What's most revealing is your own extreme myopia, to the point where you consider the fact that other people have a different value system than yourself to be a self-evident prank...
I'm honestly confused by this post. Why should anybody have thought that it was a prank?
Most of those suggestions absolutely are things that chareidim would theoretically consider preferable than joining the army with the huge accompanying risk to their ruchnius and netzach netzachim.
Perhaps the Islam one was a bit much, and of course technical issues of doing it on a mass scale might make it unfeasible. And if there are halachic considerations, of course those have to be weighed by a competent authority, as in every case of b'dieved conflicts between various considerations. But theoretically, what is the joke? Yes, most chareidi parents would consider it preferable for there child to lose a finger r"l than to risk becoming a sheigetz. And the choice has been made in that direction innumerable times in our history.
I'm honestly confused about what the joke or prank is here.
Just for the record, the drafting of Jewish cantonists lasted from the late 1820's to the late 1850's, when the whole cantonist system (which was a hundred years older, but for non-Jews) was abolished.
Thirty years may not seem like much, but it left a big impression on the Jewish imagination. Maybe it's one of the places charedim get their paranoia about military service; I don't know. But do you know what a much more lasting impact was? That rich and powerful Jews, including the rabbanim, were able to pay off the Czar's people and exempt their own sons, while having "khappers" grab the poorer kids for conscription.
It is widely believed by historians that that situation was a leading reason for the mass abandonment of Judaism among Eastern European Jews in the 1800's. We could learn a lesson for today, but of course some people never learn lessons.
The Cantonist system had been instituted by Peter the Great before there were any Jews in Russia. It had been around for a century before Jews and other ethnic minorities were included.
After service, which included a large amount of Russification, Jews who who still had any sense of being Jewish were often shunned by the rest of the Jewish community.
One of the first things Czar Alexander II did after becoming Czar in 1855 was to tear down the Cantonist system. A few years later he freed the serfs. He also was a big supporter of the Union during the American Civil War.
Revolutionaries are always most threatened by liberalizers. Marx *really* didn't like the fact that Western Europe was mandating better conditions for workers and the like, because he saw it (correctly) as something that would keep Communism from succeeding.
And Alexander II's successor's advisors then were able to convince him that it was his father's liberalism that got him assassinated, which led to much worse treatment of Jews, which led to the mass exodus to the US- and to Zionism.
Where is this documented- specifically that the rabbonim were involved in the khappers schemes to protect their own family? And was it widespread?
I would also consider the possibility that the inability (or perhaps ineffectiveness) of the Torah leadership to respond to the crisis would also have lead to religious disillusionment.
I hope you realize that you are being manipulated by people who want the government to fall and Israel to lose the war. It is these people who are pushing the haredi draft into the headlines. The only reason it suddenly is a burning topic is that these people are using it (just as they are now using the families of the kidnapped) to foment hatred and resentment between Jews who are currently fighting for our lives. Anyone who wants Israel to win this war, no matter their political opinions or feelings about Bibi (and there are plenty of legitimate reasons to want him out, on the right and left), should be doing all they can to give the home front stability and unity.
Further points to ponder: 1) You can be sure that if Gantz were currently prime minister with a coalition including the haredim, the haredi draft would not be discussed. 2) And it is probably worth considering if those who are trying to topple the government, lose the war, or draft haredim would, in the absence of the haredi issue, be trying to do away with the hesder program.
I wish you would realize that you are being manipulated by people who want Bibi to stay in power and therefore claim that people opposed to the wholesale charedi exemption are solely motivated by a desire to bring down the government and to lose the war.
I am not being manipulated. As much as I think Bibi and all the military brass that allowed the astounding failures of the night of 6-7 October needs to go, I do not in any way think that this should happen during the war! Stability is what is needed now, and shake-ups are by definition destabilizing and distract from the critical and difficult task now - winning the war decisively. This is also why, though I am pro-judicial reform, I am happy that it is not currently being debated and discussed, because we need no distractions from winning this war.
You are being manipulated by the distraction of haredi draft, which is divisive, destabilizing and fundamentally damaging to the national unity necessary for a victory. Again: if Gantz was PM in a coalition that included the haredim, this issue would not be in play. משפט שלמה is in place here, and the side that cares about the state of Israel's survival is the one putting it, and not side-issues (as important as they may be), first. Think about which side you are serving here.
