In last week's very large prayer at the Kotel against the disengagement/expulsion plan for Gush Katif and Samaria, one could see both the key to the success of the Jewish people, culminating in the arrival of Moshiach tzidkenu, bimhera viyamenu, amen, and the reason why Moshiach has still not arrived after all these years.
The event saw a uniting of leading, influential rabbis from the Hareidi, Sephardic and National Religious sectors together in one event, as former Ashkenazi and Sephardi Chief Rabbis Avraham Shapira and Mordechai Eliyahu, Shas party spiritual leader and former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, members of the Hareidi Council of Torah Sages, former MK Rabbi Menachem Porush, and other prominent Hassidic rabbis all took part in this wonderful and inspiring gathering to beseech HaShem on behalf of His children. This was truly a beautiful display of unity and caring for acheinu Beis Yisroel hanesunim batzarah.
Unfortunately, this event marked a rare uniting of the various sectors of Orthodox Judaism. In the humble opinion of someone who is not a rabbi, this is one of the main reasons why Moshiach has not yet arrived; therefore, the more we unite, the sooner we will bring the redemption.
My goal here is not to point fingers at one group or another, or at one rabbi or another, to say, "You are at fault." That is, unfortunately, what many of us usually do, as that is the easy way out. That approach does not accomplish anything; it merely serves to increase sinas chinam among our people and to weigh down our scales of mitzvahs vs. aveirahs by piling on the terrible sins of loshon hora and motzei shem ra, and it therefore must be avoided vigilantly. My goal here is to encourage people to make a special effort to see to it that this type of united effort become the norm, rather than the exception.
It has been extremely disconcerting to me that we do not work together more to achieve the common good. Clearly, things have improved somewhat over the past couple of years, and the various sectors do seem to be working together now more than ever before, and do seem to be respecting each other's achievements more than in the past. Clearly, there are differences between the sectors, and that is fine; each can and should continue in its own special approach of avodas HaShem. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that there is so much more that unites our various sectors, each desiring to be mekadesh Shem Shemayim and to help acheinu Beis Yisroel.
In fact, this unity has never been seen as clearly as during the reign of the present government. Torah has been attacked ruthlessly by the government; funding has been cut drastically to yeshivos and other Torah institutions across the board. The kedusha of Eretz Yisrael has been tainted time and time again by the government, and this affects everyone. The government has turned the democratic State of Israel into a virtual dictatorship and has placed the threat of administrative detention and other forms of repression over the heads of anyone who dares to protest. The government has made overture after overture to the Palestinians, including releasing prisoners, minimizing checkpoints and redeploying the IDF from within Palestinian areas to outside them, and the results have been terrorism and more terrorism, with no one being immune.
If the various Orthodox sectors would unite to either form one large party or, at the very least, to vote as a united bloc, this would give them so much more power than they currently have. As the Torah tells us, there is no comparison between a large united group performing HaShem's will and several smaller groups doing so.
How wonderful it would be if the followers of all the Torah leaders would show respect to one another, and especially to the leaders of the various observant sectors. On this particular issue, Arutz-7 deserves to be mentioned for their special efforts and accomplishments. The result would be that unified actions on behalf of Klal Yisroel, such as the one at the Kotel, would become the norm. How much more powerful the religious would be with one party of 25-30 seats instead of several smaller parties.
Now is the time to capitalize on the increased cooperation of late and join together to work to preserve Torah, Eretz Yisrael, and the security and the rights of acheinu Beis Yisroel living in Eretz Yisroel. Now is the time to work together to bring Jonathan Pollard and the Israeli MIAs home after all these years. Now is the time to work together to bring Torah Judaism to the masses who have never experienced the beauty of it.
In speaking to non-observant Jews over the years, I have been struck by their comment that the Orthodox can't even agree amongst themselves, so why should they. To a non-affiliated Jew, the disunity and strife that has often characterizes the relationship between different sectors of Orthodox Judaism is truly perplexing. This turns off non-affiliated Jews to Torah Judaism. How much more success we would have in bringing our unaffiliated brethren to Torah Judaism if we worked together to accomplish this.
