Pity them!
They have lost their Jewish compass. Even the three-time Jew (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur) in Chutz Le’aretz has more self respect than the frustrated Leftist in Israel today.
They are paid hacks of the bankrupt Jewish Reform organizations and others.
They have lost their dignity.
They have lost their children.
They have lost hope in Herzl’s’ Alteneuland Socialist agenda.
They have lost their power, despite the millions spent on anti-government demonstrations that could have been better served feeding the poor not only of Bnei Brak and Meah Shearim, but Tel Aviv, Metula and everywhere in between. That’s what Socialism should be worried about, not a dignified, halachically correct Yom Kippur service in Dizengoff Square. Even Meir Dizengoff himself, whose father was a Sadigura Chasid, was probably turning over in his grave along with all reasonable men!
They are afraid of the inevitable Torah state (not religious) according to Nevua.
They are afraid of what they call the משיחיות movement.
Their souls are crying out for attention, but there is an echo of empty existence inside. An otherwise intelligent person must have something to hold onto in joy and grief. If not belief, then what happens in war and death?
The confrontational Yom Kippur 2023 square was named after Meir Dizengoff (also known as Meer Yankelevich Dizengoff according to Wikipedia), who was the founder and first mayor of Tel Aviv. Dizengoff helped lead to the creation of the fledgling State, alongside David Ben-Gurion, Berl Katznelson and Haim Arlosoroff.
It seems that diehard “Mapainikim” and their followers are “scared” seeing Torah alive in the Streets of Tel Aviv. The sham of protest against mixed get-togethers itself was an affront and deliberate attempt to erase all Torah symbolism as they claimed Tel Aviv as their bastion.
“What can we do?” a concerned Tel Avivian asked, not affiliated with the troublemakers.
Despite their declining and relatively insignificant Socialist numbers in Knesset today, the arrogance of their Torah-speaking ignorance is shameful and appalling. They are desperate, hiding behind the mask of democracy and liberalism, as they yearn desperately to hold onto the Ben Gurion “status-quo” of yesterday.
Deep down they know that it served its purpose and now Israel must move onto a Torah state with an eventual system of משפט עברי before the Sanhedrin will be established.
Deep down they also know the Supreme Court today will last only as long as they incorporate Jewish Law into their daily deliberation even before Israel metamorphosizes into that Halachic State they are so fearful of.
For the record, Tel Aviv was started in 1909 by a group of Jews seeking to escape the congestion of the port city of Old Jaffa and create a modern Hebrew city in their homeland. Some of the first neighborhoods of Tel Aviv, like Neveh Tzedek and Neveh Shalom, had a strong religious presence and character.
Religious Torah life in Tel Aviv 100 years ago was “a fascinating and diverse phenomenon” of thousands of Torah-practicing Jews, who filled the very same streets of Tel Aviv today. Also, many Chassidic courts in the 1950s and ‘60s, with their rebbes and followers, saw Tel Aviv as a place without any churches or mosques within its city limits.
It is told of the Belzer Rebbe, who arrived in Israel in 1944, that he refused to live in Jerusalem and was quoted as saying with pride, “Der heilige Yerushalayim! Der lichtige Tel Aviv!” (“The holy Jerusalem! The shining Tel Aviv!”) Even in his later years, when he moved to Jerusalem to find more affordable housing for his Chasidim, he would sign his name as the “Rebbe of Tel Aviv.”
Wikipedia writes “The religious Torah life in Tel Aviv 100 years ago was a rich and complex tapestry of different streams, movements, personalities, institutions, and experiences. It was a part of the history and culture of Tel Aviv that is often overlooked or forgotten but deserves to be remembered and appreciated.
“Tel Aviv is still home to a number of large and famous Chassidic courts; however, high housing prices caused many Chassidic communities to move to Bnei Brak. But over time, the city began to change. While Tel Aviv is still home to a number of large and famous Chassidic courts, such as Breslov and Gur, and to Chassidic shtiebels such as the beit midrash of the Koznitzer Rebbe, high housing prices caused many Chassidic communities to move to Bnei Brak, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Additionally, some of the city’s 500 synagogues saw dramatic declines in membership.
