Category: Eretz Yisrael

What I Finally Learned on My Youngest Son's First Day of School

17/9/2019

When I took my son to his first of day school this year, we were caught up in the rush of hundreds of other parents out on the same mission.

And ditto when I came to pick him up and take him home.

Although his first year (which was last year) at this school (where all his brothers also attended) went wonderfully, this time was different. The beginning of this school year was another step that filled me with new nerves.

Last year, the school's gan happened to be in its own building with its own yard, far away from the super-complex of the school, which hosts all the other grades, up to eighth grade.

This year, my son learns in the multi-level building itself.

Of course, there are safety precautions. The 4-6-year-olds sit in classrooms in their own hallway, and there is an assistant in addition to the teacher. They enjoy recess at a separate time, only going out when the older children are back in class and the yard is empty.

I'm also happy that my son's class merited to have the best teacher for that grade, and after seeing for myself what an ideal teacher he is, I'm even happier.

But I'm still ruminating over the what-ifs and concerns.

It was sitting on the bus stop on the way to pick him up from his first day of school that I woke up to the ruach around me.

Other mothers were picking up their children after sending them to cheder for the first time. They were all so excited.

The same kind of call kept ringing out: "Who is your son learning by this year? Oh, Rabbi Rubenstein? That's wonderful!"

There was a cheerful bustle to it all — at the bus stop, on the bus, weaving my way through the throngs of parents and children — that I couldn't quite place.

At first, I thought these mothers were expressing joyous relief that summer vacation was finally over.

But that wasn't it.

When parents express joy and thankfulness that their child has gotten married, it's not because "Oh, we finally got this kid out of the house! Less mess and more room!"

Not at all.

It's a joy and thankfulness of sending them off to really live their life now, to get down to the nitty-gritty of a Torah journey. It's relief at seeing their child finally find their zivug.

And that's when I realized what this cheerful bustle was: These mothers were rejoicing at sending their sons to learn Torah.

This first day in cheder was the first step in their journey to become ehrliche Yidden and fulfill their destinies as bnei Yaakov Avinu.

I don't know why this never hit me before.

After all, this certainly isn't my first child.

How many first days of school have I experienced without ever really seeing the celebration going on around me?

Maybe I was too caught up in all the hectic details and anxieties to notice.

But this new awareness also re-awakened my appreciation for Yerushalmi mothers, who for all their savvy intelligence, still possess a certain temimut in certain areas because they simply don't know to feel any other way.

And bringing their sons to cheder for the first time is one of those areas.

Baruch Hashem, I was able to be affected now by the general ruach.

Yes, I know things aren't going to be perfect and that school always provides challenges for both parents and children.

But I thought that maybe I could just enjoy the bare-bones fact of it: My son had learned Alef-Bet last year and was going to be learning to read Hebrew this year.

And that's the base for a life of Torah-learning.

And he'll be learning all sorts of halachot and stories from the Torah and Midrash — all geared for his age and level of understanding, and all necessary to nourish his neshamah and form the man he'll eventually become, and hopefully create a wonderful Olam Haba for himself, he should live in good health until 120 (and I also wish that also for you and your children).

So I decided to focus on this idea too and let myself get briefly immersed in all the joyous bustle around me. I also decided, despite the distractions & challenges that are sure to pop up along the way, to try my best to carry it with me throughout the rest of his school years.

Because at the core, that's really what it's all about.

Photo by William Ray from FreeImages

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A Review of "Guardian of Jerusalem: The Life & Times of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld" & Why It Challenged Everything I Thought I Knew about the Modern History of Eretz Yisrael

2/9/2019

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Originally, I wanted to list & review the main books that formed my opinions & knowledge of the modern history within Eretz Yisrael.

Yet what was supposed to be a list & review of several books ended up turning into one long review of what was, for me, the most transformational of the books:
Guardian of Jerusalem: The Life & Times of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld written by his grandson, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Sonnenfeld. (Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld ztz"l was born in Eastern Europe in 1848 and passed away in Eretz Yisrael in 1932.)

This is an abridged translation of the 3-volume Hebrew Ha'Ish al HaChomah (The Man on the Wall).

On the other hand, while I and others found this book transformational, I met other people who found the book merely “interesting” or even just so-so.

Yet for me, this pivotal book opened my eyes to so much.

For example, the people I was always taught to respect as the “pioneering heroes” of Turkish- and then British-occupied Palestine were actually dangerous power-hungry rabble-rousers who either cared very little for or outright hated Judaism, and continuously endangered their fellow Jews.

Ironically, these "pioneering heroes" nearly wiped out Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisrael — which was then rescued by the very ultra-Orthodox rabbis so profoundly despised by these pioneering heroes and their adherents; such adherents also include historians who should know better.

The Hidden Truth: How Eliezer Ben-Yehudah Nearly Caused the Mass Expulsion of the Entire Jewish Population under the Ottoman Empire, & Who were Ultimately Saved by the Wise Intervention of the Sephardi Sage Rav Yaakov Shaul Elyashar & the Ashkenazi Sage Rav Shmuel Salant

For example, throughout the world, non-Orthodox Jewish communities hold up Eliezer Ben-Yehudah as a great hero, mostly for his revival of Hebrew as a modern language.

Yet he created great problems, not only for religious Jews in Eretz Yisrael, but for all Jews living in Eretz Yisrael, and ultimately ended up endangering every single one of the Jews living under the rule of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.

For instance, Ben-Yehudah published an article in 1895 that seemed to encourage a bloody revolution of the Jews against the Turkish rulers.

And while religious Jews have always been coming to Eretz Yisrael over the millennia, it was the new secular nationalist Jewish movement that caused the Turkish rulers to ban Jewish immigration in 1884.

Sometimes, the Ottoman authorities issued decrees prohibiting Jews from outside of Eretz Yisrael to buy land or housing in Eretz Yisrael. When some Jews tried to go around this prohibition, the Turkish authorities expanded the decrees to ban home repairs — like fixing leaky roofs.

Needless to say, this not only impeded Jewish aliyah, but also increased the deprivations of Jews already settled in the Holy Land.

In fact, the famed tzaddik, Rav Shmuel Salant, tried intervening with the Turkish governor to allow Jewish aliyah, but the nationalist revolution-mongering articles repeatedly published in the secular Jewish newspapers of Eastern Europe kept the Turks in a state of wariness. It was only with great effort that Rav Salant was able to convince the Turks to re-open Jewish immigration.

This is only one example of this particular historical deception put out by the secular Left.

So it was actually the “ultra”-Orthodox Jewish Sages who came to (or were born in) Eretz Yisrael, these same pious Sages who lived in Eretz Yisrael and did everything they could to keep the borders open for the aliyah of their fellow Jews.

The secular Leftists in Eastern Europe who called themselves “Zionists” and embraced Communism were the ones who actually provoked the bans on aliyah and stunted Jewish immigration to Eretz Yisrael.

But you’ll never hear that outside the frum community because in the Leftist narrative, the Torah-observant Jews are always the bad guys and the obstacles, and the assimilated “progressive” Jews are always the heroes.

So when the Turkish rulers got wind of this article, it spelled very bad news for ALL Jews throughout the empire.

As a result, Rav Salant convened a meeting of fellow Sages, including Rav Sonnenfeld.

Rav Sonnenfeld advised turning to the local Sephardi Gadol Hador Rav Yaakov Shaul Elyashar for assistance.

Why?

Due to all the nationalist revolution-mongering sentiment coming out of secular Jewish Europe, the Turks lost their trust of Ashkenazi Jews (although Rav Salant himself still had some influence). Because the Sephardi Jews under their reign never agitated against them, they still trusted the Sephardi Jews.

Along these lines, Rav Sonnenfeld recommended that Rav Salant and the Ashkenazi beit din proclaim their support of Rav Elyashar, to which Rav Salant and the other Ashkenazi rabbis immediately agreed.

The Ashkenazi Gadolei Hador sent a rabbinical emissary to this Sephardi Sage Rav Elyashar with a copy of the incriminating article. Upon reading Ben-Yehudah’s inflammatory message, Rav Elyashar became incensed upon realizing the danger his beloved Jewish brethren were suddenly in.

Rav Elyashar immediately contacted the Turkish authorities with a message of unequivocal rejection of the ideas within the article, insisting that such ideas did not reflect the Jewish community at large.

This showed Heavenly assisted foresight because at that moment, news of the article reached the seat of the empire in Constantinople, which resulted in the Sultan himself summoning the Gadol of Turkey, Rav Moshe HaLevi.

The advisers to the Sultan recommended harsh measures against the Jews. In fact, unbeknownst to any of the Jews (including these great Sages) of that time, the Turkish council decided it wanted to expel ALL Jews from the ENTIRE Ottoman empire!

(According to my estimates, this included around a million Jews — maybe less.)

Needless to say, this would have sparked a terrible catastrophe for Sephardi Jewry, with nowhere to go — and the Jews of Eretz Yisrael included in this expulsion! At that time, the Ottoman Empire compassed Jewish communities throughout the entire Middle East (minus Arabia & Iran).

Fortunately, the Sultan held such a high opinion of Rav Yaakov Shaul Elyashar & Rav Shmuel Salant (the two leading Sephardi & Ashkenazi authorities in Eretz Yisrael at that time), the Sultan first wished to hear from these two great Sages.

A reply to the Sultan was dictated by Rav Elyashar in his name & the name of Rav Shmuel Salant to Rav Yosef Rivlin, who then sent it to Rav Moshe HaLevi in Turkey.

Admirably, the reply was straight-foward & unapologetic about the innate Jewish yearning for the re-establishment of Tzion & Yerushalayim.

Yet it stated this fundamental Torah concept in an appealing & non-threatening manner.

The great Sage emphasized the Jewish yearning to return to Yerushalayim & live under their own king, but emphasized that they are praying for God to bring this about. He also reassured the Sultan that Jews are commanded to pray for the welfare of whatever kingdom they live in and that they certainly pray for the welfare of the Turkish empire.

This communiqué signed by the 2 great Sages of Eretz Yisrael freed the Sultan to refuse to issue a decree of expulsion.

Interestingly, this communiqué also saved Ben-Yehudah, whom the Turks wanted to punish harshly. Instead, he was sentenced to 1 year in prison (which is still pretty bad, considering the Turkish prisons of that time) — but even that sentence was eventually suspended.

Yet how was this tremendous salvation reported by the agitating anti-Torah activists in Europe?

Negatively!

The secular Jewish newspaper HaTzefira condemned this heroic act of the Gedolei Hador as “mesirah”—informing on fellow Jews to the non-Jewish authorities!

It bears emphasizing again: The Turkish authorities already knew about the article. It wasn't the Sages who brought it to their attention. If there was any mesirah here, it was committed by Ben-Yehudah and the irresponsible publishers of such articles. And anyway, this wasn't the only article that worried the Turks; this had been going on for a while.

So we see how a distorted Jewish history is taught to unsuspecting Jews outside the Torah community.