Same foolishness that led to October 7th in the first place. Getting preoccupied with your political games and forgetting about the much bigger threat on your doorstep. Israel is not a regular western country that has the luxury of playing these foolish games, but Israelis never learn.
No. It is not a question of Bibi dafka staying in power. In all likelihood, after the war he will be forced to step down. It is a question of priorities - winning the war, preserving unity.....or petty political considerations of Bibiphobia by the same people who sent the whole country into a tailspin as soon as they lost the elections in Nov 2022. And, since these people control the media, they are the ones doing the manipulating - with you yourself as the perfect example!
Since the left-wing, anti-Bibi faction so completely dominates the media and public discourse, it is those who do not let it brainwash them (to the media's chagrin) who are able to keep their independence of mind.
They want Israel to win the war to save their own skins.
But they want Bibi out and the government to topple - more.
Hamas are gleefully watching the demonstrations, as they realize (as they did before Oct. 7) that they are weakening the country and making their "job" of murdering Jews easier.
Any fool can see that all this hatred (as typified by Dr. Slifkin) is the worst thing that can happen to a society in a war such as the present one.
What "deadline" are you talking about? Who set it? All of a sudden, after 70 years there's a "deadline"....LOL
You actually haven't answered my question- you just rephrased what MZ wrote. So again: what makes you think that the leftists are willing to lose the war to take Bibi down?
"Any fool can see that all this hatred (as typified by Dr. Slifkin) is the worst thing that can happen to a society in a war such as the present one."
Perhaps, but this not the same thing as wanting to lose the war in order to take Bibi down.
"What "deadline" are you talking about?..All of a sudden"
So no, it's not sudden. If you're going to get paranoid, why not claim that certain parties planned for the deadline to "conveniently" occur during at time when the threat of gov't instability could be taken advantage of in order to postpone the deadline even longer. You see, conspiratorial thinking works both ways. And they both fail: for lack of evidence- and for the incorrect attribution of cunning intelligence where stupid complacency is just as effective.
"after 70 years"
No. Haredim did serve in the army in the past, as there were quotas capping exemptions. The quotas were lifted by the Begin gov't. Don't mistake present practice for an ancient tradition.
"Haredim did serve in the army in the past, as there were quotas capping exemptions. "
How many? Just because there were legal quotas doesn't mean many chareidim served. As we will see in the coming weeks/months/years, the legality of this issue is not the most important aspect. And of those who served, how many continued as chareidim afterward? If there is not data in the Israeli government archives, a good way to find out would be to take a poll among chareidim of how many of their parents/zaides served. But there is currently no such thing.
This is not a response. This is a list of questions.
"How many?"
"How do you know that it wasn't many?"
"how many continued as chareidim afterward? "
"How do you know it wasn't many?"
You're asking questions, but not out of genuine inquisitiveness. You want the answer to be "very few" to both questions. But you haven't shown such answers to be true. Instead, you ask them anyway with the implicit hope that you won't get caught. Before you ask questions, try to answer them yourself.
"An article published in the haredi newspaper Hamodia in June 1967, a few days before the Six Day War, celebrated the Orthodox soldiers for serving in “the most forward positions … wherever the army is, these soldiers will be found.” Menachem Keren-Kratz, an independent scholar, has estimated that 4 percent of Israeli soldiers who fought in the Six Day War were haredim."
"This is not a response. This is a list of questions."
This was actually meant to be a list of questions, and you didn't answer them.
"You're asking questions, but not out of genuine inquisitiveness. You want the answer to be "very few" to both questions. "
The ultimate deflection when you have no response. Instead of answering my questions, you attack my motives.
" Menachem Keren-Kratz, an independent scholar, has estimated that 4 percent of Israeli soldiers who fought in the Six Day War were haredim."
Based on what? And how many remained chareidim? Bandana, an independent scholar, has determined that very few of today's chareidim have grandparents who served in the IDF.
Ephraim: There is no point in bring data or evidence to the table. BANdana will simply say label the data as "data" and disregard it while bringing no data or evidence of his own. Basically a trolling chatbot.
Nonsense. No less an anti-Zionist, the Satmar Rebbe "conceded" that the Zionist State would have to survive until the Messianic Era because the alternative would be wholesale slaughter of Jews. (See דברי יואל on וארא. I forgot exactly where.)
Just as there was no Charedi plan to make a Jewish State, there is no plan to develop it into something more Torah oriented, let alone to dismantle it. There are no plans beyond immediate expediency.
