Tradition has it that Redemption will arrive when the Jews cry an amount of tears that outweigh the tears that Esau wept when he heard that Jacob had received the blessing from Isaac.
I cried a good part of last week, I hope my tears made a dent in the national quota required of us.
The front-page images of our soldiers on their hands and knees, sifting through sands, in search of remnants of the bodies of their fallen comrades were distressing to say the least. On one hand, it was holy work. On the other hand, seeing our boys unarmed and in a prone position left us all feeling more than a bit vulnerable - and with a lot of questions.
The mother of one soldier prays, "Please G-d, no soldier should injure a fingernail to get back my son's ear."
The father of another fallen soldier demands that the Prime Minister "Return the bones that belong to me. I gave you a whole son, I want all his bones... I don't have his heart. I don't even have some of his heart."
Both are legitimate outpourings of grief, which demand an appropriate response from the government, the military and from all of us. After all, we Jews are a collective body and we've lost some precious souls and significant parts.
I found it ironic, in a sickening sort of way, that last week also saw Israel's Chief Pathologist dismissed as Director of the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute. It seems the professor was involved in a number of controversies, including the unauthorized use of body parts for research and other purposes.
The esoteric meaning behind the value attached to dried bones or pieces of flesh is above and beyond most of us. But we need only take a glimpse at the uncanny connections between ancient and modern Jewish history to realize that something extraordinarily profound is occurring.
Remember the frantic search for Joseph's remains that Moses makes prior to leading our people out of Egypt? The fact that our soldiers' remains were being hidden so close to the Egyptian border, that our soldiers were killed while looking for weapons being tunneled via Egypt and that Egypt's cooperation was required in order to get some of those parts back, is both disturbing and worth reflection.
If you recall, Joshua completes the mission for Moses....
"Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph's descendants." (Yehoshua)
Not only is Shechem Joseph's final resting place, but it is also the place where he was sold into slavery by his brothers. Today, Shechem is called "Nablus" and it is a hotbed of Arab terrorism. In case you're wondering whatever became of Joseph¹s grave, well...
In October 2000, Palestinians attacked the Israeli soldiers who were guarding the tomb and the yeshiva students who were studying there. One of our soldiers was wounded in the assault and the Palestinians prevented him from being evacuated. While then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak was attempting to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority over safe evacuation, the soldier bled to death. Barak decided to order a unilateral withdrawal in order to reduce tensions in the area (does this sound familiar?). Under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority was supposed to safeguard Jewish and Christian holy sites, but within two hours of the Israeli retreat, Arab mobs ransacked, burned and reduced the tomb and its surrounding structure to rubble. This was all done under the watchful eye of the Palestinian Authority. (It should be noted that additional desecration to the site occurred in the winter of 2003. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had little to say about the matter.)
Ghoulish. There is no other way to describe unfolding geopolitical events.
Several weeks ago, we were immersed in a debate over the brutality depicted in a celluloid, technicolor presentation of a crucifixion. In the last two weeks, the world has been exposed to the real-time, flesh and blood perversions of Western armed forces and barbaric Islamic mobs. We've watched gruesome battles, lynchings, prisoner abuse, executions, the massacre of a pregnant woman and her children, football with stolen body parts and a decapitation.
Welcome to the dark ages. And you thought we had progressed.
There are nations that go to war under the banner of Jihad, imperialism, freedom and democracy, love for the motherland or extreme nationalism. Regardless of whether they win or lose, or whether their fight is just, their flags will ultimately bear the stain of acts of rape, plunder and desecration.
Modern Israel is far from a state of pristine innocence, but our wars have always been defensive. Historically speaking, our ancestors, who were bolder, more courageous and possessed more faith, were willing to initiate wars in order to avenge or prevent rape, plunder and desecration. There's nothing wrong with that. It's called self-preservation and amounts to a sanctification of life.
Preserving the values and moral foundations of the past has always been the Jewish way of ensuring the future. The notions of self-sacrifice and accountability may sound archaic, self-righteous and Biblical to many who are immersed in self-gratification and the present. But without these ancient precepts, life becomes downright barbaric - as we have seen these past few weeks.
