One simple story tells both sides of the passion that is Gush Katif.
A Jerusalem dentist receives an urgent call. One of the expelled Jews from Gush Katif needs emergency dental care. The dentist immediately clears some time and welcomes this Jew from Gush Katif into his office. As he prepares his dental tools, the dentist gives his patient some forms to fill out and walks into the next room. When he returns, he finds the man weeping softly. The patient had gotten to the question on the form asking for his address and could go no further.
A Jew, a citizen of the state of Israel, without an address and without a home, and no one has yet been able to explain to him why.
As the dentist finishes his treatment, another patient enters from the other room. This Hassidic Jew rushes over to the Jew from the Gush. They don't know each other. They have never spoken. Yet, they fall into each other's arms and weep.
That is the deep passion of the Gush Katif story. On the one hand, innocent citizens forced into homelessness by an arrogant, uncaring administration. Ariel Sharon goes on national TV to speak to the people of Israel and does not even attempt to explain the rationale behind this expulsion. It is becoming clearer every day that there is no rationale and there is no strategy. It seems to be simply a capitulation to the whims of the American administration. In their mad rush to meet some self-imposed deadline, families are painfully evicted from their homes , their dreams and their memories. They are just as quickly expelled into the unknown. Many of the expelled Jews are finding that no preparations were made for the day after. One group is evicted from one location to another and another group is told that the government has only paid for breakfast.
On the other hand, a pained and saddened Israel reaches out to embrace and support thousands of people abandoned by their government. Even before the tragic days of the expulsion, thousands of citizens got into their cars and spent days in the blistering sun and on the dusty back roads of the south. Caravans of cars left every hour to try to find ways to avoid police blockades and army helicopters in order to try to get into the Gush. These were ordinary people doing extraordinary things, fueled by unbounded affection for their brethren, for their land and for their G-d.
After two days in the dust and sun, some got back into their cars and drove in circles looking for something to do. The frustration was overwhelming. Our small group, after attempts to break through to Kissufim proved futile, decided that we needed to simply stand on the highway and wait for the buses and cars of the expelled Jews to drive by. We weren't sure that it was the right thing to do. Maybe, we debated amongst ourselves, they would look at us with our makeshift signs and think bitterly, "Is this the best you could do? Why did not the hundreds of thousands come and invade the Kissufim crossing?"
Yet, we felt an uncontrollable urge to envelop Sharon's refugees with affection and brotherhood.
So, this small group made signs and stood waiting .Within a short period of time, more and more people joined us, and the Sderot intersection was soon filled with over four hundred people carrying signs and flags. As the cars from Gush Katif approached the intersection, they looked bewildered upon seeing us and then broke into a bittersweet mixture of sobs and laughter. Some drivers stopped their cars as they began to weep and others raised their thumbs up and blew kisses. Yet, as each group of cars left, driving into their unknown, people in the intersection would simply sit down and cry.
We were comforting a people battered by circumstances that were unnecessary, unwarranted and irrational. We were trying to pour out unbridled love to salve the wounds caused by callous and cruel arrogance.
At that point, we thought that was all we had left.
We were wrong. It was not to be too long before we discovered that we were not welcoming a group of shattered, broken refugees. We were not gathering together sparks dimmed by the oppressive forces of expulsion. We were actually witness to a dispersal of sources of power and light.
On two separate nights, the Western Wall plaza was filled with evicted residents and thousands of other citizens. They had gathered together to embrace each other, sing together and pray together. The power of the encounter was palpable.
The power of Gush Katif was in their unusual blend of grim determination, unlimited faith and optimism, bound up with unlimited love for their fellow Jews. It is a force that sounds a still, small, but powerful, voice that changes everyone who encounters it. It is that spirit that will now be unleashed out of the protective environment that was and will be again Gush Katif. It will be unleashed throughout a country that so clearly needs to be nourished with love and faith.
As we stood together at the Wall in the late hours of the night, thousands heard one of the residents declare, "They destroyed our homes and ripped apart our fields, but they cannot destroy our spirit. It is that spirit that will ignite every part of this country." One police commander approached one of the rabbis and said that Gush Katif and its spirit now has 40,000 ambassadors, each one of the soldiers who met up with this unique blend of faith and love.
It is now clear that the struggle is far from over. In many ways, it has only just begun. It is a struggle into the hearts and souls of the people of this confused nation. All the efforts and tears that were shed will not go to waste.
Psalms 56:9: "You, Yourself, have counted my wanderings; Place my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your record ?"
All those tears so many have been shedding this past week will compel and empower all those who still carry an orange flag to continue the struggle into the hearts of our brothers and sisters. It is those tears gathered in a bottle that may be the source that G-d will use as the clean waters of purification.
Ezekiel 36:24-28: "For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep Mine ordinances, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God."
