility
in America with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder! Because we were "American".
I carried the same blue teudat zehut as anyone else!

I heard of a settlement where the manager of the Maon- the daycare center - never
invited English-speaking olim to her parties or to meals in her home. She would
invite all the other workers - the native born Israelis and the workers from France
and Russia, but not the English-speaking olim. And when they showed up at such a
party, thinking they were invited as well, because another worker told them to come,
she would send them home in embarrassment! In a "religious" Yishuv!

But this is also the fault of American Olim! We do not live blamelessly! We take
money from our relatives and excuse it as their sacrifice - what they owe us because
we live in Israel and they don't! Then we parade around in our SUV's and minivans
and look down at the poor peasants who don't have cars. Don't do it. If your car
makes you proud, and you will know that it does because you gloat at the trampiada
and say you are so happy you are not a poor shlep begging for a ride. If you find
yourself gloating, get out and walk once in a while. Or make it your solemn duty
to always take a guest in your car. Especially if they are a fellow American oleh
who is poor! One of the biggest Mitzvahs you can do is ease the pain of another
suffering Jew. And an American Jew in Israel who doesn't have a car and lives in
a settlement, may feel depraved and sad.

The most important:
Hiring murderers to build our homes and synagogues. The act of building a home anywhere
in Eretz Yisrael is a holy act. Yet, the settlements were - with the exception of
one - built with the sweat and tears of those who come to murder us and push us
into the sea!

Why should an evil doer who is not worthy to build the Holy Temple be allowed to
build the home of a God-fearing Jew? Jews discourage one another from the building
trade by paying their Jewish workers poorly!. How does one propose to be ready to
build the walls of the Holy Temple in Yerushalayim if he has not first taken a turn
at erecting his own home? His Mikdash Katan? Even Tapuach - home to many of the
followers of Meir Kahane - hired Arabs to build their homes!

And don't make excuses. Just because it is government housing or built by Amanah!
If you pay for the home, you are paying Arabs.

So what if there are empty buildings built by Arabs in your settlements! Raize them
and build new ones with Jewish labor only! Would you move into a house with excrement
on the walls? Think of a home built by Mohammedian idol worshippers as such a building.

There are many business owners in the settlements who cheat their Jewish workers by not
paying them on time or by cheating them on Bituach Leumi and other such maneuvers
in the name of saving money!

When you hire a Jew to work for you you are doing so many Mitzvot they cannot be
counted! But if you cheat him, ohhh! The number if aveirot is too many to count!

The American day school bills and our life style is a difficult one, and many of
us wish to immigrate or even those of us who left wish to return. Many of our parents
are left paying day school bills years after we graduated from high school! This
keeps them from immigrating when they retire!

But Jewish bodies are more important than Jewish money. The arabs are proving it
as we speak. And you need to come to that realization and stop begging us for money
so we can help our American brothers immigrate.

I strongly advise that if you all wish to stay together in your new locations, as
well as your old ones, that you build your homes with your own hands or you hire
the hands of your Jewish brethren only.

Do not allow an idol worshipping Mohammedite into your midst. Once the Imams decided
that Allah says they can kill us they crossed the line from monotheism to idol worship!
Do not hire them to do any work for you whatsoever!

If you hire a Jew, you must pay him a living wage - How do you
think Jews will be able to live in Eretz Yisrael if they are not paid a living wage?

And if you have to give up your evening Torah study
to hire Jews instead of Arabs, then bring a tape recorder with you to work and play
Shiurim and Jewish music for all the workers, so that everyone can learn Torah and
perform the Mitzvah of building Eretz Yisrael simultaneously! Or assign a different
worker to deliver a Dvar Torah every day! Then learning is for workers and not just
for the Elite. There is no Elite in the Jewish people - unless he is a Cohen or
a Levi! And at present we are all in Galus so their special status exists only during
religious services!

