Would the Torah declare Haredim ineligible to vote? (Parshat Shelah)
… תּוֹרָ֥ה אַחַ֛ת וּמִשְׁפָּ֥ט אֶחָ֖ד יִהְיֶ֣ה לָכֶ֑ם וְלַגֵּ֖ר הַגָּ֥ר אִתְּכֶֽם
The same rule and the same law shall apply to you and to the alien who resides among you.
Bamidbar/Number 15:15-16
Such thinking was considered radically innovative in 1776 when the United States declared its independence. And yet the Torah legislated the principal of equal treatment – and equal responsibility – under the law for ALL people residing in the Land of Israel.
Indeed , the very concept of the social contract between the resident of a country and the nation at large is embedded in this verse. The resident alien is subject to the identical benefits and obligations as the indigenous ethnic population.
The Torah does not tell us what the penalties are for violating this principle whether by the government or the resident alien or by a conspiracy between the two. Nor does it define for us who/what is a resident alien. Is this status of ‘resident alien’ something an individual declares about themselves or is it something decided by national consensus?
We assume, of course, that ‘resident alien’ meant someone who was not born Jewish or converted to the Jewish People.
But what about someone who does meet these criteria yet chooses to see themselves as a resident alien; someone who perceives themselves as in no way obligated to live by the law of the Land, yet nevertheless feels entitled to all the benefits the law of the Land accords to its citizens?
The original sin of the State of Israel was its enshrining in law or accepting by default that there are resident aliens who are exempt from certain civic laws and obligations, yet who are nevertheless entitled to all the privileges and benefits accorded to those who are rightful citizens.
The first group to be thus beneficially disenfranchised were Israeli Arabs who are exempted from military service yet remain entitled to all medical, social welfare, educational and career benefits and opportunities accorded to Jewish Israelis.
This legislated exemption is a glaring violation of the Torah’s dictum “the same rule shall apply to you and to the alien who resides among you.” And it does so to both the advantage and the disadvantage of Arabs who comprise 20% of Israel’s population.
Israel’s Arabs benefit by having a 3-4 year head start on higher education, and an equivalent head start on careers in medicine, pharmacy, law, engineering, high tech and government. Four years of seniority and income generation is very significant.
The disadvantage for Israeli Arabs is that they miss the opportunity to achieve greater social inclusion, as the IDF is the single most significant factor in fostering a sense of Israeli identity and shared responsibility. This assumes, of course, that Arabs have the desire to become part of the warp and weft of Israeli society.
There is another group that has effectively disenfranchised itself from Israeli society and shucked any responsibility for the State’s welfare and security. These are the Haredim who fundamentally reject the very notion of a pre-Messianic Jewish state, and refuse to shoulder any of its material or military burden. Yet, at the same time, they have no compunctions about grabbing and exploiting every possible social and material benefit available to normative citizens of the Land.
Such conduct is consistent with much of Haredi behavior elsewhere, especially the United States, whereby Haredim typically feel entitled to everything the Government has to offer while shucking any sense of obligation to the greater society and the prevailing social contract.
Both in America and in Israel, most Haredim abuse the political system by leveraging their block votes to yield copious benefits by way of corrupt politicians whose careers are affected, if not secured by such uncivic-minded behavior on Election Day. The strong arm of ultra-Orthodox rabbis and Hassidic rebbes are present in the voting booth, as their minions do exactly as they are told whether it is in Brooklyn or Bnei Brak, Lakewood or Jerusalem.
In Israel, this Haredi ethos has been tolerated largely through benign neglect. It was wink-wink presumed that every male born under the umbra of a black Borsalino was congenitally cut out for a lifetime of Torah learning, or at least a lifetime of Torah learning until they are too old for basic training, i.e. 26.
But as the Haredi population grows geometrically, if not exponentially, and after the terrible toll that normative Israelis have been paying since October 7th, there is finally a national consensus that this wanton embezzlement of the taxpayer by a critical mass of self-declared alien residents can no longer be tolerated.
One would, of course, assume that ruling political party would rise to the occasion and put an end to this double standard. But, no; in lockstep with behavior of the sleaziest politicians in Brooklyn, Monsey or Lakewood our governing Likud coalition is hell-bent on enshrining in law the free ride that Haredim have been hitchhiking since 1948. Because they know full-well that the only way they can claim to be a democratically elected government is by including in their coalition the singularly anti-democratic and anti-Zionist Haredi parties – parties that vote by rabbinic diktat and not by individual free choice.
The annual cost to the Israeli tax-paying, army-serving population runs into the billions. And more billions are being added constantly as Haredi political blackmail is applied over and over again.
Just last week, the Haredi parties threatened to vote with the opposition for a long-overdue impartial investigation into what happened on October 7. Of course what happened on October 7 is utterly irrelevant to Haredim who do not serve in the army, do not grow crops on the Gaza border (or indeed anywhere else) and were not dancing at the Nova festival in the Negev. Nevertheless, they would vote for an investigation that would inevitably implicate Bibi Netanyahu unless the governing Likud Party would vote for funds to pay for Haredi daycare (a benefit not available to normative Israeli couples where the husband refuses to work for a living – i.e. the ones who did over 200 days of reserve duty since October 7th.)
The time has come to make the Torah’s declared principle in Bamidbar 15:16 the law of the land; equal obligation and equal benefits for everyone. Anyone who expects the benefits and shirks the obligations has forfeited their entitlements. And this should begin with losing the right to vote.
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Here are links to my prior essays on Parshat Shelah
Parshat Shelah: A radical retranslation of Bamidbar 14:18-1
Were the spies set up by Moses?
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/parshat-shelah-were-the-spies-set-up-by-moses/ .