On Friday Yediot Aharonot ran a story titled, "Cafes crowded despite PM's condition." It seemed surprised that days after Sharon's stroke, Israelis were out enjoying themselves. In a country where a sign of perseverance is the public returning to cafes and plazas and malls where suicide bombings had taken place, the papers were shocked that people weren't sitting at home glued to their tv's for the non-existant news of the Prime Minister's condition.

The news is full of people sending prayers to Sharon from around the world, children drawing pictures for Sharon and bringing them to him. Mass prayer services are organized, health updates minus the updates are constantly given and fingers are pointed at anyone who doesn't join in the national orgy of mourning. It is impossible to imagine the same kind of hysterical behavior had Bush fallen ill. Instead what we seem to see is an organized attempt to create mass hysteria in line with what we saw after the death of Princess Diana or in Israel after the death of Yitzchak Rabin. What we see is more in line with the Soviet Union or Communist China or North Korea confronting the fall of a 'Great Leader' than a Democratic free nation.

None of this is new as the same sort of thing happened after the death of Rabin. Public orgies of mourning that were nationally instituted, blame was pointed at the right and the left used the chance to climb to power and stigamatize the opposition by creating a martyr out of a dead politician. To understand how far this can go, after Rabin's death people were called in for police questioning for failing to observe a minute of silence for Rabin or being accused of telling a joke about Rabin. For months it was as if Rabin had become a Christ figure whose death all had to bewail or face imprisonment.

In Jeremiah, G-d shows the prophet the abomination of women bewailing the death of the 'god' Tammuz. Tammuz was a Babylonian diety known as a shepherd and a fisherman who symbolized death and resurrection, dying and then returning to life again in the summer months. Centuries later this belief would be appropriated for the creation of Christianity and the mourning of a Christ who died and was resurrected in the summer months, who worked as a fisherman and considered a shepherd. The resulting cult joining Jewish and pagan beliefs overran much of the known world.

In the Soviet Union it was said in a famous poem, "Lenin Lived, Lenin Lives, Lenin Will Live." His body was embalmed and kept preserved to this very day for crowds to pay homage to. Communism was not irreligious, it was merely a secular religion with its own Cavalry Tomb at Lenin's Tomb. And this is the difference between Judaism and all pagan beliefs. We do not worship the dead, the inert, the stone and the wood. We worship an eternal living G-d. Most of all we do not worship men.

One might ask, what's wrong with outbreaks of public mourning? Isn't it a way of showing respect? True but to whom and why?

What is so powerfull about public mourning, particularly of people who were famous but personally unknown to us, whose hands we never shook, whom we never spoke with. Why do we mourn them more, a diety, a prime minister, a celebrity, a princess; than the neighbor next door whom we've seen and talked to for over 30 years? Is it really mourning or a public hysteria that is really a kind of religious worship.

Consider the following poem printed in Haaretz, a rabidly anti-religious publication, that has been circulated everywhere.

"Say a prayer for the prime minister. Say a prayer for the man who could not be broken. Say a prayer for our shattered present. Say a prayer for our shuttered common future. Say a prayer for the future only he knew.

Say a prayer for the people he has left behind. The Jewish People, the people he loved, at times despite himself, despite them. The people who could not bring themselves to love him.

Pray for those of us who once embraced him, and came to curse him.Pray for those of us who once cursed him, and could not bring ourselves to forgive him.Pray for those of us who once cursed him, and came to love him."

On the surface it seems very emotional and moving but think about it. Really think about it. Would such a piece be out of place in the works of the Communist Party about Lenin or out of place in Christian liturgy? Note the quasi-mystical and religious aspects of lines like 'the future only he knew' and bemoaning those Jews who couldn't bring themselves to love him but cursed him and celebrating those who once cursed him but came to love him. There's a much more famous Jew that this is recited over. Jesus Christ.

Still not convinced?

"Pray for those who call themselves religious and see in this, the hand of God. Pray for those who call themselves non-religious and need now to pray."

If the Hand of God is not at work here then who are the prayers directed to? And why? If God does not give and take life, then clearly the prayers are not to God? Then whom?

Consider the poem\prayer. It does not in any way refference G-d. It is written in an anti-religious publication. It does nothing but praise Sharon and bemoan the people who are impoverished without him while condemning those who are 'religious' who need to be prayed for and those non-religious who are the ones truly praying. There is only one diety mentioned in the poem. It is not G-d as his role is rejected. It is by a process of elimination, "the man who could not be broken," it is the man who was the only one to know the future and the man 'who loved us despite us' and we could never love him properly. And so now we pray to him.

It is Tammuz, it is Jesus, it is Lenin, it is Mao, it is Rabin and now it is Sharon.

We organize public festivities of mourning. We mythologize every aspect of his life. We create a secular state-centered religious cult around him.

Let us consider what has been happening under the cover of all this. There are a lot of news reports that Israeli parties have called off their differences during Sharon's illness. This is and isn't true. The Likud has fallen into line. Labor less so. Sharon's party Kadima however has continued political activity. In the silence Sharon's policies have been elevated to nothing short of omnipotence which no one any longer dares to question.

At the same time a new wave of assaults have begun on the right. As reports are aired on the 'religious refusing to pray for Sharon', in just the last two days, the attorney general has called for more aggressive action against Jewish settlers in the West Bank. A program of accusing Jews of uprooting Arab olive trees has gone underway. A raid has been carried out against an internet cafe in Jerusalem supposedly associated with the Kach movement, banned in Israel for advocating the expulsion of Arabs. An official report critical of Sharon's actions during the Disengagement has been suppressed due to Sharon's illness.

The purpose of a state-centered religious cult is to create a mythological figure out of a man, larger than life, whose ideas may not be questioned and to whom all must pay tribute. How many times have Jews stood when all others bowed to some diety or some man. And now too many out of ignorance or guilt or empathy are bowing their heads. It is okay to feel sorry for Sharon, to mourn him, it is not okay to take part in a religious cult surrounding him. Sharon was a man and a deeply flawed one. Regardless of your politics, there is no denying that. We are not the USSR or the PRC or North Korea. We need to stop acting like them. 1 comments Permalink Email Post (Backlinks)

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