Clueless People

"How can you be a rabbi and be against Torah?!"

I’m continually struck by how many well-meaning people, especially in the United States, do not understand the situation in Israel.

There’s a certain mailing list for Orthodox Jewish professionals in a very specific field that I’m on. One of the professionals, going completely off-topic, sent an email reminding everyone to vote for Eretz HaKodesh in the World Zionist Organization elections, “to represent Torah values in Eretz Yisroel.”

I responded as follows: “I do not believe that this mailing list is a place to canvas for political votes. But since the person who posted asked for people to vote for Eretz HaKodesh, I would like to counter that people should NOT vote for that group. That group exists for the purpose of transferring money donated for Zionist causes to charedi yeshivos that do not believe in supporting the State of Israel, neither in the IDF nor in economic productivity.”

The person who posted the email was utterly horrified and wrote to me to ask that I retract. How could I call myself a rabbi and not see the importance of infusing Eretz Yisrael with Torah? How could I not see how this helps Israel? How could I not be in favor of redirecting the millions of dollars that are going to secular groups who destroy the Torah values in Israel and who degrade the Jewishishness of the country? And don’t I know about all the charedim in the army?

I responded as follows:

I'm sure you mean well, but you live in America and you do not understand what is going on here. You have been misled as to which WZO party supports Torah values.

My son's yeshivah, and all 80 yeshivot of that network, are infusing Israel with Torah. They are hesder yeshivot. They combine several years of learning with serving in the IDF. Torah, avodah and gemilas chassadim.

There are many yeshivos in Israel that are supporting Israel and infusing it with Torah, but not the charedi ones that Eretz HaKodesh wants to get money for. How are charedi yeshivos supporting Israel by "infusing it with Torah"? What does that even mean? It's not as though they are spreading Torah teachings. And they are certainly not spreading Torah values. It is a selfish approach to Torah that does not care about the immense burden that the rest of the country is experiencing.

There are 500,000 IDF soldiers and reservists, representing families of millions of people. Barely any of them are charedi. There are hardly any charedim in the IDF. A tiny, tiny fraction.

Did you know that hundreds of thousands of reservists - men in their 20s, 30s, and even 40s - have been away from their yeshivot and university studies and jobs and wives and children for months and months and months of reserve duty? Do you know the price that they have paid? Hundreds dead, thousands injured, tens of thousands with their careers seriously damaged. Meanwhile there's hundreds of thousands of charedim who should be sharing this burden and are not.

Do you know that after my son finishes his service, he will be called back to the army for reserve duty for SEVENTY DAYS a year, until he is FORTY-FIVE, because there aren't enough soldiers?

Did you know that there are many dati yeshiva students and kollel students who have been called up for extra service due to the severe manpower shortage? Why is their Torah learning worth less than that of charedim? And there's tens of thousands of charedim who aren't even learning!

Do you know that not only do charedim not help share the burden of IDF service, but their system of deliberate kollel/unemployment along with opposition to general studies results in enormous drain on the economy - BILLIONS of dollars every year? And they are one-third of first graders! How will the economy survive as they increase to a third of the country?

If you want to use WZO to support Israel as a religious country, including Torah study that transmits Torah values, then support Mizrachi. That's the group which is aligned with your values. Not a group that is harming Israel by weakening it economically, and which harms Torah values by totally not caring about the immense burden being placed upon the reservists.

The person did not respond. Meanwhile, this phenomenon is unfortunately common. Many American Orthodox Jews - people with good values, people who believe in the importance of a good general education, people who understand the concept of civic responsibilities - are simply unaware (or are in denial) that the religious society in Israel which is most closely aligned with them is the Religious Zionist community. Often, they are barely aware of its existence! And they are likewise unaware of the harm and catastrophic danger to the country that the charedi community represents. They entirely misunderstand what achdus means in the context of life in Israel. And they are certainly unaware of how the Religious Zionist community - including its rabbis and roshei yeshiva - view the Charedi community. It’s not as though Mispacha magazine or Ami report about this.

The truth is, it’s not only people in the US who are clueless (though they seem to specialize in it, especially if they are from Baltimore). There are plenty of Anglo-quasi-charedim living in my home town of Ramat Beit Shemesh who are equally unaware of the issues. And there are certainly many Israeli charedim who are also lacking basic knowledge about the Dati-Leumi community.

During the week of Purim, I got into several discussions/ arguments with people at the door who were collecting for charedi yeshivos. One of them said to me, “If you send your son to a yeshiva, then I will go to the army!” To which I responded, “My son is in yeshiva, you doofus! And he’s going to the army, and then returning to yeshivah!” (Actually I left out the words “you doofus,” but I think I conveyed them in my tone.) It had never even occurred to him that there are communities who do both.

I asked another collector if he had heard of hesder yeshivot, and he replied in the affirmative. I asked him how many he thinks there are. He gave it some thought and said, “Five?” I told him that there are over eighty. He was shocked!

I often get challenged as to the purpose and function of this website. It has many, but one of them is to educate people about theological and sociological aspects of Orthodox Judaism of which they are simply unaware. This war has made this all the more important. If you agree, please forward these posts to people who would benefit from being better informed.