We Jews don't have the option of retreat. There are no peace partners on our horizon, only brutal enemies. Indeed, while tens of thousands of Peace Now activists were demonstrating on behalf of capitulation, Yasser Arafat was simultaneously calling on his people to "terrorize your enemies." The Arabs are intent on butchering us whether we withdraw from Gaza or not.
The news is hardly pleasant and nobody is comfortable with the following BBC account:
"The house off Salahudeen Street was home to S'ham Abu Libdeh. She lived in it for nearly 40 years, and she raised her seven children there. I spoke to her as she picked her way through the rubble that is now all that is left of her house.
"Mrs Abu Libdeh said there was no warning that the bulldozers were coming.
"'The Israelis gave us no time,' she said."
Well Mrs. Abu Libdeh, losing a house can be rough, but your terrorist neighbors and friends (including women) don't give us Israeli civilians any warning or time before slaughtering us in buses, cafes, cars, homes and at our Shabbat and Festival tables.
Too bad the BBC didn't see fit to file this newsworthy report about recent Israeli casualties in Gaza:
"An elderly Palestinian woman in the building complained that she was thirsty, and the soldier agreed to accompany her to the first floor for water. Palestinian snipers were waiting and shot and killed him. They then opened fire on other soldiers who went to rescue him. In all, two soldiers were killed, and two were moderately wounded."
It's not a time to be loving, kind, forgiving and patient with the enemy. Extreme kindness in a time of war can kill a person and is in itself a desecration. There is a time to kill and a time to hate. It is forbidden for us Jews to surrender our lives because we didn't have the heart to treat the enemy as an enemy.
That we value the lives of evil individuals over our own is perhaps the greatest blasphemy of all.
That tens of thousands of Israelis can pour into the streets to support what amounts to a surrender, and exploit the incidence of our fallen soldiers as a catalyst for their protest, but that same number was incapable of organizing a demonstration of outrage at the murder of a very pregnant Israeli mother and her four children, is a profoundly tragic commentary on the condition of our collective body, national soul and very tired bones.
"Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel...." (Ezekiel 37:11)
I cried a good part of last week, I hope my tears made a dent in the national quota required of us.
The front-page images of our soldiers on their hands and knees, sifting through sands, in search of remnants of the bodies of their fallen comrades were distressing to say the least. On one hand, it was holy work. On the other hand, seeing our boys unarmed and in a prone position left us all feeling more than a bit vulnerable - and with a lot of questions.
The mother of one soldier prays, "Please G-d, no soldier should injure a fingernail to get back my son's ear."
The father of another fallen soldier demands that the Prime Minister "Return the bones that belong to me. I gave you a whole son, I want all his bones... I don't have his heart. I don't even have some of his heart."
Both are legitimate outpourings of grief, which demand an appropriate response from the government, the military and from all of us. After all, we Jews are a collective body and we've lost some precious souls and significant parts.
I found it ironic, in a sickening sort of way, that last week also saw Israel's Chief Pathologist dismissed as Director of the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute. It seems the professor was involved in a number of controversies, including the unauthorized use of body parts for research and other purposes.
The esoteric meaning behind the value attached to dried bones or pieces of flesh is above and beyond most of us. But we need only take a glimpse at the uncanny connections between ancient and modern Jewish history to realize that something extraordinarily profound is occurring.
Remember the frantic search for Joseph's remains that Moses makes prior to leading our people out of Egypt? The fact that our soldiers' remains were being hidden so close to the Egyptian border, that our soldiers were killed while looking for weapons being tunneled via Egypt and that Egypt's cooperation was required in order to get some of those parts back, is both disturbing and worth reflection.
If you recall, Joshua completes the mission for Moses....
"Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph's descendants." (Yehoshua)
Not only is Shechem Joseph's final resting place, but it is also the place where he was sold into slavery by his brothers. Today, Shechem is called "Nablus" and it is a hotbed of Arab terrorism. In case you're wondering whatever became of Joseph¹s grave, well...
