Just off the steps leading up from the Western Wall to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, dozens of people are gathered for a marathon of Torah study, fasting, and prayer. Chaim Parag, the organizer and backbone of the initiative, explained to Arutz-7, "We invite people to join - either by their physical presence here for as long as they can, studying and praying, or by fasting and/or learning and/or praying at home."
Parag said that the disengagement is "not the only issue; it's merely the symptom of a much deeper problem. Just like in the period between the First and Second Temples, G-d told the Jewish People that they had forgotten the main thing - the bonds between them and G-d. Now, too, we have to keep our eye on the goal - the bonds between us and G-d, the return of the Divine Presence to Zion, and the riddance of all the evil decrees throughout the Land."
The initiative is to last 45 days, with a large rally the day before the Shavuot holiday (which falls on June 13).
"It's not that I'm planning to build the Holy Temple tomorrow," Parag said. "I simply think that we have to await and expect a great Divine event, such as when G-d called upon Cyrus to call the Jewish People to come and build the Temple. We have to distinguish between the main thing and the side issues, and everyone has to do his share."
Meanwhile, across town outside the Foreign Ministry, 46 religious and secular university students are continuing their anti-disengagement hunger strike as well. Theirs is more of a politically-minded protest, and in fact, several Likud MKs arrived on the site this morning for a meeting. In addition, a special event will be held there tomorrow, from noon to 6 PM, providing an opportunity to debate the issues. Representatives of Peace Now and the Yesha Council will be present, as will journalists from both sides of the spectrum and many others.
A major aspect of the students' strike is arousing awareness of the need to discuss and debate the actual issues, and not just the side-points such as compensation, Nitzanim, refusal and the like.
Unlike Parag, who drinks only water (except for the Sabbath, when he partakes of small amounts of grape juice and challah in olive oil), the students are drinking juices as well, particularly saline juices such as that of tomatoes. One of the organizers, Ronen Shoval, said that three female students had been advised to stop their strike, for health reasons, but that one of them received an infusion and continues to strike.
Close to 50 people are thus fasting in Israel's capital city, in an effort to stop the plan to expel close to 10,000 Jews from their homes and abandon the territory to Israel's enemies.
Parag said that the disengagement is "not the only issue; it's merely the symptom of a much deeper problem. Just like in the period between the First and Second Temples, G-d told the Jewish People that they had forgotten the main thing - the bonds between them and G-d. Now, too, we have to keep our eye on the goal - the bonds between us and G-d, the return of the Divine Presence to Zion, and the riddance of all the evil decrees throughout the Land."
The initiative is to last 45 days, with a large rally the day before the Shavuot holiday (which falls on June 13).
"It's not that I'm planning to build the Holy Temple tomorrow," Parag said. "I simply think that we have to await and expect a great Divine event, such as when G-d called upon Cyrus to call the Jewish People to come and build the Temple. We have to distinguish between the main thing and the side issues, and everyone has to do his share."
Meanwhile, across town outside the Foreign Ministry, 46 religious and secular university students are continuing their anti-disengagement hunger strike as well. Theirs is more of a politically-minded protest, and in fact, several Likud MKs arrived on the site this morning for a meeting. In addition, a special event will be held there tomorrow, from noon to 6 PM, providing an opportunity to debate the issues. Representatives of Peace Now and the Yesha Council will be present, as will journalists from both sides of the spectrum and many others.
A major aspect of the students' strike is arousing awareness of the need to discuss and debate the actual issues, and not just the side-points such as compensation, Nitzanim, refusal and the like.
Unlike Parag, who drinks only water (except for the Sabbath, when he partakes of small amounts of grape juice and challah in olive oil), the students are drinking juices as well, particularly saline juices such as that of tomatoes. One of the organizers, Ronen Shoval, said that three female students had been advised to stop their strike, for health reasons, but that one of them received an infusion and continues to strike.
Close to 50 people are thus fasting in Israel's capital city, in an effort to stop the plan to expel close to 10,000 Jews from their homes and abandon the territory to Israel's enemies.