1.
The live broadcasts on Monday morning reported on the two main arenas of the day. A split screen. On one side, the residence of the Israeli presidents. His Excellency the President is beginning consultations on who to entrust with forming the government. On the other side, the Jerusalem District Court. There, that very morning, the evidence phase in the trial of the "Balfour defendant" is opening.
Look, look, everyone told us, what an absurd reality we have here. How far we have fallen.
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But the media forgot, for some reason, to report from the third arena, another equally dramatic event that occurred that morning. It happened right as the hearings of this problematic trial were opening, with the precedent-setting indictments filed after a long investigation that was riddled with so many flaws. And also right during the pompous meetings in which the president of the state is trying to see how, after all, maybe, somehow, who knows, there is no despair in the world at all, he will not give the mandate this time to the one the majority of the people chose, but to "unconventional connections, cross-sectoral collaborations," as he put it.
During this broadcast day, the major medical centers in the country began issuing celebratory announcements one after another about the closure of more and more coronavirus wards: At Sheba, the emergency room for coronavirus patients was closed and the pediatric coronavirus ward was closed. At Mayanei Hayeshua, a coronavirus intensive care unit was closed (a press release stated that "in fact, it can be said that the hospital has returned to routine functioning as it was before coronavirus").
The Galil Medical Center also announced the closure of the coronavirus ward (the director general, Dr. Masaad Barhoum, said that in fact "most of the patients who come to us are adults from the Arab sector who have not been vaccinated").
Laniado Medical Center announced that the last patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit had been transferred to the general intensive care unit, and Ichilov Hospital tweeted, that very morning, the following excited and informal tweet: "For the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic – 0 new admissions of COVID-19 patients to hospitalization. Amazing!" The tweet was accompanied by a screenshot of the data: "0 ventilators, 0 new admissions, 1 discharge, 0 deaths.".
2.
Look, I hope you don't think I'm obsessed with this matter. But first of all, we learned from the CEO of Pfizer that obsession can also come in a good way. And besides, sorry, I can't help but return again and again to the central point that is currently tearing this nation into two parts, and it is really not 'just not Bibi' or 'just Bibi'. This is just one of the implications of the story. The central point of the entire public discourse here is how we look at reality: with a good eye or with a bad eye.
There are countless projects to make Judaism and its commandments accessible: tefillin stands, distributing Shabbat candles, distributing books of Psalms, friendships for beginners, websites with countless Torah lessons at all levels and styles. So many initiatives (how heartwarming it is to drive along all the roads of Israel these days and see the giant signs from Optica Halperin "Honor your father and mother. When was the last time you called to say good morning to mom or dad?").
But lately I've been thinking to myself that someone needs to do a project here that is really the order of the day. To launch a campaign that will reveal the short and charming text with which every Jew should start the day: "I thank you before you, living and existing King, that you have restored my soul to me in compassion, great is your faith.".
I have no doubt that those who begin to say, with a little intention, this short sentence of gratitude, these 12 words – their entire consciousness will change. Then, in a kind of vicious circle, it will affect how they say good morning to their spouses, their children, their neighbors, the parking lot guard, their boss or their employees, and hence to the entire day and the entire world.
Because that's the question: Do we wake up in the morning with the consciousness of "I am grateful" and from there continue our day, or do we start the morning with "I am cursing" or even just with "I am resentful"?
3.
And until this campaign takes off, and people move to the "I am grateful" consciousness, we will probably have to continue with the unimaginable reality we live in. On the one hand, more and more corona wards are closing, and more and more halls, restaurants, shopping centers, theaters and cafes are opening, and on the other hand, a central part of the nation continues to be bitter.
Well, you can teach him a lesson. He consumes the media. He hears Guy Peleg reading the transcripts of the prosecutor's speech in Netanyahu's trial, about his phone calls with the CEO of Walla, with the intonation of reenacting a murder. He goes on a family trip to the north, after happily holding the Seder with the entire extended family. It's good for him, he's getting something that for billions of people in the world is a distant dream, but on the way to the B&B he sees the sign on every bridge with the statement "Failed" and it's probably seeping into him. A lie has legs. It's a fact, after all this year Netanyahu hasn't received 50 or 60 seats.
And apparently, as inconceivable as it is, there are people who are impressed by even the words of the most unstatesmanlike president in the history of the State of Israel. It's amazing. Do you remember what a commotion there was when the outstanding soldier Hananel Dayan refused to shake the hand of the Chief of Staff of the Expulsion, Dan Halutz, at a ceremony at the President's House? Do you remember the punishment? The dismissal from the Armored Brigade?
