I received the reports about the Yom Kippur events in Dizengoff Square, to my delight – like all the people of Israel who were not there – only deep on Yom Kippur night. After two slices of cakes and coffee, and into the moment of endless resting that only Yom Kippur residents know how to give (every year anew I try to believe that it's not just the carbohydrate but something more) - came the news and the reactions, and the responses to the comments, and everything almost stopped.
Only almost, because it was expected. For me, the highlight of this event was last week, when the Tel Aviv District Court's puzzling decision and Judge Hadas Ovadia's reasons for rejecting the petition against the Tel Aviv municipality's decision and prohibiting the use of a partition for prayer purposes were published on Yom Kippur. Still, when it came in front of my face, it hurt a lot. It really hurt and provoked anger and rage and again pain, pain.
I was outside when the updates started pouring in. Yard. A cool Jerusalem courtyard on Yom Kippur night. On the floor lay sukkah planks and a roll of thatched mat. Soon a magnificent sukkah will be built here. It really is my most beautiful night of the year in more than four decades. I tried to stick to it and escape the pursuing criminals and couldn't, and then my gaze fell on the far corner of the yard, the one that belongs to the neighbors, and in an instant I realized something.
For the first time, a sukkah stood there. A small, half-built sukkah erected by our new neighbors, who moved into the apartment a month and a half ago. They replaced Hannah, the previous resident, who had moved in with her children because she needed help. Hannah was the kind of neighbor worth praying you had. Smart, good, very nice and clearly unnoticeable. She lived alone, and on Saturdays and holidays she would go to her children. The relationship with her boils down to polite greetings and pleasant conversations, and that was it. Here and there, when the barbecue meal in the yard was too long, one of us would hesitate everyone and say, "Shhh, this bothers the neighbor." And that's it. We spent a decade with her on a great neighborly relationship and were very sorry when she left.
• • •
Then came the new neighbors. Smart and good and nice too. But they, unlike a camp, do not stay with the children, but rather the children stay with them. And unlike a camp, which lived in asceticism and out of a movable minority, they have a house full of contents that spill out a little. And cute grandchildren come in and out all the time.
And the large window in our living room, which for a decade has only looked out at the fence opposite and could be walked in front of it with all kinds of short items of clothing that are inappropriate for a respected journalist in Israel - his curtains are drawn. And if all that wasn't enough, suddenly a sukkah popped up. There is no longer one sukkah in the yard, but two. And suddenly the new situation became clear today: this courtyard is no longer ours alone. It is a common courtyard.
And on the upcoming holiday, when we and our 20 guests sit in the sukkah and give our voices in the song, suddenly another song will enter the song! From the neighboring sukkah. And my nephews' children won't be able to ride their scooters to the corner of the yard like in the days of Hannah - brother, Hannah Hannah! Where are you Hannah! - They will only have to surround the small area that remains exposed to masks between the two parts of the courtyard. In short: you understood what I wanted from your life. I just saw this sukkah, and my heart fell.
• • •
There are a lot of people who are genuinely afraid that someone is going to harm them or harm their way of life or turn Israel into a dictatorship. I have no ability to argue with them. And what shall I say - that this is not true? They won't accept it, and it also seems a bit stupid to say it, because by saying this I'm actually legitimizing this accusation of me and everyone who supports the right, and I find it shocking. But there is a huge, huge crowd of Israelis who are on the side of the protest, and don't think anyone is going to hang them; They are only very dissatisfied with the changes that the country and its image and character are undergoing, and with them I have a lot of business.
And with them I have a dialogue, and to them I would like to say that all this tremendous energy invested in wrath and concern could and should have been invested in the responsible effort to welcome and understand this change. To internalize the simple demographic fact that the numerical majority also produces some changes in character, and that they must be managed, somehow, with no sense and cooperation between the two sides.
Because this change has been here for a long time. It is emphasized not in the Yom Kippur prayer events in Tel Aviv, but mainly in the unimaginable numbers of participants in Selichot events in Jerusalem and throughout the country. The month of Elul is truly present on today's agenda, which is essentially Israeli and communicative, more than it was present during the years I studied at the yeshiva.
What is the essence of change? That Israel is no longer a secular state with Jewish religious elements here and there, but something that is more of a traditional state that operates most of the time in a secular manner. What's next? Another slight change in the definition and nature of publicity. And the next step? Balancing and reformulation and a delicate dance, where both sides respond to changes and dynamics. Mutual renunciation. And small surrenders, too. No worries, no one will die. And again balance. That's exactly how it could have happened, and the megaphones and the posters and the shouting don't advance anything. They only interfere with this process happening, which is why it is so painful. Because the process of change continues to take place in the background, and those who are disturbed are only the healthy adjustment and balance processes that are so necessary for him.
• • •
Suddenly, a person wakes up in the morning and discovers that a sukkah has been erected in his yard, and the yard is no longer his. He only forgets one thing: that it was never his—it's a shared yard. Only once, during Hannah's time, he deluded himself that he had a private yard, and now he discovers that it is a shared yard. Welcome, Sapir family. We'll be good neighbors, I promise. And even when I'm really, really angry with you, you won't know about it at all. And only the cartons that have been standing by the tree for a week if you can evacuate, okay? Really thank you. And sorry. And it's good that you erected the sukkah. Very good even, because it was only through her that I understood a few things. In general, Sukkah is the best image in the world of what we are talking about.
"All of Israel deserves to sit in one sukkah," our sages say in Tractate Sukkah. How exactly is it performed? When we were little, Sukkot was painted in a solid color of: Shh! Shhh! My mother, who would be healthy, would go and silence everyone for an entire week. The reason was that we went outside, from the house to the sukkah, and suddenly everything was very exposed, because next door was the neighbors' sukkah, with only plywood separating us from them and you could hear every word that was said! Therefore, my entire memory of Sukkot is also connected to the concept of dividing a shared space. Although on separate Sukkot, but in a shared space.
There is a way to have a common space. It is difficult and sophisticated and requires work and especially trust, but there is such a way. When our sages talk about the shared sukkah, they do not demand that everyone enter into this one sukkah. They certainly take into account that practice derives separate sukkahs and only bother to mention that it is "worthy," that the ideal is one common sukkah. And when this ideal hovers overhead, we will succeed in maintaining our life together in separate sukkots, and that we will only remember that there are a few more sukkots in the yard and that it is not only ours, and therefore, as my mother would say, "we will not talk what is not needed." Happy holiday!
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us