Recently my family and I joined with other families from Jerusalem to spend Shabbat in one of the settlements of Gush Katif .We deliberately avoided the incredible Yom Haatzmaut festivities in which over 90,000 people filled the Gush Katif region with support, joy and celebration. We purposefully wanted to get to the area when things were quieter and less hectic .We also were very much aware that the residents of Gush Katif didn't need our show of support as much as we needed to draw from their seemingly endless well of faith and determination.
We are living in a world imprisoned within the political correctness of the media and the saddening and maddening cynicism of what the world calls reality. In that darkened cell of this "reality" all that is valued are the things that are tangible. In this environment. all that is believed in is what can be seen and touched in the here and now.
Our group was yearning to escape that dimension and find nourishment from a place and from people where Faith is tangible and 'what can be' is as real as 'what is'.
We traveled to Netzarim, Kfar Darom Morag, Atzmona and other locations in the Gaza strip. Unfailing determination was evident on the dirt on the hands of the farmers who were continuing to plant.
It was clear in the eyes of those describing the synagogue they had just completed .
It bellowed in the sawing and hammering of foundations for new houses being laid in Netsarim.
It was heard in the laughter of the children climbing and playing amidst the wide boughs of the famous large tree in Kfar Darom.
There was no need for flag waving or dramatic speeches .The most eloquent statement of all was evident in the simple continuance of life.
Farmers continue to plant, builders continue to build, Jews continue to pray and children continued to play.
The threats of expulsion and destruction were not being ignored or avoided. They were just being put into perspective, the perspective of faith.
As we traveled on Friday to the settlement of Tel Katifa, we drove along the beach.
The white sands were dotted with families enjoying a pre-Shabbat rest. At the top of a sand dune I saw a military jeep with some armed soldiers resting. Two meters away I saw an empty baby carriage waiting for its occupant to return with his family.
A large army jeep next to a tiny baby carriage.
Looking at the same spot with that same faith perspective, the jeep seemed to be dwarfed by the carriage.
Both the army jeep and the baby carriage represented the weapons of this eternal people.
Both the jeep and the carriage represented our future.
Yet it was the baby carriage that gave meaning to the jeep.
The belief in our future is the source of the strength of our people as they continue to struggle in the present.
Many years earlier, then Prime Minister Rabin told one of the leaders of the Gush Katif settlements that had they not been living in Netsarim , he would have had to invent them. The surprised Gush Katif resident asked him why. He responded that Israel does not need a battalion of soldiers to protect a handful of settlers, it needed the handful of settlers to be the excuse to have a battalion of soldiers protecting Israel from the dangers that enter through the shores of the Gaza strip.
Today the designs of short sighted men in our government fail to see both the physical security issues and the spiritual imperative of these settlements .Yet these ill fated designs and expulsion plans will necessarily fall when confronted by the faith of farmers who continue to plant and mothers and fathers who continue to bring children into a life of promise and destiny.
The army jeep represents the courage of a people who know they must defend their liberty and their lives.
The baby carriage represents the courage of a people who have not lost their belief in the future.
Both must continue to stand side by side.
We are living in a world imprisoned within the political correctness of the media and the saddening and maddening cynicism of what the world calls reality. In that darkened cell of this "reality" all that is valued are the things that are tangible. In this environment. all that is believed in is what can be seen and touched in the here and now.
Our group was yearning to escape that dimension and find nourishment from a place and from people where Faith is tangible and 'what can be' is as real as 'what is'.
We traveled to Netzarim, Kfar Darom Morag, Atzmona and other locations in the Gaza strip. Unfailing determination was evident on the dirt on the hands of the farmers who were continuing to plant.
It was clear in the eyes of those describing the synagogue they had just completed .
It bellowed in the sawing and hammering of foundations for new houses being laid in Netsarim.
It was heard in the laughter of the children climbing and playing amidst the wide boughs of the famous large tree in Kfar Darom.
There was no need for flag waving or dramatic speeches .The most eloquent statement of all was evident in the simple continuance of life.
Farmers continue to plant, builders continue to build, Jews continue to pray and children continued to play.
The threats of expulsion and destruction were not being ignored or avoided. They were just being put into perspective, the perspective of faith.
As we traveled on Friday to the settlement of Tel Katifa, we drove along the beach.
The white sands were dotted with families enjoying a pre-Shabbat rest. At the top of a sand dune I saw a military jeep with some armed soldiers resting. Two meters away I saw an empty baby carriage waiting for its occupant to return with his family.
A large army jeep next to a tiny baby carriage.
Looking at the same spot with that same faith perspective, the jeep seemed to be dwarfed by the carriage.
Both the army jeep and the baby carriage represented the weapons of this eternal people.
Both the jeep and the carriage represented our future.
Yet it was the baby carriage that gave meaning to the jeep.
The belief in our future is the source of the strength of our people as they continue to struggle in the present.
Many years earlier, then Prime Minister Rabin told one of the leaders of the Gush Katif settlements that had they not been living in Netsarim , he would have had to invent them. The surprised Gush Katif resident asked him why. He responded that Israel does not need a battalion of soldiers to protect a handful of settlers, it needed the handful of settlers to be the excuse to have a battalion of soldiers protecting Israel from the dangers that enter through the shores of the Gaza strip.
Today the designs of short sighted men in our government fail to see both the physical security issues and the spiritual imperative of these settlements .Yet these ill fated designs and expulsion plans will necessarily fall when confronted by the faith of farmers who continue to plant and mothers and fathers who continue to bring children into a life of promise and destiny.
The army jeep represents the courage of a people who know they must defend their liberty and their lives.
The baby carriage represents the courage of a people who have not lost their belief in the future.
Both must continue to stand side by side.