The Real Builder

I shall praise the Lord in my life; I shall sing to the Lord as long as I exist. Do not trust in princes, in the son of men, who have no salvation. (Psalms 146: 2-3)
 
We in Gush Etzion have a new saying:
 
Michake L'Bibi.
 
Loosely translated, it means: We are waiting for you Mr. Prime Minister. It's our new slogan to remind our elected leader that he promised us renewed building once he was elected. It's been a number of years and we are still waiting — nu?
 
I suspect if all we are going to do is wait we better get comfortable.
 
Building in Gush Etzion cannot be anywhere near our leader's top priorities. There are two reasons.
 
One, Iran wants to turn the entire country of Israel into one big Auschwitz. Very soon the mullahs may have the capability of vaporizing over 6.5 million Jews in less than 10 minutes, Heaven forbid.
 
Who can blame Mr. Netanyahu for diverting the lion's share of his energy and Israel's limited political capital in the world towards preventing this Holocaust?
 
Two, there are housing shortages in every city, town, and village in Israel. Already 450,000 Israelis are demonstrating in the streets for lower costs of living. If the government speeds up construction in Judea and Shomron, the whole nation will be in an uproar. They will demand to know why the Prime Minister is building in the middle of the Judean Desert instead of Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beer Sheva. Why is he catering to 300,000 Jews at the cost of millions more?
 
Simply waiting for the Prime Minister to act on our behalf will be a long wait indeed.
 
Why would we even come up with such a slogan? Every citizen of the Middle East, both Arab and Jew, are rising up against each injustice they perceive by their government. Why are we being asked to be so docile?
 
Perhaps the people of Gush Etzion are considering the same problems the leadership faces right now. It's very possible, probable even, that our local leaders are giving as much strength to our national leaders to fight Iran by trying not to force another issue on their agenda.
 
We are sacrificing our well-being every day for the sake of reminding the world "NEVER AGAIN!"
 
I can live with that – albeit not very comfortably. We still have another option.
 
About a month ago it was written by Breslev’s own Rivka Levy that:
 
G-d is real. A person can get up early, pray with the dawn minyan, eat super glatt kosher, dunk in a mikvah (ritual bath) every day, have a really long beard and a really big black hat – and still not know that G-d is real. Once you know G-d is real, you act differently.
 
This applies to every situation in life, particularly ours. We need to go beyond the fact that our Prime Minister is very busy. We need to remember that while our elected leader is only human, our Eternal King is Immortal.
 
He can help.
 
Not only can He provide what we need, He is available to every citizen at every moment of the day. He can decide or allow us to convince Him to help at any time. If He does, He is guaranteed to deliver. Our King never breaks a promise.
 
We can fast once a month for the development of all of Israel. We just read that there are families that have made all the arrangements to move here, but have suspended implementing their decisions until there is enough affordable housing for them. Successful Aliyah for those who are ready is something we all can pray for!
 
There are thousands of families here who don’t consider their status in Israel as permanent because they don’t live in a home to call their own. Where 70% of the country owns their own place, they are still renting. A stable home is something we can all pray for.
 
We learn that our government doesn’t have the resources to enable us to expand our communities. It will take a supernatural event to enable every neighborhood in Israel to provide for the millions of new families that want to live better lives here. That is something only Hashem can accomplish. This is something we all can pray for.
 
Along with devoted and focused prayer, we can fast. We can dedicate an extra hour of learning for these holy objectives. We can request these things from Hashem by dedicating a mere five minutes of our daily personal prayer to strengthening our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land. We can dedicate one change to our daily lives for the benefit of the people of Israel and the couples who wish to make a home for themselves and their children.
 
We are asking for no money down. In fact – we are not asking for any money at all!
 
We can heed the words of Mrs. Levy and act on behalf of the struggling communities of Israel – all of Israel — based on the simple and steadfast belief that G-d is real. He is here. He is listening. He is standing at the ready to perform miracles for us just to remind the world that He is watching at every moment.
 
We can work side by side with Him to reaffirm the statement in Devarim (11:12) that when it comes to the Land of Israel, “the eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.”
 
Let’s perform activism in its purest form by beseeching our Father in Heaven to reveal Himself to better the world which He created. Let’s remind everybody that true change comes from bringing G-d into our world and into our lives. It comes when we acknowledge and maintain that G-d is right here with us, waiting for the moment we recognize His Providence over all aspects of His creation – especially in politics – an area of life we instinctively attribute to man. Let’s give Hashem His world back. Measure for measure He will give us a dwelling of our own.
 
There isn’t a moment to spare. What are we waiting for!
 
 
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Dovber Halevi is the author of the financial book, How to Survive the Coming Decade of Anxiety. He writes for Breslev Israel and The Middle East Magazine. He lives with his wife and two children in Eretz Yisrael.