It's not Beautiful, it's Offensive

What some see as "achdus," others see as the opposite.

Sigh. I really wish I didn’t have to post this. But I think it’s important to preempt things.

Someone I know was sent a video by their charedi employer. The person who sent it thought that it was a beautiful demonstration of unity, of b’yachad nenatzeach. This video will probably become very popular.

Yes, it’s better than the Rabbi of the Peleg faction who declared that he’d rather have his children and grandchildren murdered by Hamas than join the IDF and risk becoming secular. He, along with Rav Aharon Feldman and others who are against showing any respect whatsoever for the IDF and risking children seeing army service as valuable and perhaps tempting, wouldn’t want children dressed up in even half an IDF uniform.

But the person who received the video has four sons/son-in-law who have spent the last five-and-a-half months away from their wives and children in the army reserves. And they are all too aware that they are the luckier ones.

They did not appreciate the video. They found it offensive, as do I and many others. There is no “b’yachad” when one sector of the population leaves their homes and families and jobs and puts their lives on the line, and another sector enjoys the comforts of home life with no changes and no sacrifice. That is not the achdus we desperately need.