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| The Belzer Rebbe (Arutz Sheva) |
The Rebbe of the Belz Hasidic court made an out-of-the-ordinary statement this week regarding the behavior of many of the court's members during vacation.
During the summer break, many haredi families fly to Europe while others vacation in Israel.
For years the Belz Rebbe would spend the summer in a vacation home in Telz-Stone, a small town outside of Jerusalem. This year, the Rebbe chose not to leave Jerusalem, to stay in his residence, and to even accept more visitors than in past years.
When asked why, he answered that one can not go to rest when the soldiers are risking their lives on the front lines.
"How can I travel for rest and vacation when we are fighting a battle on all fronts and soldiers are sacrificing their lives, they're working hard for us and we're going on vacation?" the Rebbe was quoted saying by haredi news site Behadrei Haredim.
This is not the first time I have noticed the Belzer Rebbe’s sense of empathy for fellow Jews who do not necessarily follow his Hashkafa. And in many cases are not even observant. He is truly a kind and sensitive man. A leader who understands the tremendous sacrifices made by others who are being placed in harm’s way on behalf of the Jewish people.
The Belzer Rebbe actually does something about it instead of just paying little more than lip service to it. To cite just one example there is the following story reported at VIN last year:
In a historic move, the Belzer Rebbe announced the establishment of a new organization for former chareidim, both those who maintain a religious lifestyle and those who are not religious.
The new organization is not meant to do kiruv but to provide a warm embrace to all those who have chosen a different lifestyle from their parents. The new organization, dubbed Ahavat Kedumim, will serve to maintain the connection to these people, deal with their concerns and help them keep associated with their families.
With respect to his rational side, he bucked the conventional Charedi wisdom that refuses to allow any secular studies into the curriculum of their schools - even though it means a loss of state funding. The Belzer Rebbe decided to offer those studies and thus retain that funding.
I am far from a Chasid. But that does not prevent me from having an abundance of admiration for the Belzer Rebbe. A truly compassionate leader who has the courage of his convictions to go against the tide of the vast majority of other Charedi leaders when he knows its the right thing to do.
That being said, I am disappointed that his compassion did not move him to urge at least some of his Chasidim to sign up for the military. It is all well and good to feel that one cannot live the good life while others are dying in the cause of protecting the entirety of the Jewish people in Israel. But to continue to allow others to do the dying for your people while your people continue to live in relative safety outside of the army seems to me a bit short of the altruism he so often expresses. As he did in the examples I just mentioned and many others.
I do not mean to be disrespectful to a man I greatly admire for his courage to go against the tide and (contrary to so many of his religious peers) do the right thing. He truly should be celebrated for that. and I continue to do so.
But there is that niggling little detail of Charedim being exempted from the dangers of war - when their counterparts in the rest of the Israeli population are not. That just does not sit well with me. I just wish he would have gone that extra mile.
