"In the Agudah convention last week, Rabbi Uri Deutsch addresses the topic of how Torah Jews in America should feel at this stage in the war. He says that they should not feel too upset, and they should follow the example of charedim in Israel, for whom life is essentially back to normal (I would personally like to point out that for charedim in Israel, the war never really changed their lives to begin with). At minute 45 - I had to listen to it twice to ensure my ears weren’t deceiving me - Rabbi Deutsch says that the Gedolim have told us that the most acute gezerah that the residents of Israel are facing is the need to raise money for the yeshivos and struggle against the draft.
Of course the idea that life is essentially back to normal would come as a surprise to members of my shul, who just went to the funeral and shiva of a young man from our shul who lost his life defending Israel. It would also come as a surprise to the hundreds of thousands of people in Israel for whom the last few months have been anything but normal, with family members being away from their jobs and family lives and risking life and limb in Gaza and Lebanon. And the notion that the gravest problem is the financial cutbacks for charedim, and the threat that they might have to help reduce the burden on reservists, would strike everyone outside of the charedi community as, frankly, evil.
Rabbi Yisroel Reisman, who was sitting in the same panel, was clearly uncomfortable with what Rabbi Deutsch said. He responds that “without contradicting anything Rav Deutsch said” he feels that it’s important on a personal level for people to feel more of the pain that thousands of families in Israel are undergoing, and not just to mumble Tehillim at the end of davening, but to perhaps take on some sort of personal kabbalah (spiritual effort)."
DIN: I live in Beit Shemesh and in the last two weeks I went to the shivah of three different families who live a block away from me whose sons were murdered in the war! Not that it makes any difference, but these families are all Shoimrei Torah Umitzvois!
For a Rabbi in the USA talking at a Thanksgiving Dinner surrounded by "Yes" men in a luxurious hotel, having eaten from the finest foods and lecturing our Children in Uniform who are at war, who go without sleep for days and whose food rations consist of tuna from a can, is the ultimate chutzpah, and shows the total disconnect that Chareide Leaders have to the rest of Klall Yisrael, and I'm taking about the Klall Yisrael that are frum!
There are Husbands at war who had babies that they haven't seen yet! There are husbands who just got married and had to leave to the front during Sheva Brachos!
It is mind-boggling to listen to these lectures from sanctimonious Rabbanim and askanim whose entire agenda at this fress-weekend was to attack the Israeli Government!
To say that the "most acute gezerah that the residents of Israel are facing is the need to raise money for the yeshivos and struggle against the draft" is insane and sick! Very sick!
Which brings me to the topic that the Agudah Convention totally avoided and was the BIG Elephant in the room! A topic that the askanim of the Agudah are very well aware of!
I have posted on this blog about the thousands of teenagers from Boro-Park, Monsey, Flatbush, Williamsburg Monroe and New Square that are going off the derech faster than you can say the word "Israeli Draft" !
These teenagers have no connection to Israel and will all probably marry shiksas and disappear from Judaism in one generation! There is nothing stopping this trend and the few organizations that are trying to do something are left disappointed and frustrated! It's over!
Did the Convention address this???? Not one word!
They were busy talking about Yeshiva Boys in Israel, living 6,000 miles away that if they chose to G-D Forbid, enlist, would go off the derech! But the chances of them marrying another Jew are close to 95%! And they can choose to join the Charedie Brigade that keeps to all Halachos!
But that was not the "elephant in the room" that I was referring to!
I am referring to a recent trend of Yeshivisha Married Men or Women who believe in nothing!
They dress the part, with the tzizis out of the pants , their wives cover their hair, their children are all in Yeshivois and they don't believe in Torah Me'Sinai!!
These are not "yechidim" but unfortunately numbers in the hundreds. They live primarily in Lakewood and Monsey and communicate with each other by Wattsapp!
I have been shown thousands of these communications, thousands!!!!
One of them claims to be a Rav in a kehillah, and who says that he doesn't know how much longer he can keep up with this charade!
Some of them say that their wives don't know but are starting to get the feeling" that something is off"
Some wives on this chat claim that they stopped going to the mikvah and are faking their entire spiritual existence, but want to keep it together because "they have too much to lose"
This is a pandemic that is going to balloon faster than Covid!
I know for a fact that the Agudah Askanim know about this! But decided to shove this issue under the rug and talk about the Israeli Draft instead!
Not only do the Askanim know about this but so do at least 22 Rabbanim that sat on dais listening to a bunch of dribble and nonsense!
We are losing respect for our leaders fast....very fast!
פני הדור כפני הכלב
Hey R' Uri ...Look at the photo below and feel for a fellow Jew that doesn't wear a white shirt and a black hat!
Ari Shpitz, was critically injured in Gaza and was a month and a half sedated and breathing,
L'toeles horabim can you please post the whatapp chat link. Many of us would like to join.
ReplyDeleteFyi. Closet judisim always had its part...
