The Disengagement question has driven a wedge in the Israeli
public for several months, but it seems that both sides have
a feeling that the coming days will be very difficult,
chas vesholom, and in general nobody knows what lies
in store for us either in the short-term or the long-term
future. Political analysts have already published various
scenarios regarding "the day after," but nobody dares to
present his speculation with any certainty lest it be proven
wrong for all to see.
A believing Jew knows man can never predict the future, for
rabbos machashovos beleiv ish and Yosheiv
baShomayim yischak. This applies in every place and time
and it applies more obviously than ever in Eretz Hakodesh
during the past several Intifadah years, when nobody
could say what the morrow would bring.
The evacuation scheduled for the next few days also raises
several unanswered questions. Everyone fears that the process
will leave behind scars caused by traumatic experiences for
the evacuators and the evacuees alike. The bigger fears are
of a deterioration into internecine warfare, chas
vesholom, in which every aberrant action taken by one of
the sides could trigger a whirlpool that could lead to
anything.
Meanwhile nobody can predict how the Palestinians will
conduct themselves "the day after," i.e. whether the relative
calm of the past few months will continue or not. Will
positive developments take place as the Palestinian
government tries to improve its image internationally? Or
will the Disengagement increase the blood lust of the
terrorist organizations?
These questions all remain unanswered, and even in a country
where every man-on-the-street sees himself as an
international policy shaper and a top general, one is hard-
pressed to find someone willing to state with any certainty
what will take place in such an unpredictable land, where
uncertainty is an integral part of day-to-day life.
Until the very last moment, Gush Katif was waiting for a
miracle. But not everyone.
There were some who came to terms with the decree and left
willingly ahead of time. Others prepared their new homes and
waited to leave until the last day to identify with the
struggle.
But many families continued with their daily routine as if
nothing had changed. They continued to build, renovate and
repair their homes, investing large sums of money even after
it had been decided that the houses would be wrecked by huge
bulldozers. They continued to plant even after it was clear
that nobody would eat the fruits of their labors. They
ignored the need to prepare another home for their families,
despite real fears of eventually regretting the loss of
substantial sums of money.
Some of them are motivated by a driving inner faith based on
their worldview. Others were influenced by individuals with
rabbinical authority who promised them that the expulsion
decree would never come to fruition.
These are difficult days for the right-wing camp, especially
the national-religious camp, which has been forced to see its
idols fall. Will they sober up? Perhaps. One prominent rosh
yeshiva said that he will abandon dialogue with the secular
for a new dialogue with the chareidim. But permit us to be
skeptical.
At a gathering of educators held following the Six-Day War,
at a time when the whole country was in a state of euphoria
following the so-called redemption, Maran HaRav Shach
zt"l made remarks that seemed to be detached from
reality. But our Torah will never be replaced and daas
Torah is lasting truth.
" . . . And we must believe," he said, "that the arrival of
the Moshiach, and even the beginning of the Geuloh, need not
come through channels like these, that have no connection and
no access to Toras Yisroel, [as if] the Geuloh is unrelated
to chilul Shabbos and uprooting mitzvas.
"The Torah says, `Velo soki ho'Oretz eschem' [Vayikra
18:28], and through the type of deeds that causes the Land to
heave out there cannot be a redemption and not even an
aschalto deGeuloh. The confusion is so great that one
cannot speak [out in public], and perhaps here is the single
place where one can speak out. We must believe that the true
Geuloh will be a redemption of the body together with a
redemption of the soul, a redemption of the spirit. And a
redemption of the body cannot replace a redemption of the
spirit . . . "
