Channels
Bnei Akiva members (Archives)
Photo: Avi Ohayon, GPO

Seeds of destruction

Despite what some religious Israelis believe, we’re nowhere close to salvation

Forty years ago there was no problem convincing us that we were the generation that will bring the beginning of salvation. We had a young and still excited state, and a good atmosphere overall.

 

During our trips in the Bnei Akiva religious youth movement we did not learn to identify different leaves, or the stars above during the night. We also didn’t learn the history of our early kibbutzim. During our trips, we were repeatedly presented with verses about salvations. Everything was about these verses, and it was as though the entire country was made up of followers of Bnei Akiva and Rabbi Kook (both father and son.)

 

There was no shortage of harbingers. Things are crowded in Jerusalem now? Well, "Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there." (Zechariah 8:4-5). The need for a light railway in Jerusalem is clear proof of the national-religious doctrine’s fortitude. Salvation is here. This is what salvation looks like.

 

Indeed, the set is ready and we see signs; those who look for such indications can find them. But salvation? This is what salvation really looks like? And this precisely is the time to pull out of our other pocket the indications that salvation is all about pre-messianic pangs and suffering and chutzpa. But aren’t you embarrassed by the fact that this is what our salvation looks like?

 

In recent years, some members of the national-religious camp looked at the present and said: “This is it. We are the Third Temple.” Here and now. We no longer need to mourn previous destructions, Ninth of Av is a needless day of fasting, and our mourning customs are no longer relevant.

 

But I’m not there yet. The sense of salvation, or even the beginning of salvation, does not surge within me. The opposite is true. Indeed, I do not wish to see the Temple being built on Temple Mount or anywhere else, and I too can see a sovereign Jewish state as a sign, but not like this.

 

I honor the previous destructions the way they are, because Jerusalem was justifiably razed. Twice. Who wishes to maintain a society whose agenda is about bloodshed, paganism, incest, and needless hatred? And isn’t it a sign that today bloodshed, idol worship, incest and needless hatred are the leading values in the State of Israel? Isn’t it a more significant harbinger than the backdrop of prosperity?

 

The same is true for the complete loss of trust in the legal system, in public officials, in the executive, in the police, in the doctors, and in the teachers. We are precisely at the point where “without the fear of the government men would swallow each other alive.”(Pirkei Avot 2:3). This is the beginning of destruction, at least.

 

This is why we have a lump in our throat, and why our heart aches.

 


פרסום ראשון: 07.29.09, 00:47
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment