More Emptying of the Yeshivos

There is a fascinating report in Kikar Shabbat about a charedi man from Jerusalem, Binyomin Gorlin, who has filed an official complaint against Rav Shalom Cohen, spiritual leader of Shas. Rav Cohen issued a directive immediately following Purim that all yeshivah students should devote their afternoons and evenings to political campaign work. Gorlin complained that yeshivah students are supposed to be studying in yeshivah, not engaging in politics, and that they receive a draft exemption specifically on the grounds that they are learning Torah full time.

Amazingly, of the various responses quoted in the article and in the numerous comments to the article which disagree with Gorlin, not one even attempts to present an argument as to why his argument is incorrect. Instead, they all hurl abuse on him for daring to argue with a Gadol B'Torah.

Amongst the responses to yesterday's post, Empty the Yeshivos!, a number of people argued that even charedim always say that one has to do normal hishtadlus. For army duty and the economy, that hishtadlus is done by non-charedim, and for elections, that hishtadlus is done by charedim. But as someone pointed out, the yeshivah world talks endlessly about maximizing Torah learning, minimizing hishtadlus, and implementing bitachon. Yet when it comes to getting votes, they minimize Torah learning, maximize hishtadlus, and do not implement any bitachon.

Furthermore, the amount of hishtadlus being done here is far more than the normal amount, if we measure it against the hishtadlus done by other sectors of the population. Other sectors did not have rallies of 100,000 people, not because there aren't 100,000 supporters, but because their millions of supporters are busy with important jobs and don't have several hours to take off in the middle of the day for a political rally. And other sectors do not have enormous numbers of people that are instructed to take off several hours every day for over a week to engage in political campaigning.

When it comes to causes that are really important to charedim, such as getting money from the government (which is ultimately what the politicking is directed towards), they clearly believe that worldly hishtadlus is much more important and effective than learning and davenning and having bitachon. That's why they empty the yeshivos in order to do it.