The problem is that faking mental illness would the be most rational solution for getting an exemption. And the intellectual skills and dedicated stamina it would take to keep up such a pretense to make it effective are only available to the most talented scholars- scholars who'd anyway get an exemption by dint of being members of the Torah elite. Those non-illuyim, the smart but not geniuses do not have the capability of convincing experts that they are imbeciles, necessarily don't belong in the most elite Yeshivos. It's the Charedi catch-22!
I'm a non Jew whoo lived five years in Israel as a young man, mainly on kibbutz. So I never actually learnt much about the various aspects of Judaism. Over the last four years I have attended an orthodox Rabbi's webinar and made friends there with whom I 'compare notes', experiences, and the nature of G-d.
I find your articles interesting and thought provoking.
Please refer me to where Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch advocated bodily harm to oneself to avoid the draft. You know as well as I do that the very worst thing that people will do is to sit in jail. Stop pretending like something worse is actually advocated or done
Not only was it not funny it was a smear on a huge sector of people with an attitude found in a tiny minority. (Rav Tzvi Friedman is a minority of the peleg to begin with) It was truly a disgusting and downright mean joke.
The Sefardi Chief Rabbi- in what is a sick joke but definitely not an April Fool's one- will be happy to accept the Israel Prize this coming Yom HaAtzmaut. Hey, at least he's not a leftist professor!
His own family quietly left Satmar for Nadvorna, and they live peacefully in Bnai Brak. Although they travelled regularly back and forth to nurse the old man until he passed away in his 90's.
The fact is that I didn't realize at first that it was a joke (even though I was aware that today was April 1) - and I am charedi myself (I am on the naive side, but still....)
What an ugly thing to be tempted to yell. These people keep the same Torah as you do, and you share much more with them culturally than you probably do with the protestors on Ayalon. Your co-religionists and co-practitioners of Torah, because they are mistaken about some things in your mind, should die? Disgusting.
And an even more ugly thing for them to do! No wonder the eminently civilized Mr, Zalkin (who would never cause suffering to his fellow man by blocking public transportation) had to squelch the temptation to (Goodness!) yell back at these good-for-nothings. By the way, these obnoxious, thoughtless, rude young barbarians do worse than cause annoyance. They cause and prolong suffering among people who are not only totally innocent, but totally uninvolved in the situation. If the people blocked in traffic had any power to give these biryonim what they claim to want, these people would not be in the deliberately-caused traffic jam, they'd be flying above it in a helicopter.
I work with special needs kids, and *every time* some mob of idiots takes it into their heads to do a stunt like this, these poor kids, some of them in wheelchairs, end up trapped in airless vans on their way from a long, long day at school or in their programs, sometimes for 3-4 hours or longer. Hashem is merciful, but B"H', He is not fooled, and I am sure that He will mete out in return every minute of suffering that these worthless, bums inflict on everyone at whom they lash out.
Why do so many people resent the haredim? Because of selfish, thoughtless, stupid and cruel behavior exactly like this.
What's most revealing is your own extreme myopia, to the point where you consider the fact that other people have a different value system than yourself to be a self-evident prank...
I'm honestly confused by this post. Why should anybody have thought that it was a prank?
Most of those suggestions absolutely are things that chareidim would theoretically consider preferable than joining the army with the huge accompanying risk to their ruchnius and netzach netzachim.
Perhaps the Islam one was a bit much, and of course technical issues of doing it on a mass scale might make it unfeasible. And if there are halachic considerations, of course those have to be weighed by a competent authority, as in every case of b'dieved conflicts between various considerations. But theoretically, what is the joke? Yes, most chareidi parents would consider it preferable for there child to lose a finger r"l than to risk becoming a sheigetz. And the choice has been made in that direction innumerable times in our history.
I'm honestly confused about what the joke or prank is here.
Just for the record, the drafting of Jewish cantonists lasted from the late 1820's to the late 1850's, when the whole cantonist system (which was a hundred years older, but for non-Jews) was abolished.
Thirty years may not seem like much, but it left a big impression on the Jewish imagination. Maybe it's one of the places charedim get their paranoia about military service; I don't know. But do you know what a much more lasting impact was? That rich and powerful Jews, including the rabbanim, were able to pay off the Czar's people and exempt their own sons, while having "khappers" grab the poorer kids for conscription.
