For over ten days, an entire country has been mobilized to find the three beloved boys, Naftali Eyal and Gilad. Entirely mobilized, as everyone contributes their personal part to the campaign. Some with fire and some with water, some with a plea and some with a request. We are all there in the campaign and in the fighting, on the home front and at the front. And over all of them the prayer rises that the efforts will be beneficial both in spirit and body. I hope so.
But, alongside the total, sincere and genuine mobilization, we also found other contributions to the campaign. And not necessarily to the search for the missing. Many artists 'caught a ride' on the difficult situation and took full advantage of the special moments when the entire Jewish people were captivated in prayer and anticipation for the families of the kidnapped. 'Singing performances' were dedicated to the innocent boys, while along the way the 'donors' received whole inches of publicity without any compensation. Who knows, maybe their fame will be theirs, the boys'.
But the one who went too far is none other than the arrogant Minister of Finance who fell, how to put it gently, into a honey trap that he created for himself with both hands. During his visit to the home of one of the families, Yair Lapid sat down opposite the parents and told them pathetically that in honor of the boys, he "turned the house upside down," as he put it, and searched for his grandfather's siddur. The search was not easy, as six years had passed since the last time he held his hands in the prayer siddur, since his son Lior's bar mitzvah. And when the lost item was found, the Minister prayed for the boys. "I won't be able to look in the mirror if I know that I didn't do my best," Lapid concluded his moving remarks. Ahhh... Happy Israel!
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I boxed with a tsitzit
I don't know which of Lapid's advisors decided to go in the spiritual direction, maybe he was the one who decided to bring out the Jewish spark and be proud of it, or maybe the story actually happened in reality. There's no telling. One thing is for sure, Yair Lapid has declared publicly and worldwide that the 'maximum' is found in the prayer service. Yes, yes, the same Yair Lapid who did not wear a kippah at his father's funeral, the same Lapid who did not agree in any way to say the words of the Kaddish over his father's bed, and the same Finance Minister who refuses year after year to be present at the State of Israel's chametz sale ceremony (constraints, constraints...), is the one who tells and admits that in the moment of truth he does the maximum from the prayer service.
It is not known which prayer Mr. Lapid prayed from the siddur, whether it was Shacharit, Arivez, or Musaf for three regals, or perhaps even the Hatal prayer. It is also not known which prayer Yair prayed at his son's bar mitzvah (the menorah there is lit without a blessing, by the way) from the siddur. Beyond all the hidden facts, one must stand up and wonder "for what purpose?" Couldn't the minister have expressed his sympathy with the families in his own way while maintaining the tradition from his father's house? "I boxed with a tzitzit in honor of the boys," for example, is a more brilliant and meaningful sentence. Why did Mr. Lapid need this binding statement? Was his understanding that obscure? Is he also one of those who think that "the avrechim sit all day in the kollel and pray from the Gemara"?! Where are the advisors when you need them?
We have accepted that prayer rises and bursts into the sky from every place and from every Jewish soul. But we have also accepted that prayer, when its purpose and goal is self-promotion and externalization, has no substance. Sometimes 'it does not bless - but rather insults.' Go and see what our mother Rivka "received" thanks to the 'blessing' and 'prayer' of someone who sought to uproot everything.
But who knows, perhaps a huge benefit has arisen for Haredi Judaism precisely from the minister's political and publicistic statement, for from now on, when he, or any of his judges and subordinates, come to enact laws that uproot religion, we will remind him of his statement and explain that it is not worth playing with the 'maximum'.
Next time (which there won't be) it would be possible to recommend that Yair Lapid ask for a siddur from his enlightened friends Shai and Dov, they will probably find it faster than him. If they are not available, Ruth Calderon will already find some good gemara to pray from.
And finally, I can't do without my heartfelt congratulations to Lior, who, by simple calculation, has already been six years since his Bar Mitzvah celebrations, and is probably in the process of enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces. Or not.
