CHRISTMAS WITHOUT JOY!

Christmas - the day which commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ who came to bring us ‘Shalom’, a ‘Hebrew word’ meaning peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquility. It’s said that Jesus came in this world to bring ‘Shalom’ through the practice of right relations and restorative justice, which focus on present & future needs of the society and try to repair what has broken and mends the threads that holds society together. The basic essence of the festival is to live with the God and with one another in relationships that are joyous and just.

As we near Christmas week, the holiday cheer starts filling the air as we see twinkling lights decked everywhere, ornaments-adorned Christmas trees at malls, offices & homes, the smell of cinnamon and gingerbreads, and we meet close friends and family to make memories. 

I’m not the exception as the festival is also very close to me and it use to give immense joy every year as it comes, despite the fact that I don’t belong to the Christian community. The credit for this goes to my father, who despite being Hindu, used to celebrate this festival with great enthusiasm. He had a great respect for all the religions and his religious tolerance has perhaps passed from him to us in the natural course of our upbringing process.

But this year’s Christmas is bit different from the earlier ones. Today is of course the same pious Christmas – the birthday of Jesus, but something, somewhere is missing. The amount of joy, we use to feel earlier is perhaps not the same this year.

The whole world today is celebrating the great Christmas festival. But the Bethlehem - the Christmas City, which is known as the birth place of Jesus Christ is deserted, desolated, empty, isolated, uninhabited stranded and left in the lurch. This very thought is perhaps preventing us from making merriment and joy for which this festival is known for. In fact, ‘Merry’ is perhaps missing in this Merry Christmas. The Israel-Hamas war and the destruction it has caused to the humankind is so huge that we can’t be joyful morally, knowing the level of damage and carnage which has been caused due to this war.

However, it’s also the time to recall and remember the basic teaching of Jesus Christ and the meaning of ‘Shalom’, according to which our task is to live in a such a way that we work our best to restore and repair the relationships that we and others have broken with each other and mend the threads that hold the society together.

And I saw a silver line in this regard today when I read an interview of Mr. Izhar Shay, the Israel’s former minister of science & technology, which has been published in the today’s ‘The Times of India (TOI)’. Mr. Izhar Shay lost his youngest 21 year son, who was a soldier in the Israeli Army in the Hamas terror attack on 7th October 2023. For any father, there can’t be anything more painful than to carry his child's coffin on his shoulders. The pain, which Mr Izhar had undergone is unimaginable. But despite this pain, the initiative which he has undertaken is simply inspirational for all of us.

As per the Jewish custom, the family & friends of Mr Izhar thought to commemorate his son by planting trees but he being an high tech and sensitive person made the connection with the term ‘seeding’ a bit differently and took it as to ‘seed a company’ in his son’s name. Thereafter, he expanded this plan to seed one company for every fallen victim of the Hamas attack.

By doing this, He has given three great messages to the world:

First, helping the devastated Israeli economy by seeding 1400 start-ups. Second, rehabilitating by attaching one start-up to one victim family and third showing the world that ‘how we can respond to the Evil’.

The above act of Mr Izhar reminds me about the eight qualities, which makes a person ‘Spiritually Intelligent’. He by his above act has shown his ability to face and use the suffering of life for the larger goods of the community & country. His act not only shows about the flexibility to change or the extreme self-awareness or the ability to cause little harm as possible but also the ability to work against convention. I really salute his sacrifice as well as his wonderful initiatives which speaks a volume about him as well as his Spiritual Quotient (SQ).

In the interview he said a very important thing which fascinated me the most. He said that ‘We the Israeli are not going anywhere, we’re staying here for ever, this is our homeland. The Palestinians will also not go anywhere, which is fine. We have to find a way to live together’. This is what the Shalom means - restoring to wholeness and repairing the relationships that we and others have broken with each other and mending the threads that hold the society together.

Hope, on the eve of this holy Christmas, reincarnation of many more Izhar Shay like people will come forward from both the Israeli and the Palestinian sides and the homicide and bloodbath which is happening due to the Israeli-Hamas war will come to an end and the relationship will be restored and Humanity will win over the Evil.