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Stimulate the intentions of the heart Israel today

2021-09-15T15:20:11.055Z


The power of Yom Kippur is expressed in the motivation to melt walls that differentiate between people, to dare to look directly at someone who may need my outstretched hand, and especially to apologize for the moments of missing out • With a little courage we can illuminate whole worlds


The Yom Kippur War caught me in seventh grade.

A child from Ramat Gan whose world is protected and hermetic.

When the general recruitment began, we, the children, set out to fill the ranks of the employees.

My older sister volunteered at MDA. My older brother was busy painting car headlights for the dark. I reported to the postal service. The task was to quickly distribute letters that came from the front.


We were happy: we both reached out to the war effort and had an unconventional experience. I got a few streets in the Pardes Katz neighborhood on the outskirts of Bnei Brak, and went to work. I knocked on the door of the first address and found myself in front of a woman wearing a bathrobe and wrapped in a headscarf. I handed the letter to her and she snatched it and read "It's Isaac". After a moment she looked at me and asked "Don't you have another one? What about Shimon?". I apologized that this was what I had, and set off.


The next day I found myself standing by the same door.

This time I already looked at the postcard and saw that the letter today is also from Yitzhak.

I knocked gently, and again the woman in front of me.

I hand her the letter and she shouts in a bitter voice "What about Shimon?".

Her heart must have been bad news for her.


The day after I found myself looking in the pile of letters for Shimon's name.

When I did not find, I was scared.

I am the representative of the "front", and in my mouth a terrible dryness that fills me all.

In my weakness I asked a friend who shared the same neighborhood with me to swap streets.

I did not tell him why.

I never asked him what it was like for him to meet her mother.

I do not know to this day who she is, how the woman's sons are, and only in my ears was the shout left: "What about Shimon?".


Guilt is shrouded in excuses


It was a moment of glimpse into the depths of the soul of one woman in one neighborhood on the outskirts of one city. How many such eyes are around me? How many of them am I willing to be exposed to? Most of us live in an urban and alienated reality. Anyone who is off the contact list does not exist for me in my world. Writer Franz Kafka sketched for us a picture of ourselves as we encounter our difficulty in taking a step beyond our usual route: Weak and shabby, even if someone runs after him and shouts, but he can continue to run. "


Kafka later describes the "conversation" between me and myself, in which I explain to myself why I do not intervene and help catch the fleeing man: "We are not to blame for the street rising in front of us in full moonlight. Third, maybe the third will be persecuted for no injustice, maybe the second intends to murder and we will become accomplices to the murder ... ".


More and more "maybe" fill Kafka's story, claims and explanations that free me from what my eyes see.

The ending describes a great happiness: "We are satisfied that even the other is no longer seen."


This is a fairly accurate description of a person facing a moral obligation and not acting.

He fills himself with excuses, but everyone expresses a guilt that permeates him.

Only when the pursuing man disappeared from his sight did he calm down a little.

The threatening reality has passed.

Guilt will fade with her, by a system of defenses and excuses.


The divine in every person


The masks we wear on our faces, to maintain health and save us from an epidemic, only help the wall of alienation to grow and differentiate between us. Interpersonal interaction is becoming a rare commodity. Attention wanders to the buzz of WhatsApp heralding the reception of a new message, the contact between me and the screen becomes more intimate. My world is shrinking. Out of this compartmentalization and differentiation I catalog all human beings into colors, tribes, worldviews. Without talking and seeing the other I know almost everything about him. Points to his covered face and sketches his identity. The ultra-Orthodox neighbor, the Mizrahi, the settler, the Reform. To every human being around me I add the knowledge. As if I know something about him. But the truth is - I know almost nothing. What hurts him? What worries him? What does he dream about?


The starting point for the "I - you" relationship is the knowledge that each person was created in the image of God, and in each case a different aspect of the divine is revealed in each person. This human consciousness evokes good hope to meet the divine in every person. This quiet gaze, which penetrates beyond the shell and delves into the essence, reveals the uniqueness of each of us. It is this uniqueness that gives the good hope of being filled with an abundance of divine light, by expanding the circle of encounters between man and man. Against this background we can understand the earliest Jewish blessing of peace, the one preserved in the Bible as the "blessing of the priests":


May the Lord bless you and keep you:


May the Lord lift up his face to you and grant you:


may the Lord be with you.


This blessing is designed in a complete literary structure: three words for the first line, five for the second and seven for the third. The central avenue forms a connection of three words whose vertical reading forms the connection: "God - his face - to you". A horizontal reading of the three lines also moves us from step to step. The Midrash explains these words as follows: "Let it be known to you that you will be gifted to one another and have mercy on one another." Light radiated from man has a good effect on his conduct with the environment. He looks with a good eye on everything and water face to face, so the human heart to man. Returning light affects him from the good that is kept in everyone's heart. Every day we say in the spell prayer: "We have blessed in the light of your face, for in the light of your face you have given us the doctrine of life and the love of grace." Our great correction as individuals and as a society begins with the ability to see a face, look into the eyes of others and discover within his eyes his world.


We are now on the threshold of Yom Kippur.

The power of this day is expressed in the motivation to melt walls that differentiate between people, to dare to look straight at someone who may need my outstretched hand and especially to apologize for all those missed moments where we preferred to congregate within ourselves.

Each of us has daily opportunities to meet someone behind a door.

With a little dose of courage we can illuminate whole worlds.

Yom Kippur is only one day, but his presence on the calendar evokes the heart’s intention to overcome the inhibitions and produce a movement of flow of life, which also allows God to come in and dwell among us. 

Rabbi Lau is the head of Project 929 and chairman of Akim Israel

Source: israelhayom

All news articles on 2021-09-15

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