By, Moshe Burt

The weeks subsequent to the Expulsion have given new meaning to the all-encompassing mido; V'Ahavta L'Rei'echa Komocha --  do for your brother as you would for yourself and don't do to your brother what you would not want for yourself.  

Our Parsha continues to hammer this concept home, as have the Parshiyot of the previous weeks -- Shoftim, Eikev, etc.  Our parsha discusses Marriage and choosing the correct Marriage Partner as well as marital chemistry issues, Chalitza (ceremony regarding a childless widow whose deceased husband has a surviving brother<s>) and Halachot concerning dissolution of a marraige and the "Get" (Jewish Halachic divorce).  It also covers the double-portion to be inherited by the Bechor (the first-born son), the rebellious son, as well as numerous Mitzvot such as; returning lost items to their rightful owners, loaning money to one's fellow Jew free from interest, what one is permitted to or prohibited from taking from another Jew as loan security,  Shatnes (wool and linen together), Tzitzit, dealing fairly and truthfully with one's fellow Jews in business.

The parsha speaks also about other Mitzvot such as sending a mother bird away before taking the young or the eggs, helping one's fellow Jew load and unload a burden, fencing in a roof area and not harnessing together different species of animals on the same yoke. And the Maftir aliya of our Parsha tells us to remember, for all time, the actions of Amalek who attacked B'nai Yisrael when they were weak while blotting the remembrance of Amalek from the earth.


In short, our Parsha emphasizes collective responsibility, kindness, caring and fairness for and with each other. Being fair, straight with, and caring for another person is kinder than the insensitivity, indifference and disunity of making up any and every excuse or non-reason under the sun for an action not done, a kindness not shown whether the action relates to Shidduchim, to employment searching and interviews, to giving Tzeddakah, etc. or merely making a bus driver wait another few seconds for his fellow who is huffing and puffing as he runs to catch the bus.

And it seems that collective responsibility, kindness, fairness and caring without prejudice, without agenda, without self-advantage would create a collective unity amongst B'nei Yisrael.  And so, we collectively remember and not forget the actions of Amalek who attacked B'nai Yisrael when they were weak, while blotting the remembrance of Amalek from the earth.  We remember the Amelek without, as well as the Amalek within; lo nishcach v'lo Nislach -- we won't forgive and we won't forget.

But among B'nai Yisrael today in the period of the expulsion, the masses fell far short of the spirit and emphasis of our Parsha.  We didn't collectively put lives on hold for our fellow Jews: our Gush Katif and Shomron brethren -- not in January and February when tens or hundreds of thousands of us should have laid siege to Knesset as in the Ukrainian model until they either voted down this insanity, or at the very least, forced a national referendum on the expulsion of Jews. Nor did the masses act in the run-up to this terrible event, during the expulsion itself, nor have the masses helped in the days after as their brethren stand destitute, with nothing.

We sat crying bitter and emotional tears as we left things to the politicians to bolox up.

Not enough of us went the "full nine yards" of putting their lives on hold on behalf of their brethren in order to physically prevent the Expulsion catastrophe from happening, not even coming as it did during the Chofesh (vacation) season.  Instead, we again suffered the meek historical Jewish staple; tombstone epitaphs and tributes (how well-behaved and, therefore praiseworthy). Not nearly enough of us put our lives on hold so as to physically impact upon this Gezeira, to pass the nesi'un -- the test, so that Hashem would see to expungement of the Gezeira Rah.   V'ahavtah L'rei'echa Kamocha lost out to the fancy hotels and pools in the Galil, the Golan, etc.  And so our brethren suffered expulsion and the after-effects of the transition from self-sufficiency to abject poverty and we all suffered the humiliation of Chillul Hashem.  This battle just lost has made the campaign to unite all the Jews with a "pinta l'yid" to secure Eretz Yisrael against the evil ones, the evil regime all the harder.

Natan Sharansky recently wrote "...the disengagement did cause other fronts to surface. An invisible but very tangible border arose; not between soldiers and settlers, but between those who shared the pain of disengagement and those who did not. The latter could not relate to the disappearing world of Gush Katif as part of their own world." (The civil war that wasn't, Natan Sharansky, The Jerusalem Post Sep. 8, 2005)

Perhaps the campaign mentioned starts with us.  Do we have strength of sufficient collective self-pride, self-esteem and belief and trust in Hashem to exercise collective responsibility, kindness, fairness and caring without prejudice, without agenda or self-advantage and wage the coming campaign stubbornly and tirelessly for justice, righteousness, to go the extra mile, or miles for one's brethren as one would for one's self, for Am Yehudi and for our inalienable divine inheritance and legacy -- Eretz Yisrael?

Many of us, although a long way from a sufficient number of "little people" are working hard to help our 10,000 Jewish brothers and sisters from Gush Katif and the Shomron twons, heretofore self-sufficient and productive and now rendered destitute by the evil regime, to pick up the pieces of their lives and resume their former state.
 
B'Ezrat Hashem, may we merit that this past Tisha B'av be the last Tzom for Am Yehudi. 

B'Ezrat Hashem, may we soon know the day when Torah is the law of the land, when we pray thanks to Hashem for the Ge’ula Shlaima and for the restoration of our Brethren, expelled by the evil regime from Gush Katif and the Shomron towns to bigger and more beautiful homes and neighborhoods, Bati Knesset, Yeshivot in Gush Katif and the Shomron and only happiness and success for all time.  May this abominable period of history called hitnatkut be as a bad dream.    And may we soon see freedom and long life in Eretz Yisrael for Jonathan Pollard.

May we see the “Yom Hashem Al Kol HaGoyim,” Achshav, Chik Chuk, Miyad, Etmol.

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Moshe Burt, an Oleh, is a commentator on news and events in Israel and Founder and Director of the Sefer Torah Recycling Network. He lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh.