Shuvoo Newsletter
Issue 20 – July 20th,
2006
Thoughts on Ancient Times & Current Events by
Ashirah Yosefah
DIFFICULT TIMES AHEAD:
VOICES FROM THE PAST THAT RESOUND
TODAY
Kikar Tsafar, Jerusalem.
An hour and a half after apprehending a suicide bomber
in this normally busy intersection
near Jerusalem City Hall plaza, the police
bomb squad unit was still on the
site. (© Ashirah Yosefah Photo)
On Monday
of this week, I was running a bit late and dashed out to catch the No. 18 bus en
route to an appointment in the vicinity of Kikar Tsion. The bus would take me past Kikar Safra, the
busy plaza directly in front of Jerusalem
City Hall and the
Municipality offices. Rather, I should
say that the bus would normally take me in this direction. The bus driver had barely driven a kilometer
when we reached a police barricade. The driver
diverted his route to Keren haYessod. We
inched along slowly amidst a growing traffic jam, encountering one police
barricade after another. As I strained
to listen to the Hebrew news report the bus driver had just turned on, a friend
called with “breaking news.”
A
Palestinian man wearing a signature red-checked kufiah, blue jeans and a 10 lb.
explosives belt designed for a major suicide attack had just been apprehended. He had been making his merry way across Kikar
Tzahar near Old City where Yaffo Street begins. His destination? Apparently he was headed for Kikar Safra and
the Municipality offices located directly behind the pinkish stone building in
the above photo. Baruch Hashem, he was
spotted and tackled, throwing him down to the ground and disarming him before
he could detonate himself killing innocent people.
Paradoxically,
Kikar Safra usually is populated with as many Arabs as there are Jews milling
about paying municipal bills, attending to business and waiting for buses. It would appear the suicide bombers are
becoming more indiscriminate, not caring whether they annihilate some of their
own people in their pursuit to kill Jews.
Equally curious, the city of Haifa is a
city with one of the highest Arab populations in all of Israel and yet the Hezbollah rockets and
missiles just keep on falling upon Haifa,
on Tsfat, on Tiberias, on Carmiel, on Kiryat Shemonah, and at least ten other
northern communities.
These are
difficult days in Israel. Everyone feels the tension. Everyone has friends or family who live in
the north. Last Friday at noon I called friends
of mine who live in Tsfat. They had
already been their shelter six times that morning, all the while trying to
prepare for Shabbat. When they called on
Sunday, having spent Shabbat repeatedly running into the shelter, they
described their state as “Our bodies are OK, but our nerves are shot.”
Walking
along the streets here in Israel,
heightened security is everywhere. It is
a common site to see cars pulled over by police, people being questioned and
asked for ID. Edgy nerves and anxious
faces abound. The fighting is in the
north and in the south, but the ‘war’ is everywhere. Televisions play in stores and businesses
with staff, customers and passersby glued to their screens. Radios update people in stores, on
buses. On Monday afternoon, a distracted
driver in a mini-van pulled out on a red light into the path of a city bus as I
walked along Keren Yesod. The bus was
unable to stop. I could not help but
wonder if perhaps the conflict in the north had contributed to the driver’s
inattention and the many injuries that resulted.
A year ago,
Israel
found itself in the throes of the Gush Katif expulsion. At that time, I had written a newsletter
posting in which I mentioned a tractate from Talmud that foretold the event
with great precision. In Sotah 49b, it
is written, “In the period preceding Moshiach … the Gavlan will be desolated
…” The ‘Gavlan’ was identified by
Rashi as the area along the border of southern Israel that we presently
know as Gaza and formerly as the vibrant Jewish communities of Gush Katif. To become “desolate” means to become devoid
of inhabitants and barren, deteriorated.
The Talmudic prophecy has been fulfilled. But there is more …
Immediately
preceding the above prophecy in Sotah 49b, it is written, “and the Galilee will be destroyed …” Somber words with frightening prospects given
the fact that the Galil is now under attack by Hezbollah.
More
ominous still is the phrase that follows:
“… and the people who dwell on the borders will wander about from
town to town, but they will not be succored.”
The northern border towns, the northwestern border towns and the
southern border towns of Eretz Yisrael are under attack by Hezbollah and
Hamas. People have been leaving their
homes, heading inland, heading south, looking for safer places to stay and many
have not found viable options. They,
like the former residents of Gush Katif, are staying in hotels, entire families
in a single room.
Chazal tell
us that the events foreseen in Sotah 49b are all aspects of Chevlai Moshiach
– the birth pangs of the Moshiach.
Painful times await us … Please G-d, may the birth of Redemption be
swift.
Near the
end of Sotah 49b, it is written: “The
face of the generation is like the face of a dog …” Interesting
analogy. The Talmud offers possible
explanations for this expression:
Rashi says
that the generation in the period before Moshiach will be shameless. Alternatively, Rashi says that “‘the face
of the generation’ refers to the affluent who will lack compassion and will
refuse their destitute brethren charity, like dogs that refuse to share the
meat they have scavenged (Eitz Yosef).
“Rabbi
Elchanan Wasserman in Kuntres Ikvos Meshicha quotes an explanation heard from
the Chafetz Chaim. The face of the
generation are the leaders (Bereishis Rabbah 79:6). A leader must guide his people
authoritatively and teach them right form wrong. But in the period before Moshiach, the
ostensible leaders will first check to see if their views will be popularly
received, like a dog that looks back to see if his master follows.” (Commentary
to Sotah 49b)
What
remains to be seen is who are the true masters of our leaders. Israel has danced like a marionette
in the hands of foreign leaders for far too long. Peace is not possible when your enemies have
been raised on hatred and vehement anti-Semitism. Logic is futile where hatred prevails. Israel has begun to fight ‘the good
fight’ to defend our people and our Land, as any sovereign nation in its right
mind would. More importantly, may it be that we have begun
to rise up and stand firm for that which G-d has entrusted to us. The days ahead will be interesting and
undoubtedly they will be days of growing concern.
“Upon what, then, can we lean? Upon our Father in Heaven!”
(Sotah 49b, closing sentence.)