“Tel Aviv was also a city of Zionism and secularism, and religious Jews had to coexist and interact with their secular neighbors. Despite occasional political disputes among Tel Aviv’s rainbow population, there was a necessary mutual respect, allowing each sector to enjoy its own life style and purpose. Hapoel Hamizrachi Mizrachi movement was a dominant influence in the city as many religious Jews embraced Zionism and saw it as a fulfillment of God’s promise to return the Jewish people to their land.
“Religious life of Tel Aviv was also influenced by the historical events and challenges that faced the Jewish community in Palestine and later in Israel. The British Mandate, the Arab riots, the Holocaust, the War of Independence, the mass immigration of Jews from Europe and Arab countries, and the establishment of the State of Israel all had an impact on the religious identity and expression of the Tel Aviv Jews. Some of these events strengthened their faith and commitment to Judaism, while others tested their beliefs and values.” (Wikipedia)
“Perhaps most impressive, however, is that in the last decade or so, outreach centers and institutes for Jewish learning have been thriving in the city, bringing many of the young, estranged Jewish youth of Tel Aviv back to their heritage. While a mass ba’alei teshuva movement is not yet taking place in the Mediterranean city that never sleeps, there is a slow and steady trickle of secular Tel Avivians who are now open to and interested in exploring their own roots.
“One has only to look at the streets of Tel Aviv . . . to see a Jewish renaissance,” according to says Rabbi Avraham Halperin of Congregation Avodas Yisrael, located in northern Tel Aviv.
“There is a tremendous awakening of Yiddishkeit in Tel Aviv,” concurs Rabbi Avi Berman, director-general, OU Israel. “People are looking for spirituality.”
“Tel Aviv has more young, unaffiliated Jews in the twenty to forty age bracket than any other city in the world,” he says. “We chose to open in the heart of the city because this is where the ‘action’ is… This area is like the Upper West Side of New York… We are progressing slowly and surely and becoming a real presence in the neighborhood.”
“A great percentage of Tel Aviv’s residents are secular,” agrees Rabbi Naftali Reinitz, the director of HaMedrasha LeChashiva Yehudit (The Center for Jewish Thought) in Tel Aviv.
“But that does not mean that they are not interested if someone approaches them in the right way.” The Center is located on Dizengoff Street, which is named for the city’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff, and famous for being the hub of cultural and social activity within the city. While it may appear to be an unlikely location for the Center, which houses a kollel as well as a Jewish outreach center, Rabbi Reinitz hopes it will attract young, upscale educated Israelis who live in the area.
The true frontlines, it seems, is the Tel Aviv area, where the country’s elite secular and politically left-wing intellectuals live.
That’s exactly what they are afraid of. As Pharoah said to his people, הבה נתחכמה לו פן ירבה והיה כי תקראנה מלחמה ונוסף גם הוא על שונאנו – Let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it may come to pass, that, when there would be any war, they would join our enemies, and fight against us; and so get them out of the land.
However, they are forgetting to include G-d’s plan, when he told them, “They say, Lest they multiply; I (G-d) says, they will multiply.
In a JPost article recently it was reported that up to 40% of the “protest” crowd is considering leaving Israel altogether. In truth, there are only two options: Love it or leave it!
Popular in the 1960s and 1970s when protests against the Vietnam War were part of a movement opposed to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, also suggested this option.
Now its Israel’s turn to tell those who now protest Netanyahu’s pro-Torah government that they are free to join Israel’s evolution from a Zionist state to that of G-d’s Zion, as Reb Chain zt’l wrote, “Who bestowed the name Tzion upon His chosen nation.”
It’s time the anti-Meshichistim begin to under-stand that as the sun in its ascent does not turn backwards, or stop, even for an instant, so too does theשחרור הנפש part of our גאולת ישראל בדרך הטבע continue uninterrupted onto the מלכות בית דוד במהרה ובימינו – Either בעיתו or באחישנה .
It is the קמאה קמעה of the איילת השחר. It’s the כל מה שהיא הולכת, רבה היא הולכת. It’s up to us now. And woe unto who will come between the lion and lioness when coming together., the Navi said.
Oh! The other option? Do teshuva and become part of the Messianic future for all klal Yisrael and mankind.
