I am often reprimanded for caring about the Charedi world,
as if I should only be concerned with Jews who agree with me.
That is not me. I still believe in Jewish unity, regardless
of how futile it sometimes feels to even hope for it. I care for all of my
brothers and sisters—Charedi and secular, even those far to the left and far
right. I believe there can be a meeting of the minds if there is enough
goodwill between us.
And this is why I am so grieved by what I just read in
Rationalist Judaism.
Rabbi Natan
Slifkin posted a letter that he sent to Jonathan Rosenblum regarding his
most recent column, entitled “Where is the Unity?” Therein, Jonathan laments
the fact that the Charedi world on the one hand, and the secular and Religious
Zionist worlds on the other, can’t seem to find unity among themselves.
I have made the same lament many times. Jonathan explains
what he believes are the reasons for this and assigns blame to both sides for
this impasse.
But Natan faults Jonathan’s for making claims about the
Charedi world fall short of reality.
I am not going to address that here. Although most people
know my views about the lack of secular education for men in the Charedi world,
what really got to me is the man featured on the cover of the Mishpacha issue
in which Jonathan’s column
appears. And if there is anything that divides the Charedi and
secular/Religious Zionist worlds more than this, I would like to know what that
is.
The cover story is about Rav Bunim Schreiber. Therin heis
given a tribute for the tenacity and resilience he has shown in his fight with
cancer. It is a heroic lesson in courage—not allowing any disability, even one
as deadly as cancer, to detract from teaching Torah - his mission in life. It
is indeed an inspiring story.
But as Natan reminds us, this is the same individual who,
after the October 7th massacre, when IDF soldiers had started losing
life and limb in Gaza, gave the following directive to his students:
“The soldiers who draft are nebuchs. I don’t think anyone drafts willingly… if there was no obligatory draft, nobody would join, other than perhaps a few crazy Mizrochniks…. There’s no need to express gratitude to soldiers fighting in Gaza any more than to street cleaners... Who says that there needs to be a relationship with the injured? What’s your connection to them? Why do you need to have a relationship with them? ...A ‘community tragedy’ is not if 1200 people were killed… a community tragedy is one that affects everyone.... Lehavdil, the Meron tragedy, you feel connected because they were your friends, they were your family, they were your people.... For the entity called ‘The State of Israel,’ regarding which it is superfluous to talk about our opinion, there is no ‘acknowledgement’ and no ‘good.’”
I don’t even know where to begin.
What kind of Jewish leader has absolutely no feeling for
fellow Jews fighting and dying in pursuit of protecting their fellow Jews…
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