A Word From Ariel

My son, Ariel,just got back from Milu'im (and is going back after a week's rest). He wrote the following and has allowed me to post it here.

Dear All,

I would write a whole long letter about life the universe and why is the world has this crazy thing with plastic bags. However, my head is killing me and I just got back from doing two weeks in the army guarding 4 hours and sleeping 4 hours for two whole weeks!!!! (Oh btw for those who don't know I got redrafted due to the situation in the north which we shall settle soon enough please god with the destruction of the terrorist presence in Lebanon or at least send them back a decade) so sadly I don't have much to say but nonetheless I shall say something.

An interesting thing has happened to Israeli society in the last thirty or so years. Our soldiers, once the revered fighters of our independence, have stopped being our fighters and turned into our CHILDREN. The papers cry at every soldier who is lost in the battle for life in the north while the people dying of the Katyushas falling on their houses are moved to page 4. The reason for this, claims a friend of mine, is that before the Yom Kippur war the entire country felt part of the war, in flesh and in spirit, and as the soldiers were the "point of the spear", so to speak, they died for the common cause. Nowadays we've become more "moral" and so the death of soldiers for anything is not worth it. There is no cause worth dying for, hence we hurt their deaths more because it's supposedly our fault they're dying while the civillians dying are the Hizzbullahs fault.

The two things the temples were destroyed for were leaving the torah and hatred among each other. Leaving the torah includes destroying evil in the world and hence any orginisation the sets it's goal at hurting others. Secondly for hatred among each other, how much do we hate the people up north that we can dare say that the fighting for their protection is an inhumane act?!!? To reach redemption, and so this crazy day of Tisha beav which is a mixture of holiday fast and funeral, can become a total day of celebration we must redeem first our thoughts and actions.

Tsom Kal Vemoil TONS of love to all,

Ariel