Straight From The Top

Daas Torah on why the March for Israel was wrong

In the ongoing uproar over the American charedi rabbinic leadership opposing the March for Israel, Rav Aharon Feldman, rosh yeshivah of Ner Yisroel and member of Agudas Yisrael’s Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah (Council of Torah Sages), released a letter to explain his position and the approach of the Council in general:

To All Concerned:

Many have asked me to clarify why, on the morning of the November 14 Washington Rally for Israel, I withdrew my support for the rally when I had previously supported it.

Background

On or about November 3rd, Agudath Israel was contacted by a representative of the Federations and other national Jewish organizations which sponsored this event asking Agudah to distribute flyers announcing the rally.

The staff of Agudath Israel convened a telephone conference of a quorum of Moetzes Gedoley Hatorah to seek their approval. Historically, the Moetzes has never supported an event sponsored by secular groups since, among other considerations, they could not control what would transpire at these events. In this case, however, they were assured by the representative, that everything would meet the sensitivities of the Chareidi community.

Based on this assurance the Moetzes approved sending out flyers to the Agudah
mailing list announcing the event and its importance.

The Rabbonim on the conference, including the undersigned, all assumed that they would be informed of the details of the rally’s program to be able to veto anything not in accordance with the sensitivities of the Chareidi community, as had been promised.

During the ten days until the rally, they were not informed of the program, except to be told that several leading Congressmen and a few mothers of the hostages would be on the program. Based on this, I advised questioners to attend the rally. The details of the program were not released until the night before the rally; I found out at 9AM on its morning. I do not know whether the last-minute release of the program was due to time constraints, or whether it was in order to make it impossible for the Rabbinic leaders to retract their support.

Why I Withdrew My Support

I originally supported the rally because I felt it was necessary to influence Congress to continue sending arms to Israel and to stop Congress from forcing a cease-fire. Since Israel was under a constant barrage of missiles (there have been over 10,000 already sent), it is pikuach nefesh to fight the Chamas and to stop these attacks. Even though joining with secular groups is forbidden even for a mitzvah, pikuach nefesh overrides this.

However, on the morning of the rally I saw that the program had two elements which pikuach nefesh does not override.

Element One:
A Christian pastor was set to address the crowd. He is the head of an evangelic Christian denomination which believes that Jews need to be supported so that they eventually convert to Christianity. Even though this pastor has shown enormous support for Israel in the past and even though he has 10 million supporters, nevertheless our community cannot have such a person as its spokesman.

Therefore, no matter how much I appreciated the pastor’s efforts on behalf of Jews, I could not support having him speak at the rally. First: I could not know what he planned to say. Second: even if his speech would be harmless, having a Christian leader speak to a Jewish audience is a step towards interfaith acceptance. Many people, especially young people, in the audience, could well conclude: “He says all the right things. What’s wrong, after all, with being a Christian?” Pikuach nefesh is not an excuse for honoring a foreign religion.

Element Two:

It became clear from the program that the rally was going to be a celebration of secular Zionism. Secular Zionism is a rejection of the Jewish faith. It supplants God and Torah as the basis of the Jewish people, for which it substitutes a common land and language. There can be no greater evidence of this than the anthem Hatikva which states that the hope of Jews for two millenia has been “to be a free nation in our land”—not a nation of God and Torah. This anthem was scheduled to begin the program.

The dominant presence of the President and Ambassador of the State of Israel and the speeches they would perforce deliver supporting a secular State, meant that the thousands present would be inspired to honor an ideology which is the antithesis of Judaism. Pikuach nefesh does not override supporting the rejection of Judaism.

Torah Jews recognize the need for a government in Israel, and, of course, will do nothing to dismantle it or to expose it to danger. But they cannot recognize its ideology as legitimately Jewish.

In addition, it became clear that the rally would have no prayers (except in the form of songs by a singer); and it would have (this, from an advertisement) a massive chant by the attendees of “Never Again!”— implying that the physical might of the army—not Hashem—will protect the Jewish people.

