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

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

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

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.

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/

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

Looking for offers to entertain Ein Tzurim -Netzer Hazani -Gadid children for day trips to your community

Dear friends ,
As you know we have no "safe area" in Ein Tzurim caravilla site in which for our children to seek protection during the siren alerts when the rockets explode and fall. The Pikud HaOref has as of yesterday closed all the nurseries,kindergartens and schools in the area and in nearby areas probably all this week and perhaps some of next week as well.
We would like to bus between 30 -40 children of Netzer Hazani-Gadid community in Ein Tzurim (ages about 2.5-3yrs until about 13 yrs. for daily trips to various communities who will be willing to host entertainment for the children and perhaps some of the parents who are not working . Perhaps youth in the host community or parents could prepare activities in various age groups , perhaps local musicians ,actors etc could help ---an outdoor trip in your area ---anyhting your community can think of that will make the day pleasant for the kids and parents --would be great !.

We have two people in our community trying to coordinate such activities and days
so please if you have any ideas or would like to organize people in your community to try and help them lift up this glove that would be amazing -- for any ideas suggestions or willingness to do this one day
please contact Anat Meller 054-2562609 in the morning..

Please pass this on to others as well --thanks for caring,caring gives strength,anita( 0547775268)