Saved by the "Black Arm" of a Complete Tzaddik

Here's another story that appeared in a previous post, but I'm reposting here for your convenience:

At one point, Rav Sonnenfeld went way out of his way to save the life of a terrible Jew (“one of the leaders of the Zionist Labor Federation, known for his virulent anti-religious attacks”) who needed the superior medical treatment provided only at Shaarei Tzedek hospital...and only Rav Sonnenfeld could make it happen.

To provide some background: The Beit Din of Yerushalayim had placed a ban on anyone who entered the Missionary Hospital, whether for work or for treatment, with dire results for anyone who violated this ban.

Anyway, it was assumed that the legendary Dr. Wallach of Shaarei Tzedek would refuse to admit a person who both intentionally chose treatment at the Missionary Hospital (despite the ban and the poorer medical treatment there) and who operated as a rabid anti-Torah Leftist bent on destroying Yiddishkeit in Eretz Yisrael.

Indeed, upon being brought to Shaarei Tzedek, the Leftist and his family encountered resistance from Dr. Wallach.

Interestingly, the family asked an off-the-derech youth to approach Rav Sonnenfeld.

This youth was the son of a big talmid chacham and well-known to Rav Sonnenfeld. This youth also knew that Rav Sonnenfeld was “quite upset” with this same youth for leaving Torah and befriending this anti-Torah Leftist.

Nonetheless, this same youth approached Rav Sonnenfeld at home, where Rav Sonnenfeld still received this youth with warmth.

Upon hearing of the urgent situation, the rav braved a severe thunderstorm to rush to Shaarei Tzedek, where Rav Sonnenfeld insisted that halacha demanded the admission of this dangerously ill traitor (but promised to discuss the matter with Dr. Wallach later).

Two weeks later, the anti-Torah Leftist experienced a miraculous recovery, then continued his nefarious activities.

Knowing how much the Leftist disliked Rav Sonnenfeld, none of the Leftist's associates informed him of Rav Sonnenfeld’s life-saving intervention & mesirut nefesh.

By the way, this also shows the mentality of such misguided people. Why not tell the Leftist leader? Why not tell this rabid hater that one of the Gadolei Hador saved his life? Maybe it would soften him up a bit. At least, it might stop him from attacking the tzaddikim. Maybe he’d more willingly to hear Rav Sonnenfeld’s side and compromise a bit.

But those who knew davka decided to be careful not to tell him. So once again, we see that Leftists don’t really pursue peace; they have other agendas.

Anyway, a year later, this same Leftist delivered a keynote speech at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new settlement in the North. When he reached the climax of his speech, this Leftist gave a frenzied shout:

“We will build this land by waging a fight to the death against the black arm of Rabbi Sonnenfeld and his cronies!”

(page 137)

Sitting in the audience was the same youth who’d interceded on the Leftist’s behalf.

This frenzied proclamation spurred the youth to jump to his feet and shout his protest against such slander.

At the invitation of the shocked Leftist, the youth took over the podium and explained to all assembled “exactly how the ‘black arm’ of R’ Chaim Sonnenfeld had interceded to save the life of one who had vowed to destroy him.”

Not that this revelation of Rav Sonnenfeld's great goodness softened up the haters.

They continued on as they were.

Big Government Agendas Cause Big Problems

Furthermore, Guardian of Jerusalem shows clearly how the secular Leftists keep landing on the wrong side of history.

Because they don’t actually care about their fellow Jews, but only their own political interests, they tend to make concessions when it’s better to be unyielding, and conversely, display aggression when diplomacy would work better.

History has shown again & again that Socialism & Communism demand a complete takeover of the government.

Because these movements necessitate what’s known as “big government,” this inherently means that they must take over all aspects of government. By virtue of their big government policies, Socialism & Communism demand complete domination (for themselves) and complete submission (of their citizens).

(And in the case of the Communists, this domination & submission repeatedly occurs via much cruelty & bloodshed.)

But people like Rav Sonnenfeld & other Gedolei Hador (who actually care about all Jews) knew when to stand tough and when to seek peace. Real talmidei chachamim routinely seek win-win solutions, which benefit the surrounding non-Jews too.

In fact, Rav Sonnenfeld decided to make a kind of peace agreement with the King of Jordan (known at that time as King Hussein ibn-Ali of the Hashemite Kingdom).

Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld Makes True Peace with Jordan - WITHOUT Any Dangerous or Disruptive Concessions

Considered the senior & most influential leader in the Middle East at that time, King Hussein’s newspaper actually lauded the Jewish return to their Homeland & called on the local Arabs to remember the writings & traditions that bade them to be hospitable & tolerant, focusing on the accomplishments of the Jewish and stressing that Eretz Yisrael was the “holy and beloved birthplace of the Jews.”

Once again, we see repeated throughout history that our holy tzaddikim often win the love and respect of the non-Jewish leaders.

As the last Gemara in Brachot says: "Talmidei chachamim increase shalom in the world."

Rav Sonnenfeld sought a meeting with the king to enable unlimited Jewish aliyah, but was thwarted by the secular Leftists who wanted to take over.

Unfortunately, the anti-Torah Leftists discovered this planned charedi delegation and denounced it as “treacherous,” presenting it as undermining the interests of the people of Israel.

(It didn't. It only improved the interests of the people of Israel. However, it did loosen the anti-Torah Leftist stranglehold on Jewish society in Eretz Yisrael.)

The anti-Torah Leftists also resorted to physical threats, which intimidated several of the charedi delegates into withdrawing.

However, 3 delegates managed to reach the king and presented an appealing plea, not only for continued aliyah, but also for an improvement in the conditions of the Jews already living in Eretz Yisrael.

The king received them warmly, bestowed honors upon them, and even handed them a large sum of money to be distributed among the Jewish poor of Yerushalayim.

The Love of a Tzaddik for Eretz Yisrael is Greater than Anyone Else's

At the same time, Rav Sonnenfeld viewed the actual Land with reverence and saw both the return of religious Jews and the newfound patriotism of the secular Jews as the beginning of the Geula — even as he waged an unwavering battle against all the anti-Torah leaders and their agendas, and against encroaching secularism itself.

In fact, Rav Sonnenfeld was not afraid to tell Chaim Weizmann that:

“The right to be called a ‘Zionist’ belongs only to those who pray thrice daily, ‘May our eyes behold Your Return to Zion in mercy.’ The meaning of ‘Zion’ is spiritual, not geographical.”

Rav Sonnenfeld went on to denigrate the secular concept of Zion as:

“merely a geographical, political, physical concept in which you seek to establish theaters and cultural institutions the same as all the nations, while severing ties with our glorious past…There is no greater travesty than this!”

...while considering a Jewish sovereignty as “icing on the cake, which will come by itself.”

(page 375)

Rav Sonnenfeld lovingly told a grandson (who received an invitation to serve as rav in one of Czechoslovakia’s leading communities):

“My son, I feel that being a laborer in Eretz Yisrael is greater than being a Rav in Chutz La’Aretz…”

(page 244)

His grandson decided to remain in Eretz Yisrael.

After the savage riots & massacres of 1929, Rav Sonnenfeld insisted on performing a bris milah in an area that necessitated his passing through some particularly dangerous Yishmaeli neighborhoods.

When a friend literally grabbed Rav Sonnenfeld’s arm and begged him not to proceed, Rav Sonnenfeld declared:

“I will go specifically via the Damascus Gate and thus inform the Arabs that they have not succeeded in frightening Jews out of even one section of the Holy City.”

(pg. 252)

The Reality of Torah-Loving Jews who Invested in the Mitzvah of Yishuv Ha'Aretz vs. The Reality of the Torah-Hating Jews who Called Themselves "Zionists": Compare & Contrast

Throughout the book, you repeatedly see displays of Rav Sonnenfeld’s dedication to the poor, the downtrodden, Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisrael, bringing Torah to all Jews; you see his incredible ahavat Yisrael and his profound sympathy toward even the most errant Jews.

You see his dedication toward peace among fellow Jews, particularly among the different groups of Torah-observant Jews, and also peace with non-Jewish authorities in an effort to prevent wars and bloodshed of both Jews & non-Jews.

The ultimate example of a warrior from love, Rav Sonnenfeld exemplified humility & a total commitment to Hashem.

In contrast, the viciousness & power-lust of the anti-Torah Leftists also come through:

their willingness to assassinate individuals who interfere with their grab for power
their willingness to starve entire communities, including children
You see their impetuousness that threatens Jews far & wide.
You see exactly how their ego-driven efforts actually shut down the very aliyah they claim they stand for and increase the suffering of the Jews of Eretz Yisrael

This is also seen through the secular manipulation of the Sephardi communities, which continued long after the establishment of Medinat Yisrael.

While the Ashkenazi tzaddikim (like Rav Sonnenfeld) displayed great concern for their Sephardi brethren, the secular Leftists would plot against the Ashkenazi religious community and when the religious Ashkenazim resisted, the Leftists would cry, “Racism!” and insist they were acting on behalf of the Sephardim.

They never were, as repeatedly shown by their actions since then.

From Whence Came Such Wellsprings of Hate toward Such a Paragon of Love?

Looking at everything altogether, it seems inconceivable that the anti-Torah Leftists hated Rav Sonnenfeld so rabidly.

Here was a man who loved Hashem so much, he couldn't help but to love Hashem's Land and also Hashem's people — even the most errant ones.

Looking at just a sampling of what Rav Sonnenfeld achieved:

He saved Ottoman Jewry from terrible suffering.
He saved the entire Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisrael (exactly what the self-proclaimed Zionist claimed to be so gung-ho about).
He saved Ben-Yehudah from harsh punishment.
He saved one of his vicious opposers from certain death.
He refused to allow others to say yemach shemo when mentioning Ben-Yehudah.
He even found a positive merit in the extremely dysfunctional Ben-Yehudah.

— How is it possible to hate such a person as Rav Sonnenfeld?

Not to mention that as far as Jewish assertion over who Eretz Yisrael really belongs to: Rav Sonnenfeld showed far more dedication & courage than the anti-Torah Leftists who made settling the Land into a Nationalist Communist vision, rather than a holy one.

Why did this paragon of love (love of God, love of Torah, love of the Jewish people, love of Eretz Yisrael) engender such hatred, including from the very people who benefited from his efforts?

(Even if they didn't know of his efforts on their behalf at the time, they still should have been able to sense his sincerity, holiness, and caring — because it was so palpable.)

And I think it goes back to a chassidish idea: A tzaddik is a mirror.

(Please see the story of The Black Wolf for illustration of this concept.)

These anti-Torah Leftists were full of ego and hunger for power & dominance. They literally hated anyone who got in their way. (You must have a very black heart indeed if you are able to starve small children death.)

I think that they couldn't grasp the concept of love and living your life out of love.

I think they couldn't ever relate to going to battle out of love rather than hate & ego.

And when they saw someone who represented everything they weren't, it looked so wrong that they literally could not tolerate him.

