Wednesday, November 21, 2012
A Sandy cloud explodes --Israel is one
Dearest friends , wrote this exactly a week ago ,the day before the eternal cloud (pillar of defense)front began here in Israel , and we were again bombarded by rockets shot to kill . Sirens ,rushing to sewage pipe shelter , explosions , quiet repeated again and again., yet never becoming a routine B"H again our routine .The routine has been going on all week . and never sent this letter out to you until now. It is I believe more relevent than ever !
Seven years after the painful destruction of our homes and lifetime endeavors, in the ein tzurim caravilla site. I sit and watch clip after clip of the descriptions of the pain and suffering of our dear friends and acquaintances, our Jewish brothers as well as people of all religions and backgrounds all over the east coast of USA and even in some other parts of country where there was extreme damage.
The pain for each and everyone of these people is sharp as our hearts goes out to them.
. This pain of seeing your houses damaged and destroyed , the synagogues damaged and contents destroyed, places of work destroyed is felt so intensely by all people of Gush Katif who see these photos . In 2005 one of hardest parts for us was that all our friends and neighbors, our support system were in the same position. For some of you this is true as well,it is so difficult
Then --as today good souls immediately ran out to help --bringing clothing , food, diapers, all the most essential items. Without these we and you would have been like rags ourselves.
The empty exhausted feeling of being totally bare as a tree without a leaf , as a hanger without a suit without any material belongings we felt then as do those in your communities with all gone.
There were for us many special people who "got it" and identified the " bareness " .They came to greet us with flowers and big hugs and music and spirit ---and they did not let us forget those first few hours and days and weeks ,not even for a moment --that we were still so rich !
Our spirit and values of Judaism were in place as they are not destroyed by bulldozers nor by the hugest waves ,winds nor rain,
--The material things, the base to put our feet down on --- were so easily flooded away ---who could believe it !!!
Amazing ---our spiritual stockpiles coming from ourselves and all the generations before us sure got a bit shook up ----but were definitely there and stable and strong to continue in faith,emuna! to begin anew! then as G-d willing now,
A person who encouraged and touched me so then ---was a Jewish day school teacher from louisiana whose students' families had lost everything in katrina in the days shortly after all in gush katif was destroyed and they too were taken elsewheres living in a temporary shelter and learning in a temporary school. Even in this temporary situation --- as ours ---this teacher insisted that each of her students would collect among themselves a few pennies each day and eventually sent a very small but so very significant check, This teacher wanted to insure that her students absorb well that their Torah spirits and values remain strong and in proper proportion .
She felt strongly that in fact that there was a huge difference between what happened to her students and us . Our houses had been destroyed by fellow Jews, by our own government by a knesst vote ,intentionally and this was very different than the flood that overan their towns in which the forces of nature that Hakadosh Baruch used at his will equally between gentile and jew between a righteous peron and one a bit less so , between learned and not learned. She felt this was a world of a difference and insisted that her students who needed help ---still be aware they should help us. '.
Still the destruction by Sandy--- is similar to our experience in many ways - I humbly ask to share from our experience and hope I am not saying something that will G-d forbid offend anyone as surely it is not my intention.
I humbly believe from our experience that those that are on the bottom side of the fallen plate today less need old clothing ---but more need the hope that they will be able to begin anew and all who care will be there for them during this long and difficult stretch ahead.
They less need big huge competing ads in papers by well intending organizations trying to make them look as unfortunate as possible so their donors will open their hearts and purses and help but they do need those who will quietly and modestly with courage and caring form groups who will back them in the banks for loans and mortgages to begin anew ---who will find a way to fund indirectly few weeks of minimum income so they can get their act together and meanwhile keep their job and most important keep their respect in the eyes of their children by enabling them to care for their own families .
Those who are left with no material items have the privilege, as we did, to appreciate every thing they have--- their children, their health and so significant for their future -- their Jewish spirit and values.
To those who are on the helping side ---our experiences these seven years shown the importance of helping with modesty without causing any embarrassment -- leaving those helped in control of their lives ,with self respect and the respect of their family
Turning the families now in need into unfortunates and gemachnikim is sometimes not always kind
What a zchut ,privilege to be this time on the up-side of the plate that fell ---to be able to help, encourage and strengthen ---it could have been the other way around chas ve chalila ---so please find ways to perform the chessed quietly and see how best you can help those who need help to be able to help themselves to begin anew.
To those who must build their homes anew ----and much of their lives anew -I share with you from our experience . -You will wake up one morning, if you have not yet and realize you are more a spiritual person as that is what you have left ----You will feel what a big zchut you have --enjoy that special feeling that few others have -
-- What happened to homes without any specific discrimination and how we suddenly each need each other allows us to suddenly really feel what we learned about many times but could never really absorb --- we are each just a limb of the body of klal yisrael,
.
Please, dearest friends who have over these years read my communications from Gush Katif and after gush katif and have become my true friends ---I write today with great sincerity and appreciation for those who were there for us and are still there for us.
