Rafah crossing
Photo: AFP
No repentance, prayer or charity
It's more convenient looking the other way, but when Day of Atonement comes, all those self-inflicted deaf, blind people will not be able to say 'we didn't know'
Sinners deal with their sins in a myriad of ways. There are those who are aware of the severity of their transgressions but they continue to pursue them defiantly. There are those who are remorseful, seeking repentance, ultimately abandoning their evil ways.
It's far from easy; not seeing, hearing and not turning your head away. But these sinners have been blessed with a unique talent. Throughout their years of experience, it has become a natural instinct.
And there are some - whose numbers are growing daily- who have adopted a unique way of dealing with their transgressions: They have trained their eyes not to see. They have taught their ears not to hear and have become accustomed to turning their heads in one direction only – towards an ostentatious yet hollow worldview.
It's where they can see fêted rock stars dancing. Yet they never look in the other direction; where despondent, irksome and depressing things come into view.
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Even if they happen to sit on an evil soldier's shoulder, even if they descend to earth on board a missile or spend a weekend aboard a bulldozer, inevitably they will not hear or see a thing, and they will not turn their heads away from their cell phones or from the latest reality show even for a moment.
And so, ostensibly blind and deaf they tell themselves over and over again in an assured voice – "we are righteous, and we have not sinned."
However, as recited in prayers, we and our forefathers have sinned. And we are continuing to sin. Yom Kippur does not atone these sins. These are sins whose severity cannot be altered by repentance, prayer or charity.
Opening blind eyes and deaf ears
And since I do not want, heaven forbid, to sin by failing to carry out my duty of "showing others the errors of their ways", there is no respite but to open their seemingly blind eyes and deaf ears yet again, and to turn their seemingly averted heads just slightly towards the sins and transgressions they committed in name of money, power and authority.
But also in my name, money and power and in the name of my authority and helplessness to enforce change.
Just beyond the tip of their noses, Jews are robbing their neighbor's land, cutting down fruit trees, stealing water, vandalizing orchards, torturing children, disrespecting the elderly and killing sheep and cattle - while they, on their part feel absolutely righteous.
And just beneath their windows a bureaucratic-military concern is tyrannically repressing millions of people whose sole sin is their race, religion and people.
The sick are rotting away at checkpoints until a clerk on behalf of the tyrant is kind enough to provide them with a permit so see a doctor. Women give birth on the roadside, as determined by the overlord who rules the kingdom. Husbands are separated from their wives because a sovereign-administration decided that very morning that men over 40-years-of age with long beards would not be permitted to return to their homes.
Students are torn away from their studies, laborers from their livelihood, farmers from their lands and parents from their children. And what for? Just because. Because the clerk at the window or "Captain George" said so.
Rotting in the Gaza Strip jail
And right in front of their closed eyes, a million-and-a-half people are rotting in a massive jail known as the "Gaza Strip," with no comings or goings allowed. There is no seaport or airport. There's no livelihood and no electricity.
The sins of these people are too heavy to bear: They were unable to carry out in 10 months what the State of Israel was unable to do in 40 years. And to add more fuel to that crime, they also elected a government that is not particularly liked by that fool in the White House. Is it any wonder, therefore, that they have been sentenced to a life of hunger and despondency?
And almost every day their sluiced ears hear the humming of IDF drones, the roaring of jets, the whistling of missiles, or the wailing of the bombs targeting yet another "senior militant" and his family, or a "junior gunman" along with some of his neighbors, or just a young girl who stubbornly remained at home, or a grandmother and her grandchild, her mother and her children and a family that dared venture outside.
Turn your heads to the other direction
"It wasn't intentional" say the pilots and their dispatchers, then they too become absolved and pious.
But if they turn their heads eastward for a second, they'll see how they themselves, by their own doing or by those who sent them, discriminate people, religions and blood. Roads are assigned to the chosen people only, and land to the chosen religion. Water is assigned only to those with the right blood color.
And we still haven't spoken of the trial of injustice, and the wall that cuts through the fabric of life, and the mechanism of darkness that is increasingly growing and whose sole purpose is to exploit, oppress, rob and deceive foreigners and residents.
Hell and destruction
Undoubtedly, all those self-inflicted blind and deaf people are whispering among themselves "it was all done in the name of security! If they had not been seeking our destruction, we wouldn't have risen up and made it hell for them!"
But perhaps the contrary is true as well? Perhaps if we hadn't made it hell for them, they would not have sought our destruction? Between the opening and closing payers of Kol Nidrei and Neilah, there will be enough time to ponder this.
I know that these blind people will continue to zealously maintain their blindness, and the deaf, their deafness. It is after all so much more convenient living this way. But when the time for atonement arrives either at an earthly court of justice or in the heavens, no one will be able to rightly claim "We didn't know, we didn't see, didn't hear." Because I will testify, I will tell, and I will say, I told you so.
Hag Sameach!
