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*** THE ALIYAH REVOLUTION ALBUM ***

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

To Plant and Not to Uproot




You can hear our latest interviews from Gush Katif:

July 27th - A night at Kisufim Junction

Jul 27th - A Gush Katif Resident Speaks his Mind

THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

Well, we came down in our car packed full of stuff, we flashed our press ID at the three army checkpoints along the way, and lo and behold, suddenly we were smack in the middle of the action.

On our first day here, two morter shells fell less then a kilometer away from us - scared the living daylights out of me. On a subsequent walk with my dog, I found the spent body of a kassam rocket. I realized then that Gush Katif is a place of dicotomies. On the one hand, beauty abounds, sand and ocean, flora and fauna flourish everywhere. The people themselves are also very healthy looking and the houses show style and effort. On the other hand, the Arabs that live locally turn their roadside habitats into garbage dumps. Huge defensive concrete walls jut out and cut the eye. The flourishing life here is juxtaposed by violence, death, and the looming planned expulshion. Regular life, and irregular life exist simultanouely.



Seeing the kassam in my own hand, I realized it was time to take some serious measures. My house was already fitted with one mezuza - but every door needed coverage. I went to a Sefardi rabbi's house in Neve Dekalim, and he set me down for coffee and cake. While I sat, he put the finishing touches on the mezuzot - with a quill, he gingerly wrote out G-d's name "Sha-ddai." The rabbi told me that he had been living in Gush Katif for twenty-two years. Twenty-two years. He had tried his hand at farming, but his hands were more fit for writing holy script. He answered some halachic questions I had about the mitzva of mezuza, he gave a Sefardic style blessing, and handed me five mezuzot. I gladly handed him five-hundred shekel, adding my bit to the local economy.



Putting up a mezuza in besieged Gush Katif is a unique mitzva and a unique pleasure. This place, these towns, these houses, are all slated for destruction. Putting up a mezuza, on the other hand, is a sign of building, of growth, of future, and in this case, of rebellion. By putting up a mezuza, I was sending a clear message: I am investing in this house because it has a future. I pray that there won't be a "Disengagement". Moreover, a mezuza is not like making a stament by buying a new oven. A mezuza draws G-d into this space, it becons Him to enter our life, our home. Finally, the act of putting up a mezuza is a microcosm of our fight here in Israel - we are trying to breath the spirit of G-d into the body of the State of Israel.






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