Strangers in our own Land?

A revealing email from Israeli Yehoshua Friedman.
Rabbi Friedman and his wife Janet are among the original founders of Kochav HaShachar, a Jewish Pioneering Community in the Israelite Tribal Territory of Eretz Binyamin (Land of Benjamin), located in what is today known as the Shomron (Samaria).

22 Av, 5766 (August 17, 2005)

David,

I just thought of you being banned from Israel in juxtaposition with my son-in-law, Yehoyariv Maguri, who built a house for himself, his wife (my daughter) Esther and baby son Avraham on the hilltop of Givat Ronen near Har Bracha in the Shomron.

A couple of months ago he received an administrative order signed by Defense Minister Peretz banning him from entering the entire area of Judea and Samaria (with the exception of the city of Ma'ale Adumim).

Yehoyariv is a young man from a Yemenite family, a Cohen with an ancient lineage, who is connected to the bedrock of his being with the land of Israel, Jewish labor, growing things on, walking the land as a free Jew. For him the deep connection to the land transcends the bureaucratic statements of government officials about where the borders are to be and which foreign leader's boots we are meant to lick this week. The land, the people and Torah of Israel are eternal.

May G-d protect him, his family and all of us.

Yehoshua


Shalom Yehoshua,

Your son-in-law, Yehoyariv Maguri, sounds like a wonderful person to whom I can relate with his great love for God, klal Yisrael and THE LAND. Perhaps it's from being raised for the first 11 years of my life on a farm that I wholeheartedly love the land, and which is why I wanted to live throughout the Land on 8 different kibbutzim to truly get a feel for the Land, to see the sun, moon and stars from different regions of Eretz Yisrael that God has placed in their positions.

Your heartrending tale further shows how the secular government persecutes the righteous, even the Cohanim, and would restrict movement in the Jewish Homeland like the worst of the Gentiles.

May HaShem continue to bless your family, your son-in-law, Yehoyariv, your daughter Esther and baby grandson Avraham and bless me to soon meet them!

David

Psalm 102:11-17

11 My days are like a shadow that lengthens,
And I wither away like grass.
12 But You, O LORD, shall endure forever,
And the remembrance of Your name to all generations.
13 You will arise and have mercy on Zion;
For the time to favor her,
Yes, the set time, has come.
14 For Your servants take pleasure in her stones,
And show favor to her dust.
15 So the nations shall fear the name of the LORD,
And all the kings of the earth Your glory.
16 For the LORD shall build up Zion;
He shall appear in His glory.
17 He shall regard the prayer of the destitute,
And shall not despise their prayer.



David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.