When Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, Mishmar, DovBear, and I all have the same perspective on an issue, there must be some inner truth in it. This is the case with a recent article by Rabbi Horowitz. What is it that we agree upon? …that not every issue is worth fighting for.
Sometimes wining a battle will lose you the war. If Torah leadership in Israel desires in any way to win over the hearts and minds of secular Jews, they have a funny way of trying to achieve it. We are never going to convince secular Jews about the beauty of the Torah by giving into our every religious whim and then riding roughshod over the will of the secular majority. Just because the religious parties have the power to do it, doesn’t make it is wise decision to do so.
The example Rabbi Horowitz uses to illustrate this point is the legislation introduced by religious Kenesset members to shorten the day. Israel moves the clock back to standard time a few weeks earlier than the rest of the world. This is done so that the Yom Kippur fast will end one hour earlier. Why is this bad? Because it upsets our secular brothers.
They do not want to lose an hour of daylight at a time of year that has some of the most pleasant weather of the season. They want to be able to enjoy the outdoors with their families a bit longer. And it also means people returning home from work will be doing so after dark.
Is it worth increasing the already large hostility by many secular Jews towards religious Jews in Israel in order to have a one hour shorter fast on one day? I don’t think so. And this speaks to the issue of ‘shoving religion down people’s throats’. Rabbi Horowitz puts it this way: ‘…no one was ever brought closer to Hashem by force.’
As a Charedi Mechanech Rabbi Horowitz is a loyal adherent of Daas Torah. Yet he warns:
‘we rely on the daas Torah of our gedolim to guide us... But in all ...non-essential matters, we should practice the concept of darchei noam, ‘paths of pleasantness,’ and be sensitive to the wants and needs of others outside our community.’
… We would be well served to maintain our perspective on non-urgent communal issues and start acting as if we do not have a limitless number of cards in our deck to needlessly squander.
