Friday, February 28, 2014

why should the dati-leumi/hesder world join the protest?

I posted links to a few depressing articles yesterday.  Today I want to give you a positive one

R' Shmuel Eliyahu asks: We differ with the chareidi world in our attitude toward army service, toward the state, and in other areas as well.  Why should we, Roshei Yeshiva of hesder, join with the chareidi world in their million man protest?  (I have read elsewhere that Rav Aviner, Rav Tau, and Rav Shapira are all participating as well).  Why should our talmidim, most of whom serve in the army, participate?  

For me, the important part of the answer was this:

הסיבה השנייה היא הכבוד לעולם התורה של הציבור החרדי. אנשים שמקיימים את המשנה באבות כפשוטה, "פַּת בַּמֶּלַח תֹּאכֵל וּמַיִם בַּמְּשׂוּרָה תִּשְׁתֶּה וְעַל הָאָרֶץ תִּישָׁן וְחַיֵּי צַעַר תִּחְיֶה וּבַתּוֹרָה אַתָּה עָמֵל". גם אם אני חלוק עליהם בכמה דברים אינני יכול להתעלם מהמסירות נפש שלהם לתורה. על זה אמר דוד המלך בתהילים: "חָבֵר אָנִי לְכָל אֲשֶׁר יְרֵאוּךָ".

הסיבה השלישית היא הכאב. אי אפשר להתעלם מכאב של מאות אלפי אנשים שנשבר מטה לחמם בעקבות הקיצוץ החריף שיאיר לפיד כפה על תקציב הישיבות. אי אפשר להתעלם מכאב משפחות שלמות שנשארו בלי פת לחם וטיטולים. גם אם אנחנו לא מסכימים עם אחינו בכל, אנחנו לא יכולים להתעלם מהכאב. "עימו אנכי בצרה".

We do not have to agree with the chareidi world, but we can still respect their committment to Torah and their self-sacrifice.  We can still empathize with the pain of their community as families struggle to make ends meet in the face of government cutbacks in funding.

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think the dati-leumi Rabbonim who participate will get any more kavod from the chareidi world for their stance.  They have nothing to gain other than doing what they think is right simply l'shem shamayim.  And to me, that's what makes their position admirable.

6 comments:

  1. If you want to understand why the situation is so sad, and I thing that the word "sad" is inadequate, consider this

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/177983#.UxKK4IWwW84

    I personally am no longer shocked at anything.

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    3. You are right -- sad is not a strong enough word. There are no words.
      I just get sick hearing the term "shmad" used in the context of what's going on. It's only been 75 years or so -- is that the shiur shikcha for what real "shmad" means?
      How did we all become so stupid?
      And what can we little folks do to stop it?
      (This is from Chaim, not Ariella)

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  2. In the end, none of the famous DL Rabbanim participated. After the article in the Yated that vilified R Druckman, they decided that to participate would show respect and would support those that insulted their leader, and some decided it would simply be dangerous to attend.

    I understand why calling it shmad is just hysterics, but even Lipman has not come out of the shadows for the last couple of months, because he finally realized that Lapid is a crazy as his father ShRY. Lapid really wants the yeshivos to close down. That's not shmad, true, but you know how seriously they took it in Europe when the government wanted to impose the teaching of secular subjects in Yeshivos. They considered it an assault on the heart of religious autonomy that threatened the mesora, even though it wasn't shmad at that moment.

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    1. >>>In the end, none of the famous DL Rabbanim participated

      Check the news: http://www.inn.co.il/News/News.aspx/271902
      R' Shmuel Eliyahu, R' Shapira, others were there. Despite the pgam in their kavod.

      >>>Lapid really wants the yeshivos to close down

      This may be true, but at this point I fear many of the chareidim want the State to close down. To put that out in public is dangerous and stupid.

      Let the Belzers come here. Let them set up yeshivos in NY and they will discover there is something called a Board of Regents that will dictate what they have to teach, how many school days, etc. I know at least two people who work for an accreditation agency that serves yeshivos, including chassidishe ones, and to help them dot the i's and cross the t's necessary to get gvt $. They all understand that $ comes with strings attached -- you have to at least go through the motions of meeting certain standards.

      I think the biggest threat to the chareidim is not the chilonim -- the biggest threat is chardal/dati leumi. Their success undermines the claim that one cannot serve, one cannot have a job, etc. and be a ben torah as well. My wife told me (jokingly) not to write about this lest our kids get bounced out of school. This is what the world has come to -- people like me are now the enemy.

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