Two Different Torahs

Which one are you celebrating?

Amazingly, some charedi polemicists claim that my posts about charedi society reflect “personal” issues that I have, rather than reflecting views held by millions of people, including religious Jews and rabbis and roshei yeshiva. I’m not sure if they really believe that, or if it’s just something that they tell themselves in order not to have to confront the issues that I raise.

Meanwhile, in the last few days, the following things happened:

• The government revived an old bill initiated before October 7th to lower the age of exemption from 26 to 21, so that charedim can leave yeshiva to work without having to join the army (which may well have been an unfortunate but necessary measure when it was first proposed, but in light of everything that happened since October 7th is now clearly unacceptable);

• A reservist with PTSD from spending months in Gaza received yet another draft notice and committed suicide;

• The Rami Levi supermarket chain put up a gigantic poster in Ramat Beit Shemesh wishing a chag sameach to charedi yeshiva students and (incorrectly) thanking them for protecting the nation. Nobody else was thanked.

It occurred to me that while Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah, there are two very different Torahs being celebrated.

Some will be celebrating the giving of the Torah which encompasses both our obligations to God and our obligations to man, in order to create a just society. A Torah which Rabbi Akiva encapsulates with “love your neighbor as yourself” - do for him that which you yourself would want. A celebration which takes place on the day of the harvest, the culmination of our work to provide for ourselves, undertaken with full effort along with God’s help. A festival which is marked with the reading of Megillat Rut, about a young woman who forgoes the opportunity for safety and security and puts herself out with selfless commitment to the Jewish People. A festival which follows a parasha that talks at length about the tribes being drafted into the army, which is appreciated as something of necessity and of great value. A celebration of a Torah which is epitomized in our heroic young people who, both despite and because of their love for studying Torah, understand that putting Torah into practice means making sacrifices with their learning, careers, family life and potentially their health and (God forbid) even their lives, in order to protect the Jewish People, as we have seen so powerfully in the last eight months.

Others are celebrating the giving of a Torah which is to be studied all day long for years on end by all young men in the community, for the purpose of increasing their personal knowledge and (alleged) spiritual growth, in place of their having any serious responsibilities whatsoever to their families or to the Jewish People, no matter what crises are happening (except for political campaigns). A Torah which tells them that they shouldn’t even show any concern or gratitude for those who make sacrifices on their behalf, in case they start actually appreciating that they are doing something important which might chas v’shalom lead them to want to also make sacrifices to help our nation.

It’s two different Torahs. Blessed are those who are celebrating the former, and I wish them a chag sameach.