Along these lines, there is the well-known rabid envy that some uneducated people feel toward Torah scholars, as described by Rebbi Akiva in Pesachim, that when he was an illiterate man, he could have bitten the Torah scholars with the bone-shattering gnash of a donkey.

A Valuable Resource to Read Again & Again

The above is just a tiny sampling. At around 470 pages, this book contains many more well-documented examples of the truth behind the promoted history of modern Eretz Yisrael.

Ultimately, I found myself in heartfelt agreement with the man who told Rav Sonnenfeld's grandson (page 135):

"So many people think that they understand who R' Chaim [Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld] was, but in truth, just as the followers of Mizrachi did not truly appreciate Rav Kook, the followers of Agudah did not truly appreciate R' Chaim."

And this insight shows how vital it is to read this book again & again in order to fully grasp Rav Sonnenfeld’s ideals & who he really was, to study and glean from his deeds and his words how to truly follow in his path.

Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld ztz"l

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What Do the Sephardi Gedolim Say about Tziyonut, the Medinah, and All That?

21/8/2019

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Only recently did I realize that while I was very familiar with (and supportive of) the Ashkenazi Gedolim’s attitude toward political Zionism, I wasn’t so knowledgeable of the opinions of the Sephardi Gedolim.

This is very understandable in light of the fact that the English-speaking charedi world is heavily weighted on the Ashkenazi side of things, so we end up hearing more about people like Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Kanievsky, Rav Shteinman, Rav Miller, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, as well as the various Chassidic Rebbes, especially those prominent in the English-speaking world.

And this is good because they are true talmidei chachamim.

Furthermore, my Moroccan-Israeli husband’s entry into charedi Yiddishkeit was via Litvish yeshivahs.

While my husband goes according to Sephardi talmidei chachamim for halacha, he respects all true talmidei chachamim equally with regard to hashkafah (as is the correct attitude). And despite certain differences among groups, the real talmidei chachamim have more in common than not.

So when I asked my husband about Sephardi Gedolim and Zionism, he summed it up that Sephardi Gedolim place less emphasis on the "anti-Tziyoni," but other than that, don’t differ much in hashkafah from Ashkenazi Gedolim.

Also, many Sephardi Gedolim opine as Rav Shteinman that if a boy is anyway out on the street committing all kinds of transgressions and generally wasting his life, then Nachal Charedi is a better option for him. (Several other Ashkenazi Gedolim oppose even this.)

I think that sums it up on one foot, anyway.

Finally, it's important to know that the term itself (Tziyonut) is not remotely based on Torah or mitzvot (other than the name of the geographical location: "Tzion").

Tziyonut was only coined in 1890 by Nathan Birnbaum, who was a secular ethnocentrist at that time. (He did complete teshuvah later, baruch Hashem.) He promoted Jewish nationalism based on the Yiddish language and culture (however he defined that).

So Tziyonut was a secular ethnocentric (Ashkenazi-only Yiddish-only) idea from the get-go. (To be fair, Sephardim only comprised around 10% of world Jewry at that time, but they still numbered over a million spread throughout North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, Western Europe, including thousands in North & South America. Quite a lot to ignore, actually.)

Baruch Hashem, Birnbaum also dropped his ethnocentrism later too. Sincere teshuvah cleanses all sins.

(Quite an interesting fellow. Please see HERE for more about him.)

Ashkenazi Gedolim & Sephardi Gedolim Face Very Different Audiences

Furthermore, as my very yeshivish son pointed out, Sephardi Gedolim are talking to an extremely varied group, and they need to pasken according to needs of different Jews.

For example, charedi Sephardim listen to Sephardi Gedolim. Yet secular-traditional Sephardim also listen to Sephardi Gedolim. And then you have all the Sephardim in between those 2 extremes.

Yet who listens to, say, Rav Kanievsky outside of charedim (both Sephardi & Ashkenazi) and the very committed chardalim (charedi-dati-leumi)?

My son pointed out that when Rav Ovadia Yosef ztz”l spoke about army service, he needed to speak to both the Sephardi charedi bnei Torah AND “amcha” (the non-yeshivish Sephardim) at the same time.

I believe Sephardi Gedolim face a similar challenge if they decide to talk about tziyonut negatively to constituents who self-identify as tziyoni. (Many if not most Israelis — or Jews worldwide, for that matter — do not realize the origin of the term or the idea.)

Ashkenazi Gedolim could and do also speak to Jews at different stages of observance, but they do so on the individual level because there is no real need (or demand) to do so on the general level.

(For example, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach opposed heter mechirah for Shemittah, but if a person came to him who was insistent on heter mechirah, the rav would tell him how to observe heter mechirah according to halacha.)

Also, it’s always hard to discuss this kind of thing in a public forum because black-and-white thinkers tend to see the above as charedi compromise/capitulation/loophole or hypocrisy, with a smirky attitude of “Oho—gotchya Gadol Hador!”

But really, it’s more a matter of assisting a person “ba’asher hu sham” (Beresheit 21:17 with Rashi) and that’s not compromising on Torah values at all.

But it's very difficult to explain this to black-and-white thinkers.

So I hope there are no black-and-white thinkers reading this.

(Or if they are, I fervently hope they do not comment because I find the circular arguments & misleading blanket statements very stressful to deal with.)

But back to Sephardi talmidei chachamim and Zionism…

An Enlightening Q&A with Hidabroot

Here is a Q&A from Hidabroot (my translation):

Q:
Shalom Kavod Harav,

I’d like to know if the Shas Party is for or against the Religious-Zionist stream.

Regards,
Avi

A:
Shalom u’vracha.

We are not spokesmen for Shas.

Maran {Rav Ovadia Yosef}, may his merit guard over us, was supportive of anyone who walked completely in the way of Hashem without any compromises and he fought against anyone who tried to compromise on an issue.

Regards,
Binyamin Shmueli

Here’s another on Hashkafah & Yirat Shamayim:

Q:
Shalom.

In Heaven, is there significance regarding a person’s hashkafah? Regarding army/State/Zionism, etc…or is the important thing that a person is God-fearing and upholds the Shulchan Aruch…

A:
The Supreme importance is the observance of all the mitzvot of the Torah, as explained in the Shulchan Aruch, without any fishy leniencies.

Anyone who wants to think that the State of Israel is the beginning of the Geula is welcome to do so.

However, he must be careful not to be drawn after leniencies of Torah or any change in the priorities of Torah versus nationalism, and likewise, will continue to be wary of joining with those who can remove him or his children from the Torah.

Likewise, to – God forbid – go after the spirit of the distorters that there is holiness to the army and that the virtue of military service is greater than the virtue of Torah scholars, God forbid.

Furthermore, it’s forbidden to consider Herzl a prophet or anything else. Herzl was a heretic and nothing more. Anyone who considers Herzl a prophet or visionary despite his Sabbath desecration and the rest of his severe transgressions – such a person is a disbeliever in the Torah and disparages all the Nevi’im.

Therefore, the obligation to submit to the Gedolei Yisrael is an absolute obligation and cannot change regardless of any form of hashkafah.

I hope I have succeeded in summarizing in these few lines everything necessary to know on one foot.

Regards,
Binyamin Shmueli

That’s pretty unequivocal.

And this next one is a particularly fun read.

For those who like to compare and contrast, here is a Sephardi rabbi discussing Satmar & Neturei Karta hashkafahs – you sure don’t see that every day!

(Please scroll down to #5 in the original Hebrew.)

UPDATE: A reader knowledgeable in Satmar hashkafah wrote to clarify points mentioned in the answer given by Rabbi Nachum. Please see R' Yisroel Tzion Kash's comments below for elucidation of the authentic Satmar hashkafah.

A Few Questions on Satmar & Zionism:

Q:
Shalom Kavod Harav…

5. Is it better to live in a country led by secular-Tziyoni evildoers than to live outside of Eretz Yisrael? What is the view of Satmar chassidim? How are they different from Neturei Karta? And what is so bad about their actions? Thank you.

A:
5. It’s preferable to live in Eretz Yisrael because of kedushat ha’Aretz {the holiness of the Land}. The Gemara (Yevamot 82b) says about this that the Land maintains its holiness even in the days of Galut {Exile}.

The opinion of the Admor of Satmar of blessed memory, the author of the book The Three Oaths – which is according to the Gemara Ketubot 111 – is that it’s forbidden for Jews to ascend from the Galut as a “wall” (Rashi explains: “together by force”) [that is to say, to take by force Eretz Yisrael from the grip of the nations of the world].

The Neturei Karta part ways from the shitah of the Admor of Satmar of blessed memory as stated above, and their opinion today is that even though the secular Israelis already took the Land by force from the grip of the nations of the world and not as according to the Gemara mentioned above, the proper path is to turn the present reality back to what it was before.

This is different than the shitah of the rest of the charedim – including Satmar chassidim today – who are of the opinion that after the new reality has already occurred, one should operate according to Torah observance within the current reality.

The mistake of Neturei Karta in practicality is that they think that they are rescuing Jewish lives when they show the Arabs that it is only the secular Tziyonim who took the Land from them, and that is not the opinion of the religious Jews – therefore, they aren’t supposed to fight against or harm Jewish charedim.

The mistake is that the belief of the Arabs goes against this aspect of the belief of Judaism, and therefore it is not just a matter of taking the Land that will appease the Arabs permanently.

{Sorry, that last sentence was a bit convoluted. The rabbi means that due to the diametric contrast in religious belief, Muslims cannot be more than temporarily appeased by taking Land from the Jews. In other words, their religious belief system demands more than just taking Land. —MR}

May it be His Will that the Blessed Hashem will help every single Jew to come out of this Galut speedily in our days, Amen.

Rabbi Nachum

The Value of Sephardi Insight

I just want to add that I really value the knowledgeable Sephardi views on Arabs and Islam.

You still have many Sephardim who understand Arabic and are familiar with Muslim-Arabic culture in a way similar to those of us who grew up among Western non-Jewish culture.

These Sephardim pick up on nuances that others don’t and actually understand what Arabic-speakers mean when they say stuff.

And while they can be sympathetic toward Arabs and easily see them as individuals (just like we Americans relate toward our non-Jewish friends & neighbors), they are at the same time very aware of cultural values and behaviors.

What Do Ben Shapiro, Rav Avigdor Miller, and Neturei Karta Have in Common?

And with regard to Rabbi Nachum's summary of Neturei Karta’s views (which sound extreme under the Neturei Karta label, but are actually shared by many thinking frum Jews):

I’m seeing a similar dynamic among American Jews — those frum Jews who wish to disassociate themselves from the increasingly immoral views of liberal/Leftist Jews and the degenerate high mucky-mucks who are Jew in name only.

Disassociation is important both for the sake of truth and to avoid the undeserved fallout that occurs when decent frum Jews are lumped together with anti-Torah Jews.

Even the modern Orthodox Ben Shapiro disassociates himself from the widespread Jewish vote for Obama with:

“Most Jews aren’t Jewish in any real sense beyond ethnic identification.”

