Kobe: We gathered here, in the last days of 2023, to prosecute the year. In principle, it should be deleted from the diary altogether. Clipboard. Let it not be remembered or heard.
Aya: On the face of it, we should have jumped from 2022 to 2024. We already thought that this happened to us with the coronavirus, that we wanted to erase 2020, and it turns out that by today's standards it is actually okay.
Kobe: That's right, and it became necessary, too! Because it was kind of a pilot for life when the world ended, ended of a different kind, of course. Good. So let's start the discussion: Let's try to teach about 2023 a little advocacy. It won't really work, I'm already telling you the end. Shall we start with "iron swords"?
Aya: I said from the beginning that it was a bad name, but no one asks me.
Kobe: Tell me, there's nothing a little idiotic about being surrounded by bodies and blood and crying and funerals, and people coming together and saying, OK, with all due respect to all the dead and blood, but what is war called, what is it called?
We gathered here, in the last days of 2023, to put the year on trial, Photo: Li-Or Atzmon Fruin
Aya: There's a very funny woman named Adi Mesika, who wrote on Twitter that after Netanyahu finds a name for the war, he'll start messing with the logo.
Kobe: Our discourse is very confused these days, you can't really criticize the course of the war.
Aya: Because you don't know enough?
Kobe: First of all, because we are good people and there are bereaved mothers who buried their son this week. I can't tell her, "The war is wrong." Really can't. But as you say, I feel like we don't know enough either. Not that it bothers anyone, right? We criticize without knowing, that's what we've been doing for years. Sitting around tables with food and saying things. Especially the men among us, all kinds of boastful words.
Two weeks ago I freaked out about it, there was a discussion about whether after the return of the prisoners, in that first wave, the ceasefire would end and we would return to fighting, or if it was already over. Most of the geniuses said, "That's it, this is the end, Biden will impose a continuation of the ceasefire," including me, of course. Very serious commentators said it on television and in the newspaper, and it really didn't happen, the exact opposite happened. They did not resign, everything remained as usual. And suddenly I asked myself, so what is your job? I don't understand, they fire coaches here morning after a loss.
Aya: I separate people whose profession is to explain reality from people who speak from the blood of their hearts. People deal with grief and grief and shock and pain in different ways. I read on Facebook the beautiful obituary written by Vivian Silver's son. Sorry in advance for the generalizations, but if there is anyone on the right who wants to hear honest, sensitive words that come from the heart and enter the other camp - I invite him to read this eulogy.
It's not that there's specific criticism of one person or another in the leadership, but a call to manage things differently. So I also don't judge people who criticize the war and people who criticize the leadership so quickly. I think that's how they are. This is their moral obligation as they perceive it.
Kobe: I haven't read the obituary, but from what you're talking about, I understand that he's talking about what will happen here the day after.
Aya: That's right.
Aya: We had to jump from 2022 to 2024. During the coronavirus, we wanted to erase 2020, which, compared to today, is actually coming out fine.
Kobe: Yes, it was the pilot for life when the world ended
Kobe: So here's how. Last week I craved escapism and started scrolling through the series menu, I wanted to forget about everything, go as far as possible. From here to there, World War II.
Aya: I thought you'd say "Beaufort."
Kobe: That's it. But from there I moved on to a truly escapist series. Another lovely Scandinavian murder. So in this series there is a fight, a couple quarrel. At some point, the man exaggerates for a moment and breaks a vase. Smashes it against a wall furiously, and it stops the whole fight. All positions remain exactly the same, but this makes some kind of turnaround in the management of the fight.
Reeve needs a vase, and we had a vase. And I've been begging for two months that if possible, then not for October 7 to stop our fight, as many people wish. Let him continue the fight, but replace it for another fight. On October 6, we reached such corners that we no longer remember what many people are talking about, they don't remember who they are fighting about, it's just scuffling, scratching, nails, and that's - it's over as far as I'm concerned.
The fight must change. I am completely open to harsh criticism against the government and against positions, even these days, as I said. But let it be a new fight. And how do we know if it's a new fight or an old one? For this there are terminology. According to the words. I announce here and now, both personally and professionally, that I have no part in the old quarrel.
