Sparks From Israel

Spark From Israel #21

Imagine
Imagine that you had a time tunnel that took you back to your youth. Imagine that you were like a child again interested mostly in meeting new friends and playing. Just like a child, you said what you felt, and you always knew someone was watching over you. Imagine you could move forward to university age where your mind is being challenged with new thoughts and new languages. Imagine leaving school in a hurry but not being able to go more than two blocks in 20 minutes, because you keep bumping into good friends and you have much to say to each other. Imagine that the pastry lady, and the security guard and the grocery man, are not just workers, but also friends that you smile and joke with, and they notice when you are absent for a few weeks.

Imagine that your 38-year old professor is written up in the paper because during his annual 3-week army service, his unit managed to catch terrorists moments before they planned to ambush and murder innocent women and children. Imagine him back in his biology lab working on a cure for cancer, like other everyday heroes. Imagine streets with artists selling beautiful hand crafted pieces and street theatre and music festivals.

Now, imagine what lies on the other side of the door in the ‘real world’. Television sets full of Arab propaganda that portray murderers as lovers of peace. The veil of civility slowly being lifted allowing for the age-old hatred of the Jew to be expressed as hatred towards Israel – the number one obstacle to world peace. Imagine the Jews from the other side of this doorway trembling in fear of these scoundrels and warning their brothers to be prepared to evacuate for the betterment of us all.

I remember reading in the Talmud that living outside of Israel is like not having a G-d. I often wondered what that meant, but maybe I understand this concept a little bit better now. If one has no G-d and nations a hundred times our size threaten to destroy us unless we uproot Jewish homes, weaken Jewish defenses and strengthen our enemies what can he do but comply? What can he do but grasp for straws and frantically seek solutions and ways to appease a world that will never be satisfied? Because he doesn’t really believe that our protection comes from G-d, as well as the ominous situation we find ourselves in. This also comes from G-d.

And so he condemns his own brothers out of fear for his own crumbling world. The fearful Jew points his finger at his brother and says, ‘they are the problem’, without noticing his non-Jewish neighbor saying the same thing about him.

Imagine how good it feels to rush back through the magic doorway to the tiny village hated by the world but flourishing despite them. Imagine how good it is to know there is a G-d because one can see the King from the courtyard. How can one not see His clouds of Glory protecting His Nation? How can one not wonder why the multitudes of our enemies don’t simply hold hands and walk from all four directions, to crush us under their feet? How good it is to be with everyday heroes that have not become so corrupted as to sell their own brother, but rather ‘die’ for him.

How good it is to learn what ‘love’ is and ‘faith’, even from those who know little of religious ritual. How good it is to come home with the knowledge that even if the other children made a mess, and left the door open and lost the keys our father is close by and watching over us, and waiting for the time when we can walk without Him having to catch us. Imagine all the Jewish people proud of their Nation and their G-d returning to increase the building of this divinely inspired Nation. Imagine the rest of the world responding ‘Amen’. It’s not a dream. This is the future.