When Charedi leadership declares ‘I am my brother’s keeper.’
Our people have a problem. We have issues with hubris and a lack of gratitude. No, not issues, a subscription; we are repeating the mistakes made by past generations as if we have learned nothing. We are currently living in the land we prayed for, yearned for during a 2000 year exile. No one is outlawing Torah study. No one has issued edicts against practicing mitzvot like kashrut and milah. This is not Egypt or Yemen, which enacted laws mandating that our orphans forfeit our faith for another. We have freedom of worship, albeit under an incomplete redemption.
But from the comments of certain parts of the Charedi and religious public, you wouldn’t know it.
The years of failed leadership have damaged the entire religious community. Providing for a family is compared to bitul Torah. Studying core subjects like math and sciences are called a gateway to secularization. Tell that to Rambam.
There may be a way to repair some of that damage.
HaTzibur HaCharedi is a party whose basis for their platform is a combination of devotion to HaShem, to mitzvot and Torah, and to taking responsibility for the security of their brethren. All of their brethren, not only the ones who don the same clothing or share their nusach.
The party has declared publicly: I am Charedi and I am my brother’s keeper.
The key to protecting Israel is to create a cohesive society. Not a uniform society, but one whose members value each other, even when they disagree. The key to protecting Israel’s Jewish heritage is to create a cohesive Torah society. If you want to change Israel for the better, this is the way to do it. If you want to change Charedi representation, this is the way to do it.
When Ashkenazi Charedi leaders wax poetic about our treatment in exile, how much better we would be under foreign governance, they’re making the same mistake that the Jewish nation has made since its earliest days: “We remember the cucumbers and the quail we ate in Egypt.” Can they honestly look back at some of the worst times in our nation’s history and think it was better than our situation today? Have they forgotten the governance that had forcibly converted ten of our tribes and still threatens the remainder with conversion or annihilation? It shows a lack of understanding of the suffering that Mizrachi and Sephardic Jews experienced under Islam, long before political Zionism existed.
Two generations ago, in Yemen, in Iraq, in Egypt, unmarried young Jewish girls were subject to kidnapping and forced marriage. Jewish orphans were seized and subject to forced conversion. In Mashhad, during the Allahadad massacre, forty Jews were slaughtered and entire communities were forced to convert to Islam. In the Safavid empire, Shah Abbas II enacted policies of forced conversion against his Jewish subjects,(see Ketab-e anusi, Babai Ben Loft). These are not isolated crimes, but part of a long history of persecution. Listing every specific catastrophe would be lengthy and draw attention away from the point. And the point is our community needs drastic change.
Kavod HaRav, you who holds the opinion that we would be better off left to the mercy of other nations, I have words for the Rav. No one in this secular Israel is banning Torah study. No one in this secular Israel has banned kosher slaughter or milah. No one in this country forces the Ravs children to convert from our faith. No one in this country drags the Ravs unmarried daughters into forced marriage and conversion.
When a member of the Charedi community complains about Israel being against the Torah, do they know who they sound like?
“We remember the cucumbers and the quail we ate in Egypt.”
After they were delivered from slavery and the mass murder in Egypt, what did our ancestors do?
They messed up. They had HaShem’s protection and His promise to bring them home safely. And what did they do? They complained, repeatedly. And they paid for it.
Is our generation really so foolish? Could be. But I still hold onto some hope for us.
I am not Charedi. It was pious men who disparaged their brothers who have pushed me away from that, not the secular Jews.
I am religious and I am voting for HaTzibur HaCharedi.
Their focus is on protecting what they love, instead of destroying what they despise.
They do not disparage their brothers, they cherish them.
If you are Charedi, or a disillusioned religious Jew, this is your chance; vote them in. Another government without them may do irrevocable damage and we do not have the time to waste on repeating past mistakes.
If you are on the Left or Center on the political spectrum, and you want a partner who sees the value in you as a human being, regardless of religious disagreements, then make a place for them at the table. Take them seriously. This is a better way to reach those who have been indoctrinated to believe that secular Zionists want to destroy Torah. Stop thinking in the short term. We need more than just bodies in uniform; we need brothers in arms. It is more effective and less damaging than dragging unwilling, indoctrinated Haredi men into prison.
And to the party itself; Reb Leitner, Ms. Glanz and company: do not mess this up.
If, G-d willing, you get in, do not repeat the mistakes of your predecessors. Do not become like the Chassidah (stork) who only cares for those who resemble him. Do not repeat the mistakes of our ancestors who fled Egypt, and complained that they missed the cucumbers. Living in this country, with the freedom to fulfill mitzvot is a blessing.
And to my co-religionists, my beautiful, flawed people: our efforts will be judged from Above.
Pray, and vote like our survival depends on it, because it probably does.
