Brain-dead or Alive?

And what about Mazuz? He is clearly in a bind. In short, according to www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org, “from 1991 until 1995 Mazuz coordinated the legal aspects of Israel’s negotiations with Jordan and the Palestinians.” So what would you expect from him? He has to decide: justice or chopping up Eretz Yisrael. Take a guess as to what his decision will be. You needn’t even guess. The chances are pretty good that you’ll never hear about this possible indictment against Sharon again. It will simply be forgotten, fade away, as if the facts never existed.

The past week the phrase ‘brain-dead’ has hit Israeli headlines. Of course, they are referring to ‘him,’ a long-dead AIDS-ridden pedophile rotting in a Parisian hospital. I mentioned earlier, I really don’t want to talk about him. He doesn’t deserve it. We don’t deserve it. The words, expressions, the entire atmosphere pervading him, are nauseating. Such respect, such honor, such admiration: for some reason Israelis have such short memories – they forget how many children, how many women, how many men he ordered murdered. They forget that he transformed terror into a noble business, to be accepted as a legitimate means to reach a goal, which in his case, was the destruction of the State of Israel. He is the founding father of Hamas, Hizbullah, the Islamic Jihad, and many other terror organizations throughout the world.

Israeli media audacity knows no limits. Broadcasters are criticizing none other than the grieving widow, Suha. Why? Because she, quite naturally, wants to inherit her husband’s money. What widow wouldn’t desire her late husband’s savings? It makes no matter that he stole and collected almost a billion dollars, hidden in secret accounts in banks around the world. But why should this bother Israeli media journalists? In actuality, what disturbs them is that she is involved in a power struggle, between the ‘good guys’ who want ‘peace’ – the Abus – Alah and Mazen – and the ‘bad guys,’ led by Faruk Kadumi , who was ‘anti-Oslo.’ No doubt, she is as despicable as him, but why should Israeli media interfere, and refer to her so negatively?

Understand, brain-dead does not refer to ‘him.’ It refers to us. Only brain-dead people could show such sorrow over the demise of a bloodthirsty fiend. Only a brain-dead media could laughingly and jokingly interview a corrupt terrorist like Jibril Rajoub on State radio, as happened this morning on Kol Yisrael. Only brain-dead people could attempt to chop up their land and abandon it to their enemies.

But, in all honesty, not everyone is brain-dead. In fact, I think there are multitudes of Israelis who are not only not brain-dead; rather they are alive and kicking, as hale and hearty as could be. This past Shabbat we witnessed an example of such lucidity.

Somewhere between twenty to thirty thousand Jews poured into Hebron for the traditional Chaye Sarah Shabbat, when we read in the weekly Torah portion how Abraham purchased Ma’arat HaMachpela, the caves of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, here in Hebron, almost four thousand years ago.

I cannot even begin to describe this past Shabbat in Hebron. On Friday night, for about two hours, there was an unending stream of people flowing into the courtyard in front of Ma’arat HaMachpela. The building itself was packed; I couldn’t get inside. The courtyard was wall-to-wall people, all praying, all singing, all dancing, partaking in the beautiful Shabbat services, thanking G-d for the privilege to be Jews in Israel, in Hebron.

People from all over the world came to Israel just for this Shabbat. Well over 100 Jews flew in especially from New York, as part of a special Hebron Fund – sponsored weekend. The Zionist Organization of America – the ZOA, and the Americans for a Safe Israel, AFSI, spent the day with us. I had the honor to tour with them Saturday afternoon. No matter that trying to walk the streets was like attempting to move around in a toy store full of kids – the city was full. Saturday morning prayers, – well, there simply aren’t any words. The largest room in the Ma’ara – Ohel Yitzhak – the Isaac Hall, open to us only 11 days a year, was one huge wave of worshipers – men and women, swaying through the traditional Sabbath prayers. The climax came when the Torah was taken from the Holy Ark and opened. The words, chanted year after year, for thousands of years, ‘and Sarah lived for one hundred years, and for twenty years and for seven years.’ Abraham’s negotiations with Efron the Hittite – handing over 400 silver shekels, purchasing the field of Machpela and the caves therein. What can I say? Hearing these words at this site, words written over three millennium ago, alive today, here in Hebron, in the presence of tens of thousands of people, who belong to the same family, all with the same father and mother. Can you imagine that someone might remember you, in, let’s say, 250 years – five hundred years, a thousand years, three thousand years, four thousand years?

That’s the way it is with Abraham and Sarah – in reality, they are still alive, they are still with us, they are still an integral part of our essence, of our existence. This week’s Shabbat is hard proof of that.

So, we look at two different kinds of people – some who are, in my book, brain-dead. And then there are others, who are brain-thriving, who don’t breath death – rather they breath life. Two populations – they may look identical. But there is a big big difference between them. The brain-dead, who have no past, today have no lives, and they certainly have no future. The others, who are brain-thriving, are fully alive – experiencing the past, living the present and preparing the future. I have no doubt whatsoever, that the tens of thousands who spent Shabbat in Hebron, and the hundreds of thousands of others who were with us in spirit, if not in body, they are future of our people, they are the future of our culture, they are the future of our land. They will continue to live and thrive, despite the obstacles and hardships. They are brain-alive. This, and only this, is Am Yisrael Chai!

With blessings from Hebron.

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