Our entire fight for Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron is to convince HaKadosh Baruch Hu to cancel his gezeira (decree), and not to convince our government. HaShem caused the problem (He is making the people in the government do what they are doing because it is a big nissayon [test] for us - and for them), and if we rebel against Him, we've lost the cause. Blocking roads and causing untold damage and hardships to your fellow Jew is not the way to get points with HaShem. There is no mitzvah via aveirot (sins) - and hurting your fellow Jew in any way is a big sin.
To cite a few examples: about 30 people missed out learning Torah in a shiur I go to several weeks ago, because our rabbi was stuck in the traffic jams caused by one of the road-blockings; my son-in-law, who is a senior plastic surgeon at Beilinson Hospital, couldn't get to his regular minyan and was stuck 1-1/2 hours in traffic jams (other people need to say kaddish in minyanim and missed them because of this). There are many more rabbis and teachers who couldn't give shiurim, and hundreds of people lost out on learning Torah -- that's a "no-no" with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and nothing can justify it. If there are some rabbis who give their approval to road-blockings, then, in my humble opinion, they need to rethink what they are saying.
Doctors can't get to where they have to, sick people can't get to where they can get help, people with little children in the car can go stir crazy in long traffic jams, both children and older people need to get to bathrooms and can't, people may be missing flights at the airport, etc. A lady had to give birth in the parking lot of a hospital she didn't want to go to, because the road-blockers prevented her from giving birth in a religious hospital here in Netanya. Even blocking roads for 15 minutes can cause a backup of hours in traffic jams.
What we need to do is bring Jews together, not make enemies. So far, blocking roads has caused our struggle for Gush Katif only enemies. No one to whom inconvenience is caused will like you, and when the person who caused the inconvenience is supposedly a G-d-fearing Jew, it reflects negatively on all of us and dampens greatly any strides made in a forward direction.
It is also not moral or straight to punish innocent people for the sins of the leaders. It doesn't get us points, since instead of people loving us they now hate us, and if we force ourselves on others, it will boomerang.
The ends don't always justify the means, and in this case, it is wrong to block the roads, it causes untold damage to people and to Torah learning, etc. Teaching children to cross train tracks on the Ayalon Freeway is suicide. How can any sane, adult Jew justify that? And having 12-year-olds sit in jail for six weeks - is that what a parent wants to do to get points with HaShem? That's chinuch? We will all get hurt by it, and it will not have accomplished anything positive. So far, it's turned the public against the religious establishment even more than they already are.
Let's teach our children Torah and good midot and to do chessed with our fellow Jews, not hurt them, bother them, or cause them harm. What have we come to? This is Eretz Yisrael, not chutz l'aretz.
Endangering our own lives and those of our fellow Jews is a huge chillul Hashem - desecration of G-d's name. What HaShem wants from us is to do Kiddush Hashem, sanctify G-d's name. That's what we have to do - each one of us in his own way, and collectively, as a community. Every word we say and every action we take has to be with that in mind. This is Eretz Yisrael, G-d's home, and we're His servants, serving the King in His palace. Let's act like that.
Therefore, I appeal again to all those people who want to take part in blocking the roads - please, please, please call off the plan to block roads. Let everyone hand out orange ribbons and sell orange shirts and other things at intersections. Demonstrations on the side of the road do much more than anyone can think. Kids will do what they are told to do. Too bad adults aren't always like that. We're all trying to help Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron, but we have to do it only in a positive Torah-way, by explaining to people, by davenen (praying) to HaShem, by taking people to tour the areas and see what's being done there, by telling about the millions of miracles Hashem has performed there, etc.
Let's hear only good news by doing what HaShem wants and not by getting Him angry. Our job is to do t'shuva. That's the bottom line, not blocking roads; and if we do that, then He will take away the threat very simply. He wants us to be united, so let's try that, for change. Let's all do something better today than we did yesterday, and tomorrow a little better than today, etc. Make one new friend every day and not one enemy. Am Yisroel - please wake up. HaShem's salvation will come in the blink of an eye ("yeshuat HaShem k'heref ayin"), G-d willing. As for our government -- "rabot machshavot b'lev ish, v'atzat HaShem he takum." ("There are many thoughts in a man's heart, but the counsel of the L-rd will stand," or, for short, "Man proposes and G-d disposes").
