Harry Potter versus Shabbat

B"H

One of our greatest problems in Israel and probably in the whole Jewish world is that many of us Jews want to be just like everyone else. Maybe a little more in the secular than in the religious world.

In Israel it is quite common that people just want to be European and only when it comes to anti - Semitism, suddenly even secular Israelis realize that they cannot just dump their Jewish identity.

However, last Friday night, many Israelis made another attempt to dump their identity. Last Friday night was one of the greatest events of the year. At least it seemed so. The seventh Harry Potter book was made accessible to the public and readers just ran into the book stores.

Friday night is not a problem for Gentiles, however, for Jews it is. It was a whole paradox for us, as it was a Friday night and Shabbat Chazon.

There are times when someone could say, okay, let the secular in Tel Aviv run into the book store, what do I care. But the thing is that this time we really should care. Jews should be a light to the nations but when we look at ourselves what do we see ?
Do the same Jews who go crazy about Harry Potter go crazy about studying the Torah ? Especially during the Bein HaMizrim and a few hours before Tisha Be' Av we should think about this question.

Whatever Jews do to be just like everyone else, they fail. None of us can escape G - d's will, His Torah and His goal for us. And if we do not get it ourselves, the Gentiles will always remind us of who we are. Either in a positive or negative way.