Do not uproot the planted

I was an elementary school student growing up in Israel, I was part of a strong, idealistic, nationalist Zionist community. “Merkaz Harav” (referring to the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Palestine, Rav Abraham I. Kuk), is what it was known as. When you are a child, especially part of such an intense community, some moments are branded on you forever. For me, one of those events, was “pinui Yamit,” the Israeli withdrawal from the Yamit settlement in the Sinai Peninsula in 1982. When the Sinai was negotiated by Prime Minister Menachem Begin as part of Israel’s peace deal with Egypt, the community of Yamit rested on land designated to be part of the new border. To honor the emotionally painful and controversial process of dismantling […]