Here is a grim statistic published at an even grimmer time: In the State of Israel, about a million people are hungry. If that's not enough for you, here's the breakdown of the data: Three hundred thousand (!) children are defined as poor in the Jewish state.
What is a 'hungry child'? Here is the definition as published by the State Comptroller: "The heart aches when you read about a family with children whose refrigerator is empty of food, or about a family who said they did not buy fruits and vegetables due to financial hardship." Scary. But what is even scarier is what follows: "Eight hundred and ninety-four thousand citizens, including about three hundred and six thousand children, reported that due to lack of money they sometimes did not eat for an entire day (!) or reduced the number of meals for several months a year.".
A person, every person, is endowed with a wonderful gift of survival. His sharp senses are strong enough to survive even in the face of a dry story with data. Try, on hot days, to tell, or to feel what bone-piercing cold is. Just try to imagine after a hearty Shabbat meal when your stomach threatens to burst, what hunger is. I am willing to dare and bet that you will not succeed. It simply will not happen. The power of the contemporary feeling is strong even in the face of three-dimensional descriptions.
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It is not for nothing that great rabbis and charity collectors are told of those who would stomp their feet in the snow and mud to get a few pennies for the hungry poor, and when the door of the gentleman's house was opened, they would not in any way and would not dare to enter and bask in front of the burning fireplace in the warm living room. Even when the gentleman would beg them and beg them to enter the house protected from the biting wind and talk peacefully. They knew; the gentleman wrapped in fur in front of the rays of the oven's heat would never feel the plight of the poor man in rags whose bones were breaking apart in the cold and the chill, if he did not now feel a little what cold is.
We could, perhaps, try once between a meat meal and one after which we feel a kind of 'hunger distress.' When the stomach shows signs of distress and demands its own, we will wait a little, and then we will think again about the shocking data: "Three hundred thousand children in the State of Israel did not eat for an entire day due to economic deprivation.".
Scary. Very scary. What is even more shocking is the state's reaction and conduct in light of the publication of the data. First, it should be said that the state is not a charity fund and is not a foundation for supporting hungry children. The state is a body designed to create a regime like the Dina Damalkota to prevent anarchy and confusion, and if it were not for the fear of the kingdom, one would devour one another alive.
However, there is another fact. The State of Israel boasts to its members of the UN that it is a 'welfare state.' The State of Israel is a member of various organizations that require its members to meet certain welfare conditions. And above all, the State of Israel is the state of the Jews. Just as the owner of a hotel with a low number of stars does not have to provide a pool for his visitors nor a refrigerator in every room, but since he has five of them, a lack of conditions is grounds for returning the money, so the State of Israel, which boasts many welfare stars, is obliged to face the data and accept responsibility.
The cheap denial and shocked reactions of those directly responsible for this sad situation are similar to the owner of a terrifying dog clucking his tongue in response to the animal's crude bites on innocent children.
Let it be clear, the search for those responsible for the enormous poverty failure is absolutely unnecessary. They are here in their suits and muscles. Just as in a fire failure the prosecution is directed to the minister in charge, and just as in a security failure the culprit is the Minister of Defense, so too here in the poverty failure the culprit is none other than the thug-looking boxer who for some reason sits in the Ministry of Finance.
Yair Lapid, the man who was and still is a complete ignoramus on all economic matters, sits like the owner of the house and relaxes in the Ministry of Finance, and no one opens their mouths and whines. We were forced to board a transport plane while the pilot's seat was occupied by a thug and not a pilot. It's delusional. It's scary. Yair Lapid will never be able to understand the plight of a poor person. Someone who donates five shekels to a poor person and is in a hurry to commemorate his rare act is not really capable of entering the head of a person created in the image of a person who is forced to rummage through bins and on the sides of the road to bring prey home. Yair Lapid is the real poor person who is unable to open his eyes, look at his failure and take responsibility.
So Yair Lapid: Take responsibility. Take off your suit, throw it on the deerskin chair and shout, yes, shout, "I don't understand anything, take me out of here!" Believe me, we will come and take you. All the way home.
