In an essay published a few months ago, I described the growing tension between the hareidi and non-haredi (secular and national religious) public. I contended that the hareidi community must acknowledge that the events of October 7 have dramatically transformed Israeli society and significantly affected the interactions between the haredim and other societal groups, as the status quo will no longer stand.
If you have been following the news, you know that all my predictions have come true. The Supreme Court has ordered the government to cut funding to all yeshivos and kollels whose students do not serve in the army. The battle lines have been sharply drawn: the overwhelming majority of the Israeli public is no longer willing to put up with the mass exemption of all haredi young men from the army. With mounting casualties and endless amounts of reserve duty that miluimnikim are forced to serve, the army faces a large shortage of manpower, severely impacting businesses and families. They also see the massive growth of the now more than a million haredim. They are worried about future demographics in which a huge percentage of the population refuses to shoulder their national responsibilities.
Sadly, the haredi rabbinic leadership sees it as a religious imperative of the highest order to resist any change regarding national service, even for those (estimated at 35%) who are not in yeshiva and not learning. Efforts to create collaborative systems with the army in which haredi standards of tznius, limud haTorah, tefillah, Mehadrin food, and other needs are rejected out of hand (although there are a few small successful programs, notably Yeshiva Derech Etz Chaim, the first hareidi Hesder Yeshiva).
5 comments:
What Chareidim don't get is that it's now about strong anger.
Until October 7, well it was annoyance or disgust. A bunch of parasites sucking off the public treasury and acting like they were the ones doing the favours. But they could be dismissed.
Now it's anger. Our boys are dying and you claim yours are the real soldiers. Our families are grieving and you hold parties like nothing's going on. Our economy is suffering and you're saying "Don't care, just keep forking over our money". Our security is threatened and you claim that you're the real security for the state and then take a bein hazemanim holiday.
Another government is coming, that government will be Chareidi-free and then the community will see the anger that's built up.
Serious question: is the Eitz Chayim program legal under the new Bagatz law? Or are all of those boys part of the 60,000 eligible for draft notices during the first two years of the program?
What about hard-core secular who barely serve in boots on the ground units.& they by contrast will eventually be in charge on top telling where your boys will be put in danger
This essay is a farce. Nothing here is indicative of the mainstream oylam Hatorah.
You've got the big 'proof' of an outgrowth of Maarava & Ner Yisroel Baltimore. Baltimore is still supposed to be persona non grata like they were for many years. The makkos bepatish after their Johns Hopkins infatuation was protecting Matis Weinberg from being nailed by the gedolim & Yaakov Weinberg insulting the Steipler befarhesya. Because the sad Agudah is hungry for $$ from all the Ner Yisroel professional grads they eventually allowed Ner Yisroel to return to their events. Maarava is a branch of the weirdo Chofetz Chaim Queens cult which Rav Schach tried several times to shut Maarava down.
Where it gets comical is regarding the pipsqueak who wrote it. If there was ever a floater in the yeshivos. At the yeshiva that was probably his last stop - when he was an alter bochur approx age 30 - he was constantly being summoned by the rosh yeshiva to rank him out for being a total goof off. The last straw when he was sent packing was when he was davening shacharis beyechidus at 11:30 am at a window that 9th grade bochurim constantly passed by between buildings. What a 'role model'!
Seriously? Like, this is the best you've got? It's an embarrassment!
Afraid of the truth? Why won't you publish my comment that both 1980s American Agudah & the gedolei Eretz Yisroel of past & present were always against everything with Derech Etz Chaim, even beyond hesder, and that Oppenheimer is a known clown that never made it in yeshivos?
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