Is This Still Happening?

A Charedi Soldier  (From the website of David M. Weinberg)

Someone sent me the video below (from 2017 featured on Yeshiva World News). No matter how many times I see something like this (and unfortunately it is a lot) I never become immune to it. It upsets me at so many levels that it makes my blood boil. The video shows Chasidic looking children in the Israeli neighborhood of Meah Shearim doing what they seem to do best: Harassing Charedi soldiers.

The biggest problem is not so much the harassment itself. Bad as it is - my guess is that most Charedi soldiers have gotten used to this kind of treatment in those neighborhoods. The harassment is mostly in the form of taunting and name calling. Sticks and stones.. and all that.

My problem is in how these harassers get that way. What makes them do this? Why are these young people so motivated to attack (at least verbally) religious soldiers? I’m relatively certain that no one is forcing them to do this. No one of any responsibility – whether a teacher of a parent – urges them to go chase down a Charedi soldier walking down their streets. No one probably even suggests it to them. In fact it is quite possible that after the fact parents and responsible leaders in that community reprimand them. I honestly don’t know. (Although I’m not so sure about that last one! They may just ignore it.)

To say that these are a bunch of young delinquents is unlikely. It happens too often. My guess is that most of these kids behave normally at other times.  They probably sit in class and do what every other student does.

I can only speculate. But I think my speculation is as valid as any other. It is a reasonable deduction based on a worldview of that community that rejects the very notion of a Jewish state. And as a corollary, an army that defends it. Aggravating that is the fact that the state is perceived as anti-religious and the army is perceived as their means of disabusing soldiers of any semblance of being religious. They see boycotting army service as a religious duty. And they see anyone joining it as traitorous! They believe that not only are they putting their own souls at risk, they see them as part of the problem – duping innocent religious Jews into thinking it’s OK to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). They see it as a violation of Jewish law that will have a ripple effect on other Jews.

This is what they teach their children. Of course they do not teach them to react to Charedi soldiers the way they do in the video below. (At least I hope they don’t!) But it should not be any surprise their youth they takes in that message and acts on it this way.  After all - if it is so terrible to be a religious soldier in the IDF, how can they not protest it when they see it?

How can these children just stand idly by when day after day their teachers and parents tell them how terrible it is when a Charedi Jew that ought to ‘know better’  goes so far off the derech (OTD) that he joins the ‘enemy’. The enemy of course being the anti religious army of an anti religious government that shouldn’t even exist in the first place.

That is why things like this keep happening. The idea that their religious leaders may not approve and even reprimand these kids (if that is indeed the case) is overshadowed by the Chinuch they give them. Which is a constant harangue against the State and it’s anti religious army whose sole purpose is Shmad!  If these kids are scolded at all after the fact – it wouldn’t surprise me it is with a grain of approval over their motives if not their actions. It’s kind of like telling them that their hearts are in the right place… proverbially patting them on the head - while lightly  scolding them for acting on the beliefs that were put in their heads by their teachers.

None of this excuses them. It is just a plausible explanation of why this happens. I can’t think of too many things about which I have greater disagreements with them than about this. What they believe to be a Kiddush HaShem – I believe is a Chilul Hashem.

A Chilul HaShem is something that dishonors God. When the world (Jews and non Jews alike) sees the most religious looking Jews in the world acting like ignorant savages attacking the army that defends its people – it makes a mockery of our faith. A faith based on the Torah – God’s law for the Jewish people. 

Making it even worse is when an entire culture of religious Jews attacks a solider that is himself religious.  The  world sees that and asks rhetorically, ‘What kind of hooligans are these religious Jews?’ Does being as religious as one can be - produce a community of hooligans?! Can anyone imagine a greater Chilul HaShem than generating these kinds of thoughts about God’s chosen people especially those who claim to be the most fervent of observant Jews?

Perhaps there are greater degrees of Chilul HaShem. I don’t know. But I can’t think of too many.

The police have arrested them. My guess is that it’s likely that they will be released almost immediately – ready and able to do it again at the next opportunity. 

This deserves to be condemned by all religious leaders from right to left. Both in Israel and abroad. Without the slightest bit of apologetics. The continual Chilul HaShem should  be a wake up call for the entire Charedi world to change its attitude about the state and its army. It is time to once and for all stop treating both as anti religious. And see the army for what it really is: Israel’s Defense Forces. While there still may be some abuses along anti-religious lines in a few cases - that is increasingly becoming the exception. This trend ought to be recognized, praised, and encouraged. Has it been?