At the heart of Yom Kippur, the holy day of the Jewish people, there is a sting.
In the haftarah at dawn we read in Isaiah.
The Prophet brings the words of God, who is disgusted with sacrifices and fasting that serves as a cynical means of purification and return to sins.
God asks for a completely different fast: "Will you not be hungry for your bread?
In "normal" years, most Jewish Israelis come to synagogues and hear things.
These are days of advocating for the people of Israel, so it is only said that it is likely that many of us do not internalize what is being read, because it is a message that is too shaky for Yom Kippur, or impatient and hard work.
I assume that immigration and population authority officials will also be among the hearers.
I would like to think that this will make them think second and third about the expulsion of about 60 members of the Jewish community in Dimona.
The Hebrew community numbers about two thousand girls and members of the community.
They have been in Israel for about five decades.
They linked their fate to the fate of the State of Israel, including military service, Israel's representation in Eurovision contests and UN conferences, and more. They attribute themselves to our ancestor Abraham and see themselves as Jews and Zionists.
For many years, members of the community faced the difficulty of gaining official status in Israel.
Despite this, they clung to the village of Dimona and other community places, and gave birth here to children who have lived all year as Israelis for all intents and purposes.
In the Negev, they are considered a peace-loving community, which brought to Israel the good news of veganism and soul music.
In recent months the community has been facing an unexpected difficulty.
In order to regulate the status of all community members, they were asked in August 2020 to submit lists of all statusless people living in the community.
Despite promises from the Ministry of the Interior that this was a matter of regulating the class, things turned upside down.
In April 2021, the process was stopped without explanation, and deportation orders were issued to the statusless in the community.
Despite a struggle and pleas from members of the community and the mayor of Dimona, in recent days all appeals of the classless have been rejected, and they are expected to be deported immediately after Yom Kippur.
There seems to be no more symbolic date than this for the cruel expulsion of those who have lived among us for decades. Some were born and raised here and know no other reality at all. The books of the living and the dead are signed, and we sentence the members of the congregation to expulsion. But there is also hope. As attributed to King David, "even a sharp sword laid on a man's neck do not deprive himself of mercy." The time for the answer is here, and it is the time of Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked to take the necessary step and get into the thick of things. Instead of stigmatizing ourselves in the expulsion of members of such a special community, we can sign the recognition of their status. The recognition of their Israeliness, and of being the people of the Negev, is our flesh and blood.
