Can People be Parasites?

Or is the term off-limits?

There are various occasions over the years when left-wing MKs and journalists described the haredi community as “parasites” or as engaging in parasitic behavior. This is due to their way of life which means that, as a community, they extract far more from the economy than they contribute, and they benefit from other people sacrificing themselves for army service while not contributing towards it. In such cases, haredim reacted furiously at such language, describing it as “antisemitic” and as evoking Nazi Germany. Even secular human-rights groups such as B’Tzelem have objected. And generally, the MKs apologized.

Interestingly, in English, the word parasite originally referred to people who take advantage of others; only centuries later was it used in biology, to refer to various lower creatures which exist by drawing nutrition from a host organism. Today, the biological meaning of the term is paramount, and the usage it with regard to humans is generally a metaphor drawing upon the biological meaning. But there’s a long history of the term being used specifically as an antisemitic attack on Jews, which reached its terrible peak with the Holocaust. Thus, the word has problematic associations and should be avoided.

But the fact that the term has problematic associations in Europe does not mean that it is inherently inaccurate to describe the charedi community as living based on being takers rather than givers; the numbers speak for themselves. And it certainly has nothing to do with antisemitism. If a Jew actually has a big nose, it may be nasty to say so, but it’s neither false nor antisemitic. And if a Jew engages in predatory lending, it’s not antisemitic to criticize him for it.

Nor is it inherently problematic to use metaphors for people drawn from the animal kingdom. Interestingly, Tanach itself uses the symbolism of animals to describe people. Sometimes, this is in positive contexts, describing people as being powerful as a lion or swift as a gazelle. But sometimes, it uses less-than-flattering animal symbols, such as the description of the Children of Israel in Egypt “reproducing like vermin” (vayishretzu). And sometimes, it is deliberately negative, such as descriptions of the leaders of Israel being like “bloodthirsty wolves” or “jackals.”

Still, regardless of whether one thinks that it is appropriate or inappropriate to use the term parasite in reference to people, one thing that we can all agree on is that consistency is required. In other words, if you think it’s inappropriate to use the term for people that one believes to be takers rather than givers, then it doesn’t matter who they are.

In light of that, I was fascinated to see a report about a large gathering that took place in Har Nof on Hoshana Rabba. Three prominent rabbis addressed a crowd of hundreds about the charedi approach to not serving in the IDF. The gist of the evening was that charedi yeshiva students are the real heroes fighting the real battle, because whatever happens on the battlefield is dictated by the strength or weakness of the Torah learning in the charedi yeshivos. There’s a lot to discuss about what was said, but for now, I just want to highlight a statement by “HaMashgiach HaGaon HaTzaddik” Rabbi Shlomo Breur. He declared, “They say that we are parasites, but we say that they are the parasites!” And he repeated, “They are the parasites, we are the true warriors.”

My question is, will the same people who condemned such language as evoking Nazi antisemitism when it was used regarding charedim also condemn it when it was used by a prominent charedi rabbinic figure against non-charedim?

Still, the name-calling is a trivial matter in comparison to the actual position being stated. The anti-rationalist position that it’s actually the tens of thousands of charedi yeshiva students who are protecting Israel, and that it’s the people sacrificing their learning and jobs and families and health and sometimes their lives who should feel indebted to them, is deeply disturbing. I’ve exposed the lack of basis for this in Torah and tradition on other occasions, but what do you do when people nevertheless sincerely believe it - or sincerely believe that they believe it?

As I’ve suggested, I think that the only possible approach is to show them that their belief is not as sincere as they think it is. It’s easy to delude yourself into an anti-rationalist perspective when there are no practical costs to it and only benefits. And so we have to make the consequences real to then. And the way to do that is that when they ask for money or other kinds of help, tell them that you’ll learn and davven for them instead.

(On another note, I am traveling to Toronto for various speaking engagements this weekend, and next week I will be speaking in Teaneck and possibly Lawrence. If you’d like more details, you can email Ellen at advancement@BiblicalNaturalHistory.org)