Wonderful - if it's Kiruv

The Rav Asher Weiss video

I have a really great series of posts planned about wildlife and Judaism and living in Israel. But I can’t get to it yet because the charedi/army issue is raging non-stop, and people keep writing to ask me to respond to the latest developments. The Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah released another disgusting Kol Korei about the “malice” of those who want charedim to share the burden of army service, but today’s talk-of-the-town is a video of Rav Asher Weiss, describing his meeting with a dati soldier, a yeshiva student, who lost his right hand and both legs.

Rav Weiss relates that this young hero wanted to know on which arm he should wear Tefillin, whether he should do netilat yadayim on his right stump, and whether he should recite shehechiyanu on getting a prosthetic hand. Rav Weiss says that our (i.e. the charedi community) needs to know and respect these people, and to realize that while we don’t need to do what they do, everyone needs to strengthen their Torah and davvening and chessed.

At first I thought that the video was great. Then I changed my mind and decided that it was terrible. Then upon further reflection and discussion with others, I realized that it depends entirely on the audience.

In comparison with the “Gedolim” of the charedi world such as Rav Dov Landau who say that charedim should not visit injured soldiers or do anything that creates respect for them, then it’s certainly a valuable challenge. And furthermore, in order to get charedim to accept any sort of national service, they have to gain a positive perspective on soldiers. Rav Weiss glorifies this soldier, describing him as a religious as well as military hero, and saying that he is a ben Torah. If the charedi street starts to believe that, how long will the isolation and rejection last? He's blasted one of the important false narratives of charedim.

So, as a strategic kiruv tool, it’s great. But as an absolute message, it’s not. He tells his audience that they can feel good about themselves if they learn hard and daven hard, and they shouldn't feel that they need to actually serve in the IDF. But of course they need to serve in the IDF! Furthermore, the greatness of this soldier, the merit that gives him the highest spiritual reward, is not his dedication to Torah and Tefillin - it’s his self-sacrifice in war on behalf of his people.

Thus, for charedim who are utterly out of touch with proper values, it’s a great message. But the rest of us should respect it as a valuable strategic action, but not as the Torah perspective that really needs to be taught.