Must Read: The inaugural Knesset speech of MK Moshe Solomon
https://virtualjerusalem.com/inside_news.php?xlinks=https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/364337
Thanks to Victor Sharpe for this inspiring story….rsk
Inspiring words of Ethiopia-born MK Moshe Solomon (Rel.Zionist Party): ‘The boy who was once a shepherd is today in the Knesset of Israel.’
By MK Moshe Mousia Solomon
Honored Prime Minister, Honored Knesset Ministers, My friends, Members of the Knesset
I, Moses Mousia Solomon, son of the late Zlalo Shimon z”l and Asgadesh, may she be granted long life, stand here before you, filled with emotion, addressing you from this august site.
Before my eyes float images, life memories, not mine alone, but generation after generation of the people of my community, of the members of my family who dreamed of reaching the Land of Israel and Jerusalem. I stand here today, proud to realize their dream, but fully aware that the journey is not over, and that in many ways, it has just begun.
I do not know for certain on what day I was born, and I was not given a name at my circumcision. “A man’s name contains the secret of his life, its essence,” my father explained to me years later, “and can we look at a newborn infant and know his essence?” My father observed me for a long time, saw my traits, my personality and hopes, until one night he declared: “Mousia, you name will be Mousia.”
The young boy who was once a shepherd in Shira, Ethiopia, stands here today in the Knesset of Israel, one of the 120 members of the Great Assembly of our time. The child who trekked for more than a month from Ethiopia to Sudan, the refugee who waited three years to reach his longed-for land – this young boy is now an elected Member of Knesset in the Land of Israel, the land of the Jewish people.
I remember how during the journey through the deserts of Sudan, after days without rain, when we were on the verge of collapse from lack of water, Divine Providence brought us to the Tekeze River. I remember how our great thirst met a river of flowing water, the hundreds of people slaking that thirst, and their desire to continue drinking more and more. As King David wrote in the Book of Psalms: “My soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you, in dry and desiccated lands, weary and without water.”
I stand here in Israel’s Knesset – and have the right to formulate the laws of this state, the way of life of its citizens, life itself. I am filled with thirst – ideas, hopes, plans – all filling my head with the thought of parliamentary activity in this house. I wish myself – and you – for this activity to be blessed.
The Israeli Knesset is seen as a battleground in recent years, people attack one another, accuse one another, shout and speak harshly. I am new here, but I hope to walk a different walk, that of Beit Hillel, the Hillel’s House of Study that flourished in Talmudic times
In the Talmudic Tractate Eruvin, 13b, it says: “A heavenly voice called out – ‘ both of the opinions are the Word of the Living G-d, but the halakha (Jewish law) is according to the Beit Hillel,’ but if both opinions are the Word of the Living G-d, what made Beit Hillel deserving of the halakha being defined as they opined? Because they were pleasant and modest, and analyzed their own opinions as well as those of Beit Shamai, Shamai’s House of Study, and not only that, but they also studied the words of Beit Shamai ahead of their own.”
Beit Hillel was deserving of having the law decided as their scholars opined, they were popular and “won mandates”, not because they compromised or retreated from their opinions, but because they listened, learned and respected those who disagreed with them, while adhering steadfastly to their beliefs and opinions.
I represent a public, a way of life and faith. Faith in Hashem, faith in the land and its people, Eretz Yisrael and the Torah of Israel.
But I am prepared to listen, as King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.”
My parents taught me not to be cowed by obstacles and difficulties, always to keep my eyes on the goal and the mission. As a counselor, officer, administrator, and social innovator, I tried to apply the values with which I was raised and to find positive, creative solutions to problems and challenges, even those that seemed unsolvable.
Our Beta Yisrael “village” in my city of Kiryat Gat grew out of real distress – it is a cultural agriculture center that thousands visit every year. The mission-oriented network of communities of Hineni, which turned the members of the Ethiopian community into confident representatives of achievements, proud of their culture and heritage, is a model for finding solutions.
Working together, many Ethiopian immigrant organizations have expressed our community’s vision in these words:
We and our children are a natural part of Israeli society, acting within it with strength, power and pride in our unique heritage, while enjoying educational, economic and social independence. We are partners who exercise influence, hold key positions, are present in centers of decision making, leading and building Israeli society as a society devoid of racism, one that respects every person’s right and offers equal opportunity to all.
This is not an attempt to benefit any specific community, it is a way to benefit Israeli society in its entirety. All Israelis will reap the benefits that ensue from the realization of this vision.
I declare from this podium:
Despite the challenges, we will complete this journey along with you, my fellow members of the 25th Knesset.
The Council of Mission-oriented Communities which unites Israel’s entire population and has as its goal the strengthening of the social fabric of the state by means of the establishment, development and operation of movements, organizations and networks of communities and groups all over the country, emphasizes peripheral social groups and locations.
I am a proud son of Israel’s “periphery.” As someone who succeeded in travelling the road from my Ashkelon neighborhood to significant army service, Torah and academic study, administrative posts in social civilian organizations and now to the heart of public service, I truly believe that the “periphery” and its residents are our country’s future. Both, the future and the “periphery,” are filled with challenges and opportunities.
We must learn from past mistakes and work for the State of Israel from a place of vision and faith, unified and willing to listen to one another.
I, along with my friends, do not intend to connect the periphery with the center of the country, but to turn the periphery itself into the center. Its citizens are the some of the best people in the State of Israel.
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And in closing, I want to thank, first and foremost, my wife Rama – all that I have achieved is due to her. “A woman of valor who can find; her price is far above rubies… Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband as well and he praises her: ‘Many daughters have done valiantly, but you are above them all.’”
And to my wonderful children, Mevasseret, Amitzur, G’al-chen, Dvir, Tohar and Hallel, who give my life significance and accept the price of my public service.
To my mother Asgadesh, who carried the burden of bringing me here
To my brothers and sisters who have supported me throughout
To my dear father-in-law – thank you for the advice, the encouragement and energies
To the entire Solomon and Harari families, who, thank G-d, are many in number
To my friends –”good people on the road, very good people,” as the song says. The journey to here is also yours and due to your help.
And with gratitude to the Creator Who granted me the opportunity to be a public servant in the 25th Knesset of the State of Israel, the harbinger of our Redemption.
“May G-d grant His nation strength; may He bless them with peace.”
Moshe Moise Solomon is a newly elected Member of Israel’s 25th Knesset representing the Religious Zionist Party. He made aliya from Ethiopia as a young child, is married to Rama, and their family makes its home in Kiryat Gat. He is a Lieut. Colonel (res.) in the IDF Paratroop Corps and established the Hineni organization to promote equal opportunity for residents of Israel’s “periphery” (i.e., communities distant from Israel’s central cities) and its Ethiopian immigrants.
Translated by Rochel Sylvetsky
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