Cursed

Cursed

I remember in the eighties, when we had elections, how all the Great Rabbis from the Shas movement came on TV in an election spot, where they repeated three times that, anyone not voting for Shas, would be cursed. A few years later a guy organized a Pulsa deNura against Rabin, who was making peace with our neighbors. This  Pulsa DeNura is some kind of voodoo used by good-for-nothings, to get some attention. Not much later he proudly informed the media that he succeeded, as Rabin was shot dead.

I am a proud Jew. And a proud Zionist.

In my 40 years of living in Israel I was always amazed to see that religion was part of the Israeli political landscape and that these rather small parties could get almost anything they wanted. Not because they represented God, but because they were in the middle of the balance scale and having them aboard could help to create a government. Throughout the years this exploded. The result is a 40 billion shekel national debt, as our prime minister thought it to be genius to buy these people's votes by not letting them serve, not letting them work and live off our tax money, even paying for their housing.

The last election finally made a change. A change for the better. A change not against religious people, but in favor of our country. Maybe now we can distribute tax payers' money where it is really needed. However, our religious brethren see their loss in the elections different. Personal. Insulting. And, of course: they lost their income, they lost the ability to throw money around they did not earn in any shape or form.

So our new finance minister, before saying or doing anything, was called a corrupt idiot. But it did not stop there. Our minister of industry and economics was informed that, as he has abandoned the religious parties, he will suffer from the Pulsa DeNura curse. "You will learn not to fool around with religious people", the anonymous letter said.

It is 2013. We have many sick people. It seems the religious people have no special prayers to get the sick healthy, no prayers to guess the six numbers of our weekly lottery: our religious people, in one anonymous letter, made our God look like a midget, like nothing. Because THEY are religious, so God will kill or smite anyone who does not play along with them. No rabbi has spoken out against this – why should they? God as the Great Avenger of those who looted out coffers – Hollywood did not even think of that!

So, after the great convicted criminal Aryeh Derri yesterday explained that "we, religious people have nothing to do with Holocaust Memorial Day" (and yes, he dreamt to become our prime minister….), we now have the full picture of today's  religious Judaism: Pulsa De Nura if you don’t do what we say as we will pray for you to die. You can all stop visiting religious places – praying for health, marriage, a baby – it all does not work.

What works is turning God into Lucca Brazzi, as your personal exterminator. And the rabbi's keep quiet.

Of course, I need to add I never voted Shas, so you may reading these lines from a cursed person..