Sacrifice vs. Jacuzzis

This is simply nauseating.

(NOTE to friends in London: B’ezrat Hashem I am coming at the end of next week, speaking at Alei Tziyon next Shabbat. I have availability for a speaking engagement for Monday evening, April 27. Aside from that, if you’d like to drive me to a very special animal destination, please be in touch!)

It’s Yom HaZikaron next week. Since last year’s Yom HaZikaron, another 170 heroes have given their lives to make it possible for us to live here, and another 54 veterans died due to complications from injuries sustained during their service. There are currently 59,583 bereaved family members in Israel.

And of course we are still at war. There are hundreds of thousands of soldiers and reservists in uniform, in Israel and Gaza and Lebanon. Many of them have been away from their jobs and families for most of the past two and half years. Sometimes they get home for a few days; my own son, currently serving in Lebanon, hopes to be able to get two days off next week.

And meanwhile, here is what just popped up in the local Beit Shemesh News group, regarding 1200 local young men. These are young men who never have to leave their lives and families - they just sit in a comfortable and safe Beis HaMidrash, economically subsidized by taxpayers and militarily defended by everyone else, and go home every evening. On top of that, they just had an entire month of vacation. And on top of that, they just experienced this:

“Beit Shemesh News • Among Unforgettable Times: Over 1200 Beit Shemesh students enjoyed a day of refreshment and experience… 46 groups went out daily throughout the week, to two recreation complexes that included a pool, jacuzzi, a pampering barbecue and an unforgettable experience ahead of summer!”

What pampering and refreshment do they need?! (And who is paying for this?!) Refreshment from their month of refreshment from their regular daily comfortable routine?! The back-breaking toil of sitting in an air-conditioned Beis HaMidrash? Do these people have any idea what physical and mental condition many soldiers are in when they finally get home for a few days?!

I don’t even have words to describe how upsetting and nauseating this is. I can’t think of anything that better fits Rambam’s description of Jews who separate themselves from the tribulations facing the community:

A person who separates himself from the community, even though he has not transgressed any sins, but separates himself from the congregation of Israel and does not fulfill mitzvot together with them, does not take part in their hardships, or join in their fasts, but rather goes on his own individual path as if he is from another nation and not ours, does not have a portion in the World to Come. (Hilchot Teshuva 3:11)

And to cap it all, the name of the project under which this operates?

“Magna u’Matzla” - as in “Torah protects and saves.”

They like to pretend that their Torah, learned in utterly selfish absence of any sense of helping relieve the crushing burden upon others, is a merit! Moreover, one that is so powerful that it protects and saves the nation from military attack! (Not to mention that military protection is not even what the phrase magna u’matzla is talking about anyway; this is just one of many distortions of what the Sages say about what Torah does and does not do, as explained in R. Moshe Klausner’s freely-downloadable book here).

But their Torah, enabled by the current government, certainly does protect and save them from all responsibility, and enables them to enjoy jacuzzis at the expense of everyone else’s sacrifice.