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| Rav Dov Landau (Jerusalem Post) |
My issue is not so much with Rav Landau himself. My issue is with the Charedim who consider him the Gadol HaDor, thereby elevating his views to the level of sacred truth.
Charedim are people who tremble at the word of God.
Their lives are guided by a deep sense of divine retribution for failing to
follow His will. Their instincts are shaped by this awe, leading them to
conclusions deeply rooted in their religious convictions.
Yet, ultimately, they will not trust their own conclusions
when they contradict the words of someone like Rav Landau. This phenomenon is
known as being Mevatel one's own Daas to that of Daas Torah
- negating one's own understanding of right and wrong in Judaism and blindly
following the view of a presumed greater authority.
I understand the logic behind this kind of thinking. Often,
accepting the view of someone wiser than you - despite your own intuition - turns
out to be the right decision. But sometimes, an opinion is so obviously wrong
that being Mevatel your own Daas becomes a Chilul HaShem
(desecration of God's name).
One of Rav Landau’s recent comments, in my view, qualifies
as exactly that. I have been aware of it for a while and initially ignored it,
thinking it might have been an offhand remark made in the heat of the moment.
However, it has resurfaced in the Jerusalem Post:
In a letter published Tuesday in the ultra-Orthodox daily Yated Ne'eman, Rav Landau wrote:
"Zionism is a movement whose purpose is to establish the Jewish people on an explicitly secular foundation, rooted in heresy and rebellion against divine sovereignty."
He further stated, "There is no allowance to participate with them, serve in any role within their institutions, or vote in their elections in any form whatsoever."The rabbi emphasized that involvement in these institutions constitutes support for beliefs contradictory to traditional Jewish values, warning that it leads to "desecration of God's name."
What he has essentially done here is condemn the entire
Religious Zionist movement. Its leadership. Its constituents, and its deeply
devout followers. Implicit in this statement is the claim that serving in the
IDF is forbidden. This means that, according to Rav Landau, every IDF soldier
who was killed in Gaza died while committing a sin.
I cannot think of too many statements that constitute a
greater Chilul HaShem than this. I cannot imagine how the families of
fallen soldiers feel when they hear such comments. Does he not care about other
Jews? Especially other religious Jews?
(I have heard that Rav Landau cries whenever he hears that a
Jewish life has been lost in war. I struggle to understand how one can mourn
someone who, by their own declaration, died in sin. It seems incongruous.
Perhaps he believes these soldiers were misled by the ‘false’ ideology of
Religious Zionism and were therefore not fully culpable. But I digress.)
Some might argue that Rav Landau’s voice is not the only
voice of Daas Torah. This is true. There are other rabbis of similar
stature who disagree with him, and one can choose to follow them instead.
The issue that prompted Rav Landau’s comments was whether
religious Jews should participate in the WZO (World Zionist Organization)
elections. The percentage of votes determines how WZO funds are allocated. A
few years ago, a Daas Torah position endorsed forming a religious party
(Eretz Hakodesh) to participate in the WZO elections. Every religious
Jew was urged to join and vote for that party.
At the time, some rabbinic leaders opposed participation,
including Rav Aharon Feldman, who argued that it was hypocritical to oppose
Zionism in all its forms while simultaneously joining one of its most prominent
institutions. He may have had a point. But he was in the minority. In any case,
Rav Landau went far beyond that.
(Eretz Hakodesh performed so well that secular and
heterodox parties within the WZO lost influence. The following year, the Reform
movement launched a major campaign to increase their voter turnout.)
Rabbi Dov Landau, head of the Slabodka Yeshiva and one of the leaders of the Lithuanian Charedi community, recently expressed support for Arab rule over Israel.
In a transcript published by Kikar on Friday, he reminisced, "It is possible to live well with the Arabs without a state."
He further stated, "It would be quite good if the Arabs ruled here; the best situation [would be] if the Arabs ruled. They would respect them (Zionists), not interfere with them, bring money to the country—the Arabs love money."
I am at a total loss for words.
There are Charedim who follow Rav Landau unquestioningly.
And the entire Charedi world respects him and his views as legitimate Daas
Torah, even if they disagree with him.
These are the people whose sanity I question.
