JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In a bizarre attempt to fend off the significant public criticism both from the coalition and the opposition over his controversial decision to cancel childcare subsidies for yeshiva students who are not involved in “employment-oriented studies,” Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman quoted from the Rambam’s laws of Torah study regarding the matter of earning a livelihood.
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Liberman was referring to statements by Efrat Reiten (Labor) who said that “there are points here which require elucidation” as well as Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz who said that “I am in favor of giving children what they need irrespective of what their parents are doing.”
In his Twitter account Liberman responded that indeed the matter needed to be “elucidated” and added that “children need to receive “what they need” – which he interpreted as “education and the ability to integrate into the workforce, make an honest living and not require allowances and handouts.”
In a response to outraged Chareidim as well as other right-wing MKs who had sharply criticized his “hardheartedness” and even labeled him “Haman”, Liberman wrote that “to my friends in the Chareidi sector, I call on you to return to the sources and to the words of the Rambam (who worked a full job) said that “whoever puts into his mind that he will study Torah and not do work and will receive his livelihood from charity, he has desecrated G-d’s name and despised the Torah and extinguished the light of the religion and caused himself evil and taken his life from the world to come.”
ולידידיי מהמגזר החרדי, אני קורא לכם לחזור למקורות ולדברי הרמב"ם (שעבד במשרה מלאה), שאמר: "כל המשים על לבו שיעסוק בתורה ולא יעשה מלאכה ויתפרנס מן הצדקה, הרי זה חילל את השם וביזה את התורה וכיבה מאור הדת, וגרם רעה לעצמו, ונטל חייו מן העולם הבא".
— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) July 8, 2021
Some people responded to Liberman by reminding him that Torah scholars are exempt from taxes according to the Rambam and yet Liberman has made no attempt to implement this exemption yet. Others mentioned that the Rambam in the same section still said a person should study 9 hours and work for 3 hours.
I wonder if he will quote the Rambam on shimiras shabbos and Yom tov and all other halachos Jews have to follow
At least Lieberman got a long overdue discussion on the road.
The no-work ethics was virtually unheard of before the WW2.
The Satmar Ruv was opposed to Kollel even after the war.When asked how long a Yungerman should learn in Kollel, Rav Yaakov Kamenetzki is quoted as saying “Three years, but surely not more than 5 years”.
Kol Torah she-eyn imah melocho Sofah Beteilah.
And what exactly does this evil jerk do for a living?
Is being supported by the government for doing NOTHING but slandering everyone but himself NOT a chill Hashem? And that’s besides everything else…
When Lieberman will stop all gay activity and close all pork stores and tattoo shops and stop traffic on shabbos will talk. I don’t think the Rambam supported all those evil behaviors.
Unfortunately he’s right. Espacially in Eretz Yisroel where all these Kollel Yungerleit act so silly by these Hafgonos.
They sit there on the highway blocking buses and cars and enjoy singing Lag Bo’omer songs, they thought they were in Meron.
Does the ignorant Lieberman also know the Rambam in the end of hilchos Shmita Veyovel “וְלֹא שֵׁבֶט לֵוִי בִּלְבַד אֶלָּא כָּל אִישׁ וְאִישׁ מִכָּל בָּאֵי הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר נָדְבָה רוּחוֹ אוֹתוֹ וֶהֱבִינוֹ מַדָּעוֹ לְהִבָּדֵל לַעֲמֹד לִפְנֵי ה’ לְשָׁרְתוֹ וּלְעָבְדוֹ לְדֵעָה אֶת ה’ וְהָלַךְ יָשָׁר כְּמוֹ שֶׁעֲשָׂהוּ הָאֱלֹהִים וּפָרַק מֵעַל צַוָּארוֹ על הַחֶשְׁבּוֹנוֹת הָרַבִּים אֲשֶׁר בִּקְּשׁוּ בְּנֵי הָאָדָם הֲרֵי זֶה נִתְקַדֵּשׁ קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים וְיִהְיֶה ה’ חֶלְקוֹ וְנַחֲלָתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וּלְעוֹלְמֵי עוֹלָמִים וְיִזְכֶּה לוֹ בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה דָּבָר הַמַּסְפִּיק לוֹ כְּמוֹ שֶׁזָּכָה לַכֹּהֲנִים לַלְוִיִּם. הֲרֵי דָּוִד עָלָיו הַשָּׁלוֹם אוֹמֵר (תהילים טז ה) “ה’ מְנָת חֶלְקִי וְכוֹסִי אַתָּה תּוֹמִיךְ גּוֹרָלִי”:
Not only the tribe of Levi, but each well-informed thinking person whose spirit moves him to devote himself to the service of the Lord, to know the Lord, and has walked uprightly after casting off his neck the yoke of many a cunning wile that men contrived, is indeed divinely consecrated, and the Lord will forever and ever be his portion. God will provide sufficiently for his needs, as he did for the priests and the Levites. David, may he rest in peace, declared: and my cup; thou holdest my lot” (Psalm 16:5).”
Liberman is right. The chareidim are taking advantage and it cannot continue.
The framework of this argument, and I mean OUR side, shows that we have not created the achdus with all our brothers that we need to. Put aside Lieberman. How do we want to talk and act? What statements do bnei Torah make and bot make?
Why is quoting a beferisha Rambam bizarre?
be wary of people who hate torah and throw around loose Rabam’s nilly willy. A shevra rabam requires a R Chaim and gedolim to interpret not a mechlal shabbos.
The major problem with this whole discussion is that the Zionists have to first allow the Chareidim to work without dealing at all with the Zionist shmad army.
Once the Zionists allow the Chareidim to live as freely in Israel as they can elsewhere in the world, (and Chareidim work in other countries, too) then this politician can ask the gedolei Torah about the Chareidim working.
Until then, it is the Zionists who are to blame for both Chareidi unemployment and for the poverty that so many of them suffer R”L L”A.
Here is the perfect example of the “devil quoting scripture” for his own ends.
Lieberman quoting Rambam is like Dems talking about fair elections where only live people and us citizens vote.
Lieberman quoting the Rambam is like Martin Luther quoting the Pope to justify his position.
only a פולסא דנורא for this עוכר ישראל will do
the few rubbles he wants to steal from these poor fellas is already a severely watered-down stipend that Kollel Yungerleit are eligible for. The pathetic figures are a bare minimum of what every homeless man is eligible for in any 3rd world country. this is nothing short of a war on Limud Hatorah, he wants to force these Men out to work, which is none of his business and cruel towards the wives and children. Would you punish the child of a drug addict because his father is a Junky?