Before I start this column, I wanted to apologize.
Sorry I'm doing this now and not waiting for better news.
I'm sorry that I'm publishing this while the three kidnapped boys are still being held by their captors in a hiding place, while almost an entire nation is anxiously watching three small, tender young children, whose families are unable to sleep due to the frenzy.
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But, I have no choice.
I am watching a video clip published tonight in which thousands of Elad residents are seen, men, women and children, Sephardim and Ashkenazim, Haredim and those wearing knitted kippahs, Hasidim from Vizhnitz alongside Lithuanians, united together and singing with excitement: "May this hour be a time of mercy and a time of will from you.".
According to the report in Haredim10, at the behest of the rabbis of the city of Elad, a prayer rally was held for the safety of the kidnapped boys, at the central synagogue, 'Mishkenot Neria', near the home of Eyal Yifrach - one of the kidnapped.
The night before, I went through the reactions of some of the public to the kidnapping, read statuses on social media and saw the enormous alienation that some of the public of the "Tel Aviv State" demonstrates towards the settler public at such a difficult time, and on the other hand, the messages of concern and prayer that emerged precisely from people defined as the "ultra-Orthodox public," and my heart broke in the face of the abysmal hatred of large parts of the Israeli public against those who wear knitted kippahs and the settlers.
Here are some things one of them wrote that reflect the mindset of a significant public on the social network:
""A fraction of the efforts that the state is now investing in returning the kidnapped ones it did not invest in trying to get my dog, Zachariah, back. I was forced to do everything on my own in devious, partisan ways, all this despite the fact that I paid far more taxes than the kidnapped yeshiva students and in the future I will likely siphon off far less child benefits than them. Of course, this does not mean that everything possible should not be done to return the boys, but we need to think: Is the state working for us, or are we supporting it and the settlers? It should be emphasized that Zachariah himself is careful not to cross the Green Line, because he prefers to avoid risks.".
I want to ask you, Naftali Bennett and the members of Knesset from the Jewish Home.
really?
Do you really feel a "brotherly alliance" with Yesh Atid and their voters, more than with the Haredi public?
Do you feel closer to Yair Lapid, the politician who updates his Facebook at every opportunity, but has chosen to remain embarrassingly silent since the kidnapping began on Thursday?
Let's take a look at the latest updated status on his Facebook page about a parade held in Tel Aviv on Friday, when the entire Israeli people knew about the kidnapping, and the IDF and Shin Bet were already in the midst of a massive effort to find a way out. Here's what was important to him to write in those moments:
""Supporting this community, its rights, its equality before the law, is part of what defines me as a person.".
Do you feel like a brother to him? And what about the tens of thousands of Haredi women who dedicated the lighting of Shabbat candles in honor of the three kidnapped men? And what about the hundreds of Haredi men who stood at that moment around Uriah Yifrach, Eyal's father, and tore the sky with them with tears of supplication in "The Song of the Ascents, I Will Lift My Eyes to the Mountains"?
In his last column in the newspaper 'Besheva', Yedidia Meir made a prediction and he didn't know what he was predicting.
He quoted Adi Ran, the Barslav singer, who occasionally posts comments on the situation. He wrote the following lines long before thousands of Haredim shared this message with each other last Saturday evening:
""People, this is important! Everyone who sees this should try to say Tehillim at 7:00 PM for the release of the missing! Please spread the word, this is important!! May we only hear good news, Shabbat Shalom. The names of the missing: Eyal ben Tishura Iris, Naftali ben Rachel, Gilad Michael ben Bat Galim.".
And so Adi Ran writes:
""Bennett has severely damaged relations with the Haredim because of his spiritual poverty and worldliness, and for their part, they have not spared him and his party the multitude of nicknames and curses in their arsenal. But it will happen. It must happen, because among the common people in both sectors, not the politicians, there is more in common than there is between them.".
""The average knit kippah wearer loves the Torah just as the average Haredi loves the Land of Israel and is thrilled by the possibility of its transmission. We need the alliance of believers. Those who believe in Hashem, the Torah, and the integrity of our holy land.".