(Source)

Or this:

“…the Jews who vote for Obama are, by and large, Jews In Name Only (JINOs). They eat bagels and lox; they watch "Schindler's List"; they visit temple on Yom Kippur – sometimes. But they do not care about Israel. Or if they do, they care about it less than abortion, [same-gender] marriage and global warming.”

(Source)

Here’s something similar by Rav Avigdor Miller:
Rav Avigdor Miller on Neturei Karta & Dirty Laundry.

In other words:
“They don’t represent us. They don’t represent the authentic Jewish position.”

It’s also impossible to miss the implied plea not to hate or judge or condemn us (or authentic Torah Judaism) or attack us because of the “JINO” majority — an approach which shares some similarity with the Neturei Karta approach.

Also, please don’t think I’m equating Ben Shapiro with talmidei chachamim and real daas Torah. My point is that there is a logical response that any committed frum Jew could instinctively have. It’s self-protective, not extremist.

(And isn't it really bizarre to find a similarity in approach between Ben Shapiro & Neturei Karta & Rav Avigdor Miller? I had no idea I'd reach this conclusion when I started writing this post.)

Anyway, getting back to Sephardi chachamim & Tziyonut…

A Sampling of Sephardi Chachamim & Their Opinions

Here are 2 articles written by differently hashkafahed Jews:

Here’s a dati-leumi rabbi summing it up:
https://www.etzion.org.il/en/sephardic-rabbinical-approaches-zionism

And here is a Sephardi frum fellow summing it up:
https://bariveshema.blogspot.com/2006/05/sephardic-rabbis-and-zionism_04.html

This is the first time I’ve come across Bari VeShema and I’m not sure what his exact hashkafah is, but I prefer his summary of Sephardi Gedolim because it’s better-sourced.

Also, I found it difficult to research Sephardi Gadolim & Zionism because in the English-speaking Sephardi world, I think many prefer to think their Gedolim are dati-leumi, so I found the English-speaking Sephardi presentation slanted toward their own preference, which I'm not sure is completely accurate.

That's my impression. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Sincerely, I mean that.

So looking at Bari V’Shema, I was surprised to discover that Chacham Alfandari did not think that Agudas Yisrael was anti-Tziyoni enough.

Also, the Ben Ish Chai comes off as very strong in his stance.

Then there is this quote by the Baba Sali from Etzion’s Rabbi Jachter above:

“Ki Ata be-eish hitzata, u-va-eish Ata atid livnota” – with fire Yerushalayim was destroyed and with fire it will be rebuilt. He explained that just as Jerusalem was destroyed by the fire of avoda zara, it will sadly be rebuilt by avoda zara.

Very powerful.

I read this in another place and I wish I knew the source for this for sure. I love this quote and it makes sense that the Baba Sali said this, but I'm uncomfortable without solid sources for quotes.

Also, regarding the discussion that follows in the comments section of Bari V'Shema's post: I personally do not equate Zionism with the mitzvah of yishuv ha’Aretz, although many frum Jews do. (But many also do not.)

At the risk of this turning into a useless discussion of semantics, I think that equating Zionism with yishuv ha'Aretz confuses things — especially since the entire origin of the term & idea is secular & ethnocentric.

(This confusion can be seen, for example, in describing Doña Gracia Nasi as being one of the early “Zionists” because she strove to provide Jewish settlement in Tiveria, which some people do. Neither the term nor the idea even existed in the 1500s. There is a mitzvah of yishuv ha’Aretz. That’s all.)

Likewise, in the Etzion article, I’m not sure if the Sephardi chachamim were pro-Zionism per se or whether they were pro-yishuv ha’Aretz and in favor of winning battles against Jew-hating enemies.

What were the exact terms they used? I don't know. It doesn't say.

For example, Rav Ovadia Yosef was in favor of praying for Israeli soldiers. Doing so is not specifically Tziyoni. Why is davening for a fellow Jew to succeed against Jew-haters "tziyoni"?

To compare: Rav Avigdor Miller encouraged support of the IDF & Tziyonim against Jew-hating terror. He clearly says you SHOULD pray for Israeli soldiers. He was against these insane & suicidal “Land for peace” policies:

Rav Miller on Praying for the IDF (January 2001)

Rav Miller on Land for Peace (October 2000)

Yet he was clearly not “pro-Zionist.”

Rav Miller on the Sinking Boat of the Zionist State (November 1975)

In other words, Rav Miller loved all Jews and wanted what was truly best for us.

Secular Leftist anti-Torah tyrannies are not good for us.

Again, because of a tendency to equate fighting terror or settling the Land with “Zionism,” it’s not clear to me that these chachamim were “pro-Zionism.” Did they even use that specific term? Again, I do not know.

I personally do not & will not call myself a Zionist anymore than I would call myself a “Sabbathist” for keeping Shabbat or an “environmentalist” for observing the Torah prohibitions of bal tashchit and not uprooting fruit trees.

I don't refer to myself as a "monotheist" for believing in One God. Anyone can be a monotheist.

I'm a Torah-observant Jew.

I am not a Zionist. I’m a Torah observant Jew who, in addition to fulfilling other commandments in the Torah, also fulfills the commandment of yishuv ha’Aretz — to settle in Eretz Yisrael.

That’s it.

Anyway, I think this sums up everything I’ve learned so far about Sephardi Gedolim and Tziyonut.

Oh, Wait...One More Sephardi Opinion

Please see this tefillah of a huge Sephardi tzaddik for settling in Eretz Yisrael. This was in 1824 when Eretz Yisrael was under the occupation of Turkish Ottoman Empire.

A Prayer to Make Aliyah & Live in Eretz Yisrael

(The Pele Yoetz preceded Herzl & Tziyonut by decades, by the way, as did religious aliyah & settlement within Eretz Yisrael.)

The Pele Yoetz refers to aliyah as "likboa dirato ba'Eretz Yisrael — to set his residence in the Land of Israel" or "halichat Eretz Yisrael — going to Eretz Yisrael."

That's what I and millions of other Jews have done:

We went to Eretz Yisrael & we set our residence in Eretz Yisrael.

(Please see the Pele Yoetz's chapter on Eretz Yisrael in Ivrit or Eretz Yisrael in English.)

No Zionism, no political labels, no ethnic or cultural focus...just mitzvah.

A particularly heartwarming & fulfilling mitzvah.

Lake Kinneret (The Sea of Galilee)

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An Enlightening Conversation with the Great-Grandson of Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld ztz"l

19/8/2019

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Every once in a while, Hashem enables you to come full circle within certain aspects of life.

For example, the biography of Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld ztz"l, Guardian of Jerusalem, changed my life and stamped an everlasting imprint on my hashkafah.

It was that book which shined light on the shadow surrounding the stories and scenarios I’d been told as a child in the movement for Conservative (which is actually quite liberal) “Judaism.”

I never consciously sensed the lies by omission nor the distortions regarding the modern history of Eretz Yisrael.

But upon reading Guardian of Jerusalem, so much came pouring back to me and I now saw the distorted history I’d been fed—corrected and displayed in full.

The maskilim and Leftist “pioneers” portrayed as heroes—they nearly destroyed the struggling Jewish settlement under Turkish rule. It was always either the Sephardi chachamim or the Ashkenazi chachamim who came to the rescue.

Yet I was always told the opposite: The religious Jews were always the bad guys; the “enlightened” liberal anti-religious Socialists were the saviors (although the fact that they were Socialists—or even Communists, really—was swept aside in the Commie-fearing Eighties).

A Zealous Warrior...from Love

I developed tremendous love and reverence for Rav Sonnenfeld, the father of the stream now known as “charedi.” He possessed an overpowering love for every Jew and for Eretz Yisrael.

He was also a tremendous warrior against the anti-Torah ideologies—but his zeal came from love.

He was a warrior from love.

Absolutely fearless, a warrior propelled by love, and a great ohev Hashem, ohev Yisrael, and ohev Eretz Yisrael, Rav Sonnenfeld was exactly what I wanted to be.

And over 20 years later, he is still the example I embrace, even though I’m still dropping very short of his example—mostly because I can’t figure out how to get there. But as usual, I figure there’s value in the effort.

Anyway, after one of my sons first started yeshivah, he came home telling me that one of his teachers was Ashkenazi and the great-grandson of Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld.

Stunned with joy and gratitude, I could not believe the big chessed Hashem had done for me by placing the great-grandson of my role model as my son’s teacher.

The Ideal Teacher for Teenage Boys

And this great-grandson was an excellent teacher for teenage boys.

Extremely energetic, good-humored, yet highly intelligent and very much a product of his family’s hashkafah, he was also very understanding of dealing with all the challenges of being a teenage boy and a frum Jew in today’s world.

He was very open and honest with the boys about the challenges this generation faces, and he gave over his Torah approach with great passion and conviction.

My husband and I met him during a parent-teacher evening and he was very friendly.

At one point, I asked my son to do me a big favor.

Saved by the "Black Arm" of a Complete Tzaddik

I wanted an answer to a question I’d had about a certain event in the early 1920s, as recorded on pages 135-137 of Guardian of Jerusalem: The Life & Times of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld.

At one point, Rav Sonnenfeld went way out of his way to save the life of a terrible Jew (“one of the leaders of the Zionist Labor Federation, known for his virulent anti-religious attacks”) who needed the superior treatment provided only at Shaarei Tzedek hospital and only Rav Sonnenfeld could make it happen.

To provide some background: The Beit Din of Yerushalayim had placed a ban on anyone who entered the Missionary Hospital, whether for work or for treatment, with dire results for anyone who violated this ban.

Anyway, it was assumed that the legendary Dr. Wallach of Shaarei Tzedek would refuse to admit a person who both intentionally chose treatment at the Missionary Hospital (despite the ban and the poorer medical treatment there) and was a rabid anti-Torah Leftist bent on destroying Yiddishkeit in Eretz Yisrael.

Indeed, upon being brought to Shaarei Tzedek, the Leftist and his family encountered resistance from Dr. Wallach.

Interestingly, the family asked an off-the-derech youth to approach Rav Sonnenfeld. This youth was the son of a big talmid chacham and well-known to Rav Sonnenfeld. This youth also knew that Rav Sonnenfeld was “quite upset” with this same youth for leaving Torah and befriending this anti-Torah Leftist.

Nonetheless, this youth approached Rav Sonnenfeld at home, where Rav Sonnenfeld still received this youth with warmth.

Upon hearing of the urgent situation, the rav braved a severe thunderstorm to rush to Shaarei Tzedek, where Rav Sonnenfeld insisted that halacha demanded the admission of this dangerously ill traitor (but promised to discuss the matter with Dr. Wallach later).

Two weeks later, the anti-Torah Leftist experienced a miraculous recovery, then continued his nefarious activities.

Knowing how much the Leftist disliked Rav Sonnenfeld, none of the Leftist's associates informed him of Rav Sonnenfeld’s life-saving intervention & mesirut nefesh.

