Great stuff, Gemma. Yeah, TG Israel is beautiful and green these days. I didn't always feel this attachment to the land, but I think it's growing on me with time...

Good point, Malter.
The question, though, is what is the bridge for, and where is it taking us?
Despite all the positive connotations of bridges in our Jewish consciousness, in my case, my need for the bridge was to cross over, do my shopping, and then cross back. However, I dreamt of a reality where I wouldn't even have to cross; where I wouldn't even have to go shopping, perhaps... (how about internet home delivery?)

In terms of the current practical process of our Geula, yes, it comes in stages. But G-d is the Master, and if He wants (and if we are worthy) He can make it happen in an instant. While we need to think practically along the lines of bridges and processes, we still say 'I believe completely in the coming of the Mashiach, and even if he may delay in coming, I will wait every day for him to come'.... We still hope and pray for it to happen swiftly and painlessly

Great descriptive post, Avital
It's so great to see your enthusiasm and connection to the simcha of the mitzva of Sukkot...

The world often seems less perfect today than it was in olden times, but realize a couple of things:
1. Considering that the process of the world's history and progress through time is entirely a process of tikkun, and that every day we're getting closer to the final tikkun (fixing) of the world, maybe it's not so bad that we're living in today's times. While in many respects the world then was much more elevated spiritually, it also had great problems which today's modern world seems to have outgrown or overcome, or is much closer to overcoming... If you look carefully, I believe you can see that the world is slowly growing towards G-d, and one day soon, PG, indeed, 'ומלאה הראץ דעת את ה'' - the world will be filled with knowledge of G-d...
2. At any rate, our role is, as you said, to elevate the physical, and that is almost always possible... Seeing as we have been placed by G-d in these times, it also means that this is the best possible spot for us along all dimensions of the world -- physical location, and time... so we have a lot of good things to do, and our challenge is to unlock the spiritual holiness in everything...

Amen!
And thanks, Devorah
גמר חתימה טובה לכל עם ישראל, לברכה

[PART 2] (continuation of Part 1)

I specifically disagree with your point on differentiating between terrorists and non-terrorists. I dislike the use of the term terrorist, because it gives the lowly murderer, hater of G-d and of Jews, a title, a class, an ideology that is acceptable in general discourse and people's minds. A murderer is a murderer; who is anyone to come and label him/her as a 'terrorist'?

A 'terrorist' is simply a human being who decided to murder another human being, or perhaps many, or to injure them, in cruelty, violence, and premeditated hatred. We have specifically seen in the last few months that murderers of Jews do not have to come from the ranks of 'terrorists' and their organizations and brotherhoods; they are Israeli citizens, Arabs living in villages in east Yerushalayim. Would you call the Arab man who drove his bulldozer into crowds of Jews in Yerushalayim a few weeks ago a 'terrorist'? And the young Arab girl who threw acid into the face of an Israeli soldier who allowed her thorugh the emergency line at a checkpoint, causing him to lose his eye? He and she had nothing to do with any of the 'terror organizations' - all they wanted was to murder and injure Jews. He was a murderer. She is a malicious, violent girl, with worrying tendencies towards cruel and barbaric violence. Finished.

I am very much pro looking at people as individuals, as the second section of my poem emphasizes. I fully understand that there are definitely Arabs who do not want to harm us, but who respect us as human beings, and who want to get on with their lives, in positivity, growth, and goodness. Definitely! In my mind, it's very likely that the Arab man in the shop where I sat, as I described in the second part of the poem, fits that description. He is friendly with his Jewish co-workers, and, instead of hating them, he respects them, and even admires them. Perhaps this is a man who has gotten over hating. Maybe those 3 kids from the bus the other day will grow up to be exactly that kind of person, regardless of the culture they were brought up in.

