No Qinot for the Hitnatqut
It's always a tragedy when people are thrown out of their homes.
As a friend of mine said two years ago at the beginning of the summer, "What's wrong with us? We're bulldozing houses in ענתות, the hometown of the Prophet Yirmeyahu, and kicking out all the settlers from עזה?"
When Jews are disconnected from our Land — The Land — it hurts even more.
But...
Shalman’eser did not invade Gaza and starve them out for three years.
Nevukhadnetzar did not have the leaders of each settlement arrested, dragged away, and executed.
Vespasian and Titus did not beseige Gaza, crucify tens of thousands of attempted escapees, slaughter between hundreds of thousands to more than a million men, women, and children, and sell tens of thousands of survivors off to be slaves.
Popes and Kings did not burn their sefarim, forcibly convert them, and then torture and kill them for 'backsliding'.
No one came into Gaza, forced the inhabitants to dig their own graves, and then slaughtered them en masse over the open pits. No one shoved them into overcrowded, dirty ghettos, so that they would die of disease and starvation. No one forced them to work as slaves until they were too weak to be worth leaving alive. No one starved them, burned them, beat them, shot them, asphyxiated them or otherwise massacred them on an inhumanly absurd scale of death.
So, no.
I will not say lamentation poems for Gush Qatif on Tish‘a b’Av.
I will not compare their dislocation to true suffering and death.
I will not equate it to murder, torture, and genocide.
Pick some other method of remembrance.
Not this.
As a friend of mine said two years ago at the beginning of the summer, "What's wrong with us? We're bulldozing houses in ענתות, the hometown of the Prophet Yirmeyahu, and kicking out all the settlers from עזה?"
When Jews are disconnected from our Land — The Land — it hurts even more.
But...
Shalman’eser did not invade Gaza and starve them out for three years.
Nevukhadnetzar did not have the leaders of each settlement arrested, dragged away, and executed.
Vespasian and Titus did not beseige Gaza, crucify tens of thousands of attempted escapees, slaughter between hundreds of thousands to more than a million men, women, and children, and sell tens of thousands of survivors off to be slaves.
Popes and Kings did not burn their sefarim, forcibly convert them, and then torture and kill them for 'backsliding'.
No one came into Gaza, forced the inhabitants to dig their own graves, and then slaughtered them en masse over the open pits. No one shoved them into overcrowded, dirty ghettos, so that they would die of disease and starvation. No one forced them to work as slaves until they were too weak to be worth leaving alive. No one starved them, burned them, beat them, shot them, asphyxiated them or otherwise massacred them on an inhumanly absurd scale of death.
So, no.
I will not say lamentation poems for Gush Qatif on Tish‘a b’Av.
I will not compare their dislocation to true suffering and death.
I will not equate it to murder, torture, and genocide.
Pick some other method of remembrance.
Not this.
carved on the walls of the caverns by Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) at 7/24/2007 10:43:00 AM
9 Comments:
You gotta have balls to say this, dude. And as painful as it is, it's true. I'm not sure the mere fact of saying laments equates them, but you sure have a point... Shouldn't have posted on 9/11 (ours - read backwards) tho' - IMHO.
You are correct that the "atrocities" of the past two years are negligible compared to those in the formal kinnos.
However, given that one of the purposes [arguably, the main purpose] of the kinnos, and tisha b'av in general, is to force us to examine our actions and bring us to teshuva... what better way that to look at something that happened to us last year, two years, or even 60 years ago? Surely we can learn at least as much from this as from the historical kinnos.
That said, blaming Sharon, or the left wing, or American wannabe Zionists, or anyone else completely misses the point. Nevad[nr]ezar was not the reason that Klal Yisroel suffer, and neither was Ariel Sharon. Perhaps we need to try and understand what we did (or didn't do) to deserve these punishments.
this is what happens when a very moving explanatory qinot speaker switches from reading gruesome and horrifying excerpts from holocaust diaries and starts talking about 'more recent tragedies'.
yea... I can see both sides... don't lose perspective but don't go overboard too...
check out my post on tisha beav ("Demolition" - the new one). I think (hope) it's good.
TC
On Tisha B'Av, we mourn the destruction of the Temple, which tradition (or so I've read) tells us was caused by hatred among Jews. If someone can write a kinah that expresses mourning for the evacuation of the Jewish settlements of Gush Katif/Gaza and Northern Shomron/Samaria, and for the continuing suffering of the evacuees, without fomenting hatred between Jew and Jew, I'll recite it. Otherwise, I will not. Hatred among Jews is exactly what Tisha B'Av teaches us to avoid.
Steg: I agree with you. Not sure Kinus are appropriate for self-inflicted wounds; I think Hashem would expect us to fix the problem internally instead of crying to Him about it.
OTOH, two years ago when I read the line from Eicha "Our inheritance is turned over to outsiders, our houses to strangers" (5:2) I couldn't help but think of the Disengagement, and it hits me again every year.
Are people really saying kinot for Gush Katif?????? Holy shit. I totally missed that - i must be living in a bubble.
It's hard to believe that there are people so anti-Zionist that they're mourning Jews moving to Eretz Yisrael.
B"H
One has to be sated "moderate" American Jew who lives in peace and tranquility and feels a need to show his neighbors that he is nothing like those crazy mitnahalim to be able to write such a cruel, heartless post.
Why shouldn't they recite kinos about their lives being destroyed by the government of the state they have cherished as the "begining of our redemption" ?
Why can't you tolerate them reciting kinos while the wounds are still unhealed their properties and land are now owned by our foes and are used to launch terror attacksa at other Jews.
Many of them still haven't found work. Many have depression and other mental problems as a result of this terible crime against Hashem, Torah, and people of Israel.
And some of the people who planned and executed this tragedy are still in power and are planing more self destruction for the sake of peace (?) instead of being humiliated removed from power and punished for treason or placed in the insane asylum.
When a close relative or a teacher dies one says kadish sits shiva and observes annual
yortzait why is it so hard to relate to a need of this Yidn and the rest of us still feeling pain about the expulsion from Gush Katif to find an outlet for their emotions for them to express their personal sorrow and for us to express our solidarity with their continuing tragedy?
Perhaps watching this clip would help you open your heart
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKfZOX7Jjx4
what's cruel and heartless is desecrating the memory of the victims of the Sho’ah by at all thinking that the forced dislocation of the people of Gush Qatif is comparable to their torture, slavery and murder.
there's human life, and then there's NOT human life.
it's the comparison of the gassing of men, women and children, the smashed-open heads of newborn babies, the walking skeletons and the cattle cars to the destruction of inanimate objects -- houses and farms -- which is disgusting.
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