Praying With Our Feet

On Saturday night September 3rd, I was part of history.  Being just one soul out of the tens of thousands who took to the streets of Jerusalem felt pretty good, and was motivation enough to begin postng again on this blog.  This motzei Shabbat was built up as 'the million person march' and took place all over the country.  The main protest consisting of over 300,000 in Tel Aviv, and a reported healthy 60,000 in the capital.

So, what exactly are we protesting.  The chants and slogans being shouted during the protest consisted of the basic:  "העם דורש צדק חברתי" (or The Nation demands Social Justice), public housing, a lowering of the cost of living, and basic calls for the Government and Knesset to wake up and start taking responsibility for the financial troubles of the country and its citizens.

I have to say, that while the protest was cool in and of itself, the real thing for me was to watch the uncanny spectrum of slogans and placards being used to convey the message.  Some offered more vulgur meesages like: "תנו לחיות כוסאמק!" ("Just let us live for fuck's sake") and others such as "אתם זיינתם אותנו, לא פלא שהתרבינו" (You screwed us, it's no wonder that we've multiplied...").
While others - mainly in Jerusalem - championed the best that Israeli Jewish identity has to offer, which is simply use a verse from either the TaNaKh or the Talmud.  The obvious ones were from the week's Parsha and offered the pasuk from Devarim 16:20 of "צדק צדק תרדוף" and the best one I saw simply read:  קָטָנִּי עָבָה מִמָּתְנֵי אָבִי  מל"א יב:י("'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins!").  HaMayvin Yavin.


All in all I have mixed feelings about the protests and while I agree and identify with the protester's motives, I am not convinced that either increased public housing or the adoption to a pure welfare state are the best options nor will they solve our problems, but it's good to have a strong healthy protest nonetheless.