Especially to those who must build their home anew or totally refurbish--- consider perhaps if this is not an opportunity! a window that Hakadosh Baruch Hu opened for you personally as our missing link in Israel to consider to come really home--to bring your newly exposed form of spirituality to fruition.
Please consider if this is perhaps the right time to build your home in Israel .--. Very funny ,you say , How? with what? --are not easy questions-- but once your heart and soul allows you to decide ---and you begin working on it ---we here will pray seriously and intensely for you to have siyata dishmaya " G-ds' help
Perhaps a home . a job and all will BE"H come more easily with your decision to come home.. We of Gush Katif have learned that we cannot force things to happen because we wish it and we are not in control of all as we would have liked.
We have learned to flow with hakadosh baruch hu .
Where and how--- are details that must be worked out -but the second you feel in your hearts ; that what has happened is in fact an opportunity !
you will flow with this opportunity and begin checking details and possibilities and you will hopefully find that you will have siyata dishmaya --G-d's help to connect with your people with your land ,to come home. .
Today our town of Netzer Hazani is really looking almost built anew--and yet there is so much yet to be done to make it even a bit as it was. We want so much that as many people in am yisrael as possible to have the zchut ,the privilege of having a part of this building anew of this tikkun, repair!
However -we clearly ask today, in those communties hit by hurricane sandy, all in the communities do what they can to help within their community first
.
Perhaps there are some in your community who must begin anew who are considering aliya.
Please be there for them to encourage and support them today more than ever in this option .
Best of success to all the parts of am yisrael who are workng together these weeks as one to make a difference for each other.
If there is something specific that I or my community of netzer hazani can do based on our similar experience to help please dont hesitate to write or call as we sincerely know and pain the destruction and loss of your material lives .
We invite each and every of our fellow Jews who are visiting israel to come and see" in live" the building anew of Netzer Hazani.
Netzer Hazani was destroyed and all can have the zchut , the privilege to have a part , big or small, in in this opportunity --of bringing chazon -vision to reality .
It is slowly but surely being accomplished here today through devotion to the values of Tikkun, of justice and kindness for which we all so yearn to have a part .
Looking forward to meeting you or hearing from you.
Anita Tucker
0547775268
http://netzerhazani.blogspot.com
www.netzerhazani.org/donate
Saturday, August 6, 2011
vision to privilege ,repairing a disgrace
BS"D
Shabbat Chazon is the Shabbat before the ninth of Av, the Shabbat of vision.
Boy ! Our prophets sure had vision. They were given the job to let us know that we would have some lousy times but if we keep the faith the good times will be really great. They described the visions in very picturesque terms that each year for the weeks before and after makes it like seeing a 3D movie.
The inertia of vision kept the Gush Katif people going after destruction of all. This destruction was in some ways a repeat of Jewish history. Again the source can be traced in the lack of willingness to try and identify with the suffering of others, the lack of openness to take responsibility and learn the subject matter in depth before crushing a brother.
It is now six years later.
Every week I bring endless groups of adults, collegiates and youth to visit the building site of our new Netzer Hazani town, less than a half hour from Jerusalem.
Yes, that is what the official road sign clearly declares, this is Netzer Hazani.
I, wearing those virtual 3D glasses, explain to the visitors that with vision we began acquiring the land ,planning the town, encouraging the sick and fragile among us to hold on to their faith and vision, we began putting up new buildings.
I see that the visitors' eyes focus on the empty land. ---I try again and point out the yet doorless entrance of our new community center replacing the beautiful one destroyed , and I point with enthusiasm to these young people " look friends –don't you see ,over there, ,the playground --as I do, It is so colorful and grand even better than it was before the destruction ---don't you see and hear all the children shouting with joy and faith as children do as they slide down the steep yellow slide sure that they will land safely on the soft surface"
The youth look at me as I have"lost it" and one of them says "but all I see are weeds, dirt and rocks".
I look back at them as if they have " lost it " and say:"but surely you do see the round tables set up in this community center with the colorful table cloths loaded with great food and hear the band's lively Chassidic music and all dancing around us at my grandson's bar mitzvah that will be in less than three years. I know you will then dance with us." Our guests are starting to "get it ".
One must have VISION, CHAZON to meet challenges!!!!
I explain to them that thanks to this tradition of vision we received from our prophets that help us skip hop and jump from prophesies of destruction to prophesies of rebuilding, that we continued as did those friends who "got it" and have been with us in helping us to continue the building anew.
In Netzer Hazani we had a most beautiful synagogue that we built mainly from our own personal financial commitment.
Our Netzer Hazani synagogue stood in its grand glory as we had the chupah of my oldest daughter on the balcony of our synagogue and then the wedding of my son and Thank G-d the endless smachot of all the families.
We felt G-d's endless kindness here through the many miracles witnessed in and near this beautiful synagogue. We prayed in it, we learned in it, It was truly our grand Mikdash Me-at where we felt closest to G-d.
It was destroyed to rubble and abandoned to incited Arabs who came into Netzer Hazani with axes yelling" Itbach el Yahud -" massacre the Jews" and with their own hands destroyed this House of G-d to a pile of rubble with no one to stop this desecration.
