Last year, just before Chanukah, a short article appeared 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 which was lit at one of the Jerusalem hotels which temporarily housed many former Neve Dekalim residents, 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 Yaakov was thrown. The point bears repeating.
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 about a nace which happened when the brothers cast Yosef into the pit which contained snakes and scorpions. Although this pit was habitat to snakes and scorpions, 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, despite all of the hundreds or thousands of mortal shells and Kassams which fell on Neve Dekalim and throughout Gush Katif over many years, there were but a mere handful of casualties among the 8,000 Jews then living in Gush Katif. And despite the agony and trauma of last year’s worriesome weekly threats of evictions made by the hotels and encampments where the refugees were placed pending completion of temporary residences, each threat passed uneventfully due to the steadfastness of Gush Katif’s leaders and due to the help of many caring Jews — the Yad Hashem as with Yosef’s pit.
In retrospect, if only the evil regime, which is hard at work trying to give away the store and 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 bogus rationales like “security,” “demographics,”
“American pressure,” “blackmail for graft and corruption crimes”, etc. but in retrospect, frittered away out of the folly of pure, blind, sinat chinom (causeless hatred) of Torah and derech Hashem.
But alas, this elitist, hate-blinded hellinistic evil regime and it’s equally evil predecessors will never own up and admit to the dangers which they have caused to the nation that they have solemnly sworn to defend and govern.
May it be in this year and in all future years, that our brethren — the refugee families from Gush Katif — the vast majority still seeking their permanent places, our brethren in the North who have had their lives disrupted, been displaced from their homes, their property in many cases destroyed by Katushyas, as well as our dear brother, Jonathan Pollard and the lives of the 3 captive Chayalim are central in our thoughts, prayers, chassadim and actions. May this abominable period of history called hitnatkut be as a bad dream, be retified — our brethren made whole and may hitnatkut be expunged from collective consciousness yet it’s evil never forgotten.
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 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” and 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, Miyad, Etmol!!!
Good Shabbos, Chanukah Same’ach!
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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.