Gedalia’s attitude is typical of much of the Charedi world
in places like Ramat Beit Shemesh, where he resides. There is indeed awareness
of the real sacrifices being made by so many serving in the IDF. In his column,
he acknowledges that there have been about 2,000 IDF casualties. He describes
one such loss as follows:
For many Ramat Beit Shemesh locals like myself, the horrible reality of the grinding Gaza war was brought home again recently, with the death of Moshe Shmuel Noll, one of five soldiers from Chareidi homes to lose their lives in an ambush in Gaza. This was a young man from a Chabad home who’d struggled mightily for every single attainment in learning and davening, and had found meaning in protecting his fellow Jew.
I suspect that this level of sympathy is in part due to the
large Anglo population in Ramat Beit Shemesh. (nearly 50%). They tend to be more
open-minded than native Israeli Charedim. Gedalia himself is an American oleh.
He also describes how Charedim in Israel - especially their Gedolim
- are vilified, accused of willful ignorance. He frames their critique this
way:
“Don’t the rabbis know?”
As in: “Don’t the rabbis know that after October 7, everything needs to change?”
As a genre, ‘Don’t the Rabbis Know?’ is as old as the hills — or at least one particular hill in the Sinai Peninsula.
But since the Hamas onslaught, the phrase and the attitude it represents have become a mantra. It’s the main text or subtext of endless Shabbos dinner controversies and media bellyaches.
There’s the hostile critic’s version: “Don’t the rabbis understand that the Charedim can’t carry on as before and sponge off everyone else?”
There’s the blogger’s version: “It’s true that Torah study is very important, but don’t the rabbis know that Israel needs a big army now?”
Or even the lomdishe version: “Don’t the rabbis know that according to the Rambam, this is a milchemes mitzvah?”
The bottom line of all the various versions is the assumption that “the Rabbis,” as an institution, don’t know. They don’t get it. They’re simply too elderly, cloistered, blinkered, and possibly unfeeling to grasp what all normal people understand: that everything has to change.
First, I resent the condescending, derogatory way he presented
the critics’ views. As though they were all anti Torah. Secondly, it almost
sounds like that ‘blogger’ comment was directed at me. If it is, it does not
accurately reflect my view. But I digress.
Gedalia then goes on to explain why these complaints
are wrong. He writes that:
“Gedolim are adamant that to weaken the Torah world is national suicide - all the more so in the middle of an existential war. Even as the army cries out for more manpower, the solution isn’t the gutting of the world’s main Torah center. The Jewish people need more lomdei Torah, not less.”
I will give Gedalia credit for implicitly acknowledging that non-learning bachurim should serve in the IDF. But then he says that if a bachur wants to learn, he must be completely untouchable - no matter how dire the need... the idea being that drafting him would weaken our spiritual protection. And that is the ‘red line’ that the Gedolim he follows refuse to cross.
The problem with this attitude is that other Gedolim
vehemently disagree. Religious Zionist Gedolim value Torah study just as
much as his Gedolim do. But they also believe that Lomdei Torah too have an obligation to serve. That’s precisely what the Hesder program is all
about.
Gedalia doesn’t seem to care for the lomdishe (Torah
based logical) argument. Presumably because his Gedolim don’t hold by it.
But what Gedalia doesn’t do is explain why they don’t. To simply say or
imply ‘because they say so’ is not convincing when other Gedolim cite Halacha, based
on the Rambam, who is the only authority to codify the laws of war in his Magnum
Opus, the Mishneh Torah.
Put simply: when the Jewish nation is threatened with annihilation,
there is no clearer example of a milchemes mitzvah in our day than that. And while
we don’t have a Sanhedrin to formally declare war, if millions of Jews are at
risk, no one is exempt. Not even Shevet Levi which otherwise would be. And which the Charedi world claims to represent today (a stretch, to say
the least). The level of Kedusha attributed to Lomdei Torah deemed to be equivalent
to Shevet Levi does not extend to any kind of exemption for either during a war for survival
If the army needs people, and the only available population
is the Charedi community, then they have an obligation to serve. No exceptions.
Period.
The Rambam never talks about increasing Torah study during
wartime as a national defense strategy. That is a modern invention.
That’s what makes me angry about columns like Gedalia’s.
Even with all his genuine sympathy for the sacrifices of others, he treats his
Gedolim as if they are the only ones who count. As if no others qualify. This is the typical Daas Torah approach
that grants de facto infallibility to their elder rabbinic leaders while
dismissing anyone who disagrees. Sometimes even branding them kofrim (heretics).
Strangely enough, I agree with Gedalia’s concluding line:
“It’s a tenet of belief that has endured throughout our long history that, yes, the Rabbis know.”
Yes, they do. The only question is: Which rabbis are you
talking about?