Our synagogue is now built anew and near completion.
A few select elite who "get it", who understand, have already come forth to have the zchut, the privilege to be among those that will enable the completion of the synagogue. When the synagogue structure will be completed, soon, standing beautiful straight and tall with all the grandeur of the past and then some –this will finally be a form of Tikkun of the terrible desecration of the Netzer Hazani house of G-d whose rubble has since been covered with sand to hide this shame we all enabled.
The main building stands near completion and we are still missing ,as of today, $28,000 to complete the beit midrash (study)wing and $250,000 to complete the Ezrat Nashim (women's) wing that we must find quickly before the contractor finishes the work and leaves without completing the synagogue.
I do not sleep at night yearning for the completion of this Tikkun of the chillul Hashem, the desecration and destruction as I yearn with you this week more than ever for the Binyan shalem –the complete building that will enable us to easily be close to those qualities of Kindness and Justice –Rav chessed ve-emet that will become the way of the world.
I hope that our friends who were there for us six years ago and ever since and the new friends that we have made over these unbelievable years will have the zchut, the privilege you deserve to have a part (no matter small or big –"ki yidvenu libo") in this tikkun, in these last efforts towards completion of the Netzer Hazani synagogue that will again stand in its grand glory. Each bit that arrives will be immediately implemented on site to keep construction going to completion BE"H!
Details on site www.netzerhazani.org or contact me for details: Email to Tucker.anita@gmail.com-
Phone: 0547775268 (972547775268) or via Skype name: tuckeranita
I really look forward to hearing from each of you personally and hope you will forward this letter as well to those for whom being part of this tikkun will be meaningful.
Someday we will as well be able to again build in Gaza, part of the inheritance of the |Tribe of Judah.
Praying for times of justice and kindness, rav chessed Veemet, with love, anita
Shabbat Chazon is the Shabbat before the ninth of Av, the Shabbat of vision.
Boy ! Our prophets sure had vision. They were given the job to let us know that we would have some lousy times but if we keep the faith the good times will be really great. They described the visions in very picturesque terms that each year for the weeks before and after makes it like seeing a 3D movie.
The inertia of vision kept the Gush Katif people going after destruction of all. This destruction was in some ways a repeat of Jewish history. Again the source can be traced in the lack of willingness to try and identify with the suffering of others, the lack of openness to take responsibility and learn the subject matter in depth before crushing a brother.
It is now six years later.
Every week I bring endless groups of adults, collegiates and youth to visit the building site of our new Netzer Hazani town, less than a half hour from Jerusalem.
Yes, that is what the official road sign clearly declares, this is Netzer Hazani.
I, wearing those virtual 3D glasses, explain to the visitors that with vision we began acquiring the land ,planning the town, encouraging the sick and fragile among us to hold on to their faith and vision, we began putting up new buildings.
I see that the visitors' eyes focus on the empty land. ---I try again and point out the yet doorless entrance of our new community center replacing the beautiful one destroyed , and I point with enthusiasm to these young people " look friends –don't you see ,over there, ,the playground --as I do, It is so colorful and grand even better than it was before the destruction ---don't you see and hear all the children shouting with joy and faith as children do as they slide down the steep yellow slide sure that they will land safely on the soft surface"
The youth look at me as I have"lost it" and one of them says "but all I see are weeds, dirt and rocks".
I look back at them as if they have " lost it " and say:"but surely you do see the round tables set up in this community center with the colorful table cloths loaded with great food and hear the band's lively Chassidic music and all dancing around us at my grandson's bar mitzvah that will be in less than three years. I know you will then dance with us." Our guests are starting to "get it ".
One must have VISION, CHAZON to meet challenges!!!!
I explain to them that thanks to this tradition of vision we received from our prophets that help us skip hop and jump from prophesies of destruction to prophesies of rebuilding, that we continued as did those friends who "got it" and have been with us in helping us to continue the building anew.
In Netzer Hazani we had a most beautiful synagogue that we built mainly from our own personal financial commitment.
Our Netzer Hazani synagogue stood in its grand glory as we had the chupah of my oldest daughter on the balcony of our synagogue and then the wedding of my son and Thank G-d the endless smachot of all the families.
We felt G-d's endless kindness here through the many miracles witnessed in and near this beautiful synagogue. We prayed in it, we learned in it, It was truly our grand Mikdash Me-at where we felt closest to G-d.
It was destroyed to rubble and abandoned to incited Arabs who came into Netzer Hazani with axes yelling" Itbach el Yahud -" massacre the Jews" and with their own hands destroyed this House of G-d to a pile of rubble with no one to stop this desecration.
Our synagogue is now built anew and near completion.
A few select elite who "get it", who understand, have already come forth to have the zchut, the privilege to be among those that will enable the completion of the synagogue. When the synagogue structure will be completed, soon, standing beautiful straight and tall with all the grandeur of the past and then some –this will finally be a form of Tikkun of the terrible desecration of the Netzer Hazani house of G-d whose rubble has since been covered with sand to hide this shame we all enabled.
