What is the real killer: We have net the enemy and the enemy is . . .
As a reminder, we the Jewish people both in Israel and of the Diaspora remain focused on October 7th, while ‘much of the world’ sees it all as beginning only with October 8th).
Perhaps — it has become time for us to focus internally . . .
The perspectives and actions of this “much of the world” are purposeful and blatant, and all of which are antisemitic against the Jews of Israel and us, the Jews of America, and the Jews worldwide.
We know their illness (it is a mental illness and it ranges from thinly defined to blatant jewhate). However, what can we learn about ourselves now?
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Is this today or is this yesterday?
The people are scared, and their emotional strength is waning. What they have endured is beyond our comprehension, even though at Passover time every year we review it as a celebration.
The people in this week’s parsha have only trauma and ongoing divisions among them. To put it mildly, they have been through a lot, from the degradation of the death pits of Egypt, watching their children thrown into the Nile or their babies baked into bricks for building, and these same parents whipped into slave-like submission, accompanied by ongoing humiliations of forced slavery-like conditions — which we can still see in a horrifying walkaround thru Jewish history.
Today, 75 years after Auschwitz along with the treatment of Jews at the hands of the mohamedan/moslem communities (for over a thousand years), we are still witness to even more than we have seen or experienced throughout much of history.
Israeli society and the Jewish people worldwide are experiencing divisions that have the power “to bring down the house” (perhaps here ‘reflect back’ to the demise of Samson — as he and his Tribe of Dan live ever so close, side by side even with Israel’s enemies — throughout the Period of the Judges).
Today we remain (appropriately) concerned, and with good reason. Divisions among us, which, as I have shared with you, have existed from time immemorial — much of which leads to a ‘divisiveness’ we can vividly see in this week’s Parsha.
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An ongoing festering area of serious concern . . .
The ultra-orthodox of the State of Israel are, at the current time, a flash point of contention in that they insist on “military exemptions” for their Yeshiva students while the more normative Israeli Orthodox along with the rest of the country send their young men, and women off to military service, ostensibly to protect them, while they pray. This too creates a certain divisiveness and “division” which threatens the required cohesiveness of a country — which is necessary for the society to live as a free people in their land, and with each other.
Remember, while boundaries are respected in the Torah, however, from time immemorial, ‘division’ and its fraternal sibling ‘divisiveness’ are understood and experienced as crippling, even deadly.
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Meet Rivka Peleg. Rivka is a Haredi mom of two, who works in hi-tech and lives in Jerusalem. In this video, this ultra-Orthodox woman is filmed explaining to her young children why she’s decided to join the army at an age far older than almost all recruits.
She may not be the “norm,” but it’s clear that something is happening even in the Haredi community.
Here below, Daniel Gordis has provided us with a glimpse into this phenomenon with the story of a Haredi mother with young children who has made a decision to volunteer for army service in the IDF (she is Israeli). This video shows her explaining to her children that she will be going to the army and away for short clips of time. Her husband has also volunteered but her services are more critically in demand than his, at this time. It’s a fascinating glimpse into a serious divide occurring within Israeli society, religious and otherwise, today.
(with subtitles)
https://danielgordis.substack.com/p/from-darkness-to-light-while-some?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#media-899fdd0b-b7a1-4dbe-a291-2b0e894806fb
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As a side (fringe) note: from this week’s Parsha:
Fringes, as a symbol, often represent ‘the edge,’ even the far edge from where no one expects anything, let alone any sort of assistance. The character from this week’s haftara, a prostitute by the name of Rahab, could very well be understood as an example of this — as who would expect assistance from a common prostitute, living in a well-fortified city, to come to the assistance of the Israelite people?
The Psalms will at times ask, from whence does our help come? The answer is just as often, from, the unexpected.
Here, below, we see ‘the fringe’ as a reminder . . . Numbers 15:38
דַּבֵּ֞ר אֶל־בְּנֵ֤י יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵהֶ֔ם וְעָשׂ֨וּ לָהֶ֥ם צִיצִ֛ת עַל־כַּנְפֵ֥י בִגְדֵיהֶ֖ם לְדֹרֹתָ֑ם וְנָ֥תְנ֛וּ עַל־צִיצִ֥ת הַכָּנָ֖ף פְּתִ֥יל תְּכֵֽלֶת׃
Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner.
וְהָיָ֣ה לָכֶם֮ לְצִיצִת֒ וּרְאִיתֶ֣ם אֹת֗וֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם֙ אֶתל־מִצְות יְהֹוָ֔ה וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָ֑ם וְלֹֽא־תָת֜וּרוּ אַחֲרֵ֤י לְבַבְכֶם֙ וְאַחֲרֵ֣י עֵֽינֵיכֶ֔ם אֲשֶׁר־אַתֶּ֥ם זֹנִ֖ים אַחֲרֵיהֶֽם׃
That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of יהוה and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge.
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Here is the current view from the Jewish People, from time immemorial until today: we will have our divisions, but we will strive to overcome our divisiveness — we cannot return to the time of Samson and the period of the Judges. It would be disastrous.
Am Yisrael Chai. for us even in the Diaspora, is now.
