Rainbows and Punishment

Journal Entries:

Rainbow 

This morning at 7:30, as I stepped out of my building for a little jog, a fine drizzle had just stopped, and the sun was shining. As I crossed the street, I saw a rainbow coming down over Katamon. I stopped and said the blessing, as best as I could remember: “Blessed are You… who remembers the covenant, is faithful to His covenant, and fulfills his word.”  As I got to the railway park I saw my friend Amos C., who had dismounted from his bicycle (intrepid soul- I don’t ride in this weather!) and was looking at the sky where the rainbow had disappeared after about 30 seconds. “There was a rainbow, did you see it?” he asks me. “Yes, I saw it”, I answered, “and I said the blessing on it too.”

Judges

A few weeks ago, A rabbi was shot at close range here in Jerusalem. The assassin was a young local Arab who did not like that this rabbi urged Jews to pray on the Temple Mount. The rabbi, thank heavens, survived the four gunshot wounds. The assassin was killed by police (miracle number two).

The army has a policy of destroying terrorists’ homes. This is about one of the only things they do to create any deterrence. The terrorists’ families almost always say they support the terrorist’s actions. As I have said before, I believe these families should be exiled from Israel. Anyway, the families also have lawyers who have attended our law schools, and/or who come from NGO’s. So this killer’s family files an appeal to the court, asking that their home not be destroyed. The court granted their petition, saying that, in the end, the victim survived.

Without being disrespectful, I would just like to say one thing. What if, instead of the assassin having it in for Temple Mount activists, he wanted to, and tried to kill, Supreme Court Judges? If, by miracle, a Judge who was shot four times at close range survived, do you think the Court would say don’t demolish his home, because after all, the judge survived?