The main building stands near completion and we are still missing ,as of today, $28,000 to complete the beit midrash (study)wing and $250,000 to complete the Ezrat Nashim (women's) wing that we must find quickly before the contractor finishes the work and leaves without completing the synagogue.
I do not sleep at night yearning for the completion of this Tikkun of the chillul Hashem, the desecration and destruction as I yearn with you this week more than ever for the Binyan shalem –the complete building that will enable us to easily be close to those qualities of Kindness and Justice –Rav chessed ve-emet that will become the way of the world.
I hope that our friends who were there for us six years ago and ever since and the new friends that we have made over these unbelievable years will have the zchut, the privilege you deserve to have a part (no matter small or big –"ki yidvenu libo") in this tikkun, in these last efforts towards completion of the Netzer Hazani synagogue that will again stand in its grand glory. Each bit that arrives will be immediately implemented on site to keep construction going to completion BE"H!
Details on site www.netzerhazani.org or contact me for details: Email to Tucker.anita@gmail.com-
Phone: 0547775268 (972547775268) or via Skype name: tuckeranita
I really look forward to hearing from each of you personally and hope you will forward this letter as well to those for whom being part of this tikkun will be meaningful.
Someday we will as well be able to again build in Gaza, part of the inheritance of the |Tribe of Judah.
Praying for times of justice and kindness, rav chessed Veemet, with love, anita
Monday, July 19, 2010
מכתב שכתב בני אביסף כתב השבוע לכל אלו שעברו דרך הבית היהודי באום ביץ בארבע חודשים בעונת התתיירות החורף של המטיילים מהארץ הקדושה
נראה לי שהוא ממש ביטא מה שהרבה מאיתנו חשיםמאז הגירוש --הגיע הזמן למצוא איך עם ישראל מתקשרים כולם עם כולם
חברים מתוקים
מה שלום כולכם
מחר בערב יחול תשעה באב היום בו נחרב בית המקדש, "על שנאת חינם נחרב בית המקדש".פעם היום הזה היה סתם יום בשבילי.. לא רלוונטי, כבד, רק שיעבור....
עד לפני חמש שנים, כאשר נאלצתי יחד עם משפחתי לעזוב את הבית שבו נולדתי וגדלתי 25 שנה, בגוש קטיף.
למרבה הפלא היום בו עזבנו היה כמעט בתשעה באב...
מוזר, אך לא הפרידה הכואבת מהבית היא שכאבה לי כל כך, אלא המרחק שהרגשתי, הניתוק, איך לא הצלחתי לגרום לאחים שלי,לחברים לנשק,לבני עמי,
להקשיב להרגיש להבין.... בכלל לא היה חשוב שנסכים, היה חשוב שנדבר,היה חשוב שנכאב יחד, יחד..
השנה זכיתי לראות שהדברים יכולים להראות אחרת, רחוק מהסטיגמות ומהדעות הקדומות, בבית בוץ בתוך ג'ונגל מעל חוף קסום בהודו הרחוקה סביב שולחן שבת עמוס ביהודים כל כך שונים אך כל כך קרובים.
זכיתי כמעט לראשונה בחיי להקשיב באמת, לדבר באמת, לראות פנימיות נקיה מחיצוניות, להרגיש אהוב ואוהב,ולהרגיש שייך למשהו גדול.
אומרים שיום יבוא ותשעה באב יהפוך ליום שמח, מתי זה יקרה? כשיבנה בית המקדש, "באהבת חינם יבנה המקדש" ביום בו לא נצטרך לנסוע להודו כדי להקשיב כדי לאהוב כדי להיות נאהבים .
סביב שולחן של יום חול במרכז תל אביב או אולי בירושלים נשב יחד אנשים שונים אך כל כך קרובים ונקשיב אחד לשני.....
ואם זה עדיין נראה רחוק סימן שבנתיים יש למה לכסוף יש למה להתגעגע ויש למה לשאוף...
מדי שנה בליל תשעה באב אני נוהג לשבת על מרפסת קסומה שצופה לכותל ולהר הבית ופשוט להתגעגע, לימים טובים יותר, שעוד יבואו, כך למדתי בגן ובבית הספר, בישיבה, ובהודו הרחוקה.....
בשורות טובות
אוהבים ומתגעגעים אבי ותרצה, הבית היהודי אומביץ
נראה לי שהוא ממש ביטא מה שהרבה מאיתנו חשיםמאז הגירוש --הגיע הזמן למצוא איך עם ישראל מתקשרים כולם עם כולם
חברים מתוקים
מה שלום כולכם
מחר בערב יחול תשעה באב היום בו נחרב בית המקדש, "על שנאת חינם נחרב בית המקדש".פעם היום הזה היה סתם יום בשבילי.. לא רלוונטי, כבד, רק שיעבור....
עד לפני חמש שנים, כאשר נאלצתי יחד עם משפחתי לעזוב את הבית שבו נולדתי וגדלתי 25 שנה, בגוש קטיף.
למרבה הפלא היום בו עזבנו היה כמעט בתשעה באב...