Working together, im yirtzeh HaShem, will hopefully make us worthy to merit experiencing the words of the prophet that the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months will be converted to days of joy and gladness for the whole house of Israel with the arrival of Moshiach tzidkenu, bimhera viyamenu, amen.
The event saw a uniting of leading, influential rabbis from the Hareidi, Sephardic and National Religious sectors together in one event, as former Ashkenazi and Sephardi Chief Rabbis Avraham Shapira and Mordechai Eliyahu, Shas party spiritual leader and former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, members of the Hareidi Council of Torah Sages, former MK Rabbi Menachem Porush, and other prominent Hassidic rabbis all took part in this wonderful and inspiring gathering to beseech HaShem on behalf of His children. This was truly a beautiful display of unity and caring for acheinu Beis Yisroel hanesunim batzarah.
Unfortunately, this event marked a rare uniting of the various sectors of Orthodox Judaism. In the humble opinion of someone who is not a rabbi, this is one of the main reasons why Moshiach has not yet arrived; therefore, the more we unite, the sooner we will bring the redemption.
My goal here is not to point fingers at one group or another, or at one rabbi or another, to say, "You are at fault." That is, unfortunately, what many of us usually do, as that is the easy way out. That approach does not accomplish anything; it merely serves to increase sinas chinam among our people and to weigh down our scales of mitzvahs vs. aveirahs by piling on the terrible sins of loshon hora and motzei shem ra, and it therefore must be avoided vigilantly. My goal here is to encourage people to make a special effort to see to it that this type of united effort become the norm, rather than the exception.
It has been extremely disconcerting to me that we do not work together more to achieve the common good. Clearly, things have improved somewhat over the past couple of years, and the various sectors do seem to be working together now more than ever before, and do seem to be respecting each other's achievements more than in the past. Clearly, there are differences between the sectors, and that is fine; each can and should continue in its own special approach of avodas HaShem. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that there is so much more that unites our various sectors, each desiring to be mekadesh Shem Shemayim and to help acheinu Beis Yisroel.
In fact, this unity has never been seen as clearly as during the reign of the present government. Torah has been attacked ruthlessly by the government; funding has been cut drastically to yeshivos and other Torah institutions across the board. The kedusha of Eretz Yisrael has been tainted time and time again by the government, and this affects everyone. The government has turned the democratic State of Israel into a virtual dictatorship and has placed the threat of administrative detention and other forms of repression over the heads of anyone who dares to protest. The government has made overture after overture to the Palestinians, including releasing prisoners, minimizing checkpoints and redeploying the IDF from within Palestinian areas to outside them, and the results have been terrorism and more terrorism, with no one being immune.
If the various Orthodox sectors would unite to either form one large party or, at the very least, to vote as a united bloc, this would give them so much more power than they currently have. As the Torah tells us, there is no comparison between a large united group performing HaShem's will and several smaller groups doing so.
How wonderful it would be if the followers of all the Torah leaders would show respect to one another, and especially to the leaders of the various observant sectors. On this particular issue, Arutz-7 deserves to be mentioned for their special efforts and accomplishments. The result would be that unified actions on behalf of Klal Yisroel, such as the one at the Kotel, would become the norm. How much more powerful the religious would be with one party of 25-30 seats instead of several smaller parties.
Now is the time to capitalize on the increased cooperation of late and join together to work to preserve Torah, Eretz Yisrael, and the security and the rights of acheinu Beis Yisroel living in Eretz Yisroel. Now is the time to work together to bring Jonathan Pollard and the Israeli MIAs home after all these years. Now is the time to work together to bring Torah Judaism to the masses who have never experienced the beauty of it.
In speaking to non-observant Jews over the years, I have been struck by their comment that the Orthodox can't even agree amongst themselves, so why should they. To a non-affiliated Jew, the disunity and strife that has often characterizes the relationship between different sectors of Orthodox Judaism is truly perplexing. This turns off non-affiliated Jews to Torah Judaism. How much more success we would have in bringing our unaffiliated brethren to Torah Judaism if we worked together to accomplish this.
Working together, im yirtzeh HaShem, will hopefully make us worthy to merit experiencing the words of the prophet that the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months will be converted to days of joy and gladness for the whole house of Israel with the arrival of Moshiach tzidkenu, bimhera viyamenu, amen.