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| BMG students attending R' Feldman's lecture (Lakewood Alerts) |
No, I have not lost my mind and joined the chorus of the
Charedi world that talks this way about Modern Orthodoxy (...even my own Centrist
version of it). What I am talking about is the Charedi world itself.
I do not say this lightly. Unlike many of my fellow Modern
Orthodox Jews, I do not harbor any malice against my Charedi brothers. On the
contrary, despite some of the serious issues I have with this community, I
nevertheless honor and even envy their commitment to Torah study and a
lifestyle that consists of much sacrifice toward that endeavor. Their
dedication to mitzvah observance often involves the strictest forms of
adherence in all ritual matters, often at great expense. Even in matters of Bein
Adam L’chaveiro - they live up to their reputation of kindness and
generosity of both time and money to help others. Most of the Charedim I know
are like that.
So why do I think Charedim are on a crooked path?
Ironically, it was about opposition to an event that I actually support and is, in
fact, getting broad support among various Charedi rabbinic leaders (both in Israel
and here). As well as the vast majority of Charedi publications (e.g., Mishpacha).
They are urging everyone to vote in the WZO (World Zionist Organization) election
so that observant Jewry will have more power and influence in Israeli government
decisions. Not to mention a bigger piece of the financial pie that is
distributed to the WZO’s member political parties. I agree with that goal. My
only quibble is that the observant vote should vote Mizrachi (the Religious
Zionist party) for reasons beyond the scope of this post.
Even though we all seem to be on the same page about this,
it just ain’t so. The fact is that the BMG (Lakewood) Roshei Yeshiva are
adamantly opposed to it. How opposed? On March 19th, Rav Aharon Feldman addressed BMG, urging anyone with the slightest inclination of
participating in that election - not to do so. His opposition is so strong that he
declared the Charedi establishments and publications that advocated for it be boycotted!
To be fair, R’ Feldman is consistent. His rejection of
Zionism is ideological. He does not grant any religious validity to the state,
seeing it as just another secular government that Jews have to deal with the
way they would any other country. Only that this one is worse in the sense that
it is - and always has been anti-religious.
His point being that participating in a Zionist election for
purposes of gaining political and even badly needed financial support is
tantamount to recognizing the validity of ‘the evil, anti-religious Zionist
government.’
R’ Feldman, who heads Ner Yisroel - a more centrist Charedi Yeshiva - is nevertheless almost Satmar-like
in his rejection of Israel’s legitimacy. He differs from them in that he
considers it acceptable to participate in their government, just as it would be
to participate in any other foreign government - for purposes of representing
the needs of his constituents.
This, in and of itself, is not why I have raised the Krum
argument. I was made aware of a letter (apparently from a member of that community) published at VIN that made a scathing attack
against that event - for what I thought was a good reason.
As Charedi publications go, VIN is the only one with the courage to speak truth to power. Something that previously led to Charedi leadership calling for advertisers to boycott them. (I believe it has since been rescinded.) Now, they did it again by publishing the aforementioned letter. As you can imagine, it got pulled almost as soon as it was posted. It can no longer be accessed at VIN. But the issues raised have not gone away. To put it the way they did in their headline:
Lakewood Is In Crisis, But Our Leadership Is Busy Yelling About Shtusim
First, the writer noted that R’ Feldman was basically preaching to
the choir. No one there was going to vote in the WZO election (sadly). And yet,
they stopped all their Torah study to hear a lecture about that.
Secondly, if they are going to interrupt Torah study, there
are plenty of crises happening in that community that deserve this kind of
attention and are not being sufficiently addressed. If at all.
What are the crises they talked about? The following is from their now-deleted post:
- How many suicides have we buried in Lakewood over the past year?
- How many overdoses have left families shattered beyond repair?
- How many divorces have torn apart homes, leaving children wandering between worlds?
- How many yesomim have been added to our streets in the past year?
- And what about the thousands—yes, thousands—of children and teenagers lost to us?
- The ones smoking on Shabbos, scrolling through TikTok, slipping through our fingers while we waste time on irrelevancies.
Mental illness is rampant and ignored. Families are struggling to put food on their tables. There are streets in Lakewood that are a battleground of pikuach nefashos—life-and-death stakes playing out just beyond the walls of BMG.
And yet, this is what demands our attention? This is why we stop limud haTorah? An election that no one in the room was voting in anyway?
Indeed. If what VIN posted is anywhere near true, then the path upon which the premier Charedi Yeshiva of the world is traveling down is the wrong one. BMG has truly lost its way. The only way to describe what just happened there is to accuse them of what they accuse those the slightest bit to their left of. Despite their otherwise altruistic lives, they have now become Krum.