It is widely believed by historians that that situation was a leading reason for the mass abandonment of Judaism among Eastern European Jews in the 1800's. We could learn a lesson for today, but of course some people never learn lessons.
The Cantonist system had been instituted by Peter the Great before there were any Jews in Russia. It had been around for a century before Jews and other ethnic minorities were included.
After service, which included a large amount of Russification, Jews who who still had any sense of being Jewish were often shunned by the rest of the Jewish community.
One of the first things Czar Alexander II did after becoming Czar in 1855 was to tear down the Cantonist system. A few years later he freed the serfs. He also was a big supporter of the Union during the American Civil War.
Yes, and HE was the one the revolutionaries assassinated....
Revolutionaries are always most threatened by liberalizers. Marx *really* didn't like the fact that Western Europe was mandating better conditions for workers and the like, because he saw it (correctly) as something that would keep Communism from succeeding.
And Alexander II's successor's advisors then were able to convince him that it was his father's liberalism that got him assassinated, which led to much worse treatment of Jews, which led to the mass exodus to the US- and to Zionism.
Any insight as to why the returning Jewish soldiers were shunned? Because of the taint of the outside world?
Dr. Shaul Stampfer referred to "Russianization" as התרססות.
Where is this documented- specifically that the rabbonim were involved in the khappers schemes to protect their own family? And was it widespread?
I would also consider the possibility that the inability (or perhaps ineffectiveness) of the Torah leadership to respond to the crisis would also have lead to religious disillusionment.
Of course there could be many factors.
Just imagine the seguloh of keeping your rosh kollel's little toe, in formaldehyde, in your salon....
Could be monetized....lots of money.....
We're in the relics business now?
I hope you realize that you are being manipulated by people who want the government to fall and Israel to lose the war. It is these people who are pushing the haredi draft into the headlines. The only reason it suddenly is a burning topic is that these people are using it (just as they are now using the families of the kidnapped) to foment hatred and resentment between Jews who are currently fighting for our lives. Anyone who wants Israel to win this war, no matter their political opinions or feelings about Bibi (and there are plenty of legitimate reasons to want him out, on the right and left), should be doing all they can to give the home front stability and unity.
Further points to ponder: 1) You can be sure that if Gantz were currently prime minister with a coalition including the haredim, the haredi draft would not be discussed. 2) And it is probably worth considering if those who are trying to topple the government, lose the war, or draft haredim would, in the absence of the haredi issue, be trying to do away with the hesder program.
I wish you would realize that you are being manipulated by people who want Bibi to stay in power and therefore claim that people opposed to the wholesale charedi exemption are solely motivated by a desire to bring down the government and to lose the war.
I am not being manipulated. As much as I think Bibi and all the military brass that allowed the astounding failures of the night of 6-7 October needs to go, I do not in any way think that this should happen during the war! Stability is what is needed now, and shake-ups are by definition destabilizing and distract from the critical and difficult task now - winning the war decisively. This is also why, though I am pro-judicial reform, I am happy that it is not currently being debated and discussed, because we need no distractions from winning this war.
You are being manipulated by the distraction of haredi draft, which is divisive, destabilizing and fundamentally damaging to the national unity necessary for a victory. Again: if Gantz was PM in a coalition that included the haredim, this issue would not be in play. משפט שלמה is in place here, and the side that cares about the state of Israel's survival is the one putting it, and not side-issues (as important as they may be), first. Think about which side you are serving here.
Same foolishness that led to October 7th in the first place. Getting preoccupied with your political games and forgetting about the much bigger threat on your doorstep. Israel is not a regular western country that has the luxury of playing these foolish games, but Israelis never learn.
Whataboutism
deflection
No. It is not a question of Bibi dafka staying in power. In all likelihood, after the war he will be forced to step down. It is a question of priorities - winning the war, preserving unity.....or petty political considerations of Bibiphobia by the same people who sent the whole country into a tailspin as soon as they lost the elections in Nov 2022. And, since these people control the media, they are the ones doing the manipulating - with you yourself as the perfect example!
Since the left-wing, anti-Bibi faction so completely dominates the media and public discourse, it is those who do not let it brainwash them (to the media's chagrin) who are able to keep their independence of mind.
Makor Rishon is not left wing. And it's constantly been running articles about why charedim should draft.
They've taken the bait, just as you have.
This is conspiracy theory. It may be more accurate to argue that it's best not to bring up divisive issues during a war.
