Hopefully Not A Sign Of Things To Come

Today I took part in a mock Israeli election sponsored by a local Israel advocacy group. Anyway, before the election, a "debate" was held, and much to my disappointment, only the leaders of the three "most important" parties (Labor, Likud, and Kadima) were represented in it, so the entire debate had a decidedly secular slant to it. It's like religious Zionism didn't matter. To be honest though, I didn't really expect it to. Not here anyway. Given the setting of this event, I guess I should be glad enough that Bibi Netanyahu, and right-wingers in general, were actually portrayed as sensible people with valid points. And that minor parties were included on the ballot.

I, by the way, voted NU-NRP. Not that it made any difference in the end.

Guess who won? Labor (duh), with ten votes to Kadima's nine, Likud's three, and Meretz's one. There was, oddly enough, also a vote for Shas.

Go figure.

Adar

Adar is considered the most joyous month in the Jewish year, with good reason: among other things, the completion of the Second Temple, the birth of Moshe Rabeinu, the plague of darkness on the Egyptians, and, most importantly, the victory of Persian Jewry over Haman all happened during the month of Adar. The Talmud says that when Adar arrives, our joy is increased.

To be honest though, it doesn't really seem like there's much to be joyful about this Adar. Every generation has its own Haman, and ours is is no exception. This time it's potential-nuke-wielding Iranian psychopath president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who wants to eradicate the Jewish state. And then there's Hamas and the Palestinians: A group of people everyone's forcing Israel to make "peace" with just chose to have terrorists head their government. And instead of presenting a united Jewish front against these threats and others, we've decided to fight each other (sometimes literally, like at Amona) and create more divisions among us like it'll do any good.

Hopefully this Adar, Hashem will perform a miracle once again and turn the tables on our enemies and bring us closer together. We need it.

Chodesh tov.


Tags: Adar, Judaism, Israel