A Theodicy of Absurdity

Rav Aharon Feldman explains God's message with October 7th

Rav Aharon Feldman, member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisrael of America, and Rosh Yeshivah of Ner Yisrael, has issued a lengthy letter explaining the theodicy of the Gaza war. It appears in Hebrew on an Israeli charedi website with the title, “A Sage is Superior to a Prophet.”

Rav Feldman begins by claiming that there is no rational explanation for how Hamas managed to overcome Israel’s mighty army on October 7th. He insists that nobody can explain how it happened. Thus, it was clearly a Divine message.

Unfortunately, we actually know exactly how it happened. I’m not going to go into the details here, because they are so deeply upsetting. Suffice it to say that someone who is interested in finding out how it happened can easily do so, and it’s strange that Rav Feldman is unaware of the explanation.

But, given that it was a Divine message, what was the message? Rav Feldman begins by noting that today we lack prophets who can explain the precise meaning of events. However, he continues, if there were prophets, then he knows what they would say.

And what would they say? That Israel is a Godless country. We are supposed to be a holy nation, but the country strives to be like every other county. And worst of all, in the year preceding October 7th, there were mass protests. Which might have appeared to be protests against the sweeping judicial reforms which promised to rapidly transform Israel from a protected democracy into a majority rule, but which were actually a protest against Torah.

And therefore, continues Rav Feldman’s prophetic insight, Hashem decided to deliver a powerful and strong message in order to straighten Israel out. And in order to make it absolutely clear that this was a rebuke for abandoning Torah and engaging in secularism, He spared the charedi boys of Tifrach Yeshiva.

Yes, you read all that correctly.

Some will criticize Rav Feldman’s theodicy as being theologically problematic or deeply offensive, especially with his ignoring all the dati-leumi people and hesder yeshiva students who have been killed. But what I would like to point out is that it is very obviously and plainly absurd.

In 1948, in all the years following, and again in 1967, Israel succeeded against overwhelming odds and won extraordinary victories. And yet the country was much more secular than it is now! And there were only a few hundred charedi yeshiva students back then! Whereas in the past few decades, the entire country has gotten far more religious, and the charedi community in particular has enjoyed explosive growth. Today there are over 100,000 charedim learning in yeshivah, more than ever before, and yet they didn’t prevent October 7th from happening. So how on earth is there a “clear message” here that secularism harms and Torah protects?

Meanwhile, the one very very clear message that everyone (except charedim) has learned since October 7th is that the IDF made a mistake to rely on technology in place of boots on the ground, and to assume that weapons amassed against us will not be used. The very very clear message is that vastly more people need to be drafted in order to protect the people of Israel against threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinians in the West Bank - which is precisely why there is an unprecedented demand to draft charedi yeshiva students. And the other very very clear message is that Israel also needs a lot more money to fund its defense, which means that the state cannot afford to be subsidizing a community of over one million people that is deliberately underemployed.

To claim that God is sending a message means that it has to be a message that is clear and that people are actually receiving. But it’s only charedim who take it to be a message that conveniently confirms charedi hashkafah. And they only do so by virtue of completely distorting reality.

The entire rest of the country, including many deeply religious Jews, as well as many people within the charedi world (including such figures as Jonathan Rosenblum, a former devotee of Rav Feldman), have taken a very different message. What they have learned is that the charedi approach of mass kollel, opposition to secular studies and professional employment, community-wide exemption from military service, and insistence on massive welfare subsidies, is a threat to the safety of everyone in Israel. If God was sending a message, that’s the one that everyone else heard.