Celebrations

In the Middle East, recently, there were two celebrations. They reflect on the societies in which they occurred. And by taking a closer look at both celebrations, we as Jews can find reason for there to be happiness and celebration in this month of Adar.

The first celebration was in the void that is Gaza. There, candies were distributed and rifles fired in the air to celebrate the terrorist attack on the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva. When a society celebrates the murder, by a youth in the sunlight of his life, of other teens only slightly earlier in the sunshine of their lives, it is a place bereft of humanity.

The second celebration, which I heard of from halfway across the world through the wonder that is Facebook (http://facebookadvertising.org ), was a celebration for hope. Israeli youth had organized a party for the three soldiers captured by Hezballah and Hamas terrorists two summers ago. To raise funds and awareness for them (that they not be forgotten) and for the hope that they would be returned. Israel is a place of determined and perseverant idealism.


Consider what these two celebrations tell us about the morality of each society. Watch the Youtube video of the pregnant would-be suicide bomber. She was strapped with a bomb on her belly, sent to blow herself up along with her unborn child at an Israeli checkpoint.

Compare that with the footage and commonplace reality of Israeli doctors healing injured terrorists. Terrorists whose injuries were incurred as they tried to take Israeli lives, injure others and wreck many more emotionally.

There is celebration of death on the one hand. There is celebration of life on the other. It is quite literally a black and white contrast.

Take the example of Hamas and Fatah slaughtering each other in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank, a short while back. It isn’t even a matter of “combatting the Zionist entity,” there. It is the lionization of disunity and killing.

Compare that to the reaction of world jewry upon hearing of the shooting, or to the continual rocket barrage on Sderot. I can’t even count the fundraisers, volunteer trips, support groups and other assistance I’ve seen surge out of nowhere. Unity and healing are quite evidently guiding mantras in the Jewish community.

The book 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey Jr. shares this wonderful advice in its early pages. Friends, money and possessions come and go. You can lose interest in sports or suffer an injury that prevents you playing it anymore. Parental approval can ebb and flow, and many other things that people center their lives around are unstable.

But hope, morals, life, unity and core principles of human behaviour … these things are unique. You can center your life around them and not be betrayed. Unity won’t gossip. Hope for a better tomorrow can’t be assassinated. No one can steal your morals.

In this month of Adar, I’d like to propose a third celebration. We should celebrate and be happy for who we are and what is at the core of our lives as Jews. With a center like ours, how can we not be happy?

When he’s not trying to have Dan do his homework for him, Gabriel is building a site about leather watches (http://leatherwatch.ca ), writing about webmaster (http://seoroi.com/case-studies/the-independent-webmasters-manifesto/ ) stuff and sharing ideas on motivation and influence (http://seoroi.com/seo-roi-quality/on-motivation-and-influence/ ).