To Block the Traffic-Blockers
The religious Zionist public will pay through its nose, if it turns a blind
eye to "youth on the crossroads". Rabbi Benny Lau calls for an end
to the latest and dangerous sport among the knitted kipa sector.
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/11/ART/945/854.html
Reprinted and translated with the permission of Rabbi Dr Benny Lau.
A collection of young, adolescent men and women, incited by a handful of
braggarts who have no hesitation in causing damage to the fabric of life in
the State of Israel, threatens to burn our home down around us. It is not
constructive to define the young people at road junctions as "marginal"
or "garden weeds"- they come from the very core of activity within
Religious Zionism: Yeshiva High Schools, youth movement clubhouses, and from
families residing in the centres of cities, whose hearts go out to Gush Katif.
If we, the offspring of Religious Zionism, do not halt this trend, we shall
pay a terrible price for this omission. The lack of trust that is burgeoning
between adolescents and the institutions of the State threatens to develop
into an alienation from the entire system. The most prestigious sport today
among these young people is to be arrested by the Police. Moreover, if a criminal
file was opened against you – you're someone. If you confronted a policeman
– you're a saint. Total confusion of the system.
These young people are not bad. They imbibe the world through the eyes of
their parents, their youth leaders, their educators, and the immediate environment.
For several months, now, these adolescents have been hearing Friday night
discussions damning the Prime Minister and those close to him. Each successive
step that fails, enhances the feelings of powerlessness and despair that percolate
into the home. Young people who watch the despair of parents and teachers
wish to perform a heroic deed that will save them - this has ever been true.
Blocking road junctions is an act of crass stupidity that is motivated by
the need to do something concrete.
It's vital to stop this schism
Almost all the Rabbis in Gush Katif, Judea, Samaria, and throughout the State
of Israel, talk about taking a firm stand, without disturbing law and order,
or the security of the country. Most of Israel's Rabbis are fiercely opposed
to the acts of violence committed by our children at road junctions. And yet
– whenever one of "our" cars passes a group of demonstrators
at a junction – horns are blown in sympathy and hands waved in victory:
this is the real fuel that feeds this alien fire. The unofficial sense of
satisfaction that echoes in synagogues and study halls, reinforces and provokes
these "volunteers" to cross yet another unmarked dividing line and
to unpick yet another seam in Israeli society.
We have to put an end to this schism. Parents, together with youth leaders
and educators, must listen to the voice of the leadership that has been calling
for a genuine halt to fanning the flames and for respite from these tensions,
which risk harming other people. Our children are not evil, nor are they irresponsible.
If the message from their environment is clear-cut in its opposition to setting
our road junctions alight – then they won't be there. If, however, we
close our eyes, we shall pay the full price for doing so. If we even wink
slyly at the success of these demonstrations, we cannot later roll our eyes
piously heavenwards and say, "our hands did not shed [this blood]".
It is not possible to simultaneously conduct a "face to face" bridging
campaign and set road junctions alight. Someone who was on their way home,
but had to sit in a traffic jam for hours at a burning junction will not open
his or her door to a dialogue or encounter with the "other" side.
As the volume of road blockages and tyre burning increases, so will ticket
sales for holidays abroad during the month of Disengagement. The Israeli public
that lives peacefully between Hadera and Gedera [the coastal strip, Ed.] will
deepen its own emotional disengagement from the public that dwells in Gush
Katif: "Don't call me, my brother."
A summer of endeavour, action and fellow-feeling
We have a vested interest in transmitting the feeling of pain to all parts
of our people, but this is not the way to do it. We must avoid allowing our
people to disengage itself, and we must take care not to cause a large part
of Israeli society to mislay the pain of another part of the same society.
It is too dangerous to allow people to release all their emotions and act
from a sense of despair and betrayal – and it is totally unproductive.
This will not be our glory and from it the Redemption will not come. We will
not stop Disengagement by deepening social disengagement [alienation]. Now,
when everything rests in the hands of the people and the regime has had its
say, we need to endeavour diligently to connect to Heaven and to connect to
our people. We are called to this endeavour; it is the responsibility of every
one of us: parents, Rabbis, educators, Yeshiva and High School principals,
youth movement directors. We all have to prepare for a summer of endeavour:
a great deal of internal Jewish action to repair the social fabric in every
corner of the country. The upcoming months should see us at the height of
this activity, in order to bring our people to a sense of solidarity.
We shall eat the fruits of our endeavours,as King Solomon said (Proverbs
24):
For you shall say that we did not know of this, is it not the content of hearts
which is understood by Him [G-d]; for He knows the wish of your soul, and
returns to every Man acccording to his deeds.
(משלי כד):
"כי תאמר הן לא ידענו זה, הלא תוכן לבות הוא יבין, ונוצר נפשך הוא ידע, והשיב לאדם כפעלו".
Rabbi Dr Benny Lau is the Rabbi of the Bet Morasha Institute, Jerusalem,
and of the Ramban Synagogue & Community, Jerusalem.