Come Together, Right Now

Today I lost my cool in front of many people. It has not happened in a long time and I am not proud of myself. We were in the middle of morning prayers when a hasidic beggar came in. Now normally when this happens they will sit and wait until we are finished. Some even join us for services. Today a young man came in before we are finished and started to ask who he should speak to so he could collect money. He was told that the person he needed,was the man who was  currently leading the prayers . I was in shock as I saw him walk over to this man and ask him for money in the middle of prayers, with no thought or care.

Now the man who was leading the prayers is very nice. He never quarrels with anyone. Instead of telling the guy where to go, he gave him money. I on the other hand was not so nice. I waited till services where over, a few minutes later, and began to berate him in Hebrew ( that is the only part I am proud of). I asked him what made him think that it was proper for him to go to the person leading the prayers and disturb him in the middles of services. He said that another person told him to ask. This was partially true as someone did point out who to talk to but no one said he should do it then.

The reason I was so upset was to me why he thought it was OK was obvious. He did not think that anything Jewish was going on in our Shul. Maybe he saw two people get called to the Torah in shorts. Maybe our Mehitzah was not tall enough. I am not sure, but it was clear to me that this person felt that our prayers where meaningless.

We went back and forth a bit. Finally he said " why are you getting so angry, you shouldn't be so mad". That's when it hit me like a ton of bricks. This person, by asking me why I was so angry, pointed out to me how I became what I hate the most.

I have said many times that the big problem in Israel is the lack of אחדות, unity. Tonight is Tisha B'Av when we mourn the destruction of  the temple in Jerusalem. It is said the second one was destroyed due to baseless hatred between Jews. Although my hatred was  perhaps not baseless, it was hatred nonetheless.

In my opinion the State of Israel is an experiment. The first chance in almost 2000 years  to see if we can all come together and build a country for the Jewish People. This will only happen if we are unified. Many people here are only out for themselves. When parking, driving , shopping and even walking some people just do the most selfish things. I know that that is the way it is everywhere but I truly believe it is not supposed to be like that here.

During operation Protective Edge, three years ago, everyone knew we were all in it together. The rockets were coming down and it didn't matter what clothes you wore or how long your beard was. Everyone knew that this affected us all. People were nicer, more civil. It should not take a threat or a war to bring us together.

This morning instead of yelling at this guy, I should have said to him "אחי, my brother, you know, it is not appropriate for you to collect money while we are in the middle of praying. Perhaps next time you will be a bit more  considerate and let people finish so that they can pray with the proper כוונה, intent."

I am not naive and know full well this would probably accomplish nothing but I have to start somewhere