1.
Oh, how hard it is for me with the fanatical anti-vaccinationists. For several reasons, but the main one has nothing to do with Corona or measles or rabies or any disease that may come. It has to do with their way of thinking, their mental disposition, their view of the world. A view of distrust, of everyone having interests, of everyone working against us.
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It's terrible to live like this. On the scale of the worst qualities in life, distrust of people ranks very high for me. Almost as high as domineering.
Wait, don't get me wrong. I'm not naive and can be fed anything. I know that the world is full of vested interests, certainly when it comes to companies whose highest value is to make as much money as possible and let the world burn. Not to mention the level of credibility of media or advertising people. In general, a sense of criticism is a necessary thing in life. Looking at reality with a good eye really doesn't mean that you have to live with a superficial view that doesn't recognize any shortcomings, lies, or fakery.
But from here to adopting a worldview that is full of suspicion and conspiracies – the road is long. Long and dangerous.
And the biggest danger for anti-vaccine activists is not getting coronavirus. That's on the way. Their real danger is living a life of suspicion, of distrust in the system, of paranoia towards everyone. It's not healthy to live like that. And again, I'm not in favor of blindly following the herd. It's okay to check and find out, you don't have to automatically believe everything, but you can't live from an attitude of distrust in everything. All the country's institutions will be overthrown.
2.
I have a theory that has proven itself to this day, unfortunately: the people of the "We-Ali-Don't-Work" movement may sound sober and have original opinions at the beginning of the discussion, but they will very quickly degenerate into absurd realms and delusional beliefs.
It begins with excessive suspicion and ends with complete loss of direction, with cruelty towards the merciful and mercy towards liars. I will not forget those who explained to me at the time that the Tekna forum is made up of corrupt people who, out of jealousy and lack of respect, have set themselves the goal of destroying the career of a great man.
And you stand in amazement in front of the unfounded claim and ask: "Wait, do you realize what you're actually saying here? Are you actually claiming that there was simply a conspiracy here? That Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein and Rabbi Yaakov Ariel and Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira and Rebbetzin Yehudit Shilat and a host of psychologists and professionals met in dark basements and concocted plots?".
And he answers you without hesitation: "Yes. Listen, what can I say? Today it's impossible to know anything.".
He didn't notice that slowly - or quickly - he had completely lost his bearings. To justify his distorted, conspiracy-ridden worldview, he agreed to accuse good and dear people of the most serious accusations in the world. I saw an upside-down world.
And you know what? Let's say that once you were right in one of your arguments against the corrupt world. Maybe. After all, the world is not perfect. So, is that why it is worth being in such a suspicious movement against everyone? Is there anything worth such a bitter life?
3.
And so it is with the burning issue of the corona vaccine. I'm not saying that we shouldn't ask questions. I certainly don't pretend to give the answers. I don't understand anything about it (and, sorry, neither do you). But we have to be careful not to become someone who is out of sync with reality and thinks that everything here is fake. There is no corona, it's just Bill Gates' interests. And Bibi wasn't vaccinated at all, it was a useless vaccine. And Yuli Edelstein actually received a vaccine against bird flu.
Enough, listen to how you talk. Look at the lows you've reached. You're basically claiming that everyone is a liar, everyone is a crook, except for your dubious sources of information on the Internet. They are - holy of holies.
If it ended with distrust in large systems like the World Health Organization, the Ministry of Health, pharmaceutical companies, etc. - so be it. But it's clear that this movement of "everyone is a liar and has vested interests" doesn't stop there, but rather affects your attitude toward everyone you come into contact with: from the educational institutions your children attend, through the house committee, and even the rabbi of your synagogue. It's not impossible that the distrust will eventually reach your home as well.
4.
The bottom line is, I will be vaccinated with God's help. Not because I have checked and researched and read medical studies, but because I am a believing Jew. Who? In doctors around the world, in the American Food and Drug Administration, in the heads of the health system in Israel, in the great rabbis who ordered to trust the heads of the health system (Peshita!) and even rushed out to get vaccinated, with common sense. And of course, above all, I believe in God Almighty. God protects the naive.