In October 2000, Palestinians attacked the Israeli soldiers who were guarding the tomb and the yeshiva students who were studying there. One of our soldiers was wounded in the assault and the Palestinians prevented him from being evacuated. While then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak was attempting to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority over safe evacuation, the soldier bled to death. Barak decided to order a unilateral withdrawal in order to reduce tensions in the area (does this sound familiar?). Under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority was supposed to safeguard Jewish and Christian holy sites, but within two hours of the Israeli retreat, Arab mobs ransacked, burned and reduced the tomb and its surrounding structure to rubble. This was all done under the watchful eye of the Palestinian Authority. (It should be noted that additional desecration to the site occurred in the winter of 2003. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had little to say about the matter.)
Ghoulish. There is no other way to describe unfolding geopolitical events.
Several weeks ago, we were immersed in a debate over the brutality depicted in a celluloid, technicolor presentation of a crucifixion. In the last two weeks, the world has been exposed to the real-time, flesh and blood perversions of Western armed forces and barbaric Islamic mobs. We've watched gruesome battles, lynchings, prisoner abuse, executions, the massacre of a pregnant woman and her children, football with stolen body parts and a decapitation.
Welcome to the dark ages. And you thought we had progressed.
There are nations that go to war under the banner of Jihad, imperialism, freedom and democracy, love for the motherland or extreme nationalism. Regardless of whether they win or lose, or whether their fight is just, their flags will ultimately bear the stain of acts of rape, plunder and desecration.
Modern Israel is far from a state of pristine innocence, but our wars have always been defensive. Historically speaking, our ancestors, who were bolder, more courageous and possessed more faith, were willing to initiate wars in order to avenge or prevent rape, plunder and desecration. There's nothing wrong with that. It's called self-preservation and amounts to a sanctification of life.
Preserving the values and moral foundations of the past has always been the Jewish way of ensuring the future. The notions of self-sacrifice and accountability may sound archaic, self-righteous and Biblical to many who are immersed in self-gratification and the present. But without these ancient precepts, life becomes downright barbaric - as we have seen these past few weeks.
We Jews don't have the option of retreat. There are no peace partners on our horizon, only brutal enemies. Indeed, while tens of thousands of Peace Now activists were demonstrating on behalf of capitulation, Yasser Arafat was simultaneously calling on his people to "terrorize your enemies." The Arabs are intent on butchering us whether we withdraw from Gaza or not.
The news is hardly pleasant and nobody is comfortable with the following BBC account:
"The house off Salahudeen Street was home to S'ham Abu Libdeh. She lived in it for nearly 40 years, and she raised her seven children there. I spoke to her as she picked her way through the rubble that is now all that is left of her house.
"Mrs Abu Libdeh said there was no warning that the bulldozers were coming.
"'The Israelis gave us no time,' she said."
Well Mrs. Abu Libdeh, losing a house can be rough, but your terrorist neighbors and friends (including women) don't give us Israeli civilians any warning or time before slaughtering us in buses, cafes, cars, homes and at our Shabbat and Festival tables.
Too bad the BBC didn't see fit to file this newsworthy report about recent Israeli casualties in Gaza:
"An elderly Palestinian woman in the building complained that she was thirsty, and the soldier agreed to accompany her to the first floor for water. Palestinian snipers were waiting and shot and killed him. They then opened fire on other soldiers who went to rescue him. In all, two soldiers were killed, and two were moderately wounded."
It's not a time to be loving, kind, forgiving and patient with the enemy. Extreme kindness in a time of war can kill a person and is in itself a desecration. There is a time to kill and a time to hate. It is forbidden for us Jews to surrender our lives because we didn't have the heart to treat the enemy as an enemy.
That we value the lives of evil individuals over our own is perhaps the greatest blasphemy of all.
That tens of thousands of Israelis can pour into the streets to support what amounts to a surrender, and exploit the incidence of our fallen soldiers as a catalyst for their protest, but that same number was incapable of organizing a demonstration of outrage at the murder of a very pregnant Israeli mother and her four children, is a profoundly tragic commentary on the condition of our collective body, national soul and very tired bones.
"Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel...." (Ezekiel 37:11)