By Marney Blom
The Days of Awe – the Jewish high holy days – begin with the blowing of the ram’s horn at Rosh Hashanah when the nation of Israel is called to reflect, repent and pray as it enters the Jewish New Year, based on the Hebrew calendar.
According to Jerusalem Rabbi Shimon Hurwitz prayers have been more fervent in Israel this year, as the storm clouds of war loom large on the horizon.
“Everyone is very intense in trying to pray’’ contends Hurwitz. “Definitely, there is urgency because we are on a very thin edge of what is going to come in the New Year. If you know life, every year has its challenges, and this year looks like a little more than the average.”
While the faithful intensify their prayers, the government of Israel in cooperation with the Israeli Postal Service continues to distribute gas masks to every Israeli citizen. In April 2010, I was in Or Yehuda, a suburb of Tel Aviv, to witness the launch of a nation-wide campaign, which if on schedule, would have been completed by the end of 2010.
“Our country really thinks about people, about the citizens of the state,” said Tony, a new immigrant from the Former Soviet Union. “I came from Russia and there they think about people after the fact.
Now two and a half years later, an estimated fifty percent of the Israeli population is still waiting for the government to provide them with a mask -an important form of protection against weapons containing chemical agents such as sarin or mustard gas. As both are produced in Syria – Israeli’s unstable neighbour to the north – there is concern that chemical weapons of this nature could be used in a regional conflict.
The Israeli government will instruct its citizens to put on gas masks and activate the filter, only if there is a legitimate threat of an incoming chemical missile.
“We as a country have enemies and … the instability in Syria. We don’t know whose hands will reach those weapons, those huge amounts of weapons,” said Lt.-Col. Avital Leibovitz. “But the average Israel is secure more today than in the past.”
Despite Lt. Col. Leibovitz’s assurances, the Israeli government has been distributing emergency preparedness pamphlets urging Israelis to get ready for a potential conflict.
Rabbi Hurwitz admits there is concern among members of his ultra orthodox community of Meah Shearim. Increasingly they are turning their focus to Ha Shem – literally translated “the Name” – a common Hebrew expression for God.
“This looks like the first true existential threat of annihilation because atomic weaponry could do what nothing else could do and that really makes it serious,” said the Rabbi. “So every one is praying as hard as they can … their only hope is to turn to Ha Shem to save the day.”
Marney Blom is news director for the Acts News Network
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