Every time you pay an Arab you are donating money to the PLO, Islamic Jihad and
HAMAS!!!!! YOU!!!! Not the arabs of the world. Not the US government! You! The only
reason the PLO lasted so long is because we fed its members!!

Stop depending on volunteers to do everything. From Yad Sarah to Magen David Adom,
there are Jews, poor Jews, doing too much volunteer work. There are scores of Jewish
EMTs and Paramedics in the US who can't immigrate to Israel because they will have
no work, because they can't get paid by Hatzolah!

If you were to hire a slave and later discover that the man was once a prince, you
would begin to treat him differently. Certainly, you would want to raise his salary.
You wouldn't yell at him and call him worthless and stupid while he sat on the roof
of your house nailing down roof tiles. You would bring him bread and water for lunch
and dinner and allow him to go home to his family at a decent hour! And you would
make sure he was not so exhausted he had no energy even to pray to the King of Kings!

Every Jewish woman and girl is a princess! Every Jewish man and boy is a prince!
We are royalty, and we expect to be treated as such by others, but many of us do
not treat our fellow Jews as royalty! Treat all your brothers and sisters like royalty and the Sinah will disappear like puddles in the sunshine!

[yprittsehmi]

Of all the articles this is the most important ,as it deals with the nation as individuals.The most heart rending and moving.Many people are angry for the situation,many people are grieving.
If we are to build the nation,it has to be with the proper building blocks,If we are to remove the hatred that so easily erupts, we all have to return to the roots.If we want the corner stone laid for the rebuilding of the Temple,it has to be with pure hands.Not tainted by selfishness or greed.
May I say the building blocks are The Ten Commandments.With these we will build ahavat Hinam.Any other way is trying to cut corners,and will result in the same scenes that we see today.
As the article stated we should be in a position,where we can look at ourselves honestly and correct the traits that we know are wrong.Heshbon nefesh.In our daily lives to be just as serious as we should be on Yom Kippur.
When the corner stone is laid ,it will be laid by the people whose hearts are pure before HaShem.To herald the coming of the KING.Prayers will be answered.The Heavens will not be like brass where our prayers fall back to the ground.HaShem sees every tear on the face of this earth.Every torn heart that wanders aimlessly.Every greiving mother weeping for her child,the hunger the famine.
Mr Sharon has stated that is was not easy for him.I agree with him,the decision is hard,and he took the hardest road.Maybe he will be known as the man that brought Israel together.Maybe against all the nations ,he will start the ball rolling for Israel to get up on its feet,and set the wheels in motion for true tshuva.
5:6 I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
5:7 Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
5:8 Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, even any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
5:9 Thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate Me,
5:10 and showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments.
5:11 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.

5:12 Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord thy God commanded thee.
5:13 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work;
5:14 but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou.
5:15 And thou shalt remember that thou was a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.
5:16 Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God commanded thee; that thy days may be long, and that it may go well with thee, upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
5:17 Thou shalt not murder.
5:17 Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
5:17 Neither shalt thou steal.
5:17 Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour.
5:18 Neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's wife; neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's house, his field, or his man-servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's.
These laws are for every person that has his faith in the G-d of Avraham,Itzaack and Yaakov.These are the laws that build ahavat hinam,And applicable to every human being, that is tired of the deceit of the world.
In this I will listen to HaShem with all my being

[yprittsehmi]

When I read of the accounts of the soldiers and the police ."In the end, despite all, the soldier and the resident walked out, arms around each other's shoulders.I wept tears.Never have people been moved with so much care.
As the nations begin to reject the Ten Commandments,let them begin to resound in our schools,places of learning,in our work places in our homes,let our whole system be built on the building blocks of Truth.Let the words of HaShem be our plumbline.

[Rev. John D. Shook]

Numbers 23:9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
May the ones that caused this suffer the judgement of HaShem and that very soon. Such as Bush, Blair, Sharon, James Baker, Peres, Beilin, Weisglas and the State Dept. in its entirety.
May G_d bless Israel