Most of the energies of Fuad Ben-Eliezer ("Labor") and Reuven Rivlin ("Likud") in the final days of the presidential race are invested in the war against collective punishment. This is what they were tasked with in Yesh Atid and the haredi parties, but the result is simply ridiculous.
It's a bit complicated to understand this gibberish, but let's try: Fuad didn't vote for the new conscription law just because of coalition discipline. It's not that Gafni and Litzman's arguments were convincing. In practice, he might have voted for an even harsher law. But the result: a boycott. Yesh Atid members were forbidden from voting for it, because Fuad "was not for us in our law." Reuven Rivlin, on the other hand, voted for the law just because of coalition discipline. In practice, he has known the Haredim well for many years, much more than most of the new and inexperienced MKs who worked on the law have known them. He also proposed a much more moderate, reasonable, and effective legal outline in the past. But none of that matters, the result is outrage in the Haredi parties and explicit threats to "not vote for anyone who voted for the law." And why is the result ridiculous? Because the Haredim are trying to punish Bibi and therefore are not voting for Rivlin, even though this is the best reward they can give Bibi. Bibi will be happy if all the Haredim unanimously cast Fuad's ballot on Tuesday. At the same time, Yesh Atid members are not voting for the person who is most similar to them in ideological DNA, just because he obeys the coalition discipline of Labor. We remember how Lapid treats someone who violates his coalition discipline, so what does he want from Fuad?
And in all this petty-vengeful saga, perhaps we should ask the 19 Yesh Atid MKs and the 18 ultra-Orthodox MKs a slightly more fundamental question: Who do you really think is most deserving of being president? Maybe you'll just vote for him?
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And in fact, why are the presidential elections secret? The original idea was to prevent pressure, threats, and bribery and allow Knesset members to vote freely, but it seems that secrecy is precisely what is currently creating a dark and confusing reality. After all, throughout the MKs' entire term, we see them voting for and against decisions, as our emissaries in the Knesset, and we can check how loyal they are to their platform and the voters they represent. But aren't they supposed to represent the one who sent them to the Knesset in this vote? How will we know this, if we don't know how they vote?
Here are some particularly problematic examples: A Likud voter who sent Limor Livnat or Silvan Shalom to the Knesset is not entitled to know whether both of them ultimately chose the candidate who is ideologically closest to him and to them – Rubi Rivlin? Do they faithfully represent the tens of thousands of Likud members who put them in the Knesset? And Avigdor Lieberman, is he a private person or do his supporters deserve to know who he is voting for? And does a Shas supporter who sent Aryeh Deri to the Knesset not deserve to know whether Deri used his vote to put Dalia Itzik in the President's House, for example? Shelly Yachimovich, who leads as usual in the area of transparency, recently announced that she will vote for Rivlin, even though Fuad is her party's candidate, and even though Rubi is on the right and Rubi is on the left. "Rubi is a glorious democrat, honest and clean-handed, modest in his personal conduct and statesmanlike in his approach," Yachimovich announced.
Sachatin. It's too late to talk about changing the law so that voting is open in this round, but it's definitely not too late to demand that MKs simply tell their voters who they're voting for.
An important legacy appears for the first time in this week's Torah, Torah "Beha'alotach": complaints. This pattern, which was considered innovative at the time — to complain about the situation — has been meticulously preserved to this day. The people of Israel are in the middle of their journey to the Land of Israel, but despite the many miracles and the release into freedom, things are not going well for them. A group known in the Torah as "the mob" begins to cry and burst into a monologue whose title is very familiar to us: "Oh, there were days, once everything was better." But in this case, it takes quite a bit of cynicism to miss Egypt. They forget the slavery and cruelty and, without shame, say to Moses our rabbi: "We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for free, the zucchini and the watermelons and the hay and the onions and the leeks.".
The divine response is very severe. Many of them die there, in a place that has the unsympathetic name "The Graveyard of Lust.".
It should be noted that not every complaint is unjustified venting. During the long journey in the desert, the people complain of thirst or hunger and express desires and questions from a variety of areas, and receive answers and solutions. It seems that the Torah emphasizes this week the difference between a caring and serious complaint and a talkative and teasing venting.
One of the most photogenic scenes on the Israeli holidays cannot be photographed, due to the sanctity of the holiday. We will try to describe what happened this year, again this year, in Jerusalem.
11 p.m. After the holiday meal, tens of thousands of people, of all ages and sectors, begin to emerge from their homes. The Shavuot night Tikkun scene is flourishing all over the country, but there is nothing like the diversity of Jerusalem: in Sephardic seminaries, people sit over a steaming cup of tea and recite the traditional version of the Tikkun, word for word. Not far away, academic discussions, topical panels and polemics about modern-day Judaism are taking place. In many private homes, a decision was made this week to hold a "Tikkun in the living room," and many responded to the initiative and sat together in small groups, in a home-like format. On the streets, you can see men, women and children, religious and secular, at all hours of the night, and here and there a few Sudanese looking on in wonder at this strange nightly procession.
The regulars sit in one place all night, but those with ADHD can wander from place to place. Zzzzzzz. The lecturers also wander, and the most sought-after ones walk around with lecture schedules and change locations every hour (in the movie "Footnote" there is even a short scene that mocks this lecture marathon).
It was not for nothing that Jerusalem hotels boasted full occupancy during the holiday. They offered bed and breakfast, and the main attraction was provided by the city for tourists, and for free. During the night I met groups from the neighborhoods, from Ariel, from Be'er Sheva, and also from the United States and France.
The peak comes at four in the morning. Suddenly a person gets up at night and feels like he is a people and starts walking. From all the neighborhoods, alleys and streets, crowds of people begin to pour towards the Western Wall. Towards five, the Western Wall plaza is full. It's good that the heavy crowd arrived only a few hours later.
From the side, it looks like a mini-Mount Sinai stand. A vast variety of Jews opening the prayer book and praying from it: "And may the Lord our God lovingly give us times of joy, holidays and times of rejoicing, this day of Shavuot, the time of the giving of our Torah.".
Jewish status: ""Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts" (from the Haftarah read this week)
• Sivan Rahav Meir's column is published in Yedioth Ahronoth
