I spent Yom Kippur at my parents' home in Ra'anana, muttering prayers in the old synagogue where they pray. A small handful of Jews, most of them elderly. Sometimes there are barely ten per minyan.
Closing prayer at Dinzgoff Square to the voice of the protesters // Avi Cohen
Some noise. Enough, you can't bear it anymore.
And at closing prayer, the last prayer of Yom Kippur, my legs almost failed, and my head was already turning. It was hard to pray, without food or drink. But suddenly the synagogue was filled with crowds of worshippers. Counters. There were all of them. From all sectors. Of all styles. There was one who asked me for an arrangement, another who asked me for the chair. Everyone stood there together, no partition separating us. We just wanted a happy and sweet New Year.
Suddenly, my legs no longer failed, and the thirst in my throat was no longer felt because the older woman needed the chair, and the other woman would be happy for me to pray with her—and it was very strong.
This isn't the first time I've encountered falling barriers, when most of my friends don't believe in keeping Torah and mitzvot, while I do.
We live together, we get along because in the end we are people who just want a pleasant place to live.
We get along because our hearts are open, our ears are attentive and we know the intentions are good.
We get along because we know we don't have to agree on everything. It's okay to have disagreements.
I'm not going to lie, in the past year it's become challenging. When harsh slogans are heard against all kinds of parts of the nation, the rift deepens. This is also how I emerged from a strong and unifying closing prayer to harsh headlines from the Dizengoff clashes.
I read the words of the minister who continues the uproar instead of quieting it, and the social activist who paints entire people as supporters of infanticide.
Black, white, without gray, without middle, without sanity - partitions.
It must be said that in the story of the prayer in Dizengoff, each side cared for its own truth, and necessarily each side put a finger in the other's eye. The request in the first place to remove partitions that have been there for years, the determination of the organizers of the prayer, without consideration in court, to put partitions anyway.
The disturbance to Kol Nidre in Kikar HaMedina in Tel Aviv. "Take the partition off shame"
A handful that only fans hatred, instead of engaging in good and healthy controversy
A protest in the middle of prayer. Some noise. Enough, you can't bear it anymore.
A handful that only fans the flames of hatred, instead of engaging in healthy and good disagreement, in a discourse that will advance us as a people and as a country to a place where it will be pleasant to live.
I want to believe that this is a minority that burns everything.
I want to believe that the majority is sane, the majority is doing great.
I want to believe that most of us have the ability not to get confused – to see the harsh headlines, the intolerable statements, and put them aside.
To see the religious woman from prayer, to see the secular woman from work, and to remember that we actually live very well together, even if there is room for improvement - and these are background noises.
In the new year, the sane voice must deepen its place in the people.
There are disagreements, maybe there always will be - we are different people, who believe in different beliefs - but there is also a healthy, respectful discourse to which we are capable, and thanks to which one day it will be better here.
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