The Lie of Achdus

And the Unity of Sukkos

Sukkos has a strong theme of achdus. It follows Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur in which we pray that everyone will become agudah achas, one unit. There’s the idea of the 70 offerings on behalf of the seventy nations. There’s the famous Midrash about the Arba Minim representing different types of Jews coming together. The etrog with taste and fragrance represents those with both Torah and good deeds; the lulav with taste (of dates) but no fragrance represents those who have Torah but no good deeds; the hadas with fragrance but no taste represents those with good deeds but no Torah; and the aravos represents those with neither. And they all come together for Sukkot as agudah achas, one unit.

Achdus, as I’ve pointed out many times, does not just mean coming together for singing and dancing. That can even be a smokescreen to cover up a lack of achdus. Achdus means brotherhood, unity, nosei b’ol im chavero (sharing your friend’s burden), and not standing by as your brother is hurt. If your house is on fire, and your siblings are doing the exhausting and dangerous task of trying to douse the flames, achdus is helping them do it, not sitting back in your armchair and telling them that you’ll davven for their success.

In the Sukkos edition of Mishpacha magazine, there is an article titled “Succos and Jewish Unity” by Jonathan Rosenblum. He refers to a Midrash Tanna d'Bei Eliyahu, which says that the Jews in Egypt made a covenant to become an aguda achas, a unified group, and always do chesed for one another. Rosenblum then makes the following extraordinary claim:

"War has always brought out the best in Israeli Jews, and the present yearlong war has been no exception. Perhaps in fulfillment of that ancient covenant from our bondage in Egypt, Jews have sought ways of supporting one another: picking and selling produce that would have rotted from the kibbutzim and moshavim on the Gaza border; taking care of children; doing laundry; providing entertainment for the families uprooted from their homes; cooking special meals for the soldiers and then driving them still hot to the southern and northern borders; offering emotional support for bereaved spouses, parents, and children... All the manifold acts of chesed reflect a sense of being part of one people with mutual responsibilities to one another."

I wrote to him and pointed out that aside from the fact that charedim do not fulfill the basic mutual responsibility of serving in the army, the war didn’t even “bring out their best” in other ways. Even with regard to the acts of chesed that he mentions, only a tiny, tiny fraction of charedi society did any of this. When you go collecting fruit and vegetables on the farms, you don't see charedim there. Nor do you see charedim at funerals for soldiers. Or helping the families of reservists. There are amazing exceptions like Shai Graucher, a charedi pillar of chessed, but then you have R. Dov Landau, the Godol HaDor of the Litvishe charedi world, who condemns Shai as a mazzik gamur, apparently because he directs efforts to helping soldiers instead of yeshivos.

And if there's one thing that charedi society is not into, it's "being part of one people with mutual responsibilities to each other." Rosenblum himself has lamented the lack of “Klal Yisrael consciousness" in the charedi world. And for the charedi leadership, it's a feature, not a bug. Because the most important thing is to be as separate from everyone else as possible.

Today there is an interview in Mekor Rishon with MK Yitzchok Goldknopf, who heads the Knesset party “Agudas Yisrael.” What an ironic name for a charedi political party! The interview is mostly about his efforts to ensure that charedim don’t have to share in the mutual responsibility of army service. Goldknopf is flat-out dishonest, claiming that the phenomenon of draft-dodging in the charedi community is the same as in Tel-Aviv, which is both irrelevant and false. Then he claims that he represents the Torah learners whereas the Religious Zionism party represents the non-Torah learners, showing a disgusting negation of all the dati-leumi Torah learners who had to go out to war. And finally, after his utterly callous disregard for the hardships and inequality that charedim cause, he claims that an exemption for charedim creates “unity” in the people!

There’s an amazing cartoon which was just published in Shevii, based on the Midrash cited above about the arba minim:

In this cartoon the etrog, with both Torah study and good deeds, is wearing a knitted kippah. The lulav, representing the charedim who only learn Torah and lack good deeds, is blithely asking the others where they are spending chag. Of course, they are spending chag away from their families in Gaza and Lebanon. Rather than the arba minim all coming together, three of them are making the sacrifice of going to war, while the lulav is just going to be enjoying chag as usual. The obliviousness of the lulav perfectly reflects how charedim don't have the slightest care (and often, by design, not even a clue) about what the families of reservists are going through.

The only inaccuracy in this cartoon is that the charedim are represented by the lulav who might not have good deeds but at least has Torah. In fact, the “Torah” being championed by those who avoid their duties to the nation is not even Torah. To once again quote Rabbi Elchanan Nir:

“…In its charedi version, the Torah was deprived of being an elixir of life. It has lost its connection to its surroundings, to the wide avenues of the nation, to the reality to which it is supposed to turn and influence it from its spirit. It is not for nothing that the Sages said, "Whoever says he has nothing but Torah – he does not even have Torah" (Yevamot 109b). There can be no true Torah with those who are not involved in life itself. From being a Torah of life, which provides an answer and light to its surroundings, a Torah has instead developed that does not deal with reality, that does not have responsibility and simple humanity, lending a shoulder to collapsing agriculture or a partnership with the soldiers who fight for it… Suddenly, many in the national-religious public are internalizing the truth: This Torah that our charedi brothers boast about is not the Torah we are studying. In our community, we don’t believe in a Torah that absolves one of responsibility and of sharing the burden with one’s friend, a Torah that is not a Torah of life.”

It’s ironic that those who profess to represent Torah and Agudas Yisroel do not actually represent either. Meanwhile, this Sukkot, we are hosting a mother and children whose husband/ father is in Lebanon. My married nephews are also away from their wives and children. So are many of the yeshiva students and avreichim in the hesder yeshivot. These families might not be physically together for Sukkot, but nobody more powerfully represents the concept of being part of the real Agudat Yisrael.