Israel – A group of leading haredi rabbis in Israel have written to their counterparts in the US to ask for support and communal solidarity in the face of recent government measures in Israel relating to the ultra-Orthodox community, which the rabbis labeled as “efforts to crush the honor of the Torah and those who study it.”
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The various missives, issued separately, were sent ahead of a large conference in New Jersey of haredi rabbis in the US, organized by the Dirshu international Torah educational network and scheduled for this Shabbat.
The purpose of the conference, said Dirshu, was the necessity for “strengthening the Torah world and encouragement of those who learn Torah around the world, and particularly in the Land of Israel, against the decrees and incitement against Torah students.”
Some 700 rabbis, rabbinical judges, hassidic leaders and yeshiva deans from across the United States will attend the conference and the main convention which will be held on Saturday night, while a delegation of rabbis from Israel is also flying out to participate in the event.
The haredi political and rabbinic leadership in Israel has since the formation of the new government been outspoken in its opposition to measures taken by the coalition to cut or condition state welfare benefits for the haredi community.
Legislation currently in the Knesset to draft haredi men in national service has also been heavily opposed by the haredi leadership.
Among the rabbis who sent letters to the Dirshu conference were the grand rabbis, or admorim, of the Viznitz, Sanz and Moderitz hassidic dynasties, as well as members of the Degel HaTorah Council of Torah Sages including Rabbi Arye Finkel, dean of the Mir Yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzhak Sheiner, dean of the Hebron Yeshiva, and several others.
“At this time when in the Land of Israel, ‘enemies have lifted up their heads’ to burden and trouble those who study Torah and yeshiva students and are are callously harming the soul of the nation,” wrote Finkel, “it is incumbent on every one to carry the yoke, and certainly to strengthen oneself and increase Torah and prayer, so that the foundation of Torah will be raised in honor and glory to the people of God throughout the diaspora.”
The Admor of Viznitz, Rabbi Yisroel Hager wrote in equally strident tones, saying that “at a time when strangers have arisen among us to restrict the Torah world in the palace of the King, to whom can we turn if not our brothers in the Diaspora to bear with us the yoke of Torah and to stand at the right hand of those who study it.”
Among recent measures taken by the government, were sharp cuts to the monthly stipend received by yeshiva students, as well as conditioning the receipt of subsidised housing and child day care on being employed, or seeking employment, for anyone fit to work.
Cuts to child care, which affect the entire population, are more heavily felt in the haredi sector owing to the low level of employment and subsequent dependence on such welfare benefits.
Yeshivot and charitable organizations within the haredi community in Israel receive significant financial support from ultra-Orthodox Jewry in America, and the cuts to welfare payments to the haredi will create greater need for such contributions.
Efforts to advance legislation for drafting haredi men into national service are also continuing, and a bill proposed and supported principally by Yesh Atid is currently being discussed in a special Knesset committee.
Although the haredi political parties have objected vehemently to this legislation, it appears now that if certain provisions of the draft law are moderated, the ultra-Orthodox parties will not call for all out opposition to it.
Speaking in the special committee on Tuesday, Shas MK Ariel Atias said that “if a fair and reasonable bill is agreed upon” the it could be possible to achieve the goals of the law.
“No-one [in the haredi parties] is going to support it, but there could be a situation where we wont fight it,” he said.
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
How about solidarity with those in Tzha”l who put their lives on the line every day to protect Eretz Yisroel? How about proposing an alternative way to do National Service and show hakaras hatov for the State which provides these benefits?
Does anyone really believe in absolute kochi v’otzem yadi being displayed in EY?.
Without lomdei torah EY doesn’t stand a chance.
How many hours do military alumni spend learning torah?
hakoras hatov is learning and davening for those who have chosen to serve n the military, regardless of their religious affiliation.
Having “served” in the Israeli army (about 30 years ago), I can attest that it is a dangerous place for ones spirituality , even in a group with other religious soldiers.
Maybe these rabbonim have never thought about it in other terms but “work” itself is a great honor to bnai torah and encouraging them to gain the needed education and job skills to earn a parnassah for their families would be the greatest honor. Having the means to learn torah without begging for tzadakah or relying on others to pay your way is the greatest honor of all. Work would set them free from reliance on others so they can live a balanced live of “torah v’avodah”.
Achdus is a wonderful thing that we should all strive for. After the vile and disgusting electorial season in Israel, the Rabbonim should put all this partisan nonsense aside and call for Achdus here first.
It’s like the Aharonitics and Zalmaniacs, who can only get together to make a Chillul Hashem by attacking Israel. (I understand and appreciate all the Chesed done by Satmar, but that doesn’t negate the garbage).
If people are serious about Achdus, it shouldn’t be about just one or two issues.
The good thing Hashem gives us is a freedom to resolve our futures with Torah as our cornerstone, but not forced upon our throats by a storm of rebels who are not prepared for a True Torah Future but mask themselves behind a cloak of “innocence” rather than exampling themselves into the forum of the common day and the common cause today. This means that you will learn Torah more through your experiences in life and many things about your life and the way of the world will not be apparent until you are given the true insight to understand both Torah and the day you lived.
This means that sitting in a forced chamber to recite tractates and efficiency may not entirely bring you to the Torah world. It will put a book in your hand and you will dance for the frigid fearful communities who are not entirely ready for the society we are going to be engrossed within as Jews in Eretz Yisrael and elsewhere.
Torah study is very essential and I hope that they do it right.
“Hareidi solidarity”? Have we moved so far apart from our religious brethren that we have to split the yoreh shamayim in half?
I like the picture of Rav Kook on the board.
I am opposed to charedi draft in IDF as well as to reduction in benefits to charedi families. But I am opposed to 2 phenomenon going on in the charedi world there: the multiplication of charity organizations and the stubborness in family mentalities regarding work.
For the first one, such organizations enlist their recipients in a long term ani’im membership: they make people stay in a mentality of poor and dependent instead of motivating them to become economically independent. They also sustain their own staff by giving them wages, which lower the money amount dedicated to the ani’im. It has become an industry and it’s scandalous. This phenomenon exist also in all western wellfare states (US, France, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy etc…) and it’s a tragedy.
For the second one, we see very large families that automatically turn themselves to charity organizations or baalei tsedaka when they have financial trouble instead of sending their sons or daughters to work to support he family. When the child is married, then he or she doens’t even help his family, even though the father indebts his family heavily, beyond his means, going to bankruptcy. What solidarity is that?
We have waited 2000 years to have a Jewish state. I was born in a Dp camp in Berlin, b”h we now have a miracle of a country. All Yiddishe kinder should be appreciative NOT ALWAYS trying to weasel out of responsibility. At the very least, say a BIG THANK YOU TO TZAHAL.