Leah’s Blog March 11 2016
Leah’s Blog – March 11, 2016
Living in Israel is like being on a seesaw- no, it’s like riding a rollercoaster. It’s thrilling, in an ironic way. It is safe and perilous at the same time. We send our kids to parade in Purim costumes as people on a bus in Jerusalem scream “Shma Yisrael!” as the bus is being shot on. Love Yourself signs in bright pink adorn the tree lined streets of Tel Aviv where people are walking their dogs, riding bikes down the shady walkways – it feels alarmingly secure. The usualness of the day is shattered as a terrorist that has been knifing people along the Promenade is finally hit over the head repeatedly with a guitar and a man clutching a bouquet of flowers is found lying in a pool of his own blood. You can be enjoying a shopping day and at the entrance to the mall that sells Gucci and Guess, the guard that checks you is attacked with an axe, actually he is bludgeoned -( from a worker in the mall!) WTH!
So it’s not just “us” out here suffering from the billows of illegal orc smoke wafting unto our hilltops where we like to pride on the fresh air and organic back to nature ideology. It’s not just us anymore who witness the sacrilege of the gravesites of the most prominent people we learn about like in this very parsha – Itamar the High Priest, buried right down the road from here whose grave is profaned with swastikas and refuse. It’s not just us thwarting off one after another wild ass-man trying to break through or over our security fence to get in to kill us just because we are Jewish. It’s not just us firebombed, stoned and shot on. And don’t sell me a noodle kugel and say it’s because we are over a “green line” (WTH, again!)
More and more people are starting to realize that we are two sides of the same coin. I challenge the major Jewish organizations to do so too.
We are in the month of Purim. What a juxtaposition of two realities happening at the same time! It is revealed (megilla- from the root word גילוי () yet it is hidden (Ester- from the root word- הסתר).Throughout the story of paradox we see G-d hidden in the natural course of events, in free choice. Yet we also see Mordechai telling Ester-” if it’s not you that will act on behalf of our people, then Hashem will provide another means of salvation!” His message which resonates, hits home as he is telling the people who were happy to mingle at the party celebrating the end of Jewish sovereignty, drinking from the very cups and goblets of their own destroyed Temple.
But most people are consciously oblivious. Then and now.
The archetypes that refuse to acknowledge Hashem’s will, from the costumed suit and tie diplomats calling for Israel to give for Piece, to the ruthless axe wielding beast revealed, guess what? Haman hung himself using his own rope. You can’t win when you fight G-d’s will.
They kill- We build. From our standpoint – we have to act. You can be either a pawn or a maker and shaker. Israel will be built up as is promised in all the prophets but it is not BaShamayim- it’s up to you.
Purim is a lesson about how an evil plan of anti-Semitism transformed from grief and mourning into festive active joy. It’s about looking at two realities happening at the same time and deciding which one, along with Hashem’s help – will prevail.
Chodesh tov Shabbat Shalom! Leah
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