Talking the Talk is Not Enough

Police doing their job in Bnei Brak (Jerusalem Post)

I hate to keep talking about this. But it keeps happening. Once again protests by followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auebach took place – disrupting the peace in Charedi enclaves. This time it was Bnei Brak. Streets were shut down by a bunch of brain dead young people (and some that are not so young – but just as brain dead) who are protesting the consequences of their leader’s decisions. 

Regardless of your feelings about drafting Charedim into the military, what these people are doing with these protests is one big Chilul HaShem after another.

It would be one thing if their young were actually being drafted. As long as Israel has compulsory military service - drafting Charedi youth is something that I would personally support for all but the elite. The rest should at most delay it for a year or two to pursue full time Torah study and then ‘share the burden’ with fellow Israeli citizens by serving in some manner.

But they see it as a violation of their principles because of the negative religious environment they perceive the military being. I’ve argued against this contention and I am not going to repeat it here. It is beyond the scope of this post.  But let us for argument’s sake say they are right about that and refuse to serve for that reason.

The fact they don’t have to. Not a single Charedi youth is being drafted. All the government has asked them to do is register for the draft and apply for the ‘Torah U’mnaso’ (Torah study is their profession) exemption. Which they are immediately granted. They can then go right back to the Beis HaMedrash for as long as they want. That is not good enough for Rabbi Auerbach and his followers. For them, it is better to go to jail than to even register with the IDF.

He and his followers have the right to feel that way. But his claims of preferring to sit in jail rather than register is a bold-faced lie. Because they have done everything in their power to violently protest it when it happens. And they don’t care a whit about the consequences. They don’t really want to spend a minute in jail for their beliefs. They would rather cause disruption and damage. They would rather inconvenience innocent people that even agree with them about the ‘evils’ of the military. They do not care. Nor do they seem to understand the Chilul HaShem that makes.

Lately more draft dodgers that have refused to register have been sent to jail. That is the reason for the recent protest in Bnei Brak.  The police were called in and they ‘took care of business’ treating these brain dead protesters like the criminals they are.

Watching videos of that in the Jerusalem Post without context might make some believe they were watching police brutality at work. That’s what it looks like in those videos and in the pictures. But looks can be deceiving The police were just doing their job by trying to restore the peace. 

These protests aren’t even helping them succeed in their goals. Israel is not gong to change the law because of these protesters. They are just going to arrest more people.

Registering for the draft is not the same thing as serving in the army. This is the view of the mainstream Charedi leaders who have urged all of their young to register and then get on with their Torah study. Rabbi Auerbach has decided that it is much more important to make a statement and that it is worth being Mevatel (abandoning) their Torah study for that. 

For what?! What does he gain?  The reasons for his opposition to the army ate identical to those of mainstream Charedi leaders. Why does he feel it is worth telling his followers to stop learning and go into the streets and cause riots, and then possibly thrown in jail? Why does he feel it is worth disrupting the lives of everybody else – including like minded Charedim on the subject of the army? Why does he think it is a Kiddush HaShem instead of the Chilul HaShem it clearly is?

What kind of leader does this? I’ll tell you what kind. No kind. Rabbi Auerbach is not a leader. He is a man leading his followers like lemmings over the cliff. I don’t know what that is but it is not leadership.  

The police are cracking down more than ever on these people. I would like to see public support for them by the mainstream Charedi leaders that have already condemned Rabbi Auerbach. They apparently see the same thing I do – Bitul Torah and a massive Chilul HaShem. But words are just that – words! They should be the ones calling the police when they see a protest and thanking them publicly in print for breaking up those protesters. They ought not to be trying to get those draft dodging youth out of jail either (as I recall one Charedi Keneset member doing a while back). Let Rabbi Auerbach and his followers live up to their word of preferring jail to registering for the draft. The more they do it, the more they should be  in jail. As should those that participate in these violent protests.

And let mainstream Charedi rabbis cheer on the police and support those jails sentences.

It does not do the Charedi world any good for the mainstream to look the other way – with a sort of sympathetic eye that signals support of their goals while condemning their methods. They do not have to give up their beliefs that army service is the key to assimilating out of religious observance (wrong though I believe them to be). Let them believe as they wish and comply with the law. That is what they tell their young to do by registering. 

Condemning these people hasn't stopped them. They need to do more than that. It may not be pleasant to see Charedi youth sitting in Israeli jails. But that is a problem of their own making and their stated preference over registering for the draft.

Besides, these young protesters do not have to follow Rabbi Auerbach. There is a simple way for them to stay out of jail and continue learning Torah without interruption. It’s called following the law. Register for the draft! Refusing to do that is causing a major upheaval in the Torah world.  Publicly supporting the police and the jail sentences for those young Charedim that violate the law is one way to counter that Chilul HaShem.

If they do nothing or continue to only pay lip service condemnation of it – this kind of thing will continue and probably increase! And that is not good for anyone.