מוזר, אך לא הפרידה הכואבת מהבית היא שכאבה לי כל כך, אלא המרחק שהרגשתי, הניתוק, איך לא הצלחתי לגרום לאחים שלי,לחברים לנשק,לבני עמי,
להקשיב להרגיש להבין.... בכלל לא היה חשוב שנסכים, היה חשוב שנדבר,היה חשוב שנכאב יחד, יחד..
השנה זכיתי לראות שהדברים יכולים להראות אחרת, רחוק מהסטיגמות ומהדעות הקדומות, בבית בוץ בתוך ג'ונגל מעל חוף קסום בהודו הרחוקה סביב שולחן שבת עמוס ביהודים כל כך שונים אך כל כך קרובים.
זכיתי כמעט לראשונה בחיי להקשיב באמת, לדבר באמת, לראות פנימיות נקיה מחיצוניות, להרגיש אהוב ואוהב,ולהרגיש שייך למשהו גדול.
אומרים שיום יבוא ותשעה באב יהפוך ליום שמח, מתי זה יקרה? כשיבנה בית המקדש, "באהבת חינם יבנה המקדש" ביום בו לא נצטרך לנסוע להודו כדי להקשיב כדי לאהוב כדי להיות נאהבים .
סביב שולחן של יום חול במרכז תל אביב או אולי בירושלים נשב יחד אנשים שונים אך כל כך קרובים ונקשיב אחד לשני.....
ואם זה עדיין נראה רחוק סימן שבנתיים יש למה לכסוף יש למה להתגעגע ויש למה לשאוף...
מדי שנה בליל תשעה באב אני נוהג לשבת על מרפסת קסומה שצופה לכותל ולהר הבית ופשוט להתגעגע, לימים טובים יותר, שעוד יבואו, כך למדתי בגן ובבית הספר, בישיבה, ובהודו הרחוקה.....
בשורות טובות
אוהבים ומתגעגעים אבי ותרצה, הבית היהודי אומביץ
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Netzer Hazani and The Marmara Flotilla
Believe it or not Netzer Hazani and Mavi Marmara are integrally connected!
Thanks again dear friends for having the patience to listen to my real life grandma stories for so many years now,
Rambam, in 'The Guide to the Perplexed', clearly brings a rule of thumb based on a sentence in parshat Shmot.
He says compassion towards the wicked is cruelty to all beings.
Other guidelines from the Torah teach us to be compassionate to the widows and downtrodden . We also are taught throughout the Tanach via mesora about the nature of Esau and Yishmael and their descendents --and how to relate to them
There is moral clarity for all who focus on Torah values.
Our courage to act according to the Torah moral guidelines is dependent directly on our faith in G-d.
If we are not focused on this we begin to fear, what will the media say? what wiil the other countries say? what will they do to us next if...?
evtach velo efchad ki ozi vezimrat yah, and we , all of the people of Israel who accept this as the light that will lead our ship to safe port, will proceed united under this one flag of true morality.
Accepting the basic morality of Torah values must be the foundations for our constructive actions ---otherwise they can only be destructive and not constructive as we have seen this week and too often in the last ten years.
Please read the below -- true grandma story of our real life saga.
Netzer Hazani and the Mavi Marmara
When the news of the IDF seal marine incident on the flotilla hit the news everyone in our town was in touch with the mothers in our community whose sons were most likely to be part of this operation --we realized that at least one Mom here had spent several hair graying hours from the time she knew her son was part of this team till she knew he was in one piece.
This young man had been very active in the moral and ethical struggle of our youth to save their homes, their parents parnassa and their little piece of land of Israel . I saw him attacked by yassamnikim as he just stood in the wrong place --and he was almost immediately released because the police at the Kissufum checkpoint police station all knew his mom who was always first on the scene of terrorist injuries to try and save lives. She was the head nurse of our local medical emergecy team .
The expulsion and destruction left this young man very disappointed but with his value system and faith in people and land of Israel intact, he decided to vent his desire to do something constuctive to better the country by joining one of the best and most challenging units of the army - the navy seals, or as we call them in Israel the Shayetet. He succeeded and even received a special award as officer for excellence .
Our brave navy seal officer, who wanted to make our country and the world a better more moral place, was sent to have compassion on the cruel !!!
According to Maimonides this is equivalent to being sent to act cruely to all beings --the most immoral stance one can take!
Our government basically said to these brave IDF boys -----
"Don't take over a load of cruel terrorists and supporters of terror and encouragers of cruel terror with the force and capabilities you have in order not to endanger yourselves and others ---because the many people who hate us are looking at us, so best we show compassion to these cruel people!. 'What will Yishmael and Esau say if we do what we know how to do and act with strength to those who respect strength and step all over us when we are weak? If we are compassionate to these cruel people --perhaps they will then act compassionately to us."
It is time now more than ever that we stop looking at what is wrong with what the enemy is doing ---they are being themselves !!
I have more Grandma stories on this issue, but I will leave them for another time. I just want to point out that it is time for Am Yisrael to decide that the time has come to be ourselves and for us to live by our values and morality.
