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| 22 year old Jonathan Ben Hamou - a wounded IDF soldier who lost his leg |
That ad quoted the reactions of several prominent Charedi rabbis that attended. One of the responses (by someone whose name escapes me) stood out. He said something like: We now hear the Gedolim and we are their soldiers.
This is how Daas Torah works in the Charedi world. You are not told how to think. You are told what to think. And then you follow that up with action. Questioning the Gedolim is like questioning the Torah.
This accounts for the ‘we are their soldiers’ response. There is no possibility that any of the prominent Charedi rabbis that attended that rally would ever bring up the legitimate issues that I have brought up here. There is no challenging the accusations that this is a war against the Torah. Even in the face of massive evidence to the contrary.
What about the fact that virtually every religious Zionist rabbinic leader considers army service to be a religious obligation? They do not recognize that as Daas Torah. What about the evidence to the contrary... that this is not a war against the Torah? It doesn’t matter. Even if they say, ‘Left is right and right is left’ – we must listen to them.
Fortunately there are a few courageous Charedi rabbis who are willing to ‘speak truth to power’. Not in God forbid any insulting way. And not even any way challenging their worldview. Or cavalierly dismissing their fear that army service might harm them spiritually. (Although in my view that is a debatable charge considering how many serious religious Zionist youth serve in the IDF with honor - without it harming them spiritually.)
One such individual is Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein. He had the courage to publish his views on the subject yesterday in Cross-Currents. He expressed many of the same sentiments I have expressed here. Many times. But I am not Charedi. He is. And yet he sees the same truths I see. He does not believe that one should be a ‘soldier’ to a ‘Daas Torah’ based on half truths or fiction. That people of good will on both sides could have come to a solution that would have been satisfactory to all. Which would have avoided the acrimony and disunity that accusations like theirs have caused. Here in part is what he said:
We keep on hearing that Israel/the Supreme Court/the accursed Zionists (take your pick) has/have launched a “war against Torah.” That is the party line. See the many references to it in the kol koreis, the op-eds, and the comboxes...
There is no war against Torah. And the Supreme Court did not order the drafting of all charedim. The law of the land is that all people are required to register for the draft, and serve their embattled country if called up.
Full-time learners have enjoyed an exemption from service for decades. The Court has long argued that this was unfair, and therefore illegal. It gave the government deadlines to come up with some equitable solution. The Court found the government’s proposal inadequate, which means that charedim – the legitimate learners, the part-timers, and the non-learners – are subject to call-up. No one – least of all the IDF – wants 70,000 charedim in the army. The ball is now in the court of the government to come up with a plan.
It is not a war on Torah. The government has been supporting an ever-growing force of learners for decades, much to the chagrin of a cash-strapped populace that resents paying for them. It has not been unfriendly to tradition, and the country as a whole has been getting more traditional – especially after Oct. 7th. But even if it shuttered every charedi yeshiva in the country, the light of Torah would not c”v be extinguished in Israel. Scores of non-charedi yeshivos are spread throughout the Land. In fact, one of the reasons that so much rage is directed these days at charedim is the latter claim that their Torah protects the nation, and determines the success of its soldiers. This claim effectively invalidates all of the Torah of tens of thousands of learners outside charedi circles. What arrogant condescension!
Wow! I am so proud to know this man. Rabbi Adlerstein is a man of courage. He believes in the core principles of the Charedi worldview. And yet he has spoken up to refute the claims by Charedi leadership that this is a war against the Torah. And amazingly called out the implication that only their ‘learners’ protect the nation and determine success of its soldiers for what it is: an arrogant condescension!
I hope his heartfelt words have their intended impact on the Charedi mainstream. I believe that many of them already feel that way. Maybe now, they too will have the courage to say publicly that ‘we will not be soldiers to a Daas Torah based on half truths or fiction.