Tuesday, July 1, 2008

15 Seconds to Show You Care

This morning I read an article ArutzSheva about Project SMS. (click here for article)
Basically it is a program where you can sign up to be text messaged whenever the Code Red warning goes off in Sderot. For those who don't know, in Sderot, where they are bombarded with rockets, a Code Red warning is issued when there is an incoming rocket and residents have 15 SECONDS to get to safety! That is honestly something which is hard for me, and certainly most of us, to comprehend living with on such a constant basis. Project SMS gives you the opportunity to be notified at the time when Sderot is being hit with another rocket so that you can simply take 15 seconds to say tehillim, or a tfillah, or whatever else you see fit to do at that time when you know other Jews are in distress.

Every Jew should feel pain over what happens to Eretz Yisrael and our fellow Jews who live there and pray for them. As the Mesilat Yesharim teaches, a pious individual, a real chasid, will constantly feel pain over the detsruction of the Beit HaMikdash, the galut, and the continued dimunition of everything. This type of person will certainly daven for the Redemption as well, for Bnei Yisreal and Eretz Yisrael. If a person will ask "who am I to pray about the galut and about Yerushalaim? Of what importance am I?" Chazal teach us in Masechet Sanhedrin, Adam HaRishon was created alone so that every person would say, "the world was created for my sake." HaKadosh Boruch hu is pleased when people daven to Him for this.

The lack of output of tfillah towards Hashem caused great protest from the Neviim in earlier times. It says in Yeshaya: וירא כי אין איש וישתומם כי און מפגיע. "He saw that there were no [righteous] people, and He was amazed to see that there was no one [turning to Him] in prayer." It also says in Yirmiyahu: ציון היא אין דורש לה. "It is Zion, [there is] no one [who] inquires after her!" It should be part of us to feel for Eretz Yisrael as well as its inhabitants and to cry out to Hashem over them; both when they need our tfillot and when they (seemingly) don't! We must never forget where our true home is and the connection we should feel towards those who already live there.

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