Frenkel, who is meticulous about coming to the activities, which continued at Giv’at Oz veGa’on during the past summer, praised the head of Gush Etzion Council “who supports and helps so many of the processes that begin with the initiative of Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katsover”, she said and immediately noted her personal emotion at the place: “I am in love with Giv’at Oz veGa’on. The night when we buried the youth, who had come to a sudden end, a new youthful period was started here”, she said relating to the momentum of activity, volunteerism and building shown by the youths of the area of Gush Etzion and from throughout the Land, who came to prepare the place as a camping and tourist site in memory of the youths.
“Each time I come here there is a new sheltered area, a new building. There was a special Zionist spirit here all summer long”, she said, adding: “on Sukkot we are busy with the tension between the transient and the permanent. They say ‘sit in the sukkah as if it was a permanent dwelling’, feel as if you have been walking in the desert and feel its temporary nature and along with this, turn the sukkah booth into a home and bring into it all of your finest things. We are here in a nature preserve and a site for camping and recreation and on the next hill, a new community will be established. It is temporary at the moment but we feel very strongly that it will become permanent”.
Frenkel called on the general public to continue to be present at the place also, mainly during the approaching winter. “Winter will be arriving very soon and in the winter there are important things that happen, but under the surface. Here, the lessons and coffee will continue but there will not be the performances that there were during the summer. The winter period is a preparation for the coming season that will begin again at Passover, but there will be a presence here for the entire winter”.
Racheli sealed her emotional words with a call to be joyous during the Sukkot holiday also for the three youths. “The Torah commands us three times to be joyous during the holiday. When we feel this joy, we should feel it three times also for the three youths and we will experience a great and threefold joy”.
Head of Gush Etzion Council Davidi Perl spoke also about the importance of unity that is expressed during the holiday of Sukkot and he mentioned the link between the commandment to dwell in sukkah booths and the commandment to dwell in the Land of Israel, two commandments that are done with the whole person. Perl announced that “This place will soon become a permanent site. Nearby there will be a permanent community”, and he added that “here, and throughout every area of the Land, we will apply sovereignty”.
“There is a reason to dwell in sukkah booths – because ‘I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters’ (Leviticus 23:43). Supposedly, there is no explanation for the four species. But the four species express unity”, he said and noted another event that had occurred in the morning: “Four hundred bicycle riders from all over the Land came this morning to dedicate new paths in Gush Etzion”. Perl sealed his words by expressing credit for the building and activities in the place to “Nadia and Yehudit, who labor and strive”, and he thanked the general public who are meticulous about coming in their crowds to the events at the Hill.
Rav Zinger, head of Makor Chaim Yeshiva, also praised the heads of Women in Green, quoting the Rambam who requires special work during the holiday of Sukkot. “It would seem that joy is a simple thing but the Rambam states that this is great work. There are many reasons not to be joyous. In a natural way, nature draws us to the dust”, he said and mentioned King David who, in his joy, danced before the Almighty. This was unseemly for a man of his stature. “During this holiday we have the merit to work on joy. This is not always easy but it is work. One of the most difficult commandments is the joy of work. When we do this commandment we ask ‘where is the heart’. Not only to make a checkmark on the commandment, but to be joyful with all of our heart even if it is not easy”, he said, and described the work of Katsover and Matar as a dance, laboring to settle the Land of Israel with wholehearted joy.
In the event that was held with the leadership of Women in Green, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, who established the site on the night when the murder of the three youths became known, the deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, MK Ofir Akunis also participated, as well as MK Eli Yishai. Sukkot booths were strewn throughout the area of the hill, serving as centers for creative workshops and other activities, and they were crowded by the hundreds of visitors, adults as well as youths, who, from the early hours of the morning, flowed into the site by private vehicles as well as by organized transportation.
For Details:
Yehudit Katsover 050-716-1818, Nadia Matar 050-550-0834
The Movement for Israel’s Tomorrow
(Women in Green)