By the way, this also shows the mentality of such people. Why not tell the Leftist leader? Why not tell this rabid hater that one of the Gadolei Hador saved his life? Maybe it would soften him up a bit. At least, it might stop him from attacking the tzaddikim. Maybe he’d more willingly to hear Rav Sonnenfeld’s side and compromise a bit.

But those who knew davka decided to be careful not to tell him. So once again, we see that Leftists don’t really pursue peace; they have other agendas.

Anyway, a year later, this same Leftist delivered a keynote speech at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new settlement in the North. When he reached the climax of his speech, this Leftist gave a frenzied shout:

“We will build this land by waging a fight to the death against the black arm of Rabbi Sonnenfeld and his cronies!”

(page 137)

Sitting in the audience was the same youth who’d interceded on the Leftist’s behalf.

This statement spurred the youth to jump to his feet and shout his protest against such slander.

At the invitation of the shocked Leftist, the youth took over the podium and explained to all assembled “exactly how the ‘black arm’ of R’ Chaim Sonnenfeld had interceded to save the life of one who had vowed to destroy him.”

That should make you eat your words, shouldn’t it?

Ba'asher Hu Sham?

Anyway, I was confused because this Leftist set himself on the warpath to destroy Torah Judaism in Eretz Yisrael.

So I didn’t get why Rav Sonnenfeld helped this terrible traitor so much.

Yes, the book clearly quotes Rav Sonnenfeld’s view that the situation was pikuach nefesh to save a Jewish life. But the halacha isn’t so clear-cut for someone willing to die fighting tzaddikim and shredding Torah Judaism to bits.

And before anybody gets lovey-dovey about it, please know that these anti-religious Leftists were killers—sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly—in addition to destroying the Am in a spiritual sense.

In fact, these same anti-Torah Leftists later programmed terrible suffering among the religious community of Yerushalayim, causing hundreds of Jews to starve to death.

So my son very kindly agreed to ask the great-grandson on my behalf. Why on earth did Rav Sonnenfeld do such a thing?

The great-grandson knew exactly to which story my son referred and pondered the question for a moment.

Then he said, “I don’t know exactly why he [Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld] did it. It could be that at the time, it wasn’t known that the other guy [the anti-Torah sickie] was so bad.”

That could be.

While at the time, the man was a known anti-Torah Leftist leader, it could be that it was only later that the man openly stated his rabid extremism, such as being willing die fighting one of the biggest tzaddikim of that generation.

But please note what the great-grandson did NOT say:

He did not say, “Nebbuch, the anti-religious hack was tinok sheh nishba, of course!”

He did not say, “Ahavas Yisrael, you know.”

He did not say, “Why, alter Zeidy loved EVERYBODY — of course he made every effort to save this hate-filled destroyer of Yiddishkeit!”

Nope. He didn’t say any of the expected feel-good stuff.

Instead, he said he wasn’t sure why his holy great-grandfather went to so much trouble to help this terrible person, then surmised that it wasn’t yet known exactly how bad the terrible person actually was.

This sort of fits in with Judaism’s precept of Hashem judging a person ba’asher hu sham—in the place where he is (i.e., in his present state), which is one reason given for Hashem’s Compassion upon Yishmael dying of thirst in the desert (Beresheit 21:17 with Rashi).

Yishmael would eventually produce a nation of terrorists (along with some very nice people too). But at that moment, he was a 16-year-old boy abandoned by a mother who couldn’t overcome her own pain to comfort him in his suffering.

(For more on that incident, please also see Salvation is Hashem and scroll down one-third.)

Who Listens to a Rabid Dog Frothing at the Mouth? And WHY?

I’d like to make one final point.

(And I'm not going to answer the question posed in the above sub-heading, but leave it to you instead.)

It seems to me that Rav Sonnenfeld’s tzidkut was widely known at that time.

Rav Sonnenfeld not only performed tremendous chessed in official capacity, but also as a neighbor and regular passer-by.

Rav Sonnenfeld was well-known for his generous tzedakah activities. He was also incredibly humble and a tremendous baal chessed—all in addition to his scholarly brilliance.

How is it that the secular Leftists possessed such intense hatred toward Rav Sonnenfeld?

Why were they so blind to the rav’s sterling qualities?

Furthermore, based on the above story and many others like it, then rav was clearly approachable. People just came to his house or joined him on his walks to davening.

Why didn't his opponents approach him themselves? They could have.

So what was going on here?

Why did they describe Rav Sonnenfeld as having a “black arm”? Why were they willing to “wage war” against him and even fight him “to the death”?

What was so terrifyingly awful about this wise, loving, compassionate, and generous tzaddik?

It seems to me the only reason was that these anti-Torah Leftists were rabidly insane.

What else explains their all-consuming hatred? Why else were they willing to starve impoverished charedi children in Yerushalayim and elsewhere?

Yet people followed them! People listened to what they had to say!

How could they?

Yet if you look around, it seems we have the same problem today.

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What's the Deal with Neturei Karta?

18/8/2019

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At one point in our marriage, we lived in Geula (near Meah Shearim) for around 2 years (and I worked there too), so I met many different types of frum Jews whom I'd only read about until then.

And I met some wonderful women (including the warm & encouraging mikveh ladies) who seemed like they might be Neturei Karta (they had shaved heads, long black tichels, and black dresses), but I wasn't sure because I'm not always sure how to differentiate between Neturei Karta and other super-frum insulated groups.

And just for knowing: Neturei Karta is a specific group within that Meah Shearim-Geula community of wonderfully traditional & insulated Yidden. In other words, not everyone from there is Neturei Karta. (Neturei Karta has also spread out to other cities too.)

But I don't recall meeting any of the men. (Or if I did, I didn't know it.) So despite living & working right there, I actually know surprisingly little about Neturei Karta, other than what appears on the (deplorably biased) news or other tidbits here and there.

It also seems that other frum people don't know much about them either. There tends to be a lot of contradictory back-and-forth among frum people regarding Neturei Karta.

So imagine how pleased I was to run across a 2-minute 45-second video from Rav Zamir Cohen, which discusses Neturei Karta and who they really are. If you understand Hebrew, it's HERE.

(Note: A couple of females appear briefly in an ad — which you can skip — preceding the video. They're tsniusly dressed, but some people are shomer aynayim l'mehadrin — and more power to them. So the MP3 audio is on the lower right-hand side of the video screen for those who just want to listen, can't skip the ad, or whatever.)

What Rav Zamir Cohen Says about Neturei Karta

Anyway, a member of the audience asks Rav Zamir what's the deal with Neturei Karta, who appear to engage in behaviors that are offensive at best and deplorably forbidden at worst.

So Rav Zamir first acknowledges that when people claiming to be & dressing like Neturei Karta are photographed with the PLO and other particularly genocidal sonei Yisrael, this raises legitimate concerns.

Thus, Rav Zamir starts by explaining the Aramaic term Neturei Karta:
Neturei: Guardians of the
Karta: City

He then explains that the authentic original Neturei Karta group believes that (0:47):

"...because the State educates the children of Israel on a path against the Torah; the laws of the State do not go according to the Torah — so they [Neturei Karta] say: 'We do not wish to participate in elections, we don't want to be partners in this whole enterprise. We'll manage our schools without the funding of the State."

Even though it costs a lot of money to run schools on their own, they still refuse to accept any government funding. Why?

" 'Because we don't want to be partners with a government that educates the Nation not according to the Torah'."

(1:09)

Rav Zamir adds,

"That, in essence, is Neturei Karta."

He goes on to explain that within this group is a splinter group of whom "there are those who say seven families, there are some who say twelve families — but according to all opinions, no more than twelve families" who have even more extreme opinions. "But there, they've completely lost themselves," says Rav Zamir.

(I had no idea about any of that.)

In Neturei Karta's newspaper (I didn't know they had one), Neturei Karta states regarding this splinter group:

"They do not represent us and obviously their attitude is warped, and they bring upon all of us a bad name."

Rav Zamir then states his opinion that all those who meet with the leader of Iran, terrorists, the PLO, and who are photographed with the Philistinian flag are "completely corrupt" and "apparently in need of hospitalization."

When someone has reached the point where they associate with such enmity, Rav Zamir declares:

"Not only do they not represent the Torah, they don't even represent the Torah extremists."

Then Rav Zamir cautions against making assumptions about people you see dressed like the nutters supporting sonei Yisrael. They look the same as the authentic Neturei Karta and they call themselves Neturei Karta, but they are not.

This actually echoes what many frum Jews, regardless of our group association, deal with: We're always forced to defend ourselves against the actions (or misreported actions) of a disturbed few, protesting that "they don't represent us" or "they're a tiny minority; most of us aren't like that at all" or "the media got it wrong (again)," etc.

Again, Rav Zamir clarifies (2:15):

"Even the extreme Neturei Karta, their war is in that they claim that the State educates and legislates laws against the Torah — 'We don't want anything from them, we don't want to participate in elections, we don't want to influence, we don't want to take even one cent from them. But not, God forbid, to befriend enemies of Israel. We are all Jews; we are all brothers'."

This little clip contained a lot of new information for me, so I thought I'd share it because I suspect that I'm not the only one who didn't know all this.

It's not about whether you agree with the actual Neturei Karta or not.

It's just knowing the truth about your fellow Jews and not being a victim of the distortions of media or impostors.

A courtyard in Meah Shearim

Kashering utensils in Meah Shearim (although the guy in the forefront isn't Neturei Karta, but looks Breslov to me)

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Please, Help Yourself to A Slice of Life in Eretz Yisrael...

15/8/2019

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One of my sons likes to hike & hitchhike around the country when he's not in yeshivah.

(You can read about a couple of his exploits here: Despite All the Grumbles, There’s No Place Like Home and more recently: We Didn't Start the Fire...But We'll Still Gladly Help You Put It Out, Brother!)

Being age 20, the people who give him a ride often say things like, “Hey, how old are you? Why aren’t you in the army?”

He thrives on the opportunity to pleasantly defend himself, seeing it as a way to hone his own position.

And as far as he has experienced, these family-like confrontations are always self-affirming.

Anyway...at one point, an older Moroccan couple from Tiveria picked him up.

The husband was a firm supporter of Tiveria’s rabidly anti-Torah current mayor and the wife supported her husband.

But seeing my son’s obviously yeshivish appearance, the man didn’t want to get into it with my son.

Anyway, the wife started rambling about their son, who’d joined a combat unit in the IDF.

“They don’t feed them well,” she fretted. “When my son returned from battle, he was THIS thin!” She held up one finger.

My son silently noted with amusement that she seemed more concerned about her son’s food intake than the dangers he faced in battle.

Then the woman turned on my son, saying, “Why should my son have to risk his life on the battlefield while you sit in yeshivah?”

“Maybe the whole reason your son came back from the battlefield was because I’m sitting in yeshivah,” replied my son.

“Huh,” said the woman, thoughtfully. (It's hard for older Moroccan ladies to be REAL kofrim.)

The man didn’t say a word.

But he didn't chuck my son out of the car, either.

They dropped my son off at a convenient location, he thanked them, and things ended on a more or less amicable note.

Why am I telling you this?

It’s just a slice of life in Eretz Yisrael.

Also, Israelis on opposing sides do not usually behave with the ferocity portrayed in media outlets.

It goes more like the above: Open & straight-shootin', possibly passionate, but not hateful.

The media either makes things up or pounces on the handful of ferocious behaviors to set a magnifying lens on it.

Normal Jews may be flawed and misguided, but are basically decent people.

If we would skip over all the purposefully inflammatory video clips & rhetoric, we might all get along much better.

(And we'd behave with a lot more seichel too.)

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We Didn't Start the Fire...But We'll Still Gladly Help You Put It Out, Brother!

13/8/2019

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One of my sons attends an excellent Sephardi charedi yeshivah.

During the Nine Days, this son & 2 friends happened upon the owner of a small factory who was burning extraneous twigs and branches, when by doing so, this owner accidentally set his own factory on fire.

The owner quickly brought a bucket to a nearby faucet that released a weak trickle of water, then he threw whatever water he managed onto the fire.

The water merely turned to steam with a hiss, and the fire kept expanding.

My son sought out the fire-fighting apparatus required in any factory. He found a glass box with a hose in it, but no connection to any fire-extinguishing source.

No hand-held fire extinguisher either.

Then my son sought out a water source and found a rusty pump in the bushes. He and his 2 yeshivah friends connected the hose to the pump and assisted the owner in putting out the fire.

At some point, the authorities arrived and my son and his friends left.

Later, a man who knew both the boys and the owner met up with the boys and said that the owner got fined for not having his fire-safety equipment up to date.

“And do you know what a big kiddush Hashem you guys did?” said the man.

No, they didn’t. They just saw an older man struggling with a fire and it never occurred to them NOT to help him.

Forced to Eat Humble Mapai

It turns out that the owner was a Mapainik.

MaPAI [Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael—The Party of Workers of the Land of Israel) was Ben-Gurion’s political party. It was also the party of the old-time kibbutzim, Moshe Sharret, Levi Eshkol, and Golda Meir. It later merged with other Leftist parties to form the present-day Labor party.

Often described as “left of center,” it was basically Communist. Utter disdain of charedim was self-understood in Mapai.

So this die-hard Mapainik was shocked that charedi yeshivah bachurs would help him with such zerizut—especially since the fire had been his fault.

Furthermore, despite him being the older and “wiser” hotshot Mapainik and them being (in his eyes) the backwards & foolish yeshivah bachurs, it was the yeshivah bachurs who succeeded in figuring out the most effective way to put out the fire—in HIS factory.

So they were altruistic too, which also ran against his stereotype of the selfish, self-absorbed charedi Jew.

This is clearly an example of what psychology calls “projection” and what the Gemara describes as “kol hapossel, b’mumo possel”—every person who invalidates another (based on a particular flaw) is actually basing this invalidation on a flaw that he himself possesses too.

So this owner assumed that charedim would hate him too much to help him because HE hates charedim too much to help THEM. (Or so I surmise. I don’t know him at all. But why else was he so flabbergasted by their assistance? I mean, this IS Israel. Most passers-by would help. Naturally.)

The owner wanted their names and to thank them.

Needless to say, the boys weren’t looking to make a kiddush Hashem.

They just responded to the situation with the Torah values (and Gemara-sharpened brains) they’d internalized. It hadn’t occurred to them to think or respond in any other way.

Firing Up an Opening to Teshuvah?

I also think that Hashem is trying to give this old Mapainik a chance to do teshuvah.

The founders and leaders of Mapai took over the government, the media, and the schools back when this Mapainik was a youngster.

How much of chance did he really stand against their agenda?

But now, Hashem brought him 3 yeshivah bachurs who shocked him with their quick thinking, competency, and compassion.

Hashem could've brought the old Mapainik other helpers. I mean, after all, this IS Israel and most people would help in this situation.

But Hashem davka sent 3 yeshivah bachurs to help this guy.

And he’s good enough to both take note and appreciate their efforts.

This event clearly caused him to think differently (and more positively) about Torah-observant Jews.

Maybe he’ll start thinking differently (and more positively) about the Torah too.

Hashem loves everybody and wants us all to do teshuvah.

And I think the accidental fire was this old Mapainik’s opening to change.

I hope so, anyway.

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Giyus Banot, Crafty Deception, and Spiritual Physics

28/7/2019

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An issue that keeps popping up in Israeli society is giyus banot—female army enlistment.

This topic deserves a much bigger post, but we’ll just start out with this.

Ever since it became an issue decades ago, every big talmid chacham I’ve heard give his opinion on this has stated that it’s forbidden across the board, no exceptions. Ever.

This post isn’t even going to go into the whole reason why the Gedolim so strongly oppose giyus banot, but will briefly describe the historical key to Jewish military success and then address one angle of the whole shebang because it's an angle craftily used by the propaganda machine.

The Age-Old Secret to Jewish Military Victory (and it's not even such a secret!)

As described in the posts regarding my son’s army service (plus my own experiences talking to former female IDF “soldiers” & the plain cold hard numbers), the IDF is anyway overstaffed with many soldiers (hundreds at least) serving in imaginary positions—like the girl on my son’s base who was in charge of “culture & recreation,” but did nothing for 6 months except watch pirated movies on her cell phone all day and show the base an American movie one evening.

And that’s just one example.

And despite propaganda to the contrary, women CANNOT carry out combat duties nearly as well as men.

So practical reasons for female enlistment are almost nil.

Interestingly, the Gedolim haven’t made exceptions for females who could perform certain military tasks better than males. That’s not the issue.

A Jewish army has always depended on the spiritual quality of its soldiers and the spiritual quality of its motivation for its success.

WHO is going out to war and WHY?

You can read this in Tanach.

Yes, Jewish warriors have always displayed superior battle skills, whether in actual battle or in strategy.

But historically, the key to their success (or lack of) in battle rested in their hearts.

Again, you can see this pattern throughout Jewish history.

But certain powers-that-be are ignoring the historical facts and making giyus banot a pivotal issue.

So let’s take a look at one aspect of modern military service that gets pumped in the media because females do tend to perform better than males in this area.

Boys Can Do Surveillance Too

Because it’s a passive, nitpicky job, women tend to be better at camera surveillance than men.

Does this mean that men cannot do it at all?

NO.

It just means that you’ll find more women suited to this work than men.

Does this mean that you need to draft women into the IDF for this work?

NO.

In a Nachal Charedi unit in the South (I think it’s Givati), they use males to perform this task because they can’t have females on this base due to the Nachal Charedi restrictions. And these males seem to be performing just fine.

Furthermore, my son said that when he worked on a base that specialized in surveillance, there were always a couple of guys among the girls. This wasn’t to meet some quota (“We need at least 2 males per X-number females each shift!”); this was because these guys happened to be equally good at surveillance.

So they are out there, but yeah, you might need to sift more through the male population to find them.

Furthermore, in both recent and wayback history, wars and military efforts have been carried out just fine without any kind of female participation. Defeats & losses have been due to lack of morals or lack of brains or lack of equipment, not lack of females.

But due to their hidden (or actually not-so-hidden) agenda, the media & the upper echelons of the IDF like to magnify the female contribution in IDF surveillance.

Watch for this in headlines, the slant of certain articles, and the promotional photos accompanying such articles. You'll see it.

Big Feminist Accomplishment: Girls are So Much Better at Boring, Passive Activity!

One much-lauded example occurred a few years ago when a female screen-watcher spotted a group of terrorists scuttling out of a hole in the ground onto completely bare and empty terrain at Kibbutz Sufa.

(For a post detailing the miracle without promoting female military service, please see HERE.)

The screen-watcher than alerted the (male) security forces to deal with the issue of the terrorists and the newly revealed underground tunnel.

Now, I think many of us saw the actual footage of the event.

Does it take any superior skill or courage to spot a GROUP of dark figures scuttling over a bare, empty, pale patch of terrain?

NO.

Does it take any superior skill or courage to alert your superiors to this activity?

NO.

Is a male incapable of carrying out this exact same task?

NO.

In that scenario, the real heroes were shmurah matzah, Shemitah, and their adherents.

The mass harvesting of grain to produce shmurah matzot for 2 years (including a Shemitah year) was why there was all that pale, empty, bare terrain (instead of the expected cover of tall wheat) that made it so easy to spot a group of darkly clad terrorists.

But the IDF high mucky-mucks inserted a whole thing about how a girl spotted the activity and how girls are better at this work ("boys don't have the same powers of concentration") than guys.

Yes, females tend to be better at boring, passive, visual activity ("powers of concentration") than males.

So what?

Why is THAT such a massive sign of progress for women and their society?

The REAL Heroines of Am Yisrael

The ability to engage in boring, passive activity and do it well (and not necessarily be so bored by it)?

That’s a big part of what makes women better mothers, better nursers of babies, and better nurturers of young children.

It's what enables us to watch our children play at a park and prevent accidents or spot unsavory people who shouldn't be there.

Attention mommies & babysitters: If you are supervising your children at the park while sitting on the bench and staring at them, YOU ARE A HERO (in Hashem's Eyes, which are the only Eyes that matter).

It's what allows you to listen to certain family members or people in your neighborhood who tend to drone on, giving them that listening ear they need. It's a big chessed.

But davka using our innate nature for military surveillance, THAT'S the only time it's considered oh-so laudatory & deserving of media publication?

Just As You Can't Defy Physical Physics Without Going "Splat" (like deciding to ignore gravity and walk off a cliff), You Can't Defy Spiritual Physics & Expect To Get Away With It

Though it is politically incorrect amid today’s slavish allegiance to egalitarianism, Judaism embraces tafkid.

And tafkid is a GOOD thing. It's an ELEVATING thing. It's a tool!

Just like even the most musically talented and trained Yisrael cannot perform the Levite service in the Beit Hamikdash, women and men are prohibited from crossing certain gender-defined boundaries.

A man receives no merit for wearing a long, wide skirt and 70-dinar stockings. Au contraire, he earns the aveirah of beged ishah.

On the other hand, a woman who wears such clothing earns tremendous blessing and both spiritual and physical protection, not just upon herself, but upon her family and the entire Am.

Likewise, a woman is the designated candle-lighter meant to usher in Shabbat.

Have you ever heard of a husband who said, “You know what, Genendel? My eye-hand coordination is superior to yours—I can light the Shabbas candles so much better than you. Furthermore, I can say the blessing with the kavanos of the Rashash! So step aside, sweetie, and allow me to perform licht-bentschen from now on!”?

Case in point: There have been many holy mekubalim throughout the ages, yet their wives always carried out the Shabbat candle-lighting (even though the mekubalim possessed the ability to make a bracha with mind-blowing kavanot).

Why?

Because according to God's spiritual physics, you davka NEED the FEMALE candle-lighter to perform this mitzvah (and this tikkun) properly.

Men can and should do this when there is no female to do so, but a husband or son cannot perform this mitzvah instead of his perfectly capable wife or mother.

Even going back to the Nevi’im—did any of them ever light Shabbat candles in place of their non-prophesying wife?

And flipping over to the other side of the coin, did female Prophetesses lay tefillin on behalf of their non-Prophet husband? (Meaning, he didn't need to lay tefillin that day because she did it for him? Why not? A Prophetess is so much more qualified than her non-Navi husband! But Hashem's spiritual physics don't allow for such cross-overs.)

Some things just can’t cross over.

Well, not without unwanted consequences, anyway.

What a Jewish army REALLY needs to focus on: Hashem's Avodah (and not giyus banot)

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Which Jew is Really for Peace?

27/6/2019

4 Comments

My Moroccan-born husband grew up in an immigrant neighborhood in Eretz Yisrael.

The neighborhood consisted of lots of Moroccans, plus a generous handful of Bucharians, and one Danish family who, for some reason, ended up there after making aliyah.

My husband attended the local mamlachti-dati (government religious) school along with the rest of the neighborhood. And he was one of the very good boys, in that he was shomer negiah and always wore his kippah & tzitzit, even when playing basketball, plus he always went happily to shul with his father for all the tefillot & voluntarily attended shiurim at night.

(There are more good things to say about my husband, but to head off any ayin hara, we'll stop here.)

Anyway, he'd gotten into Gemara in his teens. And though he always dreamed of joining the army, he decided to go to yeshivah instead. (For more on that story, please see God Helps: A True Story.)

I asked him how that was viewed in his neighborhood, seeing as everyone went to the army and while people had started off as religious, the secularization process went quickly and intensively.

"It was fine," said my husband. He explained that for all its social problems, it was still a traditional community. Therefore, even the more secular-seeming people still held Torah study in high esteem.

And even though the useless jobnik positions were less back then, people still didn't attack my husband about why their sons had to risk their lives while my husband sat in yeshivah.

They intuitively understood the value of Torah study.

The point here is that, yet again, your average Jew in Eretz Yisrael is not innately offended by yeshivah bochurim not "sharing the burden" of army service.

That unforgiving outrage & seething resentment comes from somewhere else.

Since Shevet Levi in Tanach, the Jewish people have always had Jews who sat and learned continuously.

Mishnah Avot states that the world - not just the Jewish world, but the entire world - stands on 3 things:

the Torah
the avodah (tefillah & serving Hashem, service in the Beit Hamikdash)
gemilut chessedim (acts of loving-kindness)

That's our base and for EVERYONE'S sake, it cannot be weakened.

(And if you examine these 3 pillars, you'll see they're all linked. In other words, you can't have one - or two - without the other.)

And many, if not most, Jews sense this.

So where is the venom coming from? Where is this seething rip-their-eyes-out resentment coming from?

It's being aggressively imposed upon the innocent Jewish people by media incitement and by those with political agendas.

Ani shalom v'ki adaber hema l'milchamah - I am peace; but when I speak, they are for war." (Tehillim 120:7)

Or, as Rashi interprets it:
"I am at peace with them, but when I speak peacefully with them, they come to wage war with me."

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The Aspect of Israeli Mentality You Need to Know in Order to Understand the Issues

17/6/2019

14 Comments

Before I continue writing about my son’s experiences in the IDF, I wanted to publicize an issue that I think many Anglos aren’t aware of it because, again, I never saw it covered in any media and socially, Anglos who join the IDF tend to go into combat and other essential units.

Whether you encounter this particular mentality within Israeli society depends on what circles you’re in and whether you yourself possess a mentality that allows you to recognize the dynamic when you see it.

So this is what it is:

Many (probably even most) Israelis are brought up with the idea that IDF service IN AND OF ITSELF is an all-important & VITAL contribution.

Yes: Vital. Absolutely Essential!

It does not matter whether you only served 3 days a week or every other week (AKA shavua-shavua, which for guys equals 1.5 years of service, not 3).

It does not matter the sheer uselessness of your role. (Some army duties are made up out of thin air simply to fulfill the demand.)

It doesn’t matter if you served as, say, a jeep mechanic (which you chose, not out of Zionist idealism, but in order to get a head start on the vocation you’re aiming for after your reluctant army service ends), and while yes, of course an army needs expert jeep mechanics, they don’t need SO MANY.

In other words, the actual job is important but you personally are expendable. The IDF has a surplus of jeep mechanics. Yet despite that, you have made an all-important contribution to your country and shared the burden - unlike those parasitic yeshivah bums. [sarc]

It doesn’t matter if you are recruited into a role which you PHYSICALLY CANNOT perform, such as an 18-year-old Moroccan pixie from Dimona assigned to the fire brigade when she lacks the upper body strength to manage the high-powered fire hose.

And because even 2 girls together are not strong enough to handle the hose, they need a male colleague to join them in order for the girls to simply pass the test.

How on earth is this kind of assignment remotely rational or productive?

(Just for knowing, fire fighters serve in the IAF [Israeli Air Force] as part of the on-call emergency team at the runway for incoming fighter jets. Part of the fire-training is sawing through the window of the cockpit of a burning plane to extract the pilot. This needs to be done carefully so as not to decapitate the pilot in the process. Do I really need to explain that most teenage girls not only lack the basic physical strength for such maneuvers, but lack even the potential of gaining the necessary muscle unless they take steroids? I guess I do, because the army has girls serving in the IAF fire brigade! Someone should really tell the fellows in the top-brass…)

It doesn’t matter if you spent a massive part of your “army” service noshing on American candy bars while watching American sitcoms in an air-conditioned room on an IDF base (which does nothing to protect us from our enemies, unless of course, ISIS savages faint at the smell of chocolate-peanut breath and the sound of scripted punchlines).

The fact that you are officially enlisted in the IDF means that you are paying your dues to society.

Not All Service is Equal

So according to this mentality, it doesn’t matter WHAT you do in the army, nor how useless or useful your particular role is in the army.

Just the barebones fact that you are enlisted awards you with social credit.

To be clear: I’m NOT talking about combat and essential military non-combat duties.

I appreciate combat soldiers and all the non-combat yet essential military personnel working for our national security.

Just for knowing, when I pass through a checkpoint, whether at a mall or the Kotel or anywhere else, I tell the soldier or security guard, "Hashem yishmor otcha, tizkeh l'mitzvot - May Hashem protect you & and may you continue to merit doing mitzvot."

So while I write against the forced draft for females & yeshivah bachurs, it's not from a lack of appreciation for what effective IDF positions do.

I fully realize that many soldiers (and police & security guards for that matter) are prepared to suffer trauma, injury, and even death (chas v'shalom) so that I and everyone else in the country can live here.

However, hungover kvetchy moppers are not anywhere in the same league—which Israelis acknowledge. But what many Israelis don’t acknowledge is that the hungover kvetchy moppers and the pixie fire girls DON’T CONTRIBUTE AT ALL IN ANY WAY. Their service was meaningless. It was nothing.

Many Israelis cannot emotionally face this fact.

Reluctant "Heroes"?

Furthermore, this is the attitude expressed by many Israelis:

“Paying your debt to society.”

I’m not saying that Israelis use this exact term. But many express that attitude when talking about their army service.

That’s how many Israelis see their army service.

And again, they see army service this way even if they did nothing useful for 2 or 3 years. They paid their debt to society. They shared their part of the burden.

If you’re American, you’re probably familiar with that phrase being utilized to describe the purpose of prison (which is also an absurd concept. How does sitting in a cell pay any kind of debt to society?).

In contrast to what you generally see on English-language Jewish media, which focuses on combat soldiers (who are of course going to be more enthusiastic and idealistic about their service), the non-essential jobnik Israelis actively pursue the least demanding & fulfilling roles in the army.

They don’t want to be there and focus on getting through the army in the least demanding way possible.

The Fast-Track to Greatness?

Also, because I initially started out in Israel among the dati-leumi crowd, which tends to be more idealistic and patriotic, I rarely encountered the other Israelis who think army service is just something of a drag that you need to get through in order to earn basic worth as a citizen—AND feel superior to non-serving charedim….EVEN IF YOU AREN’T JEWISH and the despised charedim are fully shomer Torah & mitzvot.

And this is a HUGE thing that needs attention.

Because of this mentality (“Army service over all”), this means that a non-Jewish Ukranian thug officially enlisted in the IDF (even if he does nothing) has social worth while someone on the level of Rav Kanievsky is considered a parasite, chas v’shalom.

The same is true of the daughter of a Jewish father and the non-Jewish woman he brought over from Russia or Thailand or England.

Her army service grants her social & cultural superiority over a non-serving Torah Jew.

That’s right—in Eretz Yisrael, where Jews & Torah are more important than anything else.

To repeat: A non-Jew of Jew-hating lineage (i.e., many Ukrainians) can acquire cultural & social superiority over fully shomer Torah & mitzvot Jews (including tzaddikim) simply by waving the magic wand of army “service.”

Do you think that’s a coincidence of propaganda?

I don’t. Definitely not.

Let’s go on.

The Crucial Question Tearing Society Apart:
Is Israel Located in the Middle East...or Candy Land?

The thing is, if you bring up to your average Israeli any kind of judgment with regard to army service (“But why is a girl who sits in her office all day watching pirated movies on her cell phone and doing literally nothing else for her entire service—except showing the base an American movie one night—considered as having shared the burden? Why is her army “service” so important?”), they either get stunned speechless or angry.

(This is why I never bring this up to non-charedi Israelis. Actually, that's not completely true. I did bring it up twice as you'll soon see. Once, very carefully; and another time, quite by accident, which I kind of regretted later.)

Disturbingly, many Israelis never considered the VALUE of their service.

Why should meaningfulness or military usefulness be important to a tiny nation surrounded by some of the most vicious & savage terrorists on the planet?

Are we living in the Middle East or in Candy Land?

Quite frankly, some of us are concerned about massive armies of bloodthirsty Jew-haters on every border—and the fifth column WITHIN our borders.

Can't we focus on that?

Yet certain types of Israelis never consider the concept of military usefulness. (That’s scary because it’s such an obvious lack of logic that the only reason for this can be brainwashing and propaganda.)

And they can get angry because they don’t appreciate the idea that all their “suffering” (i.e., undergoing basic training for nothing, then carrying out boring & meaningless roles) was for naught.

Or because something on which they hang their “rights” as a citizen is actually meaningless in the scheme of things—if you look at the whole situation from a purely rational point of view.

Especially with non-Jewish Russian soldiers or the non-Jewish children of Israeli intermarriage, they get their socially inferred "superiority" over fully Torah Jews simply because of their army enlistment. Ta-dah!

The dati-leumi are more aware of this contradiction, partly because their girls tend to do sherut leumi rather than the army, and so they’re already aware of the reasons why not EVERYONE needs to be in the army.

M-16s for Boys & Uzis for Girls

Yet in my early years in Eretz Yisrael, I only occasionally ran into this attitude of reluctant service.

