Hares And Haredim Poem by gershon hepner

Hares And Haredim



We know about the tortoise and the hare
and how the clever tortoise came in first;
to many hares life seems to be unfair
and those who're Jewish seem to have been cursed.

The Torah clearly states: “Thou shalt not eat
a hare, ” but doesn't go out on a limb
explicitly forbidding tortoise meat,
smart tortoises not being hare-dim.

The fact is, eating both of them is wrong,
as are the fights between haredim and
their fellow Jews in Israel: they should long
for peace together, one race in one land.


Inspired by an article in the NYT by Isabel Kirshner describing riots in Jerusalem organized by haredim, Ultra-Orthodox Jews (“Religious-Secular Divide, Tugging at Israel’s Heart, ” September 3,2009) :
Ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as haredim, or those who fear God, went to battle in years past to ensure observation of the Jewish Sabbath, and tried to force the closing of movie theaters and roads. From sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, strictly observant Jews do not work, use electric devices, spend money or drive. There are no municipal services during the Sabbath in Jerusalem, and on the Jewish side most businesses are closed. But after a 13-year lull in what local residents call the “Sabbath wars, ” another round started one Saturday in June, when City Hall decided to open a parking lot. With the security situation in Jerusalem relatively calm, tourists and day trippers have been flocking back to the Old City on weekends, prompting a need for somewhere to park their cars. At first, the mayor opened a municipal parking lot under City Hall. When that led to protests, he opened the private Carta lot under Arab management, and made it free of charge. The protests only intensified. Yoelish Kraus, the operations chief for the Eda Haredit, the militantly Orthodox organization behind the protests, said the mayor’s mistake was announcing the opening of the parking lot at a news conference. As soon as there is a public sanction for violating the Sabbath, he said, “we have to fight.”
The ultra-Orthodox make up about a third of Jerusalem’s Jewish population, and the adherents of the Eda Haredit are only a fraction of that. But with an average of 10 children per family, Mr. Kraus said, the community is growing fast. The rabbinic sects of the Eda Haredit are the scions of Orthodox Jews who were in Palestine before the foundation of Israel in 1948. In the absence of the Messiah, they fervently reject Zionism and the legitimacy of the Jewish state. The protesters called the police “Nazis” and spat at them. Special Force police officers dumped troublemakers into the fragrant rosemary and lavender bushes along the sidewalk. Protesters who tried to block the road were sprayed with pepper gas and carried off in a prison service van.

9/3/09

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success