Gush Katif Evacuees Prepare for Hanukka in J’lem Hotels
Excerpt:
“‘We thought we would only be here for 10 days,’ Miriami said, ‘but that has turned into four months.’ The Naumburgs would like to move to as-yet unready temporary housing, but are not keen on leaving the Hyatt for another Jerusalem hotel.”
Parsha Vayeishev 5766: Yosef and the Pit & Kassam’s, Mortars in Neve Dekalim By, Moshe Burt
I read the short article on the INN website; “Mortar Shells Filled With Chanukah Light” about the Menorah made from some of the spent Islamic mortal shells which were launched on Neve Dekalim over the years.
Reading about this special Menorah slated by Chabad for lighting at the Jerusalem Gate Hotel where many former Neve Dekalim residents are still staying [because the government of israel and it’s SELA refuse to do the right thing by those they evicted from their homes at legalized gunpoint] took me back in time to Philadelphia, in “the “old country” and to a point made by Rav Yehoshua Kaganoff about the pit in which Yosef was thrown.
As we learned about the Neisim (miracles) of Chanukah, the one flask of oil found in the Beit HaMikdash which seemingly had enough oil to burn for one day, yet burned continuously for 8 days, Rav Kaganoff spoke out how a nace happened when the brothers cast Yosef into the pit which contained snakes and scorpions. And yet Hashem held them back, restrained them within the pit. Therefore, when the brothers removed Yosef and sold him into bondage, he emerged unscathed from the danger within the pit.
So too, with all of the hundreds or thousands of mortal shells and Kassams which fell on Neve Dekalim and throughout Gush Katif, there were but a mere handful of casualties among the 8,000 Jews then living in Gush Katif.
Oh, if only the evil regime, which is hard at work trying to hijack Jewish hearts, minds and neshamot away from Derech Hashem (just as the Greeks tried in that era of Jewish history), realized the extent of the miraculousness of day-to-day life in what was the Jewish Yishuv of Gush Katif. If only they realized the monumental extent of the physical, economic and spiritual assets frittered away (by the regime), purportedly because of “security,” “demographics,” “American pressure,” “blackmail for graft and corruption crimes”, etc. but in retrospect, frittered away out of pure, blind, sinat chinom (causeless hatred) of Torah and derech Hashem.
May it be in this year and beyond, that our brethren; the refugee families from Gush Katif and the Shomron, as well as our dear brother, Jonathan Pollard be central in our thoughts, prayers, chassadim and actions. May our prayers that he soon know freedom and long life in Eretz Yisrael be fulfilled quickly.
B’Ezrat Hashem, may we soon know the day when Torah is the law of the land; when we see the day when our Brethren, expelled by the evil regime from Gush Katif and the Shomron towns, know freedom, success, happiness and long life in Eretz Yisrael for all time and are restored to bigger and more beautiful homes and neighborhoods, Bati Knesset, Yeshivot in Gush Katif and the Shomron. May our brethren from Gush Katif and the Shomron rise up today to do battle for the Jewish mind and soul, together with all intellectually honest and enlightened Jews, just as the Maccabees did in doing battle against the Greeks.
May this abominable period of history called hitnatkut be as a bad dream and may we be zocha in this coming year to take giant steps toward fulfilling Hashem’s blueprint of B’nai Yisrael as a Unique people — an Am Segula, not to be reckoned with as with “the nations.” .
May we be zocha the Moshiach, the Ge’ula Shlaima, “Yom Hashem V’Kol HaGoyim”, the Ultimate Redemption, bim hay v’yameinu — speedily, in our time”, — Achshav, Chik Chuk, Meiyad, Etmol!!!
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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.