I admit it is easy to get depressed from all this --but if we keep focusing on our Jewish values, our faith and our history we know that
the end will be for the good
each and every one of us now has the obligation to work harder ,to do more to add more light ,more chessed , more morality to our country and to our people .
We must continue to focus --- The sadness ,the frustration the lack of morality will otherwise easily make all seem black --let's leave room for Hashem and his mercy and compassion on us. Meanwhile let us, as well, act with mercy and compassion.
I pray that Am Israel will unite in these so difficult days under the flag of Jewish morality .
I pray that we will have compassion according to our Jewish guidelines and will not ever again have compassion on the cruel.
Our wonderful children who are willing to act with such mesirut nefesh, with faith , without fear knowing as David did, that our courage and backbone can only come when focusing on our moral guidelines, on G-d's way of acting towards us.
Take Part in Our Struggle for Justice and Morality
I welcome you to be part of my struggle for justice and morality that we are trying to be successful with every day for the last five years.
15,000 shekels ($4,000 dollars ) is needed to send 12 -18 yr old girls in our community for trauma counseling. Five years after the trauma of expulsion they continue to face new crises that need attention . The boys group was funded by minhelet tnufa (Tnufa Commision ) and was evaluated by the social workers and therapists who believe it has been extremely successful for them. Now we want to have the funds to set up the same program for the girls.
We need funds to subsidize community needs that the taxes and government funding do not cover. We have no funding yet whatsoever for any playgrounds, though three have been planned down to the last detail, but no funding to make them happen.
Remember that your small limited act to ensure morality and justice when combined with others in Am Israel can do amazing things= $18 x 1000 = $18,000 dollars,18 shekel X 1000 is 18,000 shekel etc.
$1800 x 100= $180,000 would help us complete funds needed for the ezrat nashim (women's section in the synagogue) that in GK was furnished in memory of Etti Pachima who was mother of four, murdered by cruel Arab terrorists. This women's section of our synaogue must be built anew no less beautiful than it was in Netzer Hazani in Gush Katif . Etti Pachima was a beautiful person . Her husband who was disabled as well by an Arab cruel terrorist and family are part of our community tody as well.
How much justice would be done, how much compassion would be seen if every person who received this email does one small act --and through this connects to many other good Jews to be kind and compassionate and make a difference.
This is not about our house ,our new town or our community ---this is about your struggle and my struggle for justice and for compassion --- it is about you and me being Jews that don't look what everyone thinks and says --but about acting like Jews -according to our Jewish moral values.
As we saw this week, if we don't insist on this morality without fear, we find our brave sons being sent to be kind to the cruel!! Just saying those words cause me such pain -- can you imagine how the IDF soldiers felt ?
It would be encouraging if you mail in something tiny or gigantic according to what you can and want ,but something -- just so we know you are still there and care. Anyone can also donate in dollars online by clicking here. If you would like to mail in a shekel or dollar check see the mailing details on the bottom of this page.
Last time email to thousands brought two direct acts of caring ;( . where are you Am Yisrael?
Dearest friends and family, as always, I invite you to click here to see this three minute clip and share with us our dreams for the future as we set our new challenges.
Thanks for caring, caring gives strength,anita
http://www.netzerhazani.org/main.php?s=3&p=52
Believe it or not Netzer Hazani and Mavi Marmara are integrally connected!
Thanks again dear friends for having the patience to listen to my real life grandma stories for so many years now,
Rambam, in 'The Guide to the Perplexed', clearly brings a rule of thumb based on a sentence in parshat Shmot.
He says compassion towards the wicked is cruelty to all beings.
Other guidelines from the Torah teach us to be compassionate to the widows and downtrodden . We also are taught throughout the Tanach via mesora about the nature of Esau and Yishmael and their descendents --and how to relate to them
There is moral clarity for all who focus on Torah values.
Our courage to act according to the Torah moral guidelines is dependent directly on our faith in G-d.
If we are not focused on this we begin to fear, what will the media say? what wiil the other countries say? what will they do to us next if...?
evtach velo efchad ki ozi vezimrat yah, and we , all of the people of Israel who accept this as the light that will lead our ship to safe port, will proceed united under this one flag of true morality.
Accepting the basic morality of Torah values must be the foundations for our constructive actions ---otherwise they can only be destructive and not constructive as we have seen this week and too often in the last ten years.
Please read the below -- true grandma story of our real life saga.
Netzer Hazani and the Mavi Marmara
When the news of the IDF seal marine incident on the flotilla hit the news everyone in our town was in touch with the mothers in our community whose sons were most likely to be part of this operation --we realized that at least one Mom here had spent several hair graying hours from the time she knew her son was part of this team till she knew he was in one piece.
This young man had been very active in the moral and ethical struggle of our youth to save their homes, their parents parnassa and their little piece of land of Israel . I saw him attacked by yassamnikim as he just stood in the wrong place --and he was almost immediately released because the police at the Kissufum checkpoint police station all knew his mom who was always first on the scene of terrorist injuries to try and save lives. She was the head nurse of our local medical emergecy team .
