Tonight me and my wife had been invited to a special melave malka. It was being sponsored by one of the local charities in recognition of its main donors and volunteers (that was kind of unclear).

I generally would have passed on the evening, as it would have taken too much away from my blogging time!! Just joking. I would have passed because these things bore me and are usually a waste of time. When I got the invite a week ago, I changed my mind. The keynote speaker was schedulled to be Professor Aumann (sp?) who became famous a few months ago when he was selected as the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences award for his work in Gaming Theory. When he went to Norway for the reception, he made a kiddush hashem by his actions, in refusing to wear the standard tux, because it had shatnez, insisting on kosher food and not participating in certain events that were taking place on shabbos. You can do your own search on Google for information on him, as I am too tired right now to do it for you.
Anyways, when I saw he would be the speaker, I decided to go. After all, how often does one get the opportunity to be in the audience of a Nobel prize winner!!

The melave malka was really beautiful and put together nicely. It was nice to get out and see people that we rarely see, despite living in the same neighborhood. I am going to cut to the chase, as Aumann was the highlight of the evening and the most interesting part.

Professor Aumann is an outspoken critic of the disengagement from Gaza. He has spoken from some very public forums against what he has called the National Disgrace (I will explain the term soon). There was great anticipation waiting for him to address the crowd, waiting to see what he would say with shock value.

Let me tell you, Professor Aumann seems to be a very simple person. he does what he does for a living and is a religious Jew and is a very straightforward scientist, with no tricks and deceptions up his sleeve. He spoke very frankly and to the point. He adresses the Gaza issue. He explained his position on it, calling it a National Disgrace. While he was against the disengagement from a professional standpoint, as he considers it a bad move while in the process of negotiations and conflict, that was not the subject of his criticism. That is politics, and while he disagrees with it, maybe there are other reasons to consider it and effect it.
The subject of his criticsm was the evacuees/refugees. The National Disgrace was how the government has treated the evacuees. If it had to be done, is debatable. but once it had to be done, the evacuees should not have been treated as they were. They have been disgraced and shamed to their cores. They still have not received the monies promised them. They have been moved from place to place and many have been staying in hotels, which is not an easy situation to run a normal life in and all the promises the government had made to them have not been kept. The national disgrace is how the government has treated the Gush Katif evacuees.

Anyways, to make a long story short, he said something very interesting (aside from everything else he said that was interesting). Someone asked him to descibe what he felt as a religious Jew being the recipient of a Nobel Prize, with the Kiddush Hashem that he performed at the time. His response was very simple. He said, "I did nto do anything special. I did what I had to do. I am a Jew. That means I cannot eat treif, I have to keep shabbos and I cannot wear shatnez. What would you want me to do. All I did was the minimum."

Now, I do not know what I would have done, had I been in his situation. I hope I would have performed with the same integrity he did, but I have no idea. Here is a man who made a tremendous Kiddush Hashem, and he boils it down to saying I did the minimum I could have done as a Jew. I kept Kosher and di not wear shatnez. I am a Jew and even if it makes those goyim uncomfortable, that is too bad. God's commandments come first.

The local organization is called Lemaan Achain and you can find info on it here. If you want to donate to them because you like what you see, you can do so from the website. It is a very worthy organization that does tremendous work and is a worthwhile place for you to doinate your money for Aniyei Eretz Yisrael (Israel's poor people). Even more so, their goal is to set an example, and thereby assist in setting up similar organizations around Israel, so the successful style here in Bet Shemesh can be duplicated elsewhere.