Charedi Idealism and Sacrifice

Should we appreciate this in order to obtain "achdus"?

I’ve heard two arguments about why even if one disagrees with the charedi avoidance of serving in the IDF, one should nevertheless respect them and/or not harshly critize them.

The first came from Rav Aharon Lopiansky, a charedi Rosh Yeshivah who I used to know well and who I still respect as a very fine person who tries to change things for the better. In a lecture in Ramat Beit Shemesh, he argued that one should appreciate the fact that charedim do not adopt their path out of a desire for wealth or some other inappropriate benefit, but rather out of idealism for spiritual growth.

I’d like to respond to this with an analogy, prefaced with as many expressions of lehavdil as you’d like. We know that the leaders of Hamas in Qatar lived enormously luxuriously, profiteering off the suffering of their people. In contrast, Yahya Sinwar lived a life of hardship, and sacrified his life as part of his struggle. Does this mean that Sinwar is more admirable than them? Well, I suppose to some extent this is true, but it doesn’t really count for much when his entire mission was evil.

Sure, chareidim choose a lifestyle that prioritizes spiritual growth over material wealth. But so what? The bottom line is that they are abandoning their brethren at the hour of greatest need. This is no more praiseworthy than a man who ignores the cries of his wife who is desperate for help on erev Shabbos and goes to learn instead. What value is there to his “spiritual dedication,” when it comes at the cost of neglecting his responsiblities to those who need help?

A similar argument was advanced by Leah Zakh Aharoni, an influencer who is somewhere in between the charedi and dati worlds. On the one hand, her family serves. On the other hand, her views about achdus are rather problematic. She formerly worked for the dishonestly-named Am Echad organization, whose mission was to prevent any non-Orthodox prayer areas at the Kotel. The organization described itself as aiming to "unite Jews from the Diaspora and Israel around the goals of preserving our 3,000-year-old heritage, deepening cooperation among our communities, and upholding Jewish interests in Israel and around the world." But what they were actually doing was trying to prevent any cooperation between the Orthodox community and other communities.

Mrs. Aharoni’s approach to “achdus” in the context of charedim vs. everyone else is likewise deeply problematic. In a series of social media posts that she publicized and which received hundreds of re-shares, she claimed that for the sake of “unity,” it is important that non-charedim only engage in “constructive discussion” with charedim (as if that has ever done any good!). She argued that if people harshly criticize charedim then this is “hatred” which harms “achdus,” which in turn weakens the Jewish People and helps Hamas kill soldiers. (Yes, you read that correctly. If you criticize charedim for not giving reservists the ability to return home to their jobs and families, then you’re making it more likely that the reservists will be killed by Hamas.)

On many occasions I’ve pointed out that there is no achdus when one entire sector refuses to care about easing the sacrifices that everyone else makes on their behalf. And calling out the lack of achdus is not “harming achdus.” When Moshe Rabbeinu harshly castigated the tribes of Gad and Reuven for the idea that they would not join their brethren in war, he was not “harming achdus.” This point, which clearly evades many people, cannot be stressed enough.

But I’d like to focus here on one particular approach that Mrs. Aharoni proposes for the sake of attaining “unity”: that just as charedim should appreciate the pain and sacrifice of soldiers and their families, non-chareidim should appreciate the “pain and sacrifice” of charedim. The “pain and sacrifice” to which she refers is twofold; first, the financial hardship suffered by charedim in kollel, and second, the fear of spiritual harm if their children would join the IDF.

Let’s start with the first aspect. Sure, many charedim struggle terribly with poverty. But first of all, there is simply no comparison between that suffering and the suffering of reservists and their families. If you compare those at the easiest end, there are kollel families who live in material comfort and have no worries, whereas even the reservists who are doing well are still compromising their careers and family lives. Meanwhile, at the hardest end, the suffering of charedim who have terrible poverty is not remotely comparable with families in which the soldiers have suffered death or serious emotional or physical injury. (And many reservists also suffer poverty, due to the collapse of their businesses.)

Furthermore, it’s not a suffering competition. Charedim have chosen to adopt a lifestyle of underemployment for their own personal (spiritual) benefit. But what about one’s obligations to everyone else? This is similar to the point discussed earlier. There is no value or sympathy warranted for personal choices involving suffering when it comes at the cost of neglecting responsiblities to those who need help.

Regarding her second point, about appreciating the fear that charedim have for their sons being spiritually harmed in the IDF, she is overlooking the fact that this is a sacrifice that they are therefore not making! This is in total contrast to non-charedim, who also have fears regarding not only their sons’ spirituality, but also to their health and their very lives, but who nevertheless are ready to sacrifice all of this out of responsibility to the nation as a whole. One group sacrifices that which is most precious to them in order to help others, the other refuses to make any sacrifices for others (and even demands financial support from everyone else!).

The most important thing that we need is not a fake “achdus” in which everyone talks nicely and nobody criticizes the profound wrongs, damage and danger caused by one sector against the rest of the nation. The most important thing that we need is more soldiers. We need the reservists to be able to go home, we need to stop the crushing burden on their studies and careers and marriages and family lives. We need a much bigger IDF in the eventuality of a Third Intifada.

And this means that we need charedim to enlist. And the only way to do with is via political pressure - creating sanctions against those who do not serve, instead of providing them with exemptions and financial benefits as the current government seeks to do. And the only way to create political pressure is via a massive public campaign.

Sure, it’s not pleasant to have to harshly criticize others. It’s much easier to say that everyone should just be “nice.” But there’s lots of unpleasant things that you have to do when there’s a war on and you need to save your people from those who harm it.