'Boy, Have We Given Them Ammunition!'

Arik Einstein

Sometimes Rabbi Moshe Grylak disappoints me. And sometimes he inspires me.  His editorial in this week’s Mishpacha Magazine is of the latter variety. It is one of those rare times where this Charedi journalist and I agree almost completely. Even in the one area where I have a quibble – he actually backpedals a bit. More about that later.

Through his songs, Arik Einstein symbolized for the broad Israeli public a kind of longing for another world, a purer world far removed from the trashy “culture” in which the State of Israel is currently living. A world that perhaps once existed, or perhaps was never more than a yearning for something hidden. His songs reminded them of a longing for good middos, for moral purity, for a different period in this country’s life, a land saturated with ideals — if not Torah ideals, at least on a level higher than what’s on the market today. All the eulogies spoke of his simple way of life, his avoidance of publicity, and his natural diffidence that caused him to refuse the prizes awarded by the State to its heroes. 

Uri Zohar

Rabbi Grylak makes an admission here. If these are the values the secular Israeli yearns for, it does not mesh with how they are typically portrayed by his community as morally debased hedonists.  (This does not mean that there are no Jews like that. There certainly are. But I do not believe they are the majority. I believe that just like most people in the United States - the majority of Israelis have good values, yearn to express them; and see them expressed in general society. In most cases they have religious values as well even if they are not fully observant.)

True, it’s easy to blame the media for reinforcing the walls between us in our times. Certainly that same media has made a mockery of us and fostered a sense of alienation toward us. But at the same time, we cannot wash our hands of all guilt and claim that we never supplied our enemies with ammunition and did nothing to contribute to the negative image that they created and implanted in the consciousness of the non-chareidi public. Boy, have we given them ammunition!