In the locker room at the gym, an older Israeli man shared a riddle with me. He asked, "What is black and knocks at your door"? I was sure he wasn't referring to an Ethiopian, so I said, "I give up. "He chuckled and said, "Israel's future."
I am aware of this kind of black humor found in circles that I am not part of, but it is "out there."
Since their historic first defeat (and failure to return ) of the Anti-Torah Left in 1977, the press and academia(Left-wing strongholds) have had a mission: demoralize and instill fear and panic amongst the Jewish public. If they can't rule through the ballot box, they are determined to defame and instill doubt amongst the Jewish public.
They describe a ship that is engulfed in waves and will sink if not saved now!
What are the waves that threaten the ship?
Certainly, chunks of our homeland that threaten democracy, "Jewish" morality, and, of course, our security.
We have "tried war. "Give peace a chance!
The need to expel the growing religious presence and "messianism," and ensure a "western, Liberal society - just like America. That is another threatening wave.
For two thousand years, Jews have turned their face to Eretz Yisrael. The anti-Torah establishment - children of the founders of the state seek deliverance from an all too parochial and confining country with too many Jews who are "too Jewish".
We are bombarded with statistics about the number of Israelis living abroad and leaving in increasing numbers. They have given up on an Israel that is "too Jewish." We are warned that we must become more "Western" or lose these them
If they can't have Berlin or New York here because of narrow-minded Jews who insist on a "Jewish thing", they are gone.
I told the riddle teller that I heard a far different knock that took me away from the Paradise so many seek. I asked him what an Israeli tells his grandchildren when they ask him why he left Israel. A bigger car, house? Will he explain to them that this is the legacy that he chose for them and their children? Will that satisfy them?
Would you trade land, people, history, and dreams to become an American or German with lots of dollars or euros? Would you agree to be the last link in the chain of your Jewish ancestors, for a big car? Do you want to exchange your people's challenges for those of a strange land and people who don't really need or want you amongst them?
He didn't expect my lecture, but he listened closely and then announced, I like this guy. " We need more like you, but there aren't many, "I told him that there are, but he won't meet them amongst those telling riddles like the one he told me.
He is typical of the education forced on him and a million like him when their parents fulfilled a dream and came to Eretz Yisrael after the founding of the state.
Those who "integrated " them into the Jewish state methodically robbed them of the priceless treasure kept by their ancestors in Morocco, Iraq, and Yemen. When they came in the nineteen fifties and sixties, they were at the mercy of an establishment that feared the mass of newly arrived "messianic " Jewish fanatics. They would pollute the country socially and culturally, and not willingly vote for their own anti-Torah parties.
Unless.. unless they controlled the "education" of the young. And how does one convince a religious parent to send their children to such a school? Jobs, housing, and everything of material need were in the hands of the anti-Torah establishment. It was a period of extreme scarcity, and they were beholden to the machine. The results were quick and horrible.
A generation lost, ashamed of their backward parents, ultimately heard a knock on the door, different from what their parents heard when they left Morocco for the Holy Land of their dreams.
He was very thankful for my words. It was refreshing and nourishing to the spark in his soul that knew something was wrong.
A younger man heard part of our conversation and said,' I can make much more in Silicon Valley than here. Why should I stay"? Why indeed?
The pity of it all.
The good news is that in place of those seeking a "normal, good" life in Berlin and New York, there are other Jews with other values, and they are coming, and they are changing the country, the future, the world.
This is the knock that I hear- loud and clear.
shalompollack613@gmail.com
tour guide and author, "Jews, Israelis and Arabs."
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