News

Student of Yeshivat Maale Gilboa on ltamar tragedy

Mar, 18, 2011

Japan, Itamar, and Amalek Meet at a Checkpoint

Howdy folks,

I would like to share with y’all a few thoughts and experiences regarding this past week’s shocking events.

The catastrophic tsunami that hit Japan claiming thousands of lives and the
horrific murder of a family in Itamar were the topics causing sighs at
many a Shabbat table this past week. Personally, I did not hear about
either the tsunami or the attack until Motzei Shabbat and therefore had a
completely different conversation at the Shabbat table.

This past Thursday and Friday, Gideon (the author of last week’s blog post)
and myself were taking part in a program called “Encounter” that serves
to bring groups of current and future Jewish leaders to the West Bank,
in order to listen to Palestinians and digest their personal narratives
together, as a Jewish group.

It was difficult for me as a person who grew up with the Israeli Zionist
narrative to hear the immense personal pain and suffering on the
tails-side of the coin. Previously, I could justify articles dealing
with the conflict, on grounds of security and protection but after
encountering the people involved the issue takes on a different
dimension for me. It isn’t so simple to waive them away. The individual
and collective anguish permeated the accounts of each speaker whether
they were university professors, businesspeople, UN workers or activists
for non-violence. When I heard Hijazi Eid, a 50-year-old boisterous and
flamboyant tour guide, furiously describe the humiliation of being
stuck in his car at a checkpoint, stalled for hours, and then being
forced by a soldier to smile as if nothing happened - I couldn’t help
but picture my Israeli friends at Yeshiva, taking the place of that
soldier. How do I deal with that? On the one hand my friends are going
to serve our country, to protect our nation, yet on the other, this
lovely individual is humiliated like no person should ever be. Does my
security justify such deeds? What happens when in order to prevent my
own pain, I cause so much pain to another? How much can another human
suffer so that I don’t have to? Can I sympathize with such universal
grief and still believe what I grew up with?

I returned, confused but optimistic, to [West] Jerusalem for a pleasant
Shabbat. I took the time to recollect, think, pray and schmooze. I
seized the opportunity to share the hopeful message that threaded
through each of the Palestinian speakers, with little exception. Despite
living under conditions of continuous daily misery, they kept the
faith. The mere knowledge that Jewish people, who don’t share their
particular angst (and may even stand in contradiction to it), could
acknowledge and empathize with that same angst, drives them forward to
keep fighting for a more tranquil future. I was surging with optimism;
just a few more encounters like this, just the recognition of
each-others’ wounds and fears, and there is bound to be progress! I was
sure of it.

And then, after Havdallah, I turned on the TV.

Devastated and even more confused than before, I returned to Yeshiva in time for Rav Shmuel Reiner’s parashat ha’shavua sicha. “Erev Shabbat, the land shook…
thousands lost their lives, thousands more lost their homes. We all
felt so small, so helpless… we all cringed from the unimaginable
disaster, we all felt the terrible suffering; we all wanted to reach out
our hand and help our human brothers and sisters… and this past Friday
night, the grief hit a lot closer to home. The land was shocked…
How can human beings, in the Image of God, be capable of such cruelty,
such terrible and disgusting acts? How do we respond? What can we do
other than avenge?”

Can I sympathize with their grief while grieving myself?

In Parashat Zachor God commands us to wipe out the memory of Amalek. The Rambam in his Mishneh Torah explains this commandment: “It is a positive commandment to destroy the
memory of Amalek… [by] constantly remember[ing] their evil deeds and
their ambush of Israel to arouse our hatred of them…” (Book 14, Ch. 5:5)
Amalek refused to recognize our suffering; the hardships and slavery
from which we had only just escaped. They saw us as a weak people, and
instead of being compassionate they were vicious and inhumane. It is
this lack of sympathy, this refusal to acknowledge and identify with
universal human suffering that the Torah commands us to hate. This is
what we must eradicate.

“We cannot restrain our passion, we must avenge,” continued Rav Shmuel,
“but how do we avenge? How do we fight back against inhumanity? By
wiping out Amalek. By destroying evil and sowing good. By learning Mesilat Yesharim (Jewish moral teachings) instead of reading Mishnayot
in the memory of those killed. By facilitating positive actions,
becoming better people, doing good deeds. This is how we avenge. This is
how we remember.”

We must not let our personal grief distort the collective pain we share
with all humanity and any being. We must have compassion for the agony
and distress of all, even a strange nation in the desert. We must weep
for Tamar Fogel, we must despair for the Japanese farmer and we must
ache for the Palestinian at the checkpoint. We must.
Only
then we can fulfill the commandment in Dvarim: “…Thou shalt blot out
the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget.”

-- Eli Philip

http://ymgstudentjournal.blogspot.com/2011/03/japan-itamar-and-amalek-at-check-point.html

Rabbi Donniel Hartman of Hartman Institute writes a "Letter to the Egyptian people". Receives amazing international response.

Feb, 25, 2011

Click here for more

Egypt – what is the right question for a Jew?

Rabbi Zalmen Kastel

Feb, 20, 2011

Click below for more

http://torahforsociallyawarehasid.blogspot.com/2011/02/egypt-what-is-right-question-for-jew.html

As Hundreds Gather to Protest a Fundraising event by an Islamic Charity Group. Mr. Lee Weissman reaches out to people, to sit and Talk, not Vent.

Feb, 16, 2011.

Yorba Linda, California.

In the words of Mr. Weissman.

In Yorba Linda , California a group of Christian right wingers, some Jews and tea-partyers protested a Muslim charity event by standing outside and flinging hideous insults at any Muslim who walked by. I was there to open the possibility th...at people could actually sit and talk to each other like civilized human beings. What you see there is a table and some sweets and me.. ready to have folks sit down and talk together. The Muslims were just trying to get their families inside as quickly as possible to protect them from the mob and the mob was.. well.. a mob. But there I am trying to hold the line for communication and not protest.

Two of us, Lee and Omer, went because we felt strongly that even if the speakers are objectionable in some way, the way to approach the issue is through communication not through protest. My goal was to facilitate some discussion between those gathered to protest and those attending the Muslim event. (Thus a table with sweets for people to sit at and actually talk).

The fundraiser was for local charities.. homeless shelter etc. However, at least one of the speakers Amir Abdel Malik is rightly very controversial. He speaks very openly about his hatred for Zionists and endorsement for suicide bombings etc. Others were concerned about the organization itself alleging links with the Muslim Brotherhood etc. Those are all issues that may be addressed but certainly not by hurling insights at families coming to a charity event.

The world is full of people who hate and it almost doesn't matter what membership card they carry in their wallet. Remarkably, the accusations are always the same, ya got the worldwide Zionist conspiracy on one side.. you got the worldwide ...Islamicist Caliphate conspiracy on the other side. You get this enemy among us. You got the other enemy among us. If your goal is to change people's hearts and behavior then you communicate in ways that they can hear. It doesn't have to be so gentle either but you need to have a relationship. Its not that hard to do that. But once the goal becomes to humiliate the other. Then no one can hear anything but your hate.

Mr. Lee's Blog. http://jihadiyehudi.blogspot.com/

Rabbis deliver apologies, new Korans to vandalized mosque

Oct, 5, 2010