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| Rabbi Yisroel Reisman |
There are however significant differences between leaders. Nowhere was this made more evident than at the Q and A with Rabbi Yisroel Reisman and Rabbi Uri Deutsch - 2 highly respected Charedi rabbinic leaders.
I am a huge fan of Rabbi Reisman. Even though I have never met him. I do not agree with him on everything, but I do agree with him on most things. I also have a soft spot for his Yeshiva, Torah Vodaath. Even though it is clearly a Charedi Yeshiva, its high school takes secular subjects seriously and requires students to take the New York Regents Exam. Furthermore the Roshei Yeshiva that led that institution over the years are some of my heroes. Starting with R’ Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, R’ Yaakov Kamenetzky, R’ Avroham Pam, and now Rabbi Resiman, All of them great Orthodox Jewish leaders.
One of the most troubling portions of that Q and A. session was the way Rabbi Deutsch responded to a question that should have had a simple answer. Which is basically the way Rabbi Reisman responded to it. Rabbi Deutsch response was so terrible, I don’t recall ever being as angry at what was said by a Charedi rabbi as I was with this one.
The question was as follows, After a year long war in Israel, the urgency… the crisis level feeling we all had at the beginning of the war has waned. Is there anything we can do about it? Should we reinvigorate our concern for what is going on in Israel?
Rabbi Deutsch shocked me. He first cited a Gemarah to make his case and then said that in fact we should not be overly concerned about it. And that we should look to our Charedi brethren in Israel who at first were very concerned but by now pretty much have gone on with life as before. Nothing has really changed that much in the Charedi world there. We in the US should follow their example.
I guess that in his mind the only kind of Israeli residents that count are Charedim.
When I heard that, it practically made my blood boil. Life goes on?! As though there is no war?!! Charedim live their lives as before?! As far as the Charerdi world in Israel is concerned, that’s right. No real worries in their lives. None of them are dying in combat. Or losing a limb. None fo their families are sick with worry about whether they will ever see their son serving in combat alive or whole again. They go to Yeshiva in the morning and come home at night. Rinse and repeat.
We who live here in the US need follow their example and get on with out lives too. And not be overly concerned about what’s going on there since - in the Charedi world, not much is going on.
Sure there might be an overall feeling among Charedim in Israel that there is a war going on somewhere in the distance. But it does not affect their lives and it shouldn’t affect ours.
Rabbi Reisman, ever the gentleman and never wanting to be confrontational began by saying that he was not really disagreeing with Rabbi Deutsch. But his response was light years away in the opposite direction. He responded the way we all should respond. Realizing that there are people that have lost life and limb fighting in Israel right now. And that we should all be pained by that. That we need to strengthen our prayers, not lighten our load.
Rabbi Reisman empathized with the soldiers fighting in the war and their families who are living without them - not knowing if they will ever see them again. Or if they do, whether they come back in one piece! He implored us to empathize. To realizer the sacrifices being made by those actually risking their lives in combat for the safety of the Jewish people. (His response was reminiscent of Rav Asher Weiss’s reaction to one of Israel’s seriously wounded warriors.)
Both Rabbi Deutsch and Rabbi Reisman are respected Charedi leaders. Unfortunately Rabbi Deutsch has a lot of influence in Charedi circles. Like that of Lakewood where he lives. It is obvious he is very bright and very articulate. That his knowledge of Gemarah is quite extensive and that he can quote from it relative to any topic under discussion. Which gives him even more credibility.
I fear that his version of Charedism is more ascendant. A version that eschews the very education he surely had that makes him so articulate.
Not only does his response make me angry, so does the apparent ascendancy of his version of Charedism. It may very well be the wave of the future. What that means for moderate Charedim remains to be seen. I only hope that at the end of the day, Rabbi Reisman’s version somehow prevails.
