A commentator left this on the bottom of the last post.

It had a very profound effect on me, so I’m giving it its own post.

And let me add a story that I heard from one of my daughter’s friends – a Shomronista, a ‘settler-ite’ – who got caught in terrible traffic in Jerusalem because of the ‘Left Wing’ protests against *judicial reform*.

She’d come out specially for the day with her sister, to have some time in the holy city – and then they spent hours and hours in the heat, caught in a massive traffic jam because the roads were blocked.

So what did she do?

She had to cancel the trip she’d planned….she went and found a candy store close by when she finally got out of the traffic jam….where she bought a ton of sweets….which she then took back and distributed to the ‘Left Wing’ protestors who were blocking the street.

When I heard this, I told her:

You have no idea, what awful decrees you just sweetened with your actions!

This girl single-handedly diffused 5 billion tons of ‘sinat chinam’ – the sin that Chazal taught destroyed the Second Temple, and THE MAIN REASON WE ARE STILL IN EXILE TODAY.

Other people can have different opinions about that, but then they are going AGAINST Chazal…

There’s a long list of people that go against Chazal about a bunch of stuff…. Each person can decide for themselves if that works for them or not.

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So now, here is what got posted up on the previous post, in the comments section.

At the end of the day, the people who preach hatred of their fellow Jew – even if they have big beards and big yichus and big ‘Toyrah Learning’ – they are just as much part of the real problem as the ‘Lefties’ who preach hate against their fellow Jews.

A real Jew is kind and compassionate.

They don’t preach ‘hatred of the other’, even what that other is definitely doing hate-filled, despicable things.

We can hate the ACTIONS, but we can’t hate the people.

That’s a denial of God, and a denial that God is running the world, and just using all these horrible people as sticks in His hand, to encourage US to change something within ourselves.

That’s the whole point of all of this – our own personal teshuva.

(I know that people who have made it a ‘mitzvah’ to hate other Jews won’t agree. Those people are totally entitled to their opinions. But my soul is very weary of having to deal with their hate and never-ending anger in my comments section….)

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And now, here’s what I got sent.

Yesh Tikva!

And the birur continues.

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THIS WILL BRING THE GEULAH … the developing story of ahavas Yisroel in Israel… 💜❤️💕👑

(Forwarded)

There is a new movement here in Israel called סלוני ישראל which started a couple months ago.

They are listening circles where folks holding opposite perceptions of the situation here in Israel get together, led by facilitators, and hear each other’s pain, fear, frustrations. After Mondays vote in the Kenneset, emergency sessions were called as there were many who were against the reform that felt their lives were shattered and are in despair.

Within 24 hours as Tishe b’Av came in, over 60 circles across the country were organized to gather Tishe bAv night, hear each other and hear Eicha together. Last night folks from Tsfat went down to Rosh Pina to sit with the Rosh Pina protesters, in Baron Park there. It turned into a gathering of over 70 .

It was a huge healing.

==

One very profound moment was when some of the protesters asked for forgiveness from the Gush Katif folks for the way they were treated and perceived during the removal, as they were fighting for what was their truth.

(It was a self realization stimulated by a sharing early on from a Rosh Pina protester who had said how pained she was by the treatment they got from passerbyers, from a violent incident with how the police treated them, and how no one from Tsfat came down to support them. )

One older hippy woman from Kafar Hanasi said the kilkul [destruction] happening now is not new and how its from the beginning of the formation of the State. The seperation and lack of respect for each other. This stimulated an older Mizrachi woman to share saying,

“I am a simple woman. And perhaps because I live in Tsfat I haven’t felt it all these years what I am feeling these past months, the tremendous hate towards… ( she didn’t say straight out but her hand gestures were towards herself. Everyone understood what she was refering to as 20 minutes before a woman was getting hysterical speaking derogatorily about Deri and how he is stealing money from the government and giving it to his own people.)

==

Everyone just listened.

No one interrupted another. Youth spoke. One woman shared a passionate letter she wrote yesterday to Echud Barak (who is a relative of hers) that one thing she will not accept from him is to say to another “You are not my brother.” (apparently Barak made such a comment publically). She was shaking as she read her letter, sharing how she has 5 siblings and these days they have very firey differences of opinions but always at the end they know they are brothers and sisters.

“These are my biological brothers. Nothing will break that. And we as an Am are also all brothers. This I will not accept from you Echud to deny that we are all brothers. We can have different opinions and get strongly emotional about them, but still we are brothers.”

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And there was the young man with his bushy long “peyos of five years” as he called them, who shared his struggles of when he goes to Tel Aviv how he feels maybe he should just get rid of his peyos because of the angry reactions he gets and how he really loves his peyos and doesn’t really want to cut them off and is pained by the intolerance of him doing his own thing.

A tall man dressed in white and khaki with a long whitish beard stood up and introduced himself as having served in some special platoon in the army.

Apparently he is also a facilitator of these kinds of circles as he shared the story of what happened in a circle he was fascinating on Monday or Tuesday in Tel Aviv.

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Sitting next to him in the circle was one of the main organizers of the Tel Aviv protests.

When it was this guy’s turn to share what was on his heart, he said the following:

”As the days went on in organizing these protests my hate grew stronger and stronger and stronger until one night it got so intense I experienced this force of hatred totally take over me and it spilled out taking on a life of its own. At the last protest when it was getting very out of control I asked myself what are you doing ?! All this hate! So I jumped to the other side where the police were and I started pushing the protesters which I had pushed into the police, I started pushing them back onto the sidewalk. ”

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As the night unfolded there were amazing sharing of feelings of hope, how out of this shatter is unfolding something totally new for Israel.

There were words of gratefulness that brothers and sisters came down from Tsfat to be together. Words of heartfelt appreciation of the folks of Rosh Pina hosting the space.

The husband of the beautiful Gush Katif family was the last to speak to the big circle.

He spoke so gently and compassionately you could feel all the hate and judgment dissolve ( one of the biggest expressions of hate and fear these days comes out towards anyone associated with Ben Gavir or the perception of being associated with him.)

==

After the circle finished, at some point that family went over to connect a few minutes with the youth of Rosh Pina and surrounding moshavim who were sitting together.

As the hippy sister said before she left: “I feel this is the beginning of the healing. A crack has opened in my heart. There is still a lot of pain and fear there and a lot more work to do.”

For many it was their first time hearing Eicha. Some took upon themselves to fast for the first time.

The organizers of סלון ישראל already are expanding the amount of circles for the weeks ahead, and supporting the continuation of the existing circles.

The sprouting of Beis David happened this Tishe bAv…. at its grassroots.

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Please, please, send me more of this ‘good news’ if you come across it.

There are way more people pulling for peace and unity, than there are haters and dividers.

Just, the haters and dividers shout the loudest, and get the most air time.

So whatever we can do to ‘even that up’, let’s do it!

Together.

TBC

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