A Jerusalem dentist receives an urgent call. One of the expelled Jews from Gush Katif needs emergency dental care. The dentist immediately clears some time and welcomes this Jew from Gush Katif into his office. As he prepares his dental tools, the dentist gives his patient some forms to fill out and walks into the next room. When he returns, he finds the man weeping softly. The patient had gotten to the question on the form asking for his address and could go no further.
A Jew, a citizen of the state of Israel, without an address and without a home, and no one has yet been able to explain to him why.
As the dentist finishes his treatment, another patient enters from the other room. This Hassidic Jew rushes over to the Jew from the Gush. They don't know each other. They have never spoken. Yet, they fall into each other's arms and weep.
That is the deep passion of the Gush Katif story. On the one hand, innocent citizens forced into homelessness by an arrogant, uncaring administration. Ariel Sharon goes on national TV to speak to the people of Israel and does not even attempt to explain the rationale behind this expulsion. It is becoming clearer every day that there is no rationale and there is no strategy. It seems to be simply a capitulation to the whims of the American administration. In their mad rush to meet some self-imposed deadline, families are painfully evicted from their homes , their dreams and their memories. They are just as quickly expelled into the unknown. Many of the expelled Jews are finding that no preparations were made for the day after. One group is evicted from one location to another and another group is told that the government has only paid for breakfast.
On the other hand, a pained and saddened Israel reaches out to embrace and support thousands of people abandoned by their government. Even before the tragic days of the expulsion, thousands of citizens got into their cars and spent days in the blistering sun and on the dusty back roads of the south. Caravans of cars left every hour to try to find ways to avoid police blockades and army helicopters in order to try to get into the Gush. These were ordinary people doing extraordinary things, fueled by unbounded affection for their brethren, for their land and for their G-d.
After two days in the dust and sun, some got back into their cars and drove in circles looking for something to do. The frustration was overwhelming. Our small group, after attempts to break through to Kissufim proved futile, decided that we needed to simply stand on the highway and wait for the buses and cars of the expelled Jews to drive by. We weren't sure that it was the right thing to do. Maybe, we debated amongst ourselves, they would look at us with our makeshift signs and think bitterly, "Is this the best you could do? Why did not the hundreds of thousands come and invade the Kissufim crossing?"
Yet, we felt an uncontrollable urge to envelop Sharon's refugees with affection and brotherhood.
So, this small group made signs and stood waiting .Within a short period of time, more and more people joined us, and the Sderot intersection was soon filled with over four hundred people carrying signs and flags. As the cars from Gush Katif approached the intersection, they looked bewildered upon seeing us and then broke into a bittersweet mixture of sobs and laughter. Some drivers stopped their cars as they began to weep and others raised their thumbs up and blew kisses. Yet, as each group of cars left, driving into their unknown, people in the intersection would simply sit down and cry.
We were comforting a people battered by circumstances that were unnecessary, unwarranted and irrational. We were trying to pour out unbridled love to salve the wounds caused by callous and cruel arrogance.
At that point, we thought that was all we had left.
We were wrong. It was not to be too long before we discovered that we were not welcoming a group of shattered, broken refugees. We were not gathering together sparks dimmed by the oppressive forces of expulsion. We were actually witness to a dispersal of sources of power and light.
On two separate nights, the Western Wall plaza was filled with evicted residents and thousands of other citizens. They had gathered together to embrace each other, sing together and pray together. The power of the encounter was palpable.
The power of Gush Katif was in their unusual blend of grim determination, unlimited faith and optimism, bound up with unlimited love for their fellow Jews. It is a force that sounds a still, small, but powerful, voice that changes everyone who encounters it. It is that spirit that will now be unleashed out of the protective environment that was and will be again Gush Katif. It will be unleashed throughout a country that so clearly needs to be nourished with love and faith.
As we stood together at the Wall in the late hours of the night, thousands heard one of the residents declare, "They destroyed our homes and ripped apart our fields, but they cannot destroy our spirit. It is that spirit that will ignite every part of this country." One police commander approached one of the rabbis and said that Gush Katif and its spirit now has 40,000 ambassadors, each one of the soldiers who met up with this unique blend of faith and love.
It is now clear that the struggle is far from over. In many ways, it has only just begun. It is a struggle into the hearts and souls of the people of this confused nation. All the efforts and tears that were shed will not go to waste.
Psalms 56:9: "You, Yourself, have counted my wanderings; Place my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your record ?"
All those tears so many have been shedding this past week will compel and empower all those who still carry an orange flag to continue the struggle into the hearts of our brothers and sisters. It is those tears gathered in a bottle that may be the source that G-d will use as the clean waters of purification.
Ezekiel 36:24-28: "For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep Mine ordinances, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God."