JERUSALEM (VINnews) — On the 1st of Marcheshvan 1952, two leaders met in a tiny Bnei Brak apartment and held an animated discussion on the issues which would be hotly debated over the next few decades in Israel. This fascinating meeting between Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion and the Chazon Ish, the uncrowned leader of the chareidi community in Israel, aroused huge media interest and many have sought to know what transpired there.
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In October 1952, Ben Gurion attempted to gain a majority for a bill which would require national service for girls who were exempt from IDF service. The chareidi rabbis as well as the chief rabbinate expressed stiff opposition to the proposed law and Ben Gurion realized that without chareidi rabbinic support the law wouldn’t pass.
The prime minister decided to take the extraordinary step of meeting the Chazon Ish. Sending his army attache Nehemia Argov to request such a meeting, he received the curt answer that “the door is always open.”
Word of the impending meeting leaked out and numerous journalists tried to find a place to eavesdrop on the conversation. On the day of the meeting the Chazon Ish reportedly said Tehillim but refused requests to change furniture in his apartment for the sake of the meeting.
Ben Gurion arrived wearing a hat and with his personal secretary Yitzhak Navon, who later became Israel’s president. Ben Gurion wrote in his diary that “I asked him a question for which I had not received an adequate answer from my orthodox friends. We are split on various issues according to our approach to Jewish tradition. There are Jews like you and me, how can we live together? How can we unite?”
Yitzchak Navon, the only other witness to the proceedings, write later that “I went in, sat down and wrote the contents of the discussion. I saw a short Jew with a pleasant complexion, bent over, a table, a chair, a rickety bed and books, books and more books. Everyone thought he would talk about female enlistment but it wasn’t mentioned.”
Ben-Gurion first said that he didn’t keep Mitzvos but believed in G-d. The Chazon responded: “Amen, may it be His will.” Ben Gurion then asked how religious and non-religious can live together. “People are coming from many countries, hundreds of thousands with different traditions cultures and viewpoints. The country is in danger, the Arabs still want to destroy us and we need to find what is the common denominator of our nation.
“The Chazon Ish listened carefully and answered with a Talmudic parable. ‘If two camels meet on a narrow path and one has a load and the other doesn’t, the one without a load must make way for the one carrying a load. We religious Jews are like the camel carrying a load – we have the burden of many mitzvos.”
Ben Gurion appeared shocked by the implication. The Chazon Ish noted this and said “you are praiseworthy, since as opposed to our dedication and zeal for Torah, you don’t show as much dedication to Bittul Torah.”
Ben Gurion responded by asking “doesn’t this camel have a burden of mitzvos? Isn’t settling the land of Israel a mitzva?Isn’t it a burden? Isn’t defending ourselves a mitzvah? What the boys on the borders are doing , those who are guarding you, isn’t that a mitzvah?”
The two argued the issue for some time. Navon wrote that “at the end they stopped their argument and went to talk about the books on the bookshelves. They parted friends with a handshake. Ben-Gurion told me as we left: “This is a lovely Jew, wise, with beautiful, wise eyes, very humble. It is interesting from where he gains his power and influence. But how will we live together in the country? This is a very important question. It’s a serious danger, more severe than external threats.”
Ben Gurion was very moved by his meeting with the Chazon Ish. A short time later he sent him a picture from the meeting, writing: “May your honor allow me to add that my meeting with him was an unforgettable experience for me.”
I find it amazing that Ben Gurion was right on target with the unsolvable, still-existent and ever-growing problem of uniting the frum with the frei. As he stated, it is a bigger issue than the external threats to Israel. Of course, the Chazon Ish’s response was the only possible solution, but obviously Ben Gurion (as well as any other non-religious Zionist) would never accept that Torah Jews are the camel with the load…
very interesting article thank you VIN for publishing it.
he had enough respect to wear a hat.
Why are we omitting the letter that was send to the Chazon Ish by ……. supposedly advising him how to handle Ben Gurion ?? That may be just as important as the meeting itself or more important to us 70 years later ??
“The two argued the issue for some time…”
No, that’s not what happened, of course.
The Chazon Ish totally “schooled” this evil heretic. An “argument” implies that there are two sides being discussed, which isn’t the case here.