Three-Day Weekend
Three-day weekend – good excuse for a three-item blog. Three-day weekend – a holiday of course, if nothing else reminds you, because nothing feels like holidays used to. It’s not just me. It’s the diminution of holiday greetings.
Item 1: Another flotilla en route to Gaza with humanitarian aid, or an anti-Israel agenda, or both, or because they’re inseparable. Or because humanitarian aid means different things to different people. I used to say one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. As the woman seeing it through the eyes of the latter, with good reason, it didn’t mean I wasn’t aware why the former had women and men seeing it their way. Just saying. Me, cynical?
When Israel and Hamas handle delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid, and Israeli practices warrant criticism, and get it, why are Hamas practices warranting criticism largely excused?
One thing I know: criticism of Ben Gvir for producing a video clip of his visit to the detention camp where the latest flotilla activists were held this past week until deportation was off target. Criticism must be for tactics used against detainees and Ben Gvir’s arrogance towards them. In Israel, one could easily get the impression he should only be reprimanded for documenting and posting. Even Netanyahu criticized Ben Gvir’s actions: “not in line with Israel’s values.” Ben Gvir is a minister in PM Netanyahu’s government! If a minister’s actions are out of line, the PM’s criticism is the extent of retribution? Government inquiry into treatment of the detainees which this minister exposed – not necessary in the eyes of the government, staying in line with Israel’s values?
Item 2: Wednesday afternoon, bar-mitzvah, grandson of a bestie. The celebration originally scheduled for the first week in March, postponed by war with Iran. Wednesday, at the reception, adults preoccupied with speculations about Trump’s plans for renewing war over the weekend. The family, anxious about the formal ceremony planned with traditional blessings for Saturday. The Wednesday event at their local synagogue, provided the young teenager an opportunity to read his Torah portion. A progressive rabbi allowing women to sit on the left side of the men’s section without a curtain separating men and women, led a medley of Israeli songs, blessings, prayers.
One grandmother was asked to read the prayer for recovery of the injured. Injured. Most recently injured were reported as I parked in front of the synagogue. Radio news. Funeral of soldier killed the day before. Drones in Lebanon. Thoughts drifted with the prayer to the mother on the northern border interviewed, reporting she sends her two children to school on different busses. If one is attacked, her other child will still be safe.
My friend was asked to read the prayer for the safety of our soldiers. She stopped resisting tears, read, cried. Black mascara stained my cheeks.
The ceremony concluded with singing Hatikvah – the hope, our national anthem. Chanting, “We still have not lost our hope, that we should be a free people in our land,” More tears for me. Hope: to be a free people in our land, to live free of fear of attack, and for other people who have legitimate claims to this land to live in it freely too. Reasonable?
Item 3: Thursday morning, Haim and I took advantage of the day off for the holiday beginning that evening. We went to Shuk Hatikva, a market named for the Tel Aviv Hatikva neighborhood. Hope, again. We bought fresh fish, fruit, fresh coriander, planned dinner, knowing his kids and our grandchildren had other holiday plans, some at a moshav with the other side of their family enjoying a traditional agricultural celebration of Shavuot.
We returned from Hatikva market, hopeful. Hope children celebrating bar mitzvahs, or collecting wheat in fields, celebrating Shavuot, will soon know safety as free people in our land. Hope Israel will have a prime minister and government at the end of 2026 which will apply Israel’s values, stay in line with them, support an education system and a legal system encouraging Israel to rally around its values.
Hope war is not our destiny. Hope Israel is not destined to live by the sword. Doubtful. Subsumed by reality. But time for a fix – tikkun. In the spirit of traditional study throughout the night of Shavuot, tikkun – hope! Baskets filled at the market –agricultural holiday spirit. Replenished with hope, because we must. Hope.
Harriet Gimpel, May 22, 2026