So what kind of storm was supposed to be here, not because of a simple soldier, but because of the President of the State himself, who refuses to shake the Prime Minister's hand, and, contrary to all accepted practice, gives him the mandate to form the government through a messenger, and even conspicuously absents himself from the festive ceremony in the Chagall Lounge in the Knesset?
Why is the president elected and receives a salary if not to honor such statuses and ceremonies with his enthusiastic presence? Is he in the Israeli presidential palace only for the live broadcasts he produced, for the first time in the country's history, so that we can all see these unnecessary discussions live, with Rivlin in the role of a moral beacon, to whom the people's representatives make pilgrimages one by one, sit down at his table, and expect to hear his moral considerations?
This is so ridiculous. After all, in principle, the faction secretaries could have sent him their recommendations via WhatsApp message. Instead, Rivlin decided to glorify and enhance the status of the "consultation" like no president before him had done, and then childishly boycotted the very thing, the granting of the mandate, and also the traditional ceremony of taking a photo with the prime minister and the president of the Supreme Court at the opening of the Knesset session.
He entered the Knesset with great ceremony, with a convoy, cavalry on horseback, an honor guard and the sound of trumpets - and then humiliated the class. And all this for what? Because of petty past scores with Netanyahu.
Just before the end of his term, Rivlin is breaking records for his own unstatesmanlike behavior. And think: He still has almost three months to go. It's stressful. Do you know how many pranks you can pull off in three months?
4.
And interestingly enough, hundreds of thousands of Daf Yomi students in the Jewish world will complete the special Tractate Shekalim this coming Monday. Every completion of such a tractate is twice as exciting: once because of those who studied every day and were privileged to complete it, and a second time, and much more exciting, because of those who will be privileged to begin the next day. After all, every such completion is also a joining station. So congratulations to those who complete it, and even greater congratulations to all who will seize the momentum and join the prestigious Gold Club on Tuesday.
But let's dwell for a moment on Tractate Shekelim. I'm sure many of the Daf Yomi scholars were surprised last Shabbat when they came to the Gemara on page 14 and read the following lines: "It is written, 'And it came to pass, when Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people arose and stood every man at the door of his tent, and looked after Moses until the tabernacle came.'" Every time Moses went out of his private tent to the tabernacle of meeting, the whole people of Israel stood, each at the door of his tent, and looked at Moses. Wow. One can imagine this awesome and majestic situation. Moses goes out to the tabernacle to speak with God, and the people of Israel accompanied him with adoring gazes all the way there. Perhaps they even sang to him "Days upon days of a king" or "Moses is true, and his Torah is true." Oh, how moving! Blessed is the eye that saw all this.
But it's not certain that this is exactly what was there. Everyone looked at Moses, that's true, but the question is with what view. "Terin Amorain," the Gemara continues. "One said it was slanderous, and another said it was praiseworthy." In other words, there is a disagreement between two Amorains. One says that this story is slanderous toward the people of Israel, and the other says it is praiseworthy.
What is the praise? Well, that's clear. The praise is that the people of Israel are honored to honor and see the righteous, and who is a righteous man like Moses our rabbi? But as mentioned, there is also a second side, and concentrate for a moment, because this is not the Aramaic that we are used to, but as in all tractates of Shekels, this is a slightly different, thinner Aramaic, in the jargon of the Jerusalem Talmud: "Whoever says to a detractor: Hamon Shekin, Hamon Kar'in, Hamon Kuped. He shall eat one from a Jew and two from a Jew. Every medallion from a Jew.".
In a free translation: The one who said to be contemptuous, says that when our Master went out to speak with God, the children of Israel would stand at the entrance to the tent, look at him, and say: "Hamon is a shekinah!" Look at his thick thighs. "Hamon is like a seed!" Look at his fat legs. "Hamon is a glutton!" Look at how fat his flesh is. And what makes him so fat? "He eats from a Jew, and drinks from a Jew. All his medals are from a Jew." Everything he eats and drinks comes from our money illegally. Everything he has, everything is public money that is above them. Capital, government, the underworld.
5.
It's inconceivable. During the miraculous journey on the way to the Land of Israel, the Israelites look every day at Moses, the one who brought them out of Egypt, the one who is now leading them through the desert, and essentially say: Look at what a hedonist this Moses is. He doesn't really care about the people of Israel. Only money in his head. And on his chubby legs. Our money.
I'm not comparing Netanyahu to our Lord Moses, the greatest of the prophets. I don't even need to explain why. But when you look at the behavior of the people, there in the desert, at the bitter look, at the evil eye in the face of the leader, in the face of the wonderful reality, at the kindness, doesn't it remind you a little of something from the present?
• The column is published in the newspaper 'Bisheva''
