Same Old - Same Old

Four young Israeli citizens were arrested in France, after customs officers discovered 130 kilograms of khat (known as ghat in Israel) in their suitcases. All four are members of the Charedi community.

It’s true that most Charedi teens don’t do that. And wouldn’t do that even they could get away with it. But it seems there are some that still do. Almost exactly 2 years ago Mishpacha Magazine featured a story about this describing efforts by mostly Charedi activists to ‘rescue’ those that got caught by the authorities in the foreign country those drugs were brought into. 

There is now an organization in Israel I have been made aware of consisting of Charedi rabbis and activists - the purpose of which is to ‘rescue’ these teens from their ‘captivity’. I believe they’re called ‘Pidyon’. Which is probably a reference to the Mitzvah of Pidyon Shevuyim – rescuing fellow Jews from captivity by non Jews. 

This is apparently how the Charedi world sees their obligation here. Nothing about the immoral and illegal nature of what those young teens were doing. Or the spectacle of religious youth smuggling narcotics from Israel into a foreign country where they are illegal. The idea is to simply get them out of there so they can escape the possibly draconian prison sentences for their crimes and come home back.

It’s not that I am opposed to what Pidyon is trying to do. I believe they should bring those teens back. But bringing them home with impunity is equally wrong.

These young people should be made to somehow pay a price for their crimes so that they and anyone else that thought about smuggling dope will realize there are consequences. To make them realize how terrible it looks for religious Jews to be caught doing that. To make them und to doing things like that. To understand how great the Chilul HaShem they caused was. And that it doesn’t matter that this drug is legal in Israel.

Where is the outrage in the Charedi world ? If anyone expressed any - I haven’t seen it. It was certainly not evident in the Mishpacha article 2 years ago nor in yesterday’s VIN article. It appears that nothing has changed on that score. 

What would be a just way of dealing these young people? First we should try and get them back home to Israel. But that is only the beginning. There needs to be serious consequences to their actions. I believe a just consequence would be immediate induction into the IDF – Israel’s military for a full 3 year term . They should serve in the religious units (Nachal Charedi). There they can learn a few of the values they failed to learn at home. Probably because those values were not taught by their parents or teachers.

This way something positive will hopefully result. They may just come to appreciate the sacrifices made by the soldiers of IDF. Sacrifices that protect all Israeli citizens and residents regardless of whether they are secular or religious. Sometimes at great risk of harm to themselves or even death. 

There are some people that might object to these consequences – saying that criminals should not be placed in the army and that serving in it should not be seen as a ‘punishment’. I agree with that in principle. But these teens are not violent criminals with no values. They are religious Jews and otherwise quite normal. They are taught to be meticulous in their observance of Halacha. The discipline that the army requires should therefore not be a problem. And they may learn something important that they might not otherwise learn. 

That is the kind of justice I would like to see. 

My guess is that the Charedi leadership would be opposed to that. So it will probably never happen. Instead they will be ‘rescued’ from their ‘captors’ And may even see that as a cause for celebration! 

What about the lack of morals that got them into this mess in the first place. Like I said, ‘What morals?!’