\""Without any excitement," my father would respond, when I would come to him agitated and tell him about a chilling news event or a shocking incident. "Without excitement," in literal translation into standard Hebrew. Or "without drama" - in free translation.<\/p>\r\n
This does not mean that the incident should be dismissed out of hand, after all, the holy Baal Shem Tov has already taught us that "every thing or event that a Jew experiences and hears constitutes a message for him in the service of God," but at the same time, there is no point in exaggerating, getting excited, and certainly not stretching the discourse to extremes that provoke and encourage incitement, hatred, and racism.<\/p>\r\n
As Jews, who believe in "her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace," it is clear that this is not the purpose of our existence in this world.<\/p>\r\n
Our father Isaac knew very well who he was dealing with. He was not "blind" to the problematic nature of his eldest son. Although he had poor physical vision, he certainly could not be said to have had poor spiritual vision. Yet he believed that within Esau, the hunter and the smooth-tongued, there was good. The Midrash indicates that Isaac knew that his son's destiny was to dwell by his side after his death.<\/p>\r\n
Isaac began a new era in the history of mankind. He was a well digger. Yes, that was his profession. This profession is based on the belief in the goodness inherent in the world. A well digger does not project himself outward, but quite the opposite. He is certain that the world of God, the Almighty, holds within it so much goodness and it only needs to be found.<\/p>\r\n
Even a dry rocky field in the southern settlement of Haletz, for example, could be a cover for the oil treasures that lie beneath it. Well, well, in relation to Israel, of course.<\/p>\r\n
In doing so, Isaac took the revolution begun by his father Abraham a step further.<\/p>\r\n
While our forefather Abraham publicly proclaimed his belief in the G-d who created the world, his son Isaac went a step further and found this goodness in reality - in life. He believed that a world created by G-d must be good and illuminating in itself, and he worked to discover this in practice.<\/p>\r\n
And Isaac was right. When we think again about the personality of Esau, that red-haired, greedy, and gluttonous man, we discover a complex character full of contradictions - that in certain matters, there was no other good man like him in all of Jewish history.<\/p>\r\n
Don't raise your eyebrows. Read what the Midrash says about Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, who excelled in honoring his parents. He was once praised for this, and he - the President of Israel - replied: 'I am dust under the feet of Esau.' There was no son in history who honored his parents as much as he did. From this we can understand that Yitzhak, the 'digger', believed that it was possible to discover the good hidden in Esau as well.<\/p>\r\n
He was not blind.<\/p>\r\n
\u2022<\/p>\r\n
The initial emotion I felt when I was invited to a business conference of Arabs and Haredim was one of rejection.<\/p>\r\n
\""What the hell?!" I asked myself. "Why are they encouraging business with Israel haters?" I wondered. After all, "they" want to kill and destroy us?<\/p>\r\n
Moreover, I thought to myself: Have we already done business with our brothers within the house? Has a business conference been convened to encourage business cooperation between religious-nationalists and ultra-Orthodox, between those who are observant and those who are not yet?<\/p>\r\n
On second thought, I remembered the saying of a wise Jew: "Eat cholent with Jews, do business with Gentiles"...<\/p>\r\n
So I went out to check what was going on there.<\/p>\r\n
I am not blind and I also know that our country is burning; I know that every spark or match ignites a great flame. The nerves are exposed and sensitive. And the Arabs, yes, even the Arabs of the Land of Israel, make life difficult for us.<\/p>\r\n
However, when I received an invitation to a first-of-its-kind conference to discuss business collaborations between Haredim and Arabs in the fields of textiles, food, services, and startups, I didn't find it objectionable. To be honest, between us, I didn't find it particularly interesting either.<\/p>\r\n
And this is what was there: the Haredi speakers presented the livelihood needs of the Haredi; the Haredi women respectfully represented their development and the challenge of combining a home-children's home-earning with dignity; a number of Haredi business owners, including 'Waxberger', presented their wares; and there were also Haredi startups who came with their vision.<\/p>\r\n
Two Arab women spoke about their opportunity to collaborate with Haredi women. One was a consultant for the Maof Foundation for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses, and the other owned a national liquor chain that managed to develop and grow precisely after her husband's death.<\/p>\r\n
What I'm writing here, I posted on Facebook using a photo from the event.<\/p>\r\n
Now I would like to return to the beginning of my words - to the heated discussion that arose on my feed following that photo I uploaded at the end of the event.<\/p>\r\n
It is clear that relationships of friendship, or, God forbid, marriage, are forbidden according to the Torah. On the other hand, maintaining good neighborliness, fair working relationships, and even business collaborations that will allow families blessed with children from our camp to support themselves with dignity are desirable and blessed things as long as they remain within the boundaries of Halacha, modesty, and honesty.<\/p>\r\n
\u2022<\/p>\r\n
Just before I finished writing this column, I remembered that the Lubavitcher Rebbe suggested using the services of an Israeli company to support Jews. So before you rush to run and do business with Arabs, check if you can support yourself and make a living from home.<\/p>\r\n
In any case, rants and racist discourse are not part of the Jewish view.<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Miri Shneorson \u2013 presenter, lecturer, and media representative. To book a lecture, leave your details: lp.770marketing.com\/miri_shneorson<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our forefather Isaac, peace be upon him, was a professional "digger." He sought the good that was stored in the world that God created. He also sought the good in his eldest son, the smooth-tongued one. \u2022 I am not blind, but I am not racist either!","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[32348],"class_list":["post-329118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-138","tag-32348"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n