2022 אוגוסט #130 אדריכלים מציירים / אורי שטרית אדריכלות ישראלית 95 | | | under four editorial "There are three things that make the earth tremble, four it cannot endure: a slave who becomes a king, an overbearing fool who prospers, a bitter woman who finally gets a husband, a servant girl who supplants her mistress" (Proverbs 30). This societal, ingeniously concise quote summarizes the reason for the loss of our senses, characterizing our stormy election campaign every year, and to my mind, provides the exact answer to the question - how did it happen that the "other", for whom we are willing to risk our lives without hesitation has became our enemy just because he is "the other". The answer is that at least one of these evils meets us everywhere, every day in different forms; the Population (preventing) Authority, the Traffic Jam Ministry, the Dream of an Apartment Ministry, the Distinguished Head of the Knesset, the television interviewers jumping with incomprehensible condescension to their interviewees, the excessively disrespectful switchboard operator employed by companies we are tied to by the neck, the unbearable condescension of "testers" that have just completed a "bullying" course in the municipality's Engineering Department, and the bullshitting singer, that, “due to her principles” did not hesitate to humiliate the President of the United States - a friend of Israel who has no less principles, but kneeled for about fifteen minutes to two Holocaust survivors with his Sabbath pants open on Yad Vashem's floor of tears. In a Writing and Editing course, I usually talk about the wisdom found in the Midrashim, my favorite example being Rabbi Akiva Ben Yosef's quote, saying, “AHusband and Wife who are righteous - win, otherwise - fire eats them". These twelve words actually encompass all the Oral Torah's wisdom, especially the term, Shechina, awaiting endless interpretation. While a religious party would interpret it as "holy spirit," the House Committee would interpret it as “good neighboring”. And not without reason is it stated in Proverbs 27 that "a nearby neighbor is better than a far brother". This does not mean that all neighbors are good, and all the brothers are far, especially not today, when everyone is a "brother", and go figure how it will end. Last time I sat for two hours in a traffic jam I had a divine revelation, that, as in any social meeting, there are also all the developmental stages of a Support Group: "The Orientation,״ where one is trying to understand what (the hell) he does there (while checking Waze), - "The Conflict Stage", where we form an opinion on the road bullies, - "The Cohesive Stage," where everyone is looking for encouragement in the other drivers’ looks - "Did you see what he did?" - The "Bonding Stage" in which we sort the "good" and "the bad", - "Individualization", where everyone thinks about what awaits him at the end of the jam, - "The Intimacy Stage," where we imagine who we would like to drink coffee with on Friday, and finally, the "Reciprocity Stage" where we understand again that the pain of many is the comfort of fools - which allows us to put up with the situation until the next traffic jam, knowing clearly that it is not really convenient to load five bags from the supermarket on a scooter. One must admit, neighbors like brothers are not always our best morning cup of tea, but the anthem does not stop talking about hope, and as an exiled singer once chirped – “We are an excellent generation!” And as the HaGashash Hachiver said: "All respect to the IDF... and Long live the State of Israel." There are three things that make the earth tremble, but the fourth is probably an overdose we cannot afford. Architect Dr. Ami Ran Editorial
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