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| Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch (Matzav) |
The Charedi leadership is now more determined than ever to ‘protect’ their youth from what the rest of us would call their moral obligation to serve in the IDF.
They would, however, characterize such service as immoral. They are threatening to bring down the government by leaving the coalition. As noted by Matzav:
The home of Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch has issued a stark warning: If there is no significant breakthrough on the long-stalled draft law, the Degel HaTorah faction within United Torah Judaism will exit the governing coalition.
Rav Hirsch is increasing pressure on Netanyahu to forward legislation that would
permanently exempt their students from military service. An institution they
sometimes describe as an abominable anti-Jewish exercise.
The Charedi populace, by and large, is fully on board with
this attitude. Their demand is simple: leave us alone. They claim that their
full-time Torah study is, in any case, what protects the Jewish people and the ‘Zionist
entity’. (I use that term deliberately. While they may not call it that—since
it's a term often used by Palestinian terrorists - they may as well. Their views
on the state's legitimacy are eerily similar. They never refer to it as ‘Medinat
Yisrael’ Only ‘Eretz Yisrael’ - a land
they see as settled and controlled by secular Jews who, in their eyes, have no
right to lead the Jewish people. They often go so far as to say that it’s not a
Jewish state at all. It’s just a state of Jews.)
If I sound angry, that’s because I am. I’m angry that
these religious leaders seem to care so little about the rest of Israel’s Jews.
Not even the devoutly religious Jews who are not part of their insular world.
Over the Yom Tov of Shavuos, three IDF soldiers were killed in action in Gaza. And what was at the top of the Charedi agenda? Making sure that none of their people would ever have to suffer the same fate. Of course they would never put it that way.
They show little
to no concern about what happens outside their daled amos. As long as
they and their children are not subjected to the dangers of the army. And by
dangers, they mean NOT physical harm but harm to the soul.
I recall that when Rav Shach was alive and heard that a
soldier had been killed, he cried - even if that soldier wasn’t observant. I've
been told that some of the current
nonagenarian Charedi leaders do the same.
But I wonder if they even bother to follow what’s happening
with the IDF in Gaza. If they do, their response hasn’t been recorded. I don’t
recall any statement by any of them responding to the death in combat of even a
single Jewish soldier - out of the nearly 900 who have given their lives since
the war began. Some of those soldiers were doing exactly what Charedi students
were doing when they weren’t in combat - studying Torah.
So yes, I am angry. I’m angry at a culture so insular that
many within it have no clue that soldiers – even observant soldiers - are dying
in action. Their total focus is on the bubble in which they live. Which
consists of an inordinate emphasis on full-time Torah study to the exclusion of
everything else. A life they are willing to fight for with massive protests,
even if it means being arrested or going to jail. This is their focus, a focus
urged upon them by their leadership.
I understand that insularity helps one improve their personal relationship with God. A goal that is hammered into their minds from cradle to grave. That is surely an important goal for all of us. What
I do not understand is the abdication of communal responsibility. The religious
obligation of every Jew to care about all other Jews seems non-existent
outside their bubble.
Insularity may (and I emphasize may) offer a
degree of protection from the moral pitfalls of general culture. I get the
desire to avoid anti-Torah influences. I even understand applying that concern
to army service, where one is often forced into halachically compromised
situations. When you take someone out of a sheltered world and place them in
the IDF, it can be spiritually overwhelming.
But the solution is not to further isolate them. The
solution is to educate and integrate. To prepare them how to confront these
challenges when they arise. Insularity on the other hand breeds contempt. The
outside world is deemed irredeemable and best avoided altogether—for the sake
of their personal spiritual welfare.
The religious world outside the Charedi camp is not insular. They are integrated and have learned how to navigate broader society without compromising their religious values. Their worldview includes the same degree of religious introspection and self-improvement as the Charedi world. But they also fulfill their responsibility to their fellow Jews through service to their nation, sometimes even through the ultimate sacrifice.
That’s why I reject the increasingly insular ways of the
Charedi world. It’s self-serving and dismissive of fellow Jews. With a leadership that encourages that dismissiveness while championing personal religious
growth exclusively.
Some might argue that the Charedi approach to Torah study is
more intensive and more likely to produce Gedolim - religious leaders with the
knowledge and insight to guide the Jewish people. But I would suggest that some
of our greatest Gedolim did not necessarily spend their entire lives in
kollel before becoming the leaders they were. Torah greatness is not limited to
one path.
As I write these words, I realize they will likely have no
impact on Charedi leadership or on their community. They will never read this.
And even if they did, they would dismiss it. But these things need to be said.
And repeated. Because the truth must be told. And eventually, the truth will
prevail.
It must.
