The Perfect Charedi Storm
A Recipe for Disaster
While a day before Rosh HaShana we were celebrating Iran’s failure to kill anyone or cause serious damage, along with the general success of the war against Hezbollah, Rosh HaShana came in as we heard about six soldiers that had been killed. When I went to shul, which is normally very crowded for Rosh HaShana, I was struck at how many empty seats there were; then I realized that it was because so many young men had been called back into the reserves. My son’s hesder yeshivah is half empty. During davening on Rosh HaShana morning, there were tears shed as even more young men were called out of shul. The Rav was crying during his speech.
Similar scenes took place at every dati-leumi shul in Israel. But for charedi shuls, generally speaking, there was no significant difference between this Rosh HaShana and every other one. Everyone was home with their families as usual, except for those who were in yeshiva or Uman.
While all year I have been hearing expressions of anger and upset and resentment, I’m now also hearing something else: sheer disbelief. How can it be that we’ve been at war for a year, with so many millions of people’s lives turned over, and yet for the charedi community it’s just life as normal? How can it be that there is a severe IDF manpower shortage when there are so many able-bodied men available? How can it be that endless thousands of non-charedi men are suffering from being away from their lives and jobs and families for months on end and risking life and limb, while charedim continue their studies or their jobs as usual, and do not even provide any physical or material assistance to the soldiers or their families or others affected by the war? How can charedim have the gall to declare that it’s all about Torah, when aside from the Torah having a lot to say about the importance of going to war to defend the nation and nothing at all to say about exemptions for people in yeshiva, the charedim are perfectly happy for thousands of dati yeshiva students to be pulled out of yeshiva rather than have charedim who aren’t even in yeshiva be drafted?
A few days ago, someone asked me this question in a more focused way. He asked what is the ultimate horrible root in charedi society for behaviour that ultimately cannot be described as anything other than evil. What moral rot lies at the core?
My answer is that there isn’t anything evil at the core. Just the opposite - it started with some very noble ideals. It’s a perfect example of how the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. You don’t need evil intent or evil people to have evil results. You just need a perfect storm of factors. The recipe for the disaster that is the charedi non-response to the war is the following combination of ingredients and incubation conditions:
RECIPE FOR DISASTER
Human Ingredients:
A small pietistic community that lived in poverty-stricken Palestine while being materially supported by Jews abroad;
A few thousand Holocaust survivors, remnants of a deeply religious community that was largely destroyed and want to rebuild.
Ideological Ingredients:
A noble desire to puruse spirituality and insulate oneself from the corrosive influences of the modern world;
A belief that one’s way of life is traditional and therefore perfect and therefore explicit change should never be made;
An accelerating ideology of mysticism, which ultimately presents spiritual “work” as being so effective that it actually replaces material endeavor;
An innovative claim that “Torah liShma” does not mean that Torah should be studied for the goal of creating a society based upon its values and laws, but rather for the sake of learning.
Incubation Conditions:
Modern technologies and healthcare systems which enables communities that do not practice birth control to grow at a massively increased rate than historically was the case;
A welfare state that enables people who are not economically productive to be supported financially, even on a large scale;
A multi-party parliamentary democracy in which small parties are offered large incentives to support policy decisions and keep the largest party in power.
Mix together the human and ideological ingredients under these incubation conditions for seventy years, and voilà! You get a society of over a million people which has been habituated to being financially supported while having no duties to larger society, a society which actually aims for being detached from the nation, and which rationalizes to itself that a particular type of religious lifestyle is a substitute for physical and material involvement in the needs of the nation.
And what’s the solution? The ideology needs to be changed and the last two incubation conditions need to be reversed - i.e., the funding of the lifestyle needs to stop, and it needs to be politically toxic to enable the lifestyle. But it’s going to be tough. Societal change is not easy to achieve. We are going to have to work hard at it.
A full list of my posts on the topic of IDF service is at Torah and Army: The Big Index
"The ideology needs to be changed" is a non-starter. I have a different solution. Or rather a workaround that I believe would lead to a long-term solution.
Let's begin with some assumptions:
1. A significant percentage of Chareidim would like to be more involved in Israeli society, be it army service, schooling, employment or Zionism. But they lack the courage/incentive to break away from their families and communities. They are not interested in "making a statement," nor do they wish to alienate their families, neighbors, friends or rabbeim.
2. It is acceptable for Chareidim to do certain public service jobs, notably, Zaka and Hatzalah.
3. While the country needs literal boots on the ground right now; long term, the country needs security forces, border control, policing, etc., i.e., non-combat positions.
With this in mind, I would propose starting--and here I must search from an appropriate word: "force" or "unit" or "division" won't work. How about--a service organization, similar to Hatzalah. It would be called Shomrim.
Just as Hatzalah started in Brooklyn in 1965, Shomrim patrols began in the 1970s in Brooklyn before spreading to other frum communities in the New York City area. Today there's a Shomrim in London and even in Teaneck! (It started there recently in light of local behavior in the wake of 10/7.) Here in the U.S. Shomrim work with local law enforcement to keep an eye on the frum community.
In Israel, United Hatzalah in Israel launched in 2006 (combining dozens of pre-existing Hatzalah organizations). today it comprises over 7,000 volunteer medics. I believe that, launched properly and with the right people at the helm, Shomrim would be seen as a kosher endeavor for boys (not girls of course!) who want to expand be useful and are not cut out for learning in yeshiva 12 hours a day.
For this to work
(a) it would have to start off small and slow
(b) it would have to stick precisely to its mission statement of assisting law enforcement. Think young men with walkie-talkies (no. not THAT kind) patrolling malls
(c) there would be no uniforms. Maybe a vest
(d) there would be some initial training in self-defense and in following a chain of command
(e) it would never ever be seen as a precursor for Chareidi army enlistment
Then. Phase two
(a) More training. Possibly how to shoot a pistol. (My feeling is that the volunteers will be asking for this before anyone has to ask them.)
(b) More responsibility. Shemirah in towns, bus stations, Holy sites.
(c) More organizational structure. Shomrim know who they report to and know who reports to them.
(d) More publicity. The branding has to be right. It has to promote Shomrim as a Chareidi enterprise, but serving the whole country. A Gemilus Chasadim initiative writ large.
Phase three
(a) More training, in line with Tzahal and/or Mishtarah
(b) Uniforms (blue not green). Titles, possibly ranks
(c) stipends
(d) credit toward Sheirut Le'umi
Ultimately, Shomrim would be a force capable of many peacetime Tzahal functions. It would be acceptable to the Chareidi community, much as Hatzalah and Zaka are. It would provide an "out" from the system for the many Chareidi boys who want, and desperately need, one. AND the next time (God forbid) Israel finds itself lacking boots-on-the-ground manpower, it would be a ready-made force that would need a far shorter time in basic training to be prepared for the real military.
RNS has to have more not less analysis of chareidi failures to convince people who haven't even begun to see and appreciate how harmful many Chareidi beliefs and approaches are to themselves, to others and to the country. In addition how harmful it is to their spiritual self. RNS you are doing a great job. Keep it up.Thank you. We need need more like you.