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Almost exactly 11 years ago, around chanukah time, I was in eretz yisroel, learning well and enjoying the Avirah de’ara which was palpably “machkim.”
On an erev Shabbos, i heard a siren. I thought i missed the boat snd and it was candle lighting,…no, it was an air raid siren in beis yisroel, in Yerushalayim. The first that had been heard there in many years.
People around me weren’t too afraid; after all, the terrorists were removing the explosive tips and just shooting hunks of metal indiscriminately into eretz yisroel…they never hit anything important or even caused injury. Some yidden next to me made noises imitating the falling sound of a missile, and sure enough, it landed in some field, probably belonging to an Arab!
But i was afraid. I was an American boy, and while i had lived through 9/11 and the events of that day were etched into my mind, it felt different when i was aware of an attack being perpetrated on me and my people directly.
People were scrambling, parents were terrified, and some spoke of going home.
Because of some hunks of metal.
Times were simpler then.
May Hashem have rachmanus on all of klal yisroel.
Nothing is just coincidence but everything is actually a direct wake up call message DIRECTLY FROM HASHEM.
when will we finally stop living in denial and FACE REALITY and accept Hashems wake up call for serious Teshuva and Achdus ASAP together as one loving nation so Hashem can send Mashiach already bkarov? Why have our gedolei Hador and leaders of klal yisroel not instituted yet a time for serious Teshuva kinnus and taanis like Mordecai and Esther did in the story of Purim? What are we waiting for? How much more horrific tragedies C”V do we need to be put on klal yisroel God forbid for us to openly confess to Hashem that yes we get Hashems wake up call for serious Teshuva and Achdus and will start immediately together as one loving nation?
May we all do serious Teshuva together ASAP so Hashem can send Mashiach already bkarov
Amen
Avira, I don’t want for this to sound like bickering and your post has a lot of good points, but for the benefit of those who might use your example the wrong way: if you happened to be in a place where people make fun of the emergency siren, you should have learnt in a more religious neighborhood. And you know what I mran: having a hat is not the only sign of religiousity; having a working head and respecting challenges Hashem sends is required also.
When I lived in the States I used to frantically call a cousin in EY every time I heard that there was an air raid siren (I even had an app to notify me of them). He didn’t know about most of them. That’s life here. Take it or leave it. During the Gulf War most of my friends got on with life.
The Gulf war wasn’t like this at all
@lakewhut
You don’t know Israeli mentality..They don’t think like you. They don’t act like you.
Pekak what’s your point? The Gulf war was a threat from Saddam Hussein that didn’t materialize.
Pekak,
There is a difference between not panicking and not taking precautions. I hope you bought hearing aid for your cousin.Maybe this article from the front page gives you a hint:
HaRav Zilberstein wrote: “To my dear brothers and friends – I heard that there are bomb shelters that are filled with various belongings, including Sukkah parts. In our many sins, the Midas HaDin is dominant now and bomb shelters must be available – it is a matter of pikuach nefesh.”
“Therefore, I turn to you, dear brothers, at the order of the Mara D’Asrah, to immediately evacuate the bomb shelters – within 24 hours – and it will be pleasant for those who heed this. And if [some residents] chalilah don’t do so, the Vaad HaBayis [building committee] has permission to clear the shelter against their will.”
@lakewhut
That’s not what they told us in NY at the time. We were doing Yom Kippur Kattan, fasting, saying tehillim every day (5 extra minutes from children’s “free time” lost forever) listening to mussar shmuessen, etc. The majority of Israelis were living it up.
Didn’t materialize? Do you know how big a SCUD missile is? The size of an 18 – wheeler! When they hit the ground they shattered every window and shutter 4 square blocks from impact. The SCUDs that actually got through completely demolished entire buildings. No zeicher. Just because they didn’t hit chareidi areas doesn’t mean the theeat didn’t materialize.
Here’s an excercise for people who don’t understand Israeli mentality. On the wall outside Beis Yisroel shtieblach there is a plaque memorializing people who got killed in the courtyard of the shul by shelling from the Arabs during the war in 1948. There are several names from the same family killed on different days. People went out the next day after their own brothers were just killed. They don’t think like you. Silly Americans freak out more than the Israelis.
>>>The majority of Israelis were living it up.
Um…no. The majority of Israelis were NOT living it up during the gulf war. Even the anti semitic New York Times claimed otherwise when describing the situation in Isreal. For that matter I don’t recall any Americans fasting or doing Yom Kipper kottons during the gulf war either. The most I recall was everyone lighting candles five minutes early on ONE erev shabbos due to a made up rumor that Rav Schach had said to.
>>>People went out the next day after their own brothers were just killed. They don’t think like you. Silly Americans freak out more than the Israelis.
What choice was there? Stay home and starve to death? Go crazy from staying in a one room house for an indefinite amount of time? How well followed was the covid lockdown in America after a few weeks? That was much less restrictive.
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