The Sleeper Must Awaken

So what have I been doing the last month? My whole family came in from everywhere to be with us for Pesach. That was vey nice. Then they left to their respective homes reality set in. My birthday fell out on Yom Hashoah ( holocaust remembrance day) which of course puts a damper on things. To top it off, I spent the day traveling to NYC and back, which I guess is better than Yom Hashoah

Although I've always enjoyed being with friends and family on my birthday, I've come to realize that I don't like birthdays. While some people see them as milestones for their accomplishments, I view them as another step toward having no more birthdays. This isn't because I'm 59 and entering the last year of my 50s, ( doesn’t everyone count birthdays that way?) but rather because I've always felt this way. Birthdays can be a depressing reminder of time passing by.

Recently, I came across an app called Healthy Mind, which I've been trying out. I think I would get better results if the news wasn't so depressing every day. There is an overwhelming sense here of negativity and moodiness in the air, and people are angry, hurt, scared, and exhausted.

It appears that the judicial reform in its original form is done, although some changes need to happen (for a very good , detailed and long analysis read https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_r-5u_lT6TIc27SjireMrlNux1roM72C/view . It is available in Hebrew as well)

The discourse has shifted, and the focus is now on sharing the burden. The idea is that all sectors of society, including the Haredi community, contribute equally through army service, national service, taxes, and more. This has become an issue between the Haredi and the non-Haredi communities that work, pay taxes, and serve in the army.

I won't go into this in detail since I've discussed it in my previous posts. However, I was hopeful that people would finally understand what is at stake if nothing changes. In less than 25 years, the Haredi parties will have a quarter of the seats in parliament, up from their current 15%. As they have recently shown when they gain power, they try to impose their beliefs on others through laws that affect everyone, not just their community. They were very effective with 15% imagine 25%

A day of disruption was called nationwide to protest religious coercion, not judicial reform. Finally, people were waking up to this issue, and I was happy to see the signs saying "Say no to religious coercion" in Tel Aviv. However, very few people attended the rallies, and many seem to overlook the implications of this issue.

If a segment of society is exempt from serving in the army, if yeshiva study is recognized as equal to defending the country, if yeshiva students are paid as much or more than those who risk their lives, how long will it be before other people decide that these values are not worth defending? Some say that those who want Haredim to share the burden want to destroy their way of life. However, most Israelis do not care about how the Haredim choose to live, but they do care about the obligations that they must fulfill for the Haredim to live that way.

Someone articulated this well when they said that no one wants to destroy the Haredi way of life; they only expect of their children what they expect of their own.

This issue is not over but people are still not seeing the future clearly. I believe there is a grand deal being formulated between all parties to try to give everyone something they want. I will discuss nex

t time what my guess is but I hope I am very wrong

Shabbat Shalom.