Image: A white wall with two angry men’s faces painted in black and shades of gray. Artwork: “Hatred” by Ben Slow, photographed by MsSaraKelly, used under a Creative Commons license.
Lee Diamond – Baseless Hatred Destroys Us
The second Temple
Was destroyed by Us
Because of our hatred
For one another.
We lost our sovereignty
Over our land
By infighting amongst
ourselves.
The fabric of our society
Came apart at its fringes
Simply because we lost sight
Of The weave that made us
Whole.
The Sadducees against the
Pharisees
The Zealots against the
Sadducees and Pharisees
The Essenes against the
Sadducees and Pharisees
All sure that they were correct
All certain that the other
Was wrong
It was that struggle
That undid us.
What we missed and failed
To realize
Was that our own
short sightedness
Left us blind.
Had we only displayed
A long sightedness
A realization that
We were all reaching
For the Same goal
The goal of our
Own sovereignty
In our own land
A weakened fabric
Can not stand
Against an enemy .
Only a closely woven fabric
In which the woof and the
Warf hold each other as
one fabric
allow for strength.
When left rejects right
When right delegitimates left
When the extremes make the rules
We Dis-Integrate.
We fall apart and
Are are no longer
Able to be upstanding
In the face of our detractors .
We are the interconnecting
Strands that give strength
To the fabric of Israel
The strands must tighten and hold
Each other
For only together can we be
The House of Israel בית ישראל
