Living in the Holy Land of Israel is a
daily lesson in tolerance, acceptance
and compassion. A confrontation
with ones deepest self that has many
questioning the very essence of their
existence on planet earth.
So it is no wonder that women today
find it so difficult to know whether sexy
is in or modest is better. In Jerusalem,
I too have gone through the struggles
of being true to myself whilst being
true to my faith and people. We all
have a need to belong and in our world
today, belonging is about sameness,
we gravitate towards those who are
just like us in dress, attitude and belief
and finding and living according to
our own inner guidance becomes more
difficult.
As the rockets rain down on many
of our cities and the fight to survive
becomes imbeded even more deeply
into the psyche of the nation, finding
peace within and without is of the
essence. It is the daily agenda for the
people as much as it is for the Prime
Minister.
Most recently in Crown Heights,
Brooklyn,
Project
EDEN
was
established as a local initiative a
“Modesty campaign for girls” where
every girl who comes to day camp
dressed in modest attire (keeping
necklines, elbows, knees and feet
covered at all times) will receive an
incentive card redeemable for ice
cream. The campaign headline “As
war rages in the holy land – is there
anything else we can do to help our
brothers in their time of need” with
Life in Israel is governed by many rules, EDEN standing for Eat Ice Cream,
modesty, religious and political. The while helping Defend Eretz Israel
restrictions are not imposed but many Now. So how, exactly, do these ice
of us feel them in the small details of cream eating, modest young women
daily life. In Jerusalem the modesty plan to hold Hamas missiles at bay?
wars are in full force, for women here The premise here is that female bodies
it is a challenge to dress in a way that are used for the merit of Israel, young
they are used to without succumbing women are being bribed and led to
to the pressures of those around them. believe that flashing their elbows and
Being religious means looking the part, collarbones can cause Jews to die in
covering oneself to the extreme in the the Middle East and that covering
height of the summer heat. The laws
which the Jewish Orthodox abide by
is “walk modestly with your God” and
in Deutoronomy there is a prohibition
against dressing in clothing of the
opposite sex, so that women are not
permitted, by Jewish law, to wear pants
and they must adhere to strict modesty
laws to cover their collar bones, arms,
knees and feet.
Women are surely beautiful creations
of God, they are sensual, sexual and
desired. Unfortunately many cultures
around the world have tried to suppress
the feminine both the body and the
spirit. Women in some cultures can be
killed for having a voice, an opinion, an
expression of their most beautiful self.
their bodies can help save them,
clearly as Israeli troops enter Gaza
and fight to protect our freedom and
very existence, modesty is needed; not
prayers, not kindness, not good deeds
or mutual understanding. Perhaps
what’s needed is more elbow, knees
and long legs, who wants to fire rockets
when you have a beautiful woman by
your side, who cares about land when
you have love.
The war is not only between nations
and religions, each of us is fighting
a war to feel free in the terrain of our
inner self. From a young age we are
conditioned to be a certain way, to
believe that those who are different to
us are not like us. We dress in ways
that don’t reflect our true self because
we really do not know who that self is,
we try to fit in becoming lost in the
maze of expectations and rules set for
us by those around us, we know there
is a better way but we don’t know what
that way may be.
The call for peace has been a long and
arduous journey both for the land of
Israel and it’s people but every year
there are hundreds of young soldiers,
girls and boys, who hang up their hats
completing their Army Service to
embark on another type of journey to
find peace within, travelling from one
Holy Land, Israel, to another, India.