But then again, maybe they will not. For the Arabs, it is about choice. One of the central messages from Harry Potter is that it doesn't matter where you come from, or what you were born as; what really matters is what you choose to do with your life. This is the choice that lies within the heart of every Arab today: will they work towards muder, death, deceit, and destruction of the Jews, or will they rise above the hatred and violence that has gripped so many of their brothers and sisters, and become people who benefit to society, who live as good human beings, who work towards life, and not towards death? Nature or nurture can become effectively insignificant before a concerted decision by the human soul. Such is the situation of the Arabs.

For the Jews, there is a more difficult scenario. While we want to preserve our own lives, and our own way of life, most especially in our home land, we also flinch before violence, and find ourselves bending over backwards in order to avoid hurting one 'extra' civillian... Then the thing comes back to bite us, because, of course, 'terrorists' are all civillians... they are men, women and children who have decided to become murderers... and it's difficult, even now, for us to come to grips with that reality. How do we decide which Arab is, or will become, today or tomorrow, a murderer? It's getting harder and harder to know. This is one of the Jewish Nation's greatest challenges today, and it leads us more and more to the historical and immensely profound realization that: אין לנו על מי להישען, אלא על אבינו שבשמיים - we have none on whom to rely, except for our Father in Heaven...

Lastly, I must stress that I did not say or imply anything about hating the Arabs. The violence, especially when it comes into murderous expression, ripping lives, families, communities apart, is repulsive to any thinking human being. We despise the violent acts, and we are concerned about the culture of violence, but as mature human beings, we try to direct our displeasure at people's actions, and not at the people themselves...

As you say, Dan, we need to take necessary measures to defend ourselves, and this includes killing a person who is trying to murder or seriously harm another Jew. But to hate? We have no need for hate. There is already too much hatred in this world.

[PART 1]

Dan, I disagree with you. You weren't there to see these kids doing this the *entire bus ride*. I've seen some pretty savage-acting Jewish kids, but this was an expression of callousness towards another person's feelings, and borderline brutal cruelty, that shocked me. I saw an identical reaction with two Israeli women who go onto the bus at a later stage, and who watched the kids playing. Their faces altenated between smiles at the precociousness, and shock at the extent of the violence.

I appreciate that this is not palatable to you, and to many other people, but it's important to understand that murderers do not just sprout from nowhere. A background culture or even spiritual influence of voilence, as G-d Himself blessed Yisma'el ('והוא יהיה פרא אדם, ידו בכול, ויד-כול בו, ועל פני כל אחיו ישכון' - 'and he will be a wild man, his hand in everything, and the hand of everyone on him, and he shall reign over the face of all his brothers) (Bereshit/Genesis 16:12), is a huge factor in turning children (or adults, for that matter) into murderers and suicide martyrs. Look at the links in my post, although you know enough of these stories without them.

Of course I'm not saying that the children that I saw on the bus will become terrorists or murderers. All I am highlighting is a culture of violence, which is a part of the Arab way of life, whether you like it or not. Read 'The Haj' by Leon Uris.

[ctd...]

Well said.
Yes, we will keep making Aliyah, we will keep building, we will keep growing, we will keep singing... We are not afraid of a long journey.

It's not an easy one. I'm personally at a stage where I'm realizing more and more that we are (still) very alone in the world... even though a lot of people out there don't hate us, or maybe even like us a little, they couldn't be bothered to do anything much about it... We have to look after ourselves as a nation, as a people; we have to turn to G-d for help and for nurture, but we need to do the work ourselves.
With a reality like that, you can't 'waste' your energy reaching out to people who are so distanced from you, when there are so many of your own who really need help, inspiration, energy, dedication... Of course, when we do interact with non-Jews, it's very important to do so with pleasantness and love, but we need to direct the majority of our energies inwards...

I agree with Dan.
N, please contribute with the open-mindedness for which we pride ourselves here. There is much to be gained from open-minded discussion, and little from closed-minded statements of opinion.

Dan, I think that this discussion is effectively closed. N, we welcome your open-minded comments and discussions on our blog.

Thanks.

Yes. It's a real opportunity for broadening your horizons and learning a lot...