The Jewish holidays were not given except to fulfill what was said, "Go out and make a living from each other," as the preachers and preachers of the generation determined.
Indeed, in the days before the holidays, our economy flourishes and breaks records: Rosh Hashanah is the season for beekeepers, apple and pomegranate growers, when the supply of pond fish called 'gefilte fish' runs out and creates a shortage; Sukkot is the holiday of carpenters, owners of etrog and myrtle orchards, importers of ornaments and the young men of the field; Hanukkah is the joyous day of silverware manufacturers and forgers and all the accessories that go with them; Purim is the big day for candy manufacturers and bakeries; and Passover is the holiday of dozens and hundreds of manufacturers, importers, merchants and retailers.
It would be too short to list all the branches of the economy that benefit and reap their fruits on every holiday and at every site.
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Although economic professionals claim that an 'election period' is harmful to the economy and the market in Israel, the situation does not actually indicate this trend - and who doesn't laugh 'on the way to the bank' during the three months from the announcement of the election date until the big day at 10:00 PM? Recovery!
Car rental and transportation companies, paper manufacturers and graphic designers, ad pasters, amplification and production companies, advertising and PR agencies, real estate agents, fast food and catering suppliers, residents of the funds that 'Edna' landed for them and who make their nights their days, and many more, and it seems that if all our days were crowned 'election days', the unemployment offices would complete their mission and the country's economy would break world records.
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But, as the saying goes, 'Every Sabbath has its own Sabbath day.'.
Last Tuesday, at 10:00 PM, the signal was given for the end of the period: the Haredi representation in the Israeli parliament was severely beaten, and none of us emerged victorious and benefited. Some lost a lot, some lost less.
'"We gained three votes in Nahalal compared to previous elections," "We received five more votes in Lower Afula," will say those who are trying to minimize their defeat and decline in power, as if they were dressing their lungs, which were declared to be benign tumors with metastases, in a pharmacy.
The best talkers and thinkers in our community are currently trying to interpret the decline in the number of Haredi representatives in the Knesset, with their arrows pointed towards Jerusalem, the voice of minorities, and Katzenbogen Street. Everyone is to blame. Just not us.
I am not a political commentator and I am certainly not one of the moral denizens. 'The last of the market's bakers' - this is my occupation and livelihood and my local name. I fulfill my mission with joy, with my whole world revolving around the bun, the ketchup, the yellow cheese and the pizza sauce.
But from this platform I will give my interpretation of the 'blow' that the Haredi representation in the Knesset received, on its factions and movements. I think that if we had internalized the message, we could have received on a 'silver platter' the title of 'tongue of the scales' in the formation of the new government.
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'"As their faces are different, so are their opinions different," it is written in Tractate Berakhot.
Maimonides wondered about this: Why did our sages, when they came to sharpen, break our ears, and illustrate the very fact of 'different opinions' between people, resort to using a different face? Why didn't they illustrate the differences between people in the height of their legs, the length of their arms, the depth of their noses, or the shape of their eyes?
But, just as we understand that out of the billions of people in the world, no one is a 'double' of their friend in appearance, and despite everything we continue to talk, do business, participate in celebrations, live together and lead a flourishing social life, when we have never heard one say to their friend, "I boycott you because you are not like me," because if he did so, he would receive a recommendation for forced hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital.
From that point on, it should be understood that every person is cast from different material, every person has a different opinion, a different thought, and a different path, and just as a different face does not disrupt social life and create hatred, so a different opinion is not meant to be produced.
In exactly four years, the State of Israel will 'go to elections.' Until then, there is enough time to practice and internalize Maimonides' interpretation of the words of our sages in Tractate Berakhot.
• The column is published in a religious press line
