The revelations of the depth and breadth of the corruption in the higher echelons of the Israeli government are simply demoralizing. Ehud Olmert and his cohorts are still capable of inflicting much more damage to the state and people of Israel; yet, they have already crippled the soul and resolve of this nation.


The sheer scope and magnitude of the decay has left the simple citizens of this country with a feeling of great sadness. More dramatically, it has poisoned the country with a

The decay has left the simple citizens of this country with a feeling of great sadness.

deep sense of demoralization. This is a country surrounded by threatening menace and filled with many internal dangers. To live in such a place that seems to have lost direction and vision can become unbearable for many.


Yet, it all depends on which direction you are looking.


On a recent visit to an uprooted Gush Katif community, our special hosts took us around to see the ditch being prepared for the flowerbed near the trailer home they are still forced to live in. One of them even showed us a colorful batch of weeds and said, with a voice filled with pride and a twinkle in his eyes, "G-d sent these 'flowers' to add some color to our mud-filled yard." Much effort has been exerted to create a warm and inviting environment out of the small and cramped space given to them by the Sharon-Olmert governments.


All this made us smile sadly until we saw a photograph of our hosts' beautiful home and lush garden, now in rubble, uprooted and barren in Gush Katif. Yet, they continued to make efforts to refashion their new, temporary trailer into a home filled with idealism and hope. With this in mind, several weeks ago, this Gush Katif couple went looking for bookshelves.


When the salesman in the furniture shop understood that the couple buying the bookcases were Jews expelled from their homes, he let out a deep and painful sigh. He reached out to grab the husband's arm.


"I can't believe what they did to you," he said. "I am not a religious person, but I feel completely connected to you. When they kicked you out of your homes I wept for days. It was just a crime, which led to the next war.


"I fought in that war and watched one of my friends killed right next to me, and another bled to death because they couldn't get the plasma to him in time," he continued. "I listen to the politicians speaking now and trying to hold on to their power, and I am sickened to my stomach. It has gotten to the point that my wife and I have decided to leave Israel in three months," he concluded.


The couple from Gush Katif became agitated and the husband declared, "That would be foolish. You have just been looking in the wrong direction." He went to explain and describe the great power, vision and idealism of his fellow ex-residents of Gush Katif. "Look at yourself," he continued, "you were so disturbed by what happened to complete strangers that, as you yourself said, you couldn't go back to work. Thousands of simple people have been working day and night to aid and support all those who have been expelled to re-establish roots and flourish."


The wife went on to explain what her 15-year-old son was doing during the second Lebanon war, a year after having his faith shaken and his dreams destroyed. She described how he and some of his friends went up to Nahariya to help the people, paralyzed by fear, who were stuck in the bomb shelters .They came to play with the children, comfort the elders and help with the shopping. The very same young people whose faith and connectedness to the people of Israel should have been shaken to the core instead intensified their connection.


The furniture salesman said, "But I don't have your faith or your determination."


Again the couple from the destroyed communities of Gush Katif declared that the opposite is the case. As long as his heart still felt the pain of a fellow Jew, then faith and determination were waiting to be revealed just below the surface of his soul. They finally invited the young man, his wife and two children to come spend a Shabbat with them in their tiny caravan. It is in those tiny quarters that this man and his young family will recover his faith and achieve a small sort of redemption. A redemption that began with a heartfelt sigh, which expressed a deep understanding and belief that things should be different.

Faith and determination are waiting to be revealed.



That is how the redemption from Egypt began.


After hundreds of years of bondage and slavery, the children of Israel lost the courage to experience faith and dreams. When it seemed they were beyond retrieval, the outside world began to deteriorate:


"And it came to pass in the course of those many days that the king of Egypt died; and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God saw the children of Israel, and God took cognizance of them." (Exodus 2:23-25)


As long as a people have lost their resolve and courage to dream, then the nation will descend into corruption and selfishness. Yet, when the powers around them descend into chaos, then people will again find the voice to cry out. When that occurs, they will again set into motion the process of their own redemption. Olmert's descent into irrelevance, and the breakup of all the centers of power, will cause those who thought that there are no options to rediscover the power of choice. It is at that time that the healthier segments of this people will regain control of the rudder and steering wheel of the process of history.


As we enter the gateway to Passover, may we gather the strength to relive the exodus of the Jewish people from the spiritual and physical bondage of Egypt, and initiate the process of taking the "Egypt" out of the Jewish people themselves. Only then will true redemption be realised.