A Tale of Two Torahs
Only one of them preserved us
Likud Minister Dudu Amsalem recently made headlines for a statement in support of a draft exemption for charedim, which Bibi is still working to push through. He declared that “a (charedi) Torah student is the ‘diamond in the crown,’ and does not contribute any less than a soldier who fights in Gaza.” Amsalem reaches this conclusion based on the fact that “when looking at the history of the Jewish People, we see that without Torah there is no Jewish People.” One wonders if perhaps it’s more about the fact that without charedim there is no Likud. But for now, let’s take Amsalem at his word.
It is indeed correct that the Torah has preserved the Jewish People over history. But Amsalem’s mistake is presuming that the Torah which did that is identical to the Torah of the charedi community today. Not only is it not identical, it’s not even remotely similar. In fact, it is pretty much the exact opposite.
While Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah, there are two very different Torahs being celebrated this week. Some will be celebrating the festival of the giving of this one:
A Torah which encompasses both our obligations to God and our obligations to man, in order to create a just society;
A Torah whose study is described by the Sages and the Rishonim as being for the purpose of knowing and fulfilling the mitzvos;
A Torah which Rabbi Akiva encapsulates with “love your neighbor as yourself” - do for him that which you yourself would want;
A celebration which takes place on the day of the harvest, the culmination of our work to provide for ourselves, undertaken with full effort along with God’s help;
A festival which is marked with the reading of Megillat Rut, about a young woman who forgoes the opportunity for safety and security and puts herself out with selfless commitment to the Jewish People;
A festival which follows a parasha that talks at length about the tribes being drafted into the army, which is appreciated as something of great value, the ultimate expression of chessed;
A celebration of a Torah which is epitomized in our heroic young (and older) people who, both despite and because of their love for studying Torah, understand that putting Torah into practice means making sacrifices with their learning, careers, family life and potentially their health and (God forbid) even their lives, in order to enable the Jewish People to survive, as we have seen so powerfully in the last three years.
(Above: Zecharia Haber, the epitome of a Torah scholar, who also authored a special zemer to sing on Shavuot. He gave his life in Gaza on behalf of the Jewish People.)
Others, however, are celebrating the giving of a very different Torah:
A Torah which is to be studied all day long for many decades by all young men in the community, primarily for the purpose of (allegedly) increasing their personal knowledge of Torah, as per the innovative redefinition of Torah lishmah created by R. Chaim of Volozhin;
The above Torah study being in place of their having any serious responsibilities to supporting their families or to helping the Jewish People, no matter what crises are happening (except for political campaigns, in which case they have to leave the Beis HaMidrash and engage in full hishtadlus);
A Torah which despite all its stress on honesty and Chazal’s stress on raising one’s children to be self-supportive, tells them that they should create a society that relies on others to support them instead and which engages in deception to get money from everyone else;
A Torah which despite supposedly making them grow intellectually, produces “Gedolim” with absolutely no plan for their community to survive economically, no matter how much hardship this is causing for them, and certainly without any thought for the long-term consequences;
A Torah which despite supposedly making them grow spiritually, produces “Gedolim” who declare that religious Zionist soldiers are killed in Gaza because they were taught “warped Torah”;
A Torah which despite supposedly making them grow ethically, produces “Gedolim” who tell their followers that they shouldn’t help relieve the ever-growing crushing burden on those who are making endless sacrifices for us all, no matter how many broken lives and suicides this causes, and that they shouldn’t even do chessed for them, or even show any concern or gratitude for them.
It’s two different Torahs. One of them is something beautiful, an elixir of life that preserved us from Biblical times through to today. The other is a poison, a modern aberration which threatens to end us.
Those who are celebrating the former are part of the thousands of years of sacrifice and tradition that makes up the Jewish People and kept us going. May they receive all the blessings of Torah. And I wish them a chag sameach.
This post is patently unfair and off the mark, despite the general validity of the underlying point of view.
What percentage of the greater dati-leumi community lives up to the lofty ideals you describe? I grew up MO in a very tzioni family with everyone on my mother's side and some of my father's side making aliya decades ago - sixty years ago for the older generation and my mother and sisters forty. Everyone of age went through the army idealistically but precious few look anything like the people you describe. Are they "celebrating" that Torah in the sense that they theoretically believe that ideal? Mostly. But they and most of the dati leumi world don't live that way at all. They live modern lives influenced as much by the secular vision of Zionism as the religious. This is not a knock - their Emunah and commitment run deep and it is a society with much to take pride in. But let's not pretend they're close to the ideal you describe. There is now enormous diversity with huge numbers identifying as dati-leumi for social/identity reasons with little true connection to Torah at all - maybe even most in the younger generation.
Notice also how there of your six points about charedim are about the gedolim, which are unique to a tiny and specific cohort. No previous generation of gedolim agreed with the most controversial positions they take, which are obviously based on politics. More importantly, the "Torah they celebrate" it's primarily and naturally about the learning side, and you know very well the doing side you describe, that involves the modern world, is one they find impossible to do in this crazy generation without corrupting the Torah. I hate that decision but at the same time when I look at the "spiritual" vulnerability of the dati leumi community as an alternative, especially imagining it without the strength of the charedi commitment to Torah anchoring it, it's easier to understand what's driving their fear.
The clear answer to me is a combination of the two but your post is not fair in either direction.
Amsalem is another government official who sell out the Israeli citizens to buy votes (ie- from charedi bloc who sell their collective vote to the highest bidders). These charedi groups are not Torah scholars. They are just an organized extortion gang who hide behind the Torah. They have done more than anyone else to drive Israelis AWAY from Torah. Why havent other rabbinic leaders spoken out against these charedi mob mosses (ie- also called Gedolei Hador by their ignorant followers). Food for thought.