The Mondial and Gush Katif

I thought I taught my husband well. No sports. No sports shows. No discussing sports. And for over 30 years it worked and then something horrible happened. The Mondial or as I believe it is called in the rest of the world: the World Cup. Maybe someone should explain to me why we don’t use the same term as the rest of the world, but I guess I just answered my own question.


You see I believe men's sports is an excuse for men to spit on the ground, rub dirt on their clothes, run amok, curse, kiss and hug each other and well, basically act like little boys again. I also believe that nice Jewish boys have better things to do with their time.


But here I am, my long suffering husband got the 'modial bug'. So during the mondial's six month period (I know the ,modial is only - well however long it really is - it just seems like six months) I have, on occasion, sat in the same room with my husband and (sort of)watched the little boys, I mean, the teams run around some kind of field, intently following a ball and trying to kick and hit it and, at the same time, listen to some other screaming guys give a blow-by-blow account of the efforts of said teams as they run around after each other or is it after the ball?


It is interesting (only to me) that they seem to fall down a lot, hold various parts of their anatomy and mouth out cries of pain. You can't really hear the yells of pain because of all that bloody blowing of horns, but I guess if you've heard one kid fall down and cry, you've heard them all.


Now here is the sad part. My husband, I am embarrassed to say this, is actually rooting for one of the teams. Don't be cute enough to ask me which team, do you honestly think I know which teams are playing and against whom? I had enough of a scare when I found out that there were also semi-final and final games. For crying out loud, if you want to decide which team won toss a coin or just fight to the death. Now that would be interesting.


In any case, I did find one thing very interesting: the color choices of their uniforms. I would not even insult my own intelligence and try to remember what team wore what colors. Firstly I do not know what teams are playing and secondly I would like to utilize the few brain cells I have left for more important tasks like remembering where I left the house keys. I did enjoy imaging what would happen if an entire teams' uniforms got ruined in the laundry and they walked out onto the field in that muddy pink-gray color white underwear eventually turns.


But then it happened. Right there in front of the whole world, a whole team in orange uniforms! And I thought, isn’t that nice after five years, the world is once again being reminded of Gush Katif with ORANGE shirts everywhere. I saw, what seemed like, hundreds of supporters wearing everything ORANGE, including face paint. And as far as I am concerned it's our orange and it's about Gush Katif. The gerush is a sad chapter, one of so many other sad chapters in the long ancient-modern history of our country. With the Nine Days upon us and Tisha B'Av just around the corner, we can only hope and pray that our fasting and praying brings us the redemption we don't reserve but are desperate for.


וכל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בשמחתה


May the mourners of Jerusalem be deserving and see Her rebuilt.

Reminder of Why Tisha B'Av

Five national tragedies occurred:
• During the time of Moshe, the sin of the ten spies who spread lies about the Land of Israel to the generation of Jews who just witnessed the exodus, creating a sense of fear in their hearts that would eventually prevent them from entering the Land.
• The First Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (Babylonians). 100,000 Jews were slaughtered and millions more exiled.
• The Second Temple was destroyed by Titus (Romans). Around two million Jews died, and another one million were exiled.
• The Bar Kochba revolt was crushed by Roman Emperor Hadrian. The city of Betar (last Jewish strong hold against the Romans) was destroyed. Over 100,000 Jews were slaughtered.
• The Temple area and its surroundings were plowed under by the Romans and Jerusalem was rebuilt as a pagan city (named Aelia Capitolina) and Jews were forbidden to enter the city.

Other tragedies occurred on Tisha B'Av including:

• The Spanish Inquisition; with the expulsion of Jews from Spain on Tisha B'Av in 1492.
• On the eve of Tisha B'Av 1942, the mass deportation began of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka.