Ramadan 2021 has just ended. Shavuot 2021 will begin tonight, May 16th. Nevertheless, both religious days this year may have a lot more in common than you think.
During this year's Islamic Ramadan month in Israel (app. April 12-May 12, 2021), Israel's Muslims were supposed to increase religious observances. For example, they were to give charity. They were to be kind. They were to focus on prayer. They were to fast each day.
At least, that is my understanding about the basics of Ramadan. Of course, for the best facts about Ramadan, please consult your nearest religious Muslim.
For 2021, Ramadan coincided with the Jewish Omer period, a 50-day period between Pesach and Shavuot, where Jews count each day (1 day of the Omer, then 2 days of the Omer, etc). This daily counting lasted until the 49th day of the Omer. Shavuot always begins on what would be the 50th day, if the counting continued. Shavuot 2021 begins Sunday night, May 16.
Shavuot is a Spring harvest celebration. It is, however, best known as the day, some 3,300+ years ago, that G-d gave the Jewish Torah to the entire Jewish people. Shavuot celebrates that G-dly gift to the Jews.
For Jews in Israel, Shavuot is a religious day. It is a family day. It is termed in the Torah a Shabbat, a day of rest.
But not this year. Not in 2021.
In 2021, unless there will be a miraculous cessation of Hamas rocket barrages fired into Israel (which does not at this moment seem likely), Shavuot in Israel will not be a day for religion or rest. Instead, for many in Israel, it will be a day to hide in a bomb shelter.
This year, Ramadan for Muslims in Israel has not been a month of religious performance alone. it has also been a month of extreme rioting and violence--a violence that continues still, beyond the end of Ramadan.
If I didn't know any better, I'd say Muslims in Israel have a plan. If I were foolish, I might consider all the violence I've seen in Israel since April 12th this year, and say, Muslims want to 'Ramadan-ize'--or, perhaps, 'Muslim-ize'--our Shavuot . They want our Shavuot to be as violent as was their Ramadan.
I mean, Muslims in Israel constantly accuse us Jews of trying to 'Judaize' Jerusalem. Why can't we accuse them of trying to 'Muslimize' our Shavuot?
But of course, I know better than to say such things. Right?
For Muslims, Ramadan 2021 has become a time to throw Molotov cocktails on the Temple Mount. It has become a time to attack individual Jews going to or returning from Jewish worship. It has become a time to try to tear Jerusalem apart.
Ramadan has also become a time for Hamas, the terror organization which rules over Gaza, to bomb Israel. As Muslims in Israel have rioted, Hamas has mercilessly bombarded Israeli civilians.
Please note that each Hamas rocket fired at Israeli civilians is a Hamas war crime. Plus, each rocket Hamas fires from its own civilian residential buildings and/or civilian neighborhoods in Gaza, is also a war crime.
Doesn't matter. Muslims everywhere will ignore such war-crimes accusations. Instead, Muslims will join with most of the non-Muslim world to celebrate how, at last, those Jews are getting what they deserve: a rain of death.
This Shavuot, some of my children and at least one grandchild of mine will spend their holiday time in a bomb shelter trying to avoid that rain of death. The rest of my family, myself included, will wait for air raid sirens to go off, sirens that will send us to bomb shelters as well. We will do that because the nations of the world are simply too anti-Jew to give a damn that I and my wife--or my children and grandchildren--are being attacked.
The anti-Jew world will of course blame Israel for this rain of death. They will trot out their justifications, excuses and rhetoric of hate: Israel is apartheid; Israel is a brutal occupier; Israel is the one that started this round of violence because...(here, you get to fill in your own favorite anti-Israel tropes).
For me, Shavuot 2021 will not not be about religion. It will not be about our harvest. It will not be about rest. It will be about how wretched are these Jews of Israel who "kill women and children" whom Hamas has cynically used as human shields--just to provoke such a response from the anti-Jew world. This Shavuot will be for me about the kind of Jew-hate that is always quick to justify Hamas' actions--and quicker to tolerate Hamas' murderous attacks upon the world's only Jewish State.
For me, Shavuot 2021 will be a special time. It will be, you see, the world's opportunity to join with Muslims to curse G-d's Chosen people--and condemn these 'damned' Jews for the horrid crime of defending themselves against genocide.
I think Israeli politician Naftali Bennet recently (on May 16th) expressed well what many in Israel feel about the world's Jew-hate questions. This video is less than 20 seconds long:
Perhaps to understand just a little of what we face in Israel, consider a second, 3-minute video just re-posted a couple of days ago but which had actually been posted some years ago. It involves David Horowitz, a noted pro-Israel advocate. I believe his brief exchange in this video with a Muslim student captures the essence of what Israel faces.
Israel's reality today is this: both Muslims in Israel who riot against Jews--and Muslims outside Israel who fire rockets at our civilians--have one thing in common. They share this young lady's goal and aim, as she states at the end of the video.
Real estate disputes, along with all religious and political grievances against Israel today play only a secondary role in Middle East anti-Israel politics. The main, primary reality that drives Muslim ideology vis a vis Israel is what that young lady above agreed to: a willingness--perhaps even an eagerness--to see Jews murdered.
That young lady's assent to David Horowitz's statement is what my Shavuot in 2021 Israel will be all about. My 2021 Shavuot will also be for me a reminder of the extent to which the world beyond my country's borders joins together to tell me how it has no real objection to watching Jews be killed or bombed.
Only we object. Only Israel objects.
We object because We are G-d's Treasure. We are His chosen. We believe what He said thousands of years ago: once He returns us to our Land, we will never leave it.
The nations hate for us to say this. Many Jews hate to hear it.
Too bad. You cannot stop us from turning to our G-d. You cannot stop us from defending ourselves. You cannot stop us from killing those who come to kill us.
Once, we were slaughtered while the world did next to nothing for us. That will not happen again. Never.
At this point in history, the only way Israel will survive is for all of us to believe, with a single heart, Am Yisroel Chai--Israel lives.
Perhaps, for me, this is what Shavuot will turn out to be. Chag Someach.
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