I felt that Torah Jews should not be exposed to all of this secularism. I was extremely pained to have to say that we should not participate in the rally and not be able to influence Congress to help protect my brothers: civilians, soldiers and hostages. But, on the other hand, I could not contribute to undermining, even in the slightest way, the beliefs of Torah Jews. There would have to be another way to help the Jews of Israel.

Therefore, with a heavy heart I retracted my support of the rally.

I realized that 9 AM the morning of the rally was too late to do anything significant, but I had to go on record as opposing the event; otherwise, I would go on record as having supported a pastor spokesman and a heretical ideology.

Those who went to the rally based on my original position will be undoubtedly rewarded for their noble intentions, for they hearkened to the call of Rabbonim. For the same reason, I hope and pray that any negative messages which they absorbed at the rally will have no permanent effect upon them or their children. They are not responsible because the promise to be sensitive to the Chareidi community was not kept.

I hope have clarified the matter and will be happy to address any further questions.

With deep respect,

Aharon Feldman

I would like to make some points in response.

First of all, let’s assume for a moment that his reasons for not attending the rally are legitimate. He makes it clear that he acknowledges that rallies can have a powerful impact; it was only this particular type of rally that was problematic. Had the rally been of a different nature, it would have been an invaluable way to influence Congress to continue sending arms to Israel and not to force a cease-fire, thereby enabling Israel to destroy Hamas, potentially rescue the hostages and save Jewish lives.

So then why can’t the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah organize their own rally?! A hundred thousand non- and anti-Zionist rabbis and their students marching in Washington would certainly have an impact! If they genuinely care, why can’t they do that?

Now let’s turn to whether Rav Feldman’s reasons for not attending this rally are legitimate.

With regard to his first reason, that John Hagee is part of a movement that supports Jews only because they want to see them converted, I consulted an expert on Hagee. He told me that this is “patently false, and can only come from people who live in their own bubbles and make assumptions about everything outside, rather than bothering to learn the truth.” And as for Rav Feldman’s claim that “many people” could well conclude from Hagee’s speech that “there’s nothing wrong with being Christian,” I am not sure what this concern is. Of the 290,000 people at the event, I think that the number of people who decided to convert to Christianity as a result of Hagee’s speech is somewhere in the region of zero. Everyone knows that there are Christians who are tremendously pro-Israel; it enhances our appreciation of Judaism rather than luring us away from it. People who leave Judaism these days do it to be secular, not to be Christian. (Conversely, the number of people who get turned off from Judaism by the various selfish antics of the charedi community is considerable.)

But let’s say that Hagee’s presence was objectionable. With such a broad lineup of speakers, no matter what your worldview, there were going to be speakers that you didn’t like. Depending on your perspective, there were speakers that were far too right wing or far too left wing. This did not stop people attending, because the greater cause of the rally was more important than individual objectionable speakers.

As for the second reason, Rav Feldman claims that the rally was a celebration of secular Zionism, which in turn is a rejection of the Jewish faith. But this is incorrect; it was not a celebration of secular Zionism. Plenty of speakers made reference to God and prayer and faith. There’s nothing overtly anti-religious in Hatikvah, whereas there was a very overt religious message in the traditional Jewish part of the Haggadah sung by Ishay Ribo, “Vehi She’amda… and HaKadosh baruch hu saves us…” And while Rav Feldman claims that the phrase “Never Again!” is secular, it is simply a vow to make every effort to prevent such things from happening; and it was popularized by none other than Rabbi Meir Kahane who, whatever else his failings, certainly was not secular.

Still, Rav Feldman is indeed correct that there was a strong Zionist flavor to the event. And in his view, all Zionism, including religious Zionism, is fundamentally in opposition to what he believes to be the Torah-true approach. Historically, this did not prevent charedi rabbinic leaders from joining “secular” events to help Israel, but the current Moetzes takes a different view.

Thus, the position of Rav Feldman, apparently representing many if not all of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, is that it’s more important to distance oneself from Zionism than to help save Jewish lives in Israel, and indeed than to help ensure the existence of Israel itself.

I think we should be grateful that Rav Feldman made their priorities clear. It gives clarity to the rest of us, and helps us make informed decisions accordingly.