" The only reason it suddenly is a burning topic..."
...is because the deadline expired. A deadline set before the war started.
" Anyone who wants Israel to win this war"
What makes you think that those who disagree with you do not want Israel to win the war?
They want Israel to win the war to save their own skins.
But they want Bibi out and the government to topple - more.
Hamas are gleefully watching the demonstrations, as they realize (as they did before Oct. 7) that they are weakening the country and making their "job" of murdering Jews easier.
Any fool can see that all this hatred (as typified by Dr. Slifkin) is the worst thing that can happen to a society in a war such as the present one.
What "deadline" are you talking about? Who set it? All of a sudden, after 70 years there's a "deadline"....LOL
You actually haven't answered my question- you just rephrased what MZ wrote. So again: what makes you think that the leftists are willing to lose the war to take Bibi down?
"Any fool can see that all this hatred (as typified by Dr. Slifkin) is the worst thing that can happen to a society in a war such as the present one."
Perhaps, but this not the same thing as wanting to lose the war in order to take Bibi down.
"What "deadline" are you talking about?..All of a sudden"
It was in the news!
From June 2023: https://www.timesofisrael.com/cabinet-shields-haredi-youth-from-military-draft-5-days-before-exemption-law-expiry/
From August: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-754837
So no, it's not sudden. If you're going to get paranoid, why not claim that certain parties planned for the deadline to "conveniently" occur during at time when the threat of gov't instability could be taken advantage of in order to postpone the deadline even longer. You see, conspiratorial thinking works both ways. And they both fail: for lack of evidence- and for the incorrect attribution of cunning intelligence where stupid complacency is just as effective.
"after 70 years"
No. Haredim did serve in the army in the past, as there were quotas capping exemptions. The quotas were lifted by the Begin gov't. Don't mistake present practice for an ancient tradition.
"Haredim did serve in the army in the past, as there were quotas capping exemptions. "
How many? Just because there were legal quotas doesn't mean many chareidim served. As we will see in the coming weeks/months/years, the legality of this issue is not the most important aspect. And of those who served, how many continued as chareidim afterward? If there is not data in the Israeli government archives, a good way to find out would be to take a poll among chareidim of how many of their parents/zaides served. But there is currently no such thing.
This is not a response. This is a list of questions.
"How many?"
"How do you know that it wasn't many?"
"how many continued as chareidim afterward? "
"How do you know it wasn't many?"
You're asking questions, but not out of genuine inquisitiveness. You want the answer to be "very few" to both questions. But you haven't shown such answers to be true. Instead, you ask them anyway with the implicit hope that you won't get caught. Before you ask questions, try to answer them yourself.
https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/theology/15656/black-hats-green-fatigues/
"An article published in the haredi newspaper Hamodia in June 1967, a few days before the Six Day War, celebrated the Orthodox soldiers for serving in “the most forward positions … wherever the army is, these soldiers will be found.” Menachem Keren-Kratz, an independent scholar, has estimated that 4 percent of Israeli soldiers who fought in the Six Day War were haredim."
A decade later, Haredi population made up some 3.5% of the population (Rubin, Bounded Integration. https://www.google.co.il/books/edition/Bounded_Integration/Tif0DwAAQBAJ?gbpv=1) , strongly implying that the Haredim served in excess of their relative population in '67.
"But there is currently no such thing."
How convenient for you.
"This is not a response. This is a list of questions."
This was actually meant to be a list of questions, and you didn't answer them.
"You're asking questions, but not out of genuine inquisitiveness. You want the answer to be "very few" to both questions. "
The ultimate deflection when you have no response. Instead of answering my questions, you attack my motives.
" Menachem Keren-Kratz, an independent scholar, has estimated that 4 percent of Israeli soldiers who fought in the Six Day War were haredim."
Based on what? And how many remained chareidim? Bandana, an independent scholar, has determined that very few of today's chareidim have grandparents who served in the IDF.
Ephraim: There is no point in bring data or evidence to the table. BANdana will simply say label the data as "data" and disregard it while bringing no data or evidence of his own. Basically a trolling chatbot.
Dismanteling the State of Israel was the Haredi objective all along.
Nonsense. No less an anti-Zionist, the Satmar Rebbe "conceded" that the Zionist State would have to survive until the Messianic Era because the alternative would be wholesale slaughter of Jews. (See דברי יואל on וארא. I forgot exactly where.)