The expulsion and destruction left this young man very disappointed but with his value system and faith in people and land of Israel intact, he decided to vent his desire to do something constuctive to better the country by joining one of the best and most challenging units of the army - the navy seals, or as we call them in Israel the Shayetet. He succeeded and even received a special award as officer for excellence .
Our brave navy seal officer, who wanted to make our country and the world a better more moral place, was sent to have compassion on the cruel !!!
According to Maimonides this is equivalent to being sent to act cruely to all beings --the most immoral stance one can take!
Our government basically said to these brave IDF boys -----
"Don't take over a load of cruel terrorists and supporters of terror and encouragers of cruel terror with the force and capabilities you have in order not to endanger yourselves and others ---because the many people who hate us are looking at us, so best we show compassion to these cruel people!. 'What will Yishmael and Esau say if we do what we know how to do and act with strength to those who respect strength and step all over us when we are weak? If we are compassionate to these cruel people --perhaps they will then act compassionately to us."
It is time now more than ever that we stop looking at what is wrong with what the enemy is doing ---they are being themselves !!
I have more Grandma stories on this issue, but I will leave them for another time. I just want to point out that it is time for Am Yisrael to decide that the time has come to be ourselves and for us to live by our values and morality.
I admit it is easy to get depressed from all this --but if we keep focusing on our Jewish values, our faith and our history we know that
the end will be for the good
each and every one of us now has the obligation to work harder ,to do more to add more light ,more chessed , more morality to our country and to our people .
We must continue to focus --- The sadness ,the frustration the lack of morality will otherwise easily make all seem black --let's leave room for Hashem and his mercy and compassion on us. Meanwhile let us, as well, act with mercy and compassion.
I pray that Am Israel will unite in these so difficult days under the flag of Jewish morality .
I pray that we will have compassion according to our Jewish guidelines and will not ever again have compassion on the cruel.
Our wonderful children who are willing to act with such mesirut nefesh, with faith , without fear knowing as David did, that our courage and backbone can only come when focusing on our moral guidelines, on G-d's way of acting towards us.
Take Part in Our Struggle for Justice and Morality
I welcome you to be part of my struggle for justice and morality that we are trying to be successful with every day for the last five years.
15,000 shekels ($4,000 dollars ) is needed to send 12 -18 yr old girls in our community for trauma counseling. Five years after the trauma of expulsion they continue to face new crises that need attention . The boys group was funded by minhelet tnufa (Tnufa Commision ) and was evaluated by the social workers and therapists who believe it has been extremely successful for them. Now we want to have the funds to set up the same program for the girls.
We need funds to subsidize community needs that the taxes and government funding do not cover. We have no funding yet whatsoever for any playgrounds, though three have been planned down to the last detail, but no funding to make them happen.
Remember that your small limited act to ensure morality and justice when combined with others in Am Israel can do amazing things= $18 x 1000 = $18,000 dollars,18 shekel X 1000 is 18,000 shekel etc.
$1800 x 100= $180,000 would help us complete funds needed for the ezrat nashim (women's section in the synagogue) that in GK was furnished in memory of Etti Pachima who was mother of four, murdered by cruel Arab terrorists. This women's section of our synaogue must be built anew no less beautiful than it was in Netzer Hazani in Gush Katif . Etti Pachima was a beautiful person . Her husband who was disabled as well by an Arab cruel terrorist and family are part of our community tody as well.
How much justice would be done, how much compassion would be seen if every person who received this email does one small act --and through this connects to many other good Jews to be kind and compassionate and make a difference.
This is not about our house ,our new town or our community ---this is about your struggle and my struggle for justice and for compassion --- it is about you and me being Jews that don't look what everyone thinks and says --but about acting like Jews -according to our Jewish moral values.
As we saw this week, if we don't insist on this morality without fear, we find our brave sons being sent to be kind to the cruel!! Just saying those words cause me such pain -- can you imagine how the IDF soldiers felt ?
It would be encouraging if you mail in something tiny or gigantic according to what you can and want ,but something -- just so we know you are still there and care. Anyone can also donate in dollars online by clicking here. If you would like to mail in a shekel or dollar check see the mailing details on the bottom of this page.
Last time email to thousands brought two direct acts of caring ;( . where are you Am Yisrael?
Dearest friends and family, as always, I invite you to click here to see this three minute clip and share with us our dreams for the future as we set our new challenges.
Thanks for caring, caring gives strength,anita
http://www.netzerhazani.org/main.php?s=3&p=52
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Almost a year
I can't believe that it is almost a year that I have put a blog in here---I write so much in emails and forget to add all that I tell about what is happenning with our community into this blog. Several people I have met recently have convinced me that letting everyone know about what is happenning with our Gush katif community is important and that many are interested to hear first hand blogs from those that are in this dynamic process of a Gush Katif community that is striving against the odds to keep their community together towards building anew. So from now on I will ,Bli Neder ,really try to do so.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
http://wejew.com/media/2162/Gush_Katif_Refugee_Anita_Tucker/
sorry to tell you one year later since below radio interview ,after a war in which the south and not so south like us and Yavneh and yesodot and only 30 km. south of Jerusalem were under rocket attack , we are all in the same position we were last year --our plans to build a new are still not signed and bulldozers have not yet begun preparing the alternate land in Yesodot .
