Did you also feel this gripping fear, the silent plea of "I wish they wouldn't come in, I wish they would continue to operate only from the air"? Did you also feel this palpitations that stem from the knowledge that a ground operation almost certainly means human lives, the lives of soldiers?
If for some reason the answer to this question is "no," go to the nearest mirror and ask yourself what's wrong with you.
Because these are your brothers, ours, who are fighting there so that the children of Sderot can discover a reality in which they are not constantly being shot at; that the children of Ashdod will not think that an alarm is not a sporting exercise in which they compete to see who gets to a protected area the fastest; that in the Gaza enclave they will not be afraid of infiltration attacks.
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Morning and evening, this should be our concern now, for our brothers who are fighting there.
Although the state authorities still refuse to recognize the calculation established by Moses in last week's parashah, of "one thousand below - one thousand below" (see Midrash Rabbah on the subject) - a soldier praying in the rear for every soldier at the front, we do not need to wait for their recognition.
Each of us needs to know that he is a soldier whose job it is to strengthen himself, pray, and study Torah for the soldier's benefit.
You, my sisters, who are not "armed," also mobilized your mother's heart and prayed for the soldiers. In these days of the Middle East, as we mourn the destruction of the home that was destroyed due to gratuitous hatred, it is fitting that we remember how necessary our mutual guarantee is in these days, and how much this love - which is not at all gratuitous - must be mobilized for those who are on the front lines for our sake.
In general, in normal times, it seems that this issue of mutual guarantee needs some strengthening here. We are very good at caring for others. There is no neighborhood that does not have a series of neighborhood, municipal and nationwide organizations that care for the weak. Our public has taught the entire Israeli public what concern stems from a sincere desire to do kindness to others.
But it is precisely I, who grew up all my life among those who deal with public needs in faith, who occasionally encounter local atrocities, like abscesses on the face that must be drained and lanced in order to make our society better.
Divorced Woman: The Weak Link
This time, the subject that came to my attention was a divorced woman who had been through a lot in life [and there is no room to elaborate here], and who finds herself forced to beg for the mercy of neighborhood activists after being harassed by her neighbors. The owner of the apartment where she lives wants to evict her from the apartment after being harassed by several neighbors, who, despite the fact that this is an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood without an "admission committee," do not like the fact that a divorced woman lives in their neighborhood, and even more so – a divorced woman who is dealing with difficult educational problems for her daughter.
Leaving the apartment seems like the obvious solution, but she is having trouble finding an apartment that will suit her needs, due to the fact that she is raising a disabled daughter who needs an adapted entrance to the apartment. Instead of being offered the utmost assistance by the neighborhood activist and the neighborhood rabbi who know her, she discovers that the owner of the apartment has been offered 3,000 NIS so that she will leave in one go, and that a quick-witted realtor who lives next door is already trying to cash in on her plight, while he himself makes it clear to her without any confusion that "I am among those opposed to you living here because I have seen your daughter in inappropriate situations.".
The last claim is still clear, but this hypocrisy of worrying about his own pocket at the expense of the plight of a divorced woman who has no protector is sickening. No less disturbing is the fact that the businessman and the rabbi, instead of fighting the harassers, tend to "understand" the apartment owner, and not pressure him to at least reveal the names of the harassers so that it is possible, at the very least, to sue them in Torah law for the expenses resulting from moving and the mental anguish involved.
This fact is even more disturbing when it turns out that, in cooperation with local authorities, the troublemaker daughter was removed from home to boarding school, so that the neighbors would be "more pleasant to look at." But even now, after her mother has done everything she can, she is still troubled and is not receiving the assistance she deserves.
This woman, who is indeed receiving assistance from other activists outside the neighborhood, who do indeed deserve the name "people who deal with public needs in faith," who are trying to fight for her so that she can stay in her apartment, is just a symptom. Weak women, who have endured difficult suffering in life until they were rescued from destructive marriages, find themselves in a new war against an environment that refuses to accept at best or harasses at worst. The case described here is certainly not unique, or as the same woman told me, "I feel like I'm dealing with violent men again," a sentence that broke my heart.
My days between the straits, and one woman who sheds tears like water because of what is happening to her, is a bad lesson for the people of Israel, especially in these days when we need every bit of dignity, for each of us and for the soldiers who fight for us.
Open your eyes and heart, look around, ask yourself how much you feel a mutual guarantee or is your guarantee only to take care of the other's spirituality and your own physicality. In every neighborhood and almost every building there is someone who needs help, please, don't be on the side of the trampled, be on the side of the effort to the heart.
