For more than two weeks now, the voices of the churches and the synagogues have been silent. For more than two weeks, "Amen, may the Most High be praised" has not been sung proudly, and the houses of Zion - these are gates that are distinguished in the halakhah - are in mourning.
A special lament will be written about these days, I'm sure. A lament that will be said every night of Tisha B'Av in the churches of our grandchildren. One that will probably begin with the words, "How the faithful city sat alone, how the synagogues mourned for the widow.".
We still don't understand the power of it. We have no ability to contain this fact at all.
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It seems that since its giving at Sinai, the Torah has not been absent or disappeared from the seminaries, and prayer has not fallen silent in the churches.
Even in the most difficult years, and in the most terrible decrees, the whole country was not silent. When Zippori was silent - Tiberias was active. And when Betar was destroyed - Jerusalem flourished.
But now, to the slaves and maidservants, our blood has been shed. Our voice has been silenced, and the crown has been taken from the house of our glory.
We don't understand it. We'll understand later.
And we cried, and we cried, and we cried.
When a single drop of rain falls on Sukkot, we hurry to cluck our tongues and pour spoonful after spoonful in sorrow, while reciting the sage's statement about 'a servant who poured a cup for his master and poured a little on his face.'.
And now, a flood of tears descends upon us, and an arrow is shot at us from a bow in the clouds. Day after day, holiday days, holy days, and weekdays.
And if this is not a spiritual Holocaust, then what is a Holocaust?
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At first, when they talked about closing the churches as an option, no one believed it. Everyone laughed, and secretly they were sure that such a thing would never happen.
But since the sweeping directive was issued by the Ministry of Health, and since the directive was anchored in the numerous halachic rulings that called for it to be obeyed, the Jewish public has not been wiser.
At once, tens of thousands of Jews left the churches and seminaries. All of them, without exception: ultra-Orthodox, religious, traditionalists and non-traditionalists, all of them left the house of God in tears, and have not yet returned.
Rather, every day we long to return to the spiritual greenhouse, to the house of God. And we wait with anticipation and longing for the end of the plague with all its diseases and consequences.
It can be said most absolutely that the general public in Israel truly has no idea how great the sacrifice on the part of believing Jews is in obeying these difficult instructions.
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That's right, there are also violations.
There are pirate minyanim that take place in courtyards and on the streets. But the majority of the Haredi public condemns their actions.
When there is a blanket prohibition by the great men of the generation against praying in public, then one who does so is nothing but a blasphemer.
We are not like that little, mindless child who cries when the candy that fell into the sewer is taken away from him. That is, yes, we cry a lot, but not for confiscating the candy, we understand that it is dangerous for us. We cry for the very fact that it fell.
But today, today we cry about other things too.
We cry at the sight of the images coming from the courts and entertainment venues, where the judges - Yarom Hoddam, and the protesters - Yarom Ziyum, are seen gathering and gathering en masse, without protective masks, without adhering to a distance of two meters, and without minimal adherence to the Ministry of Health guidelines.
We don't want it either. If it's forbidden, then it's forbidden.
We don't want to be sick, we don't want to infect, we don't want to get infected.
We just want to understand why.
I mean, it's clear. There are exceptions. We need the courts, and we need the right to go out and demonstrate.
But if the state can accommodate the exceptions, and to a certain extent the lockdown process can be continued even in such exceptional cases, then why can't a 'moderation' be demonstrated, for example?
Not allowed? Is it really dangerous? Could it cause mass infection? So why and why is it permissible to demonstrate under any other name?
Don't answer us.
Don't try to explain the difference between a prayer for a demonstration, and a funeral for the honor of the court. It's not personal.
Just understand. Just please understand our pain, and try to exclude us too.
Within permissible limits, of course.
We want to live longer!