We still live in the stomach of the question mark mentioned in this interview! Yet our values and spirit are still intact though a bit dented and beat up --still standing vertically !(though quite a few of our friends have been buried horizontally before their time .)
Going home to build anew in Gush Katif is apparantly the more logical conclusion after this war. Please
help me come up with some sane ideas on how we can help this idea become something that will be enacted on.
http://wejew.com/media/2162/Gush_Katif_Refugee_Anita_Tucker/
sorry to tell you one year later since below radio interview ,after a war in which the south and not so south like us and Yavneh and yesodot and only 30 km. south of Jerusalem were under rocket attack , we are all in the same position we were last year --our plans to build a new are still not signed and bulldozers have not yet begun preparing the alternate land in Yesodot .
We still live in the stomach of the question mark mentioned in this interview! Yet our values and spirit are still intact though a bit dented and beat up --still standing vertically !(though quite a few of our friends have been buried horizontally before their time .)
Going home to build anew in Gush Katif is apparantly the more logical conclusion after this war. Please
help me come up with some sane ideas on how we can help this idea become something that will be enacted on.
http://wejew.com/media/2162/Gush_Katif_Refugee_Anita_Tucker/
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Shabbat with Netzer Hazani in caravilla site
Last hours have been hearing the planes and their explosions over Gaza ---it is amazing but it is so far away still the caravilla shakes slightlyShabbat we had many rockets falling in this general area but since we have no place to safe areas --there is no need to get hysterical to run to safe place ---and also the siren is from Kibbutz Ein Tzurim and more often than not we can't hear them here in the caravilla site .
In a way as crazy as it sounds, it makes you less stressed out than when you hear the siren and feel pressure to run with your kids to safe area .
I hope the people in Tel Aviv now realize they are only 20 km. from shomron and they have lots of rockets that were smuggled in there --so they better forget about disengaging shomron.
I know this may really sound crazy, but since I don't have any safe area anyway --my first reaction to hearing the shriek of the rocket and the noise of fall and explosion was --this feels like home -all i need is the sea sand and celery.
Tonight it isn't too much fun for those mothers we have here in our GK communities with a son in there fighting right now near Gush Katif from where they were thrown out and at the same time the mother is in a caravilla site with no safe area to protect her young children when rockets explode nearby.
Wish I could explain to those leftists demonstrating in Tel Aviv that if we would have not allowed the tunnels and the smuggling of weapons ,rockets etc and parts we wouldn't have to bomb them now. People who trylly want peace must not allow weapons to reach those that lack the morality to use them properly --so that we would have no need to bomb to protect our civilians and people would not have to be .
I wish I so that our government felt that they are sending our dear men into this war not only to protect us but to give us back this dear part of our Eretz Yisrael. I know that there are very many of the soldiers fighting there are motivated also by the hope that their efforts will not only assure safety for half the country but that their mesirut nefesh will give Am Yisrael back this part of our land --for only then can get closer to Shalom.
.shavua tov ubesorot tovot
PS-anyone who knows someone willing to help fund the busses to take the kids out for the day to keep them sane and other special expenses we have in these challenging times --please be in touch tucker.anita@gmail.com
In a way as crazy as it sounds, it makes you less stressed out than when you hear the siren and feel pressure to run with your kids to safe area .
I hope the people in Tel Aviv now realize they are only 20 km. from shomron and they have lots of rockets that were smuggled in there --so they better forget about disengaging shomron.
I know this may really sound crazy, but since I don't have any safe area anyway --my first reaction to hearing the shriek of the rocket and the noise of fall and explosion was --this feels like home -all i need is the sea sand and celery.
Tonight it isn't too much fun for those mothers we have here in our GK communities with a son in there fighting right now near Gush Katif from where they were thrown out and at the same time the mother is in a caravilla site with no safe area to protect her young children when rockets explode nearby.
Wish I could explain to those leftists demonstrating in Tel Aviv that if we would have not allowed the tunnels and the smuggling of weapons ,rockets etc and parts we wouldn't have to bomb them now. People who trylly want peace must not allow weapons to reach those that lack the morality to use them properly --so that we would have no need to bomb to protect our civilians and people would not have to be .
I wish I so that our government felt that they are sending our dear men into this war not only to protect us but to give us back this dear part of our Eretz Yisrael. I know that there are very many of the soldiers fighting there are motivated also by the hope that their efforts will not only assure safety for half the country but that their mesirut nefesh will give Am Yisrael back this part of our land --for only then can get closer to Shalom.
.shavua tov ubesorot tovot
PS-anyone who knows someone willing to help fund the busses to take the kids out for the day to keep them sane and other special expenses we have in these challenging times --please be in touch tucker.anita@gmail.com
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