The contempt and vicious Attack of a Chareidie Rav against Rabbanim that wear Knitted Kipot

 

"They are being killed (soldiers) because we don't learn enough" Rabbi Landau

by Asher Cohen

I loosely translated it from the Hebrew!

The phenomenon of the ultra-Orthodox attacking the national religious and their views is permanent, seasonal, like a natural phenomenon. This time it is Rabbi Dov Landau, head of the Slobodka Yeshiva, one of the leaders of the Lithuanian wing. And in accordance with their custom, this time too, it is just a matter of disqualification and lash out, but not anything substantive in his argument!

And it is almost always striking that the vast majority of the national religious rabbinical leadership is silent.

 Up until the time of writing this column, a browsing of the general and sectoral news sites brings up just one single response. Only Rabbi Yitzhak Ben David, head of the Sha'arei Zion Beit Midrash for the training of city rabbis under Rabbi Nissim, came out publicly criticizing Rabbi Landau.

"I'm not so much a statesman," Rabbi Landau tells his listeners modestly, "I'm not very knowledgeable about the details," but Daat Torah is Daat Torah, and we must present a historical, political background"

First, and this is an explanation that we heard over and over again during the current war, only Torah scholars saved Am Yisrael from a much worse outcome: 

"The fact that Am Yisrael, who are the people of God, made a state of destruction and heresy, is a great obligatory study... Torah scholars are saviors, and there is no explanation as to why the Arabs did not unite to annihilate  the entire land God forbid, save them all."

To the direct question about the sacrifice of the national religious, he answers:

 "So I said, they are being killed because we don't learn enough, and we have to save even more. They are killed because their rabbis teach them a distorted Torah, those who know the Zionist idea, what used to be, the Bnei Akiva movement, it still exists, but I don't wish them any blessing, their slogan was... Not the Creator of the world, not the Torah, 'Eretz Yisrael, for the people of Israel according to the color' – I say – 'the Torah of Israel,' this is what exists." (This is the wording and syntax in the original...).

And then comes a historical analysis centered on the preference for Jewish existence under Arab rule:

 "I don't know what would have happened at the beginning of the state if there had been a UN rule here, it would have been an excellent situation, there's a letter from the Brisker... Against Shertok, Sharett, a letter to the diaspora from 1948, it is possible to live well with the Arabs without a state, if we go further back, it is possible, as Rabbi Chaim Sonnenfeld did, to respect the Arabs, it was quite good that the Arabs ruled here, the situation is best, the Arabs would rule, they would be respected, they would not interfere in it."

In conclusion, it should be noted that when he mocks Rav Kook, he describes him as "the first chief rabbi" without his name, in contrast to Rav Fishman-Maimon, who is mentioned by name, but of course without the title of rabbi. (Hanani Breitkopf, "Rabbi Landau: I am not a statesman, but we were saved from the attack thanks to Torah study; Zionism brought disasters", Kikar HaShabbat 7.2.2025)

It is very possible that in normal times, there would have been room to say, as I heard one of the rabbis of the Hesder yeshivot say, that it is better to ignore it.

 After all, these are Chareidie views that have been known for several generations, as will be immediately clarified. And if we are dealing with an old argument dating back to the days of Rav Kook (to which Landau went so far), what is the real point of the response?

But we are not in normal times. 

Much has already been said about the heavy price that the National Religious Society has paid and continues to pay, in all its shades, in the high weight of its members among the fallen in the war, and in the continuation of its unceasing contribution to the war effort. The comes after more than a year of a harsh war that is still ongoing, and after the empty benches in the yeshivot and the national religious kollels stood out and still stand out.

Hopefully, by the time this column was published, appropriate responses had already been heard, and especially many, from rabbis. For if the deaf are silent at this time, revach ve'hatzala  will come from another place