I will get vaccinated for the same reason that I pass under the string bridge and am not afraid that it will fall (why, really? Maybe it was built by corrupt people who, in exchange for money, built a mechanism that implants chips in the brains of everyone who passes under it and then falls on it?), for the same reason that I lift the trunk of my car and get out of it without fearing that it will deteriorate, because it is all actually a conspiracy by the management of the South Korean Kia company, which receives money from Bill Gates, who wants as many cars as possible to be damaged because then people will be injured and the global plaster industry will prosper.
I will get vaccinated for the same reason that I am not afraid that while I am screaming "Aye" from the sting of the injection (and it will be clear that some small sigh will come out of my mouth. Vaccination is a somewhat painful thing, for ordinary people who are not politicians in front of cameras), the nurse at the health insurance company will take advantage of my distraction to duplicate my Maccabi-Zahav card and sell it, for a pittance, to an enemy country.
5.
And speaking of trust, unlike other writers this week, I believe in Aviv Gefen. With complete faith.
Look, to this day, when he said things like hate and incitement and division, I believed him less. It always sounded like a kind of rocker's pose to me. A trend that would one day pass. And indeed, it took a while, about 30 years, and then the trend passed. Aviv Gefen grew up, and now he speaks the truth. How beautiful.
Doesn't he have marketing and PR interests? Of course he does. He's not Rabbi Yosef Cardoner. But why not believe him? If you met the personality of Avraham Fried for the first time at the age of 47, wouldn't you be truly moved and filled with pure love of Israel?
6.
I haven't listened to the duet in question between Gefen and Fried yet. Sorry, I was just too busy reading all the comments on it. From a first superficial listen, it seems that Aviv Gefen is capable of much more sophisticated writing ("Don't forget I am your brother," "Don't lose hope and believe in love" - for such a text, you don't need Aviv Gefen, Fried could ask a kid at a grocery store in Brooklyn to write for him). And also, in my opinion, Avraham Fried is not at his best in poetry. Simply because it's not his genre. He's at his best in the moving melodies of Yossi Green, Moshe Laufer or even Hanan Yuval. Songs of joy, songs of prayer. Even if the song is sad, there will always be the burning faith, the hope for better things. This is the Hasidic melody. This is Fried. And I say this entirely in his praise.
What can I do, he will never truly connect with Aviv Geffen's depression. This is not a musical matter, this is life itself (try to imagine Aviv Geffen singing "Because You Have Given Me Good Things" or "Nisht Gedeiget Yidan"). As far as Geffen is concerned, we are at the end of the world, as far as Fried is concerned, redemption is still ahead of us.
7.
But why do I talk so much about the song? Look at the phone conversation between Gefen and Farid that was released as a promo video ahead of the song's release. By the way, it's longer than the song itself. And that's a good thing, because to some extent the meeting itself is more important than the song itself.
""Hey Avram," Gefen says to Fried in a video call, "I'm here in Tel Aviv, in the studio, and the song you recorded came to me. I'm all in tears, you can even see it. And shivers. Listen, in my imagination I didn't believe it... When the song was written I said I wish I could sing with you.".
""Aviv, I pray that we will be messengers to unite the people," Fried replies from his car in New York, "especially these days when everyone is going through what they are going through. If there was a need for unity all these years, then now it is probably much more so... Now I am waiting to hear your performance. May you succeed. May the voice come not from the throat but from the soul. Be strong and we will grow stronger.".
True, the feeling in the phone call, and also in the song itself, is that there are two completely different languages here.
Gefen talks about Balfour ("There is no peace and there is no tranquility," he wrote in the song. Sorry, there is actually a lot of peace and the truth is that until Corona there was also a lot of tranquility) and Farid talks about Tanya ("The secret is to remember that we are brothers," he says in the conversation, "I felt your soul, Aviv, the inside of your soul"), but okay, we are only at the beginning of the relationship. Keep talking, Avram and Aviv. Meet. Learn. Only if you don't mind, occasionally send us a video or two of your conversations.
In the coming months of the fourth election campaign, we will greatly need these reminders, not to lose hope and to believe in love.
• The column is published in the newspaper 'Bisheva''