To cite a few examples: about 30 people missed out learning Torah in a shiur I go to several weeks ago, because our rabbi was stuck in the traffic jams caused by one of the road-blockings; my son-in-law, who is a senior plastic surgeon at Beilinson Hospital, couldn't get to his regular minyan and was stuck 1-1/2 hours in traffic jams (other people need to say kaddish in minyanim and missed them because of this). There are many more rabbis and teachers who couldn't give shiurim, and hundreds of people lost out on learning Torah -- that's a "no-no" with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and nothing can justify it. If there are some rabbis who give their approval to road-blockings, then, in my humble opinion, they need to rethink what they are saying.
Doctors can't get to where they have to, sick people can't get to where they can get help, people with little children in the car can go stir crazy in long traffic jams, both children and older people need to get to bathrooms and can't, people may be missing flights at the airport, etc. A lady had to give birth in the parking lot of a hospital she didn't want to go to, because the road-blockers prevented her from giving birth in a religious hospital here in Netanya. Even blocking roads for 15 minutes can cause a backup of hours in traffic jams.
What we need to do is bring Jews together, not make enemies. So far, blocking roads has caused our struggle for Gush Katif only enemies. No one to whom inconvenience is caused will like you, and when the person who caused the inconvenience is supposedly a G-d-fearing Jew, it reflects negatively on all of us and dampens greatly any strides made in a forward direction.
It is also not moral or straight to punish innocent people for the sins of the leaders. It doesn't get us points, since instead of people loving us they now hate us, and if we force ourselves on others, it will boomerang.
The ends don't always justify the means, and in this case, it is wrong to block the roads, it causes untold damage to people and to Torah learning, etc. Teaching children to cross train tracks on the Ayalon Freeway is suicide. How can any sane, adult Jew justify that? And having 12-year-olds sit in jail for six weeks - is that what a parent wants to do to get points with HaShem? That's chinuch? We will all get hurt by it, and it will not have accomplished anything positive. So far, it's turned the public against the religious establishment even more than they already are.
Let's teach our children Torah and good midot and to do chessed with our fellow Jews, not hurt them, bother them, or cause them harm. What have we come to? This is Eretz Yisrael, not chutz l'aretz.
Endangering our own lives and those of our fellow Jews is a huge chillul Hashem - desecration of G-d's name. What HaShem wants from us is to do Kiddush Hashem, sanctify G-d's name. That's what we have to do - each one of us in his own way, and collectively, as a community. Every word we say and every action we take has to be with that in mind. This is Eretz Yisrael, G-d's home, and we're His servants, serving the King in His palace. Let's act like that.
Therefore, I appeal again to all those people who want to take part in blocking the roads - please, please, please call off the plan to block roads. Let everyone hand out orange ribbons and sell orange shirts and other things at intersections. Demonstrations on the side of the road do much more than anyone can think. Kids will do what they are told to do. Too bad adults aren't always like that. We're all trying to help Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron, but we have to do it only in a positive Torah-way, by explaining to people, by davenen (praying) to HaShem, by taking people to tour the areas and see what's being done there, by telling about the millions of miracles Hashem has performed there, etc.
Let's hear only good news by doing what HaShem wants and not by getting Him angry. Our job is to do t'shuva. That's the bottom line, not blocking roads; and if we do that, then He will take away the threat very simply. He wants us to be united, so let's try that, for change. Let's all do something better today than we did yesterday, and tomorrow a little better than today, etc. Make one new friend every day and not one enemy. Am Yisroel - please wake up. HaShem's salvation will come in the blink of an eye ("yeshuat HaShem k'heref ayin"), G-d willing. As for our government -- "rabot machshavot b'lev ish, v'atzat HaShem he takum." ("There are many thoughts in a man's heart, but the counsel of the L-rd will stand," or, for short, "Man proposes and G-d disposes").