Manhigut Yehudit Dinner, 5770

Last night I went to my second Manhigut Yehudit annual dinner. Lucky for me, they've only had two. I can sum it up in two sentences. From there I will expand.

Two-Sentence Sum-Up: Last year, the Manhigut dinner was charming. This year, it was magnificent.

Last year's dinner came on the heels of a seeming political defeat. Feiglin had just walloped Netanyahu in the primaries and the Likud Knesset list was looking dazzling. And then Team Bibi and his Ultimate Justice Squadron decided to stand up for Legal Fictive Truth and cry foul that Feiglin is not a woman, and sadly the spot he won could, indeed, only go to said gender. The internal Likud court agreed with this, and proceeded to push Feiglin down to spot 36, a safe zone, thank goodness, for the other gender. (As well as pushing away some of Feiglin's allies while he was at it.) And what happened with slot 20, ladies only? It went to a person named Ze'ev Elkin. Discuss amongst yourselves.

The dinner that year also came on the heels of a big rainstorm as this year's did, and it was nice, friendly, heartwarming. The food was alright, the people - I didn't know them so well because I had just joined up. Most memorable, in fact, was that during Feiglin's speech I couldn't help but notice that the podium had a large chunk missing from one of the corners. I looked at it, and I smiled. In my mind I was having these flashes of muti-million dollar political fundraisers full of affluent Manhattan Democrats in silk tuxedos yakking at each other at $500 a plate affairs where money is just leaking out onto the floor and the waiters are slipping on it and spraining their ankles. And whatever doesn't leak out onto the floor gets stuffed in the pocket of some senator so he can do a large business-like favor to one of the Manhattan dinner elite. Then everybody sings the National Anthem and eats lots of protein.

Back to Dinner 5769, Feiglin gets up and starts speaking from a podium with a large chunk missing from the corner. And I thought, smiling, "You know, this is the real elite. We, and not those tuxedo guys, are going to change the world." I went home all warm and fuzzy.

That was last year. This year, the feeling was much different. This year, I was blown away.

The hall was spectacular. Smack in the middle of Ramat Gan. The food was high end, complete with sushi and those chef guys with the hats and the big sharp knives with two-pronged barbecue forks. This time there was an open bar, though wanting to stay sober and being of small size, I had a glass of wine and called it a night.

And of course, as per any Manhigut event, there were secular, religious, Haredi, all chatting, munching, sipping, admiring the chef guy with the big sharp knife etc...

We all went inside, and I counted 41 tables .That means 410 people, the room packed. The first course was already set up, and I couldn't help but notice the caviar on the plate. The statement was, "We're not some cute little group anymore. Now we're serious. We're in the middle of Ramat Gan. And we're just getting started."

But enough about that. Here's the heart of the matter.

We watched a video called "Awakening," a film featuring several Manhigut supporters from different backgrounds from Haredi to secular to former radical leftist. There was one part I will never forget, and that is when Likud Central Committee member Emmanuel Gertel spoke candidly about how he began as an unbelieving Jew, but now his faith has been rekindled. That - he doesn't understand why - but he feels a deep need to build the Holy Temple, the Beit Hamikdash. He was crying as he said it.

I started tearing, too. But not just because of the raw emotion of the film. I hear it all the time - we should build the Temple, yada yada, במהרה בימינו אמן, it doesn't move me, because I know it's just lip service. But last night, tears welled up because I knew that not only does Emmanuel want to build it. He, a man who does not wear a kippah, is actually doing the work required to get it done. We all were. That, you rarely see these days.

Feiglin got up and spoke. In the middle, he invited all those in the video to come up with him. Moshe Feiglin in the center, surrounded by representatives of every sector of Jewish Israel. Somewhere in his speech, he said this sentence:

"We, in this room right here, right now, are building the new leadership that will lead this country."

He brought together the Haredi guy and one of the secular guys from the video. "Do you see what's happening here?" he asked us. "Do you see what Manhigut Yehudit has accomplished?" he asked again. This is true Jewish unity.

Now that's charisma, something which Moshe Feiglin usually lacks. On the blogosphere, you may see Feiglin attacked for "having the personality of an anchovy." But hearing those two questions, my mind jumped immediately to a recent speech of the all-too-charismatic Bibi Netanyahu, who, like a charisma-infested buffoon, waved around the Auschwitz architectural plans at the UN General Assembly and whined these two quite distinct questions:

1) "Is this a lie?"
2) "Is this a LIE??"

What he really meant was, "The Holocaust happened I tell you! Don't you remember why we have a right to live in Israel? *cougholocaust*"

Anyway, we, on the other hand were moving forward. And we are the Jewish future. And I felt pretty good in the present.

But the funniest thing is, the media is stuck yapping about Sarah Netanyahu's legal problems with her housekeeper. They don't even notice what's happening. The depth of it is beyond them. When we take over and change the course of Jewish history forever, when the country has its first leader that believes in the God of Israel and speaks from the Temple Mount, and instead of waving Auschwitz in the face of the world, he explains, politely, that we are the chosen people and this is our God given land, the world won't even know what hit it.

It's better this way. God's salvation may be like the blink of an eye, as they say, but I think that's only true for those whose eyes are in permanent blink mode. Those of us at the dinner, those of us who see what's happening, our eyes are open, we know exactly what's going on, and we all know that there is nothing that can stop us now. We are too big. We are too diverse. We are too Jewish. We are too proud. It is only a matter of time.

No longer will we wait around hunkering in a bunker for our "sector" to demographically take over the country, or for the Messiah to come and save us and tell us that we were right and the other side was wrong. The work that needs to get done - we're getting it done. We've taken responsibility for the winds of history by putting up our sails.

Finally worth mentioning, there was a raffle at the dinner. My wife, at my side the whole time, told me insistently how good she is at raffles. She wins every time, she tells me. Well, OK then. I know how much skill raffles require, so I can't really argue with that. We bought ten tickets. Sure enough, the first number called is hers. It's a necklace of the Beit Hamikdash, the Holy Temple.

We're not so much into jewelry, don't really understand it, but what she said next hit me deeply. "I'm going to wear it on the Temple Mount at Moshe's victory speech."

I believe her.

Heh...women's intuition. I'll never get it. Maybe I should ask Ze'ev Elkin.

Until next year's dinner...which, judging by the way things are going, may be by invitation only. I plan on being there, and earning it by signing up as many faithful to the Likud as I can. Want to be part of Jewish history? Sign up to the Likud right now.