Aya: But you're not such a Don man. Who did you fight with and what did you fight about before October 7?
Kobe: Right, right. Not a discussing man at all, but I have positions. I interpreted, and still interpret, the old opposition to Netanyahu as opposition to the right. By the way, I don't fully understand the extreme forgiveness of the center and the left for the continuation of the existing regime, under the excuse that this is not the time. People stood and talked reasoned about not having faith in the day-to-day running of the prime minister in peacetime, so now you're suddenly okay with that?
Aya: I reassure you that it's not like that, and they're not like that. I have a good friend who is now in Gaza, and his constant complaint to me – because I'm the one at home – is, "Why aren't you going to demonstrate?" And I tell him, listen, people were broken, people were tired, they were desperate, it's not that the sentiment changed, but the energy of the rage was momentarily replaced by something else.
Kobe: Wait, and it's there! It's there! It's absolutely insane, a person who really, really wants you to go out into the streets and make a mess, and he's 100 percent there in Gaza!
The Israeli flag in Gaza. Kobi: "The healing ability of this nation is enormous", Photo: Yossi Zeliger
Aya: The conversation he has there with his fellow soldiers is one that raises questions. Okay, guys, we understand what our mission is for today, but what is our mission in a big way, you know? And the more question marks there are about it, the more subdued they are.
Kobe: I admire them, because it doesn't make them go backwards.
Aya: There's a lot of dedication there.
Kobe: The insulting "you're not patriotic" babble wasn't real for a single moment. In the trenches it was discovered that it was from Kaplan sitting next to a gozamba settler.
Aya: What are gozambas?
Koby: There's the Mossad known as the Company Medic, this is a person I knew so well during my short service - and they don't meet him! A friend of yours sits in Gaza and writes to you in Tel Aviv, "Demonstrate," and then goes into the fire. This is something that many voices on the right have discovered. And the truth is that they also knew it all along. The babble of you're not patriotic, so insulting, so hurtful, was a fringe voice that grew louder. He wasn't really real for a moment. And the other side discovered that there in the trenches a Gozamba settler was sitting next to him.
Aya: What are gozambas?
Kobe: These big, undesigned wigs.
Aya: Great, I've already learned something new.
Kobe: People discovered people. This cannot be taken backwards.
Aya: I think that unfortunately and happily, a relatively significant period of time has passed since the last great war, in which the entire nation of Israel was called upon to participate in some kind of effort together, front and home front.
As the representative of the religious here at the table, what will happen in Simchat Torah next? I've been ignoring this holiday for years, but what is this holiday going to look like?
Kobe: Wow, that's a very important question, because it's a question that will shape the memory of this horror, I don't know. Sorry to say, it's not pretty, but I don't love Simchat Torah either.
Aya: Why don't you like Simcha Torah?
Kobe: Because you have to dance. Do you think one who likes to dance? I love talking. In short, it's a children's holiday... It has some problems, that is, for the ultra-Orthodox, say, it is a holiday almost exclusively for men.
Aya: What does a men's holiday mean?
Kobe: Because only men dance with the Torah scroll.
Aya: Okay, but that's also starting to change, isn't it?
Kobe: Right on the margins. Some of my family members haven't come to synagogue to watch men dance, out of some kind of peaceful protest like this for years. It's a rhythmic holiday and it's a very, very children's holiday, and with all due respect to young children, I have no strength for this people. In general, children are a threat.
Aya: I can tell you that they are not only a threat, they are also winners.
Aya: As the representative of the religious in the conversation, what will Simchat Torah look like next?
Kobe: That's a question that will shape the memory of horror. I don't like this holiday, because you have to dance in it. Do I look like one who likes to dance?
Kobe: I love every second of Sukkot, and when it comes to Simchat Torah, a little less. But as for what you asked, then surely you can't ignore it. The morning of Simchat Torah 5724 is a real trauma. On the other hand, the healing capacity of this people is enormous. And for me, totally exaggerated.
Now begins the forgetfulness of the disaster. We deal with abductees, it's a daily matter, and with war and the fallen in war, and I really can't free myself from the dead of Simchat Torah. From the bodies in the safe rooms, from the party.
