The fireworks disturbed our Shabbat and our Peace, respect works both ways

Isn’t respect for the other supposed to work both ways?

This last Saturday morning brought three hours of loud noises to our morning. Whether it was gunshots or fireworks or bombs it was loud and went on for the whole morning. It continued during the day and into the late night. It wasn’t for a  few minutes. It went on for three full hours on Saturday morning.

The Sunday morning front page of our local English paper the Jerusalem Post had a major story at the bottom front page with the headline “Arabs celebrating with fireworks on Shabbat throws Jerusalemites into panic”.

For a Jew, it is especially hard to have on Saturday, because we are cut off from our news sources to calm our fears that it is “only fireworks”. And of course, we did not know this at the time.  We are not panicked in Israel, at every noise, but we have a right to fear for our lives. After the fact, minimizing our discomfort by saying it was “just fireworks”, doesn’t bring our peace back or the disturbance of Shabbat. The headline was unfair and minimized our discomfort. We are a war-torn society living on the edge every day, and it was perfectly reasonable for the population to be worried, and not for this to be classified as a “panic”.

There were several other stories over the rest of Sunday, letting us know that the Arabs set up fireworks, not to be nefarious but celebratory of the high school students receiving their final exam grades. Because of the Virus, schools have been shut down, so according to the stories, all justifying the Arabs, this brought on the fireworks “celebrations”.

What is the point of living in a Jewish country, if our leaders and police are not able to balance the Arabs right to celebrate with our living in peace. Who would think of the noises being fireworks at 8 o’clock in the morning?

Just like the Calls to Prayer, which happens every morning from 3:30 to 4:30 in the morning disturb our sleep, we are entitled to enjoy being in a Jewish country on Shabbat, with peace not in a war. While we know what these calls are, so it doesn’t produce a “panic”, no one in their right mind would put up with this in a civilized country.

While I personally am sold on Israel, and live here because for spiritual reasons, this is the only place for a Jew, I am embarrassed to push Aliyah to my friends to say this will fix all your problems. We have to take our country back if we want to be proud of it and respect has to work both ways.

Like Taking Candy from a Baby
Rachel Adler was a new mother and decided to take her baby daughter Adina to the supermarket for the first time. Rachel dressed her in pink from head to toe, cute as a doll. At the store, she placed her in the shopping cart and put her purchases around her.

At the checkout line, a small boy and his mother were ahead of them. The child was crying uncontrollably.

“He wants some candy or gum and his mother won’t let him have any,” Rachel thought.

Then she heard his mother’s reply.

“No!” she said, looking in her direction. “You may not have a baby sister today. That lady got the last one!”