Guest Post
by Rabbi Chaim Nachman
 |
| Are the animals of ISIS our new rabbeim? |
The
following letter was sent to me by Rabbi Chaim Nachman. I do not know him or
what he does. But after reading his letter I surmise that he is an American
Charedi that now lives in Israel and has adopted many of the attitudes of
Israeli Charedim. Including the belief
that the Charedi political parties are the best hope for providing the
solutions to their problems.
Needless to say, I am in profound disagreement
with a lot of what he says. My views on these issues have been expressed many
times in many different ways. But in other areas he expresses the same concerns
I have. Perhaps even more strongly than I ever have.
He asked
that I publish his thoughts. I normally do not publish unsolicited submissions
from people I don’t know. But I thought
it valuable to hear what the perception of a mainstream Charedi in Israel is
about their predicament - and his analysis of it. He is apparently concerned about a recent poll that showed
that the Charedi parties will lose a seat in the next Kenesset. I have taken
the liberty of translating some of the less common Hebrew words and phrases he
used. They are in parentheses following each word or phrase. Otherwise, his
post is unedited. It follows:
Let’s be
real and responsible.
Elections in
Israel have real and lasting consequences, as even the uniformed found out the
last time around. Funding was cut, yeshivos and kollelim were closed, children
went to bed hungry because two pseudo-parties were founded to steal Shas voters
and didn’t make the cut. Three Knesset seats were lost and Netanyahu went to
Lapid and Bennet to make his coalition. All the talk about the draft and
shivyon banaetel (sharing the burden) came about because of that unholy union.
Children, and their parents go to bed hungry because of what happened in the
last election.
So now,
there is a chance to change that. There are new elections. The poll numbers for
Shas and Gimmel (The Charedi parties)were up; those for Lapid and Bennet were
down.
So what
happened? Frum people declared war on Gimmel. In the name of fighting the army
they are makriv (sacrifice)dozens of garbage pails at important crossroads.
They shut down highways so that people should be late to work.
What do they
accomplish? Hatred for frum yidden is reignited, not only in Israel, but around
the world. Shas and Gimmel are now down to five seats each. Lapid is rising.
They are causing, beyodayim,(by their own hand) that kids will suffer, the army
will seek to draft yeshiva bochurim, the Shem Hashem will be tarnished, people
will hate us more than ever. Everything the gedolim have fought for since the
founding of the state is going down the tubes.
Our culture
is based on Torah and mussar and shulchan aruch.
What
happened to gadlus ha’odom (greatness of man)? What happened to veohavta
lereiacha kamocha (love thy neighbor as yourself)? What happened to gezel
z’man (theft of time) and gezel mammon (theft of money)? What happened to
Chillul Shem Shomayim?
What
happened to communal responsibility? What happened to thinking about where your
actions will lead and what they will cause? What happened to being a mench?
Are the
animals of ISIS our new rabbeim?
Do we judge
our behavior from now on as how it compares to people who burn others alive and
chop off the heads of people they disagree with?
Is this the
way of derochehu darchei noam (our ways
are ways of pleasantness)? Is this the way of the Ramchal, Mesilas Yeshorim,
Pirkei Avos and the Chofetz Chaim?
What are we
coming to?
I learn
Torah every day. I learn mussar every day. I daven every day. I believe that by
doing so my neshoma (soul) is cleansed and improved and raised. I believe that
my neshoma stood at Har Sinai when the Aseres Hadibros (10 commandments) rang
out. Mine was there, yours was there, but those of the people who rob, cheat
and steal from the general culture were not there. What is there for me to
learn from them? What is there is to be gaining by comparing me to them? We
make a brocha every day shelo asani goy; what are we saying? Among other things
we are saying that we are bnei Torah, we follow the Torah to be our guide, not
the prevailing culture. We thank Hashem for being held to a different standard.
We do not
curse, scream, yell, act like animals. We do not get in the way of people
trying to go about their daily affairs unmolested. We do what we can shetehei
shem shomayim misaheiv al yodeinu (to sanctify God’s name by our own hand).
We follow
the midos (character traits) of Hashem yisborach, ma hu chanun af aatah tehei
chanun, ma hu rachum a f ata tehei rachum. We have mercy on Hashem’s creations.
We treat them with gentle kindness.
We strive in
every one of our daily actions to cause people to want to draw closer to Hashem,
and appreciate that Yisroel, v’oraisah v’kudsha brich hu chad hu (Israel, the
Torah and God are one) is more than a collection of funny words we sing on
Simchas Torah, but that learning Torah transforms us into Godly people.
We don’t
judge our behavior by comparing ourselves to the uncultured and unlearned, we
judge ourselves by what our Avos and Imahos (patriarchs and matriarchs) would
say about us. We make a cheshbon hanefesh (introspection) each night as we put
our heads on our pillows and wonder what we could have done better that day.
I’d venture
to say, screaming Nazi, burning garbage pails, working that the frum parties
should have weaker representation in the Knesset and strengthening the hands of
those who seek to impoverish all bnei Torah and draft the younger ones into the
army are not things that pass muster in any honest cheshbon hanefesh.
Not that
long ago gedolim worked with mesirus nefesh to get people to the polls to vote
for Gimmel.
It was a
chov kadosh (a holy obligation).
What happened
to that chov?
Who of us
can take the responsibility for what will take place if the chareidim are out
of the next coalition?