Aya: But I think that's what's going to remain. I mean, taffo taffo let them all return safely and that there won't be a single casualty in this war, but if you ask what will remain in the collective memory in a year, two years, a decade from now, it will be this day. Because you can't look back ten years and contain all that time. October 7 is more symbolic, and therefore will be engraved more deeply.
Kobe: By the way, he can be freed from Simchat Torah easily, through Zion October 7.
Aya: That's right, I didn't think of this solution, look what a secular woman.
The flag at the Kaplan demonstrations. Aya: "The energy of rage has now changed", Photo: Gideon Markowitz
Kobe: They will also have to do something like in the United States, on the first Saturday, the month after, because there are holidays and it's a hole in the head. But I really hope that once a year we'll get in the car and drive south to stand in front of pictures.
Aya: I'm sure it will.
Kobe: And personally, what lessons have we learned from 2023?
Aya: I thought about it, and it made me laugh a lot, because I'm discovering in 2023 how much the lessons I'm learning may seem deep and vital, and they're all so self-evident on a level that I feel a little stupid. It's all about the people of Israel and togetherness, but not only that. I also have much stupider classes than that.
Kobe: For example?
Aya: The most basic. Lessons of my late grandfather. Say: It is better to buy a little and expensive. Such. Existential premises. No matter. Anyway, I had my process. I couldn't cry for weeks on end, I'm talking to you about a tear, I couldn't shed a tear, but on the evening of October 7 I started having physical reactions, a kind of rash.
My body's reaction was terrible, horrible, itchy, painful. And only when something in shock dissipated a bit, and the emotion could come out, and somehow manage out of the rubble to understand who I was in this thing and how I deal with it - only then did it come out in my eyes as well. The body took a step back and the tears began to fall.
Kobe: And the work began, too. I have to compliment you on the songs you've released these days. Some of them are songs of humor, which is a very fundamental matter for me. I go through this life only through humor, and when it all started everything died. But a moment later I started making a living explaining why it's important to have humor, which is a very Jewish process, right? It's one of the most Jewish, but also real. And that's why I salute you for the masterpiece "Daniel Hagari," for example.
Aya: Thank you. I'm still taking you back to the lessons you learned in 2023, so we'll give her credit.
Kobe: A minute before this war I was at some top. I finally became a prime time star on Rainbow 12 in "The Winning Kitchen," with my partner Chaim Levinson. It was a point from which I had to start a few more things, no matter exactly what, and lo and behold, the massacre and the war. And I'm happy that it catches me at 52 years old, which is an age where you don't break down from such things, but you can smile very bitterly and say: Proportions, Reb Yaakov. People are dying here. Wait a moment with the career.
Aya: You and I received a gift that we need to remember, and share as much as possible with others. We got to go around the country and meet a lot of people: all kinds of characters, from all kinds of places, from all kinds of ethnicities, from all parts of the nation. It sounds like regret, all these slogans of togetherness, and it's hard to accuse me of trying to please some imaginary mainstream, but when I meet the people themselves, it's much easier for me to remember everything that connects us. How much I love being part of this nation, how precious these people are to me. Just strangers I feel close to, like family.
Most people have not received this gift. And they may volunteer in their own small settings. Where I live are the groups of mothers in Jaffa, who organize things to send to the soldiers, to send to the evacuees. But then you stay in your social framework, and you may do very nice things, but you don't get the gift that you and I do.
Kobe: I have to compliment you on the songs you've released these days. Humor songs, my favorite field.
Aya: On October 7, I started having physical reactions, a painful rash. Only after the shock came the tears
Kobe: I really agree. We got more of this reality than many other people.
Aya: So when I see people on Twitter in some kind of grief, not only about what happened and is happening, but also about the fracture in our society, I try to remind them.
Kobe: That on the Internet it's always the worst.
Aya: If you go around the web, you will encounter not only the worst side of people, but also the most discouraging angle of events.
Kobe: The discourse on the Internet is a discourse between hills. People stand on distant hills. One shouts, then the other perceives maybe one word.
Aya: So it's our job to remember and remind. Mostly that.
Kobe: I accept. Well, in the end we found some bright spot.
Aya: That's right.
Kobe: Come on, okay. And 2023? What about her?
Ayaand Kobe: Go to hell.
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