And so it begins

The online newspapers carry photos of crying girls and davening men, praying for a miracle I think they know will not - can not - come. It is painful to think of the individual families that are leaving the homes they have known for so long. I can't imagine how horrible it must be, particularly since it was the government - and Sharon - who sent them there in the first place.

But the reality is that being an occupier has changed and damaged the Israeli psyche. We are not made to laud over other peoples. What a cruel twist of history to reverse our fortune in a generation.

To have the blood of another people - and I would say, more importantly the blood of our own children - on our hands is just too horrible for words.

May the pain of the things we will see, and the pain of what we will bear atop of what we already do be one day replaced with the joy of knowing that this sacrifice will indeed bring the flowering of the Psalmist's dream - that all will sit beneath their vines and fig tress, and none shall be afraid.

My thoughts are with the families who must leave behind their homes, and with those who must build theirs.

U'fros alienu sukat shlo'mecha.