Just as there was no Charedi plan to make a Jewish State, there is no plan to develop it into something more Torah oriented, let alone to dismantle it. There are no plans beyond immediate expediency.
It's actually פרשת בא, ד"ה ומעתה:
https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=21134&pgnum=251
The problem is that faking mental illness would the be most rational solution for getting an exemption. And the intellectual skills and dedicated stamina it would take to keep up such a pretense to make it effective are only available to the most talented scholars- scholars who'd anyway get an exemption by dint of being members of the Torah elite. Those non-illuyim, the smart but not geniuses do not have the capability of convincing experts that they are imbeciles, necessarily don't belong in the most elite Yeshivos. It's the Charedi catch-22!
Don't you have anything better to do with your time?
I'm a non Jew whoo lived five years in Israel as a young man, mainly on kibbutz. So I never actually learnt much about the various aspects of Judaism. Over the last four years I have attended an orthodox Rabbi's webinar and made friends there with whom I 'compare notes', experiences, and the nature of G-d.
I find your articles interesting and thought provoking.
Rav Tzvi Friedman was not condemned by mainstream charedim because no one outside of his followers takes him seriously.
I forgot it was April 1, but as soon as I read it I was thinking, Purim for sure. 😀
Please refer me to where Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch advocated bodily harm to oneself to avoid the draft. You know as well as I do that the very worst thing that people will do is to sit in jail. Stop pretending like something worse is actually advocated or done
Not only was it not funny it was a smear on a huge sector of people with an attitude found in a tiny minority. (Rav Tzvi Friedman is a minority of the peleg to begin with) It was truly a disgusting and downright mean joke.
And the Sefardic Chief Rabbi?
He is not widely accepted (or even that highly respected) among the Charedim.
The Sefardi Chief Rabbi- in what is a sick joke but definitely not an April Fool's one- will be happy to accept the Israel Prize this coming Yom HaAtzmaut. Hey, at least he's not a leftist professor!
The problem is, now he's gotten our hopes up. At least my son-in-law's Satmar zayde up and left for Brooklyn, but YY is all talk and no action
Wow seems like you really love your son in law
His own family quietly left Satmar for Nadvorna, and they live peacefully in Bnai Brak. Although they travelled regularly back and forth to nurse the old man until he passed away in his 90's.
Because he said people should leave the country??? You compare that to what you said Chareidim were supposedly saying???
And Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch? Not a tiny minority.
Don't conflate the desire to resist the drafting of Yeshiva students with the unfathomably nonexistent opinion of mutilation.
The fact is that I didn't realize at first that it was a joke (even though I was aware that today was April 1) - and I am charedi myself (I am on the naive side, but still....)
We regularly get blasted for mutiliating the genitals of baby boys.
Never mind that in the US, most non Jewish baby boys are circumcised shortly after birth.
And DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!
🤣🤣🤣
When there was a נמות ולא נתגייס demonstration blocking my way home a few weeks ago, I was sorely tempted to yell at them: נו, תמותו כבר!
What an ugly thing to be tempted to yell. These people keep the same Torah as you do, and you share much more with them culturally than you probably do with the protestors on Ayalon. Your co-religionists and co-practitioners of Torah, because they are mistaken about some things in your mind, should die? Disgusting.
They embarass the Torah. They call soldiers Nazis. Theres no difference between them and the kaplan force
And an even more ugly thing for them to do! No wonder the eminently civilized Mr, Zalkin (who would never cause suffering to his fellow man by blocking public transportation) had to squelch the temptation to (Goodness!) yell back at these good-for-nothings. By the way, these obnoxious, thoughtless, rude young barbarians do worse than cause annoyance. They cause and prolong suffering among people who are not only totally innocent, but totally uninvolved in the situation. If the people blocked in traffic had any power to give these biryonim what they claim to want, these people would not be in the deliberately-caused traffic jam, they'd be flying above it in a helicopter.
I work with special needs kids, and *every time* some mob of idiots takes it into their heads to do a stunt like this, these poor kids, some of them in wheelchairs, end up trapped in airless vans on their way from a long, long day at school or in their programs, sometimes for 3-4 hours or longer. Hashem is merciful, but B"H', He is not fooled, and I am sure that He will mete out in return every minute of suffering that these worthless, bums inflict on everyone at whom they lash out.
Why do so many people resent the haredim? Because of selfish, thoughtless, stupid and cruel behavior exactly like this.