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| The new Agudah Moetzes Kol Korei (with YWN translation) |
We hear cries of pain from our brothers who dwell in Eretz Yisroel as the Israeli government plans decrees that will seriously affect the Torah population there. Examples include:
desecrating the Kosel HaMaaravi – the last remnant of the Beis Hamikdash and the place from which the Divine Presence has never left – by permitting in it mixed prayer services and desecrations of our holy religious values;
acting to remove the safeguards for modesty accepted by the chareidi population upon themselves with respect to the use of “kosher” phones;
spreading Shabbos desecration such as in public transportation and the like;
canceling oversight over kashrus;
intruding into the education systems of chareidi institutions;
conspiring to undermine the yeshivos by forcibly conscripting their students;
and, most pressing now, acting towards weakening Jewish identity and holiness by allowing any community the authority to perform conversions. This will result in invalid conversions where the convert does not properly accept upon himself the obligations of Torah and mitzvos.
The ultimate outcome of all this will be to uproot the Torah from its status as the foundational identity and eternity of the Jewish people, and to turn the Jewish people into a nation like all others...
We will object strongly against these plans, just as our ancestors have over the course of history stood against any who have attempted to turn us away from Torah law.
To the G-d fearing religious public we say: This is a time fraught with danger for the Jewish nation, and we must cry out – from the depths of our hearts – that Hashem save us. We are obligated to increase our tefillah until Hashem awakens a heavenly spirit by which these edicts will be cancelled.
This Kol Korei is so upsetting - I don’t even know where to begin. First much of what they claim to be the case is not true; or grossly mischaracterized; or exaggerated. This is not to say that I agree with everything the new government there is doing. But I do not see any of it designed to turn us away from the Torah.
Let me start with the Kotel issue. The fact is prayer at the Kotel before 1948 was not separate. Men from women prayed there together. One might say that they had no choice since Israel was under were the British mandatory then. But if separation was really mandated by Halacha, there could never have been men and women there praying simultaneously. They could have come at separate times. But as pictures and archival footage of that era clearly show, men and women prayed there together all the time. The only time a Mechitza is needed is in a Shul.
Today, most Poskim consider the Kotel Plaza a Shul. For the most part that is why men and women are separated by a Mechitza there. But other parts of the Kotel are not a Shul. Designating a portion of it away from the Kotel Plaza where men and women can pray together is not a violation of Halacha. If it were - the Charedi MKs would have never agreed to it in the first place. That they later reneged is for other reasons that are beyond the scope of this post.
Their complaints about government actions with respect to removing modesty safeguards of cellphones has little merit. Those government actions do not force anyone to buy a smart phone. People that want ‘Kosher phones’ will be able to get them as easily as they always have. That smartphones can be owned now without being detected is not a governmental problem. It is a Charedi problem. The situation in Israel will now be no different than it is in America. Furthermore, I do not concede for a moment that smartphones should be banned. The fact is that the Moetzes doesn’t really think so either. That is demonstrated by the fact that their lay leaders are all REQUIRED to own one!
The next item is particularly galling to me. The Moetzes is objecting to government interference in Charedi education. Translation: They support the right of Charedim to be ignorant and unprepared for the workplace. I am not going to re-hash all of my issues with this. Suffice it to say, that what they are objecting to is - in my view - counterproductive to what they think they are going to accomplish. As increasing numbers of Charedim will find themselves out in the cold with no decent job prospects for lack of such an education.
Then there is their objection to the government ‘forcibly conscripting their students’ into the army. That is so far away from reality, that it’s laughable. It’s true that some of the laws will make the amount of time they will be allowed to delay required service of some kind will be shortened. But asking them to serve their country once they leave the Beis HaMedrash has been in place for some time now. It is not an unreasonable request. Why should they not have the same obligation as the rest of the country? Especially since the government is asking of them is far less than it asks from non Charedim? To say that they are attempting to turn us away from Torah with this law is patently false.
Furthermore it casts aspersions on the Hesder program whose religious Zionist soldier/learners are often among the elite of IDF service. They risk their lives to protect all Israeli residents. Including Charedim. The Moetzes may not agree with them. But to characterize even the requirement of non military national service to one's country as destructive to Judaism is absurd. And frankly - offensive!
Another issue that the Kok Korei got wrong is the Kashrus situation. The reorganization of Kashrus supervision does not mean that non kosher food will be labeled Kosher. Opening up other Kashrus supervision agencies will make little difference to the mass confusion over Kashrus that already that exists there now. That only the Rabbanut (Chief Rabbinate) can approve a Hechsher makes absolutley no difference to the Charedi world. They do not trust the Rabbanut whatsoever on Kashrus issues. Adding a few more will not change a thing even if they are all untrustworthy.
That a new Rabbinic governing Kashrus agency will be added to the Rabanut may actually improve things. Religious Zionist Rabbi David Stav’s Tzohar, will surely be as trustworthy as the Rabbanut. Perhaps even more so. Charedim don’t trust Rav Stav? What else is new?!
And finally there is the conversion issue. It is true that that rabbis in each municipality will be now allowed to perform their own conversions. But the new law still requires that each and every one of those conversions to be approved by the Rabanut. That basically means that Halachicly nothing will change. Except that it will require more work for the Rabanut.
I get that the Agudah Moetzes is upset by these changes. But this Kol Korei is so overwrought – so over the top – that it would be laughable if it weren't so sad.
It riles up the troops with a false sense of urgency And is totally unwarranted. Had they expressed their opposition more calmly - I wouldn’t have objected. They are entitled to their views. But to characterize this as Armageddon is in my view irresponsible.
As I started out saying – this shows just how right Rabbi Greenwald is. We absolutely have a vacuum of rabbinic leadership. I don't know who's running the show over there. but it seems more obvious than ever that is is being run into the ground if this latest Kol Korei is the best they could do.