Refuge

I was driving back this evening from a Pidyon HaBen, listening to the joyous shouts of the Palestinians as they burned and desecrated the synagogue buildings of Gush Qatif. Suddenly, I had this intense urge to be in a shul (not the Kotel, for some reason). So, I turned the car around and drove down 'Brisker Rov' Street (רחוב הגרי"ז) and parked in Zikhron Moyshe, home of Israel's biggest Shtibelach (though Itzkovitz in Bene Beraq probably gets more business, though it is smaller.) ZM is a real experience. There are something like six or seven shuls, some large some small. You can get a mnyan for whatever Tefillah you like, at almost any time of the day or night. The place is populated by all kinds of people and is very, very haimish (which is why I like it). OK, the other reason I like it is because the Girsa Seforim Store (aka Zundel Berman in Jerusalem) is across the street and open until 9PM.

I needed Zikhron Moyshe to wash over me and wash away the cries of the Arabs as they celebrated the defeat of the Jews, the humiliation of their Torah and another step toward the reconquest of all of Falestin, al the liberation of Al-Quds a-Sharif. I know that most of the people with whom I prayed were far from Zionists. Yet, I also know that it is the God to whom we all prayed (and the One that too many Israeli Jews ignore) who will decide, in just a matter of days, whither this entire experiment kbnown as the State of Israel, is headed.

והוא רחום יכפר עון ולא ישחית והרבה להשיב אפו ולא יעיר כל חמתו. ד' הושיע המלך יעננו ביום קראנו.