This has always been the unspoken crisis
ReplyDelete50 years ago, Aish started up with its "In two generations there will only be religious Jews because theyr'e having lots of children ande all the non-religious and the few kids they have are marrying out and their children are disappearing from Judaism." At the time, the religious population was 10-15% of the total.
Here we are two generations later and the religious population is - wait for it - 10-15%.
Now, we know assimilation is wiping out the non-religious slowly. He know they are intermarrying at over 70% and their children do not know anything about Judaism (having a Chanukah bush doesn't count). Yet we are still 10-15%? There can only be one explanation - the OTD rate is huge.
But this is the Agudah. Remember 25 years ago that their biggest crisis was the Jewish blogosphere giving voices to the survivors of abuse and the OTD's, both things they wish they could silence forever.
The issues are real, but the numbers are off. The particular communities referenced in this article have grown exponentially. Bli ayin hora.
DeleteYes, but the overall Jewish population has grown as well. Now, perhaps if we removed all the non-Orthodox converts and people who call themselves Jewish because their fathers are, we'd get to 20%. Still, it was supposed to be 100% by now.
DeleteUri Deutsch is a small scale englishman who made it over his head going from pubs to Jewish Broadway
ReplyDeleteAgree by & large
Deletehmmm I guess no teenagers off the derech from 5 towns? lol
ReplyDeleteI’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating.
ReplyDeleteThe Israeli Uber-Chareidim and their American monomaniacs will sit and kvetch in Kollel arrogating liability in 5th century valueless Talmudic torts. They’ll come home for the weekend for their Friday mitzva-night romp while a few unfortunate Hesder and Chiloni young men come home in body bags.
With talk like that, why do you even consider yourself Jewish?
DeleteYou must be so bitter.
@Anonymous 3:07PM,
DeleteYou needn’t be Jewish or not Jewish to be bitter and condemn the uber-Chareidim parasites for their refusal to join in defense of their homeland.
They joined in the defense of that homeland a couple millennia ago.They chased your buddies out.They then celebrated with a holiday:chanukah.
DeleteThey have also managed since with a portable homeland.
@Cohen
DeleteHow did those celebrations work out with the Churban bayit rishon and shaynee?
And those portable homelands in Poland, Germany, Hungary … those didn’t work out too well for Chareidi society either.
Please provide the whatapp link, I am also living in lkwd and so alone feeling like I dont wanna be living this lie anymore. who can help me get out this life, i am faking it to everybody its so painful.
ReplyDeleteSo, I am this guy who commented before, (10:16.) I reached out to the email address you provided, he did not reply. So I googled his substack and now I see why...he signed off for now, says his wife is too fearful of his identity leaking out. Okay.
DeleteL'maiseh I browsed through his articles and I think I am cured;) He is really questioning the very belief in God and Torah (sh'biksav) and while my heart truly goes out to him and his audience, I do not think I want to go down that route...rather what I need is answers and I do believe our faith can supply those answers. A dear friend recommended the website "simpletoremember" where one can find solid, rational answers to many issues of faith. Mr exit98 speaks a lot about the FEAR in our community from people like him, but I would respectfully disagree..Yes, there are fearful people, but there are also FEARLESS people who are qualified to debate any issue and have done so throughout our history.
I am grateful for the opportunity as a FFB (albeit disillusioned and uninspired) person to have the opportunity to find true answers that actually make perfect sense. Thank you DIN in any case for providing that email, and in general you are doing a great job!
What's Aguda....
ReplyDeleteBen you moron at least in the five towns they don't IGNORE it
ReplyDelete10:16
ReplyDeleteI cannot provide you with the link as we don't know whether you are a troll or genuine!
I will provide you with a link to a Substack blogger and contact him and ask him to get you included, you will be vetted!
Exit98@substack.com
It says something of a group that says that "The situation in Israel has returned to normal" even as Jewish boys are still fighting and dying and even as thousands of people still can't go home because of the war. It says something of a group that says "This biggest crisis in Israel is the draft issue." Not the economy struggling from the war. Not the war itself. Not the threats from Iran.
ReplyDeleteIt says they're evil.
Shame on DIN for joining the ranks of enabling OTD! Talk about sinking to new lows!
ReplyDelete@Ben Tayreh,
DeleteDIN is not promoting joining the ranks of OTD.
You’ve got to be really semi-unconscious not to just flip on any smartphone and search for <<How Uber-Chareidi society institutionalizes educational shallowness, ignorance and parasitism<<.
You don’t need DIN to set you OTD.
Uriah's Blight sounds like the vicious woman who started a new blog to spread her poison when the Failed Shmatta folded. She has so much hatred in her that even the Shmatta admonished her for going too far. Didn't she learn her lesson when Kestenbaum sued the crap out of her for slander? Maybe not ...
ReplyDelete@anonymous 12:26AM
DeleteWhat is Failed Shmatta and who is Kestenbaum?
I think you have me confused with your Rebbele’s Pilegesh.