Every time you think that the charedi leadership and community can’t go any lower, they surprise you.
With elections having arrived, it’s time to stop learning Torah, empty the yeshivos and engage in maximum hishtadlus. After all, it’s not as though Hashem decides things on Rosh HaShanah depending on the merit of Torah study. And so the charedi population has engaged in massive electioneering.
At the United Torah Judaism rally the other day, featuring The Gedolim™ and the charedi MKs, one of the rabbinic speakers made a shocking claim. He said that “The State of Israel is a corrupt state that commits genocide against charedim.” Because of course, enabling and financing a community to grow a hundredfold, and then finally starting to very slightly demand a minimum of civic duties and economic participation, is genocide.
Also at the rally, the Gedolim danced to the song B’shilton hakofrim ain anu maaminim, “We do not believe in the rule of the heretics, we do not report to their [enlistment] offices.” Though of course they certainly believe in participating in elections, demanding IDF protection, and ensuring that the heretical state gives them billions of shekels. The song itself was created by Neturei Karta, and was originally unthinkable to be sung in mainstream charedi circles, but it entered Peleg circles a few years ago and has now become part of the mainstream charedi discourse.
Remember, these anti-Zionist Jews who claim that Israel is a corrupt, heretical, genocidal state are the coalition partners of Likud, Religious Zionism, and Otzma Yehudit.
Meanwhile, with discourse like this coming from The Gedolim™, it’s hardly surprising to see charedi kids reacting to a poster of a charedi political candidate who follows a different approach by spitting on his picture and burning it:
Of course, don’t expect to see any of this reported in Mishpacha magazine, which seeks to distort reality and create an idealized and sanitized version of The Gedolim™ and charedi society. Likewise, I saw two videos by non-charedi “influencers” who claimed that most charedim want to join Israeli society and serve in the IDF, and the only reason they’re not doing so is that the IDF refuses to accomodate them!
Ah well. Let’s hope that the election results in UTJ being cast out of the government and HaTzibur HaCharedi entering it. There’s nothing like the redirection of billions of shekels to change charedi minds. Necessity is the mother of hashkafic reinvention.