There’s a few hundred young charedi men who are bravely enlisting to charedi hesder units. But most of the charedi population, and certainly the rabbinic and political leadership, are at a very different place; specifically, at war with Israel, as they formally declared last week. And even though there are many in the charedi community who wouldn’t go that far, they do not speak out against those that do.
Meanwhile, in the US, charedi publications won’t even report on the extreme things that are happening, because they would rather ignore problems, whitewash the situation, and keep the charedi leadership on a pedestal. As countless yeshivish Americans tell me, it’s lashon hara to report what charedi rabbis proudly do in the name of Torah. So here’s what you’ll miss learning about.
First, there’s MK Moshe Gafni declaring that the desire to enlist the charedim is like the Roman desire to eradicate Judaism. Then there’s “HaGaon” Rabbi Shmuel Eliezer Stern, declaring that if the Torah community overcame the Nazi Holocaust, they can also overcome those who are trying to stab them with knives in Israel:
Of course, chassidim did not actually survive the Holocaust so well, and for those that did, it was largely thanks to the Zionists who had created an infrastructure to receive them, and who still protect them against those who really do want to stab them with knives.
Not to be outdone in riling up his followers, “HaGaon” Rabbi Yigal Rosen declares that the Zionists are worse than the Nazis, and claims that they would readily massacre charedim in gas chambers!
Meanwhile, there are no depths to which some charedim will not stoop to claim victimhood. This group made a demonstration on behalf of the yeshiva boys arrested for draft evasion, using the signature yellow chairs that are used to call attention to the plight of the hostages being tortured and murdered in Gaza:
Note that nobody around them seems to object.
So what do chareidim plan to do? The Rosh Yeshiva of Slonim announced that they are like the Jews of Shushan in needing to stand up for their very lives, and are willing to “pay any price” to remain loyal to God and Torah:
Of course, declaring that they are willing to “pay any price” does not mean anything of the sort. They’re not willing to do what dati yeshiva students do, which is to actually be willing to pay any price. And they’re not even willing to pay a simple financial price - to move to another country, where there is no mandatory draft, but there is no financial support for sitting in kollel.
Then there’s those charedim who, despite their professed belief that Hashem is in charge of everything, appeal to human saviors:
But most charedim realize that if you want to win a war, you can’t rely on other people, and you can’t rely on Hashem, and you certainly can’t rely on Torah. Rather, you have to go out and engage in physical action, as several hundred did in violent riots yesterday:
It’s amazing that so many people still do not realize the hypocrisy of charedim professing to believe that the spiritual power of Torah replaces physical action.
They speak of Torah scholars, but rejected a deal that would only require drafting of haredim who are NOT learning. All the scholars would have to do is scan their fingerprint upon entering and leaving the Beis HaMedrash, no different than what regular employees have to do. Obviously, this has nothing to do with protecting scholars, but with protecting haredi culture.
The so-called scholars would have had nothing to worry about, had they accepted the deal.
The Haredim DO believe that God is in charge of everything. Some of them also believe that Donald J. Trump is God.