It generally came from secular girls who complained about how meaningless & frustrating their service felt, stupid regulations and capricious commanding officers, and in the case of guard duty—fear of having to actually use their weapon and training.

As the wife (who is now fully frum and a really lovely person) of my husband’s brother told me, “When I was out there guarding the base, I was so scared! I kept hoping that nothing would ever happen because despite my training, I really didn’t feel up to actually fighting. I decided to myself that if worse came to worse, I would just let the male soldiers handle it.”

She looked at me. “I really don’t think that girls are cut out for this kind of thing. Do you?”

Obviously, she couldn’t say that during her service because a guard cannot have a preset plan to duck out during an attack.

(And it actually happened at one base, when a male soldier turned tail under a surprise attack, which led to several deaths on base.)

But my sister-in-law was genuinely frightened at the prospect of a machine gun battle. She’s a quiet, gentle, lovely soul and not cut out for gun battles. And that was her enforced, reluctant, share-the-burden service to her country (which again, wasn't real service; she didn't do anything).

Another secular Israel girl told me, “We carried Uzis—with no bullets! The boys got M-16s with ammunition, but the girls got empty Uzis that we HAD to carry around all the time! What for? It was so stupid!”

(FYI: My son claims this is no longer true, that there is no longer a gender split over who gets the Uzis and who gets the M-16s, and also girl-soldiers no longer go about with empty rifles.)

But later, as a young married woman accompanying my husband in kiruv, I was exposed to the completely brainwashed Israelis, as you’ll see from the following examples...

Story #1: "At Least He Did His Army Service."

Here’s an example of just how deep this irrational mentality goes:

During our early years of marriage, my husband (who learned in kollel full-time) worked part-time alongside secular mildly Leftist Israeli university students who all wore long hair pulled back in ponytails.

During free moments, these young men enjoyed interacting with my husband via chatting or short ‘n’ friendly religious debates.

Accompanying my husband, I mostly just listened.

Yet curious to the extent of the insistence on the overriding importance of army service for all no matter what, I ended up asking one of the guys about his thoughts on the issue while my husband was nearby.

This university student was a particularly nice and intelligent guy.

First, I acknowledged the importance of combat soldiers and any other role necessary for security—whether it was the cook who fed the soldiers or the guy sitting behind a computer in Intelligence.

Soldiers need to eat. And technology plays a huge role in security these days.

I also emphasized that I was not looking to argue or criticize, but simply wanted to understand out of genuine curiosity.

Then I presented him with a theoretical (yet actual) situation in which an Israeli serves a non-essential army position, then immediately leaves the country to settle in Europe or North America, and never contributes in any way to the State of Israel.

Then I contrasted that to a guy (frum, of course) who never serves in the IDF, but pays taxes, gets married and raises a family in Israel (contributing to the population). As a consumer and a citizen, he contributes naturally to the Israeli economy and society in a positive way. He gives tzedakah to help his fellow poor.

Then I asked the big questions:

Who really made a contribution to Israeli society, to Medinat Yisrael?
And is it okay that the second guy never served in the army?

To his credit, the university student spent several moments giving the questions serious thought.

He even paused in his pondering to reassure me that he definitely understood where I was coming from and that he understood and even appreciated the point (which, because of all the propaganda—my word, not his—he’d never considered).

Then he continued to mull it over.

Interestingly, his facial expressions and the way he made fists showed that he was actually wrestling with the question.

But finally, he shook his head and said, “I see what you’re saying—I definitely understand and think you have a point, but”—he grimaced and shook his head—“but I just”—he shook his head again and knocked his fists against the desk. “I just think that”—he took a deep breath—“at least the first guy did army service. At least he did that.”

“Even though he ultimately contributed nothing to the country?” I said.

He winced and held up his hands, shaking his head, “I know…I understand the point—and it’s a good question! But I just can’t—” His hands fell with a smack on the desktop and he looked me in the eye. “At least he did his army service.”

“So he contributed more than the other guy who didn’t do the army?” I said.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Yeah. That’s right.”

I thanked him very nicely and told him how much I appreciated his time & honesty, then turned back to where my husband was talking to someone else.

I was sad because the university student was a nice and intelligent person and he was willing to listen to an opposing idea. And he DID get it, but simply could not overcome his programming.

But it taught me a big lesson.

The dedication to the idea of "army service for all" is deep-seated to the point of irrationality.

Story #2: How Dare She Not Swing Her Ponytail for the Cause!

Later, I read an article regarding a male Israeli singer who objected to a young female singer winning an award for her music.

“She never served in the IDF!” he protested. “How can we grant an award to someone who doesn’t even fulfill the basic obligation of every Israeli citizen?”

The article grew even more ridiculous and perplexing as it revealed that his oh-so heilige army service consisted of the army choir. And that would have been her army service, too.

If you haven’t seen the girls of the IDF choir, this oh-so vital military service consists of them singing while swinging their hips and ponytails and wearing an IDF uniform shirt that’s unbuttoned too low. (Actually, I think their performances are even more daring and competitive now.)

And then of course, religious male soldiers are raked across the coals because they don’t want to watch their sisters objectifying themselves. Such fanatics!

Anyway, this male singer was outraged that she hadn’t served in this all-important military position—how disloyal and unpatriotic, shirking her military duty when EVERYONE ELSE serves their time! How dare she receive an award!

Anyway…

Story #3: Armored Corps Avoidance Anxiety Disorder (ACAAD)

What clinched it for me was a run-in with a young Israeli baalat teshuvah-in-progress, whom I met at a Shabbaton where my husband was working.

This young woman became convinced of the truth of Torah and took upon herself Torah and mitzvot, plus attended classes and read books—but she was agonizingly conflicted.

She approached me, then started asking me about some standard issues that people have when making the BT transition. And she was asking in an increasingly angsty manner.

And I empathized with her, having gone through it myself. So I just calmly answered her issues as best I could.

But she grew increasingly overwrought and I thought that maybe I wasn’t expressing myself coherently enough (Hebrew being my second language and all), so I pleasantly suggested that she ask the people whose classes she attended back home. They’d heard these questions repeatedly and have no problem discussing these issues.

“I did ask them!” she insisted. “But I just…”

And then she kept expressing her conflict over it all.

That’s when I understood she was in the very normal transition stage of teshuvah.

This stage pops up again and again throughout life each time you need to cross another bridge in your lifelong journey of continuous self-transformation.

(I always really hate this stage because it feels like a hermit crab without its shell, but it’s a normal & necessary part of the teshuvah process. Please see What's Stopping You from Making Real Change? for more.)

Basically, her head is in one place (what the rabbis explained to her) while her heart is in another place (what she still feels is correct).

In other words: inner conflict. Yuck.

So I realized I couldn’t help her more than her rabbis and rebbetzins already were. You can’t hand people their Yiddishkeit, hashkafah, and emuna on a silver platter.

After all is said & done, we all have to work for it and that’s just the reality of the process.

So I just remained sympathetic, but didn’t say much because transition is a really angsty place to be, and empathy and patience is often the only way to respond. Ultimately, they need to work through it themselves somehow.

But she pressed on, this time about army service.

“Everyone in my family goes into the armored corps!” she said. “My parents, my uncles, my siblings, my cousins—everyone! It’s our family tradition! Yet I’m the only who’s not. And they keep asking me, they keep pressuring me about it—‘You need to participate too! You also need to give to your country! Why can’t you keep Shabbat & kosher in the armored corps?' ”

Now, this is very normal albeit distressing. Israeli baalei teshuvah who still live at home can go through heck with their families.

I learned of this distressing dynamic when I encountered the Neve girls in the Israeli section. I noticed that many of them looked stoic and even miserable, but I didn’t understand why. They seemed very committed to Yiddishkeit, so why were they so unhappy?

Then one day, when a friend & I expressed our friendly envy of the Israeli girls who already knew Hebrew (obviously) and therefore, had a much easier time learning Chumash and the like, one Israeli girl suddenly blurted out with great bitterness, “Well, you Americans are so lucky! You don’t know what it’s like for us. We’re here in Neve for the week and get all this inspiration and support, but every Shabbat, we have to go back to our families and deal with keeping Shabbos & kashrut in a secular home, plus being argued with and attacked for all our frumkeit and new hashkafot! But YOU never have to deal with THAT on a regular basis! You're spoiled!”

And she was right.

We Anglos have the opportunity to ensconce ourselves within a BT seminary or yeshivah without being forced into the old environment every week, not to mention the unwanted confrontations with disapproving family members and “friends.”

These young Israeli baalei teshuvah can have a very, very hard time.

So it apparently was with this the young woman I encountered at the Shabbaton.

And as I tried gently answering her, she kept cutting me off, repeating the same questions, and getting more overwrought.

But one thing didn’t make sense to me at that time.

Why was it so important for her, as a girl, to go into the armored corps with the tanks and all that?

Why was that such an issue? (Remember, at that time, I still hadn’t realized how deep the propaganda went in the minds of secular Israelis.)

So I said, “Wait a minute. I don’t understand something. You’re saying how important to your family it is for you to join the tankistim, but why?”

And her eyes popped wide open, her mouth shut, and she straightened up. And she didn’t say a word.

Because she didn’t respond, I thought maybe I hadn't been clear, so I decided to ask in another way: “I mean, girls don’t actually go in the tanks, right?”

A laugh burst out of her. “Oh no, not at all!” she said. “Of course girls don’t go out to battle!” She kept laughing and rolling her eyes.

“Okay,” I said, pleasantly. “So what would you be doing there?”

She gave a short incredulous laugh. “I would be serving!”

“Okay,” I said. “But doing what?”

I honestly wanted to know.

Because she and her family were obviously so overwrought about her not enlisting in the armored corps, I was trying to figure out WHY her enlistment was of such vital importance to them. I felt I was missing some vital piece of information.

Now she started stammering and just kept repeating how everyone in her family served in the armored corps and that this was just what her family did and she was letting everyone down by not serving.

And I was becoming increasingly bewildered. So I kept probing for the reason why her service was so essential.

I mean, what was she, as a girl, going to be doing for the armored corps that was so vital to the military capabilities of the IDF?

She frowned and wrinkled her nose at me and gave me a crooked smile. “Well, I don’t KNOW,” she said, “because I haven’t actually enlisted, so I don’t KNOW what they would assign me.”

Wanting to be helpful, I prompted her: “Well, what did your sisters and female cousins do in the armored corps?”

She started stammering out answers again, like all sorts of stam busywork that her female relatives carried out.

“But what did that DO for the military effort?” I said. “I mean, how did that help the armored corps exactly?”

Finally, she pulled up and stared out me with a slightly opened mouth and wide eyes.

I realized I’d crossed some kind of line, but wasn’t sure what.

“I honestly wish to understand,” I tried to explain. “That’s why I keep asking. I’m honestly trying to understand why a girl serving in the armored corps is so important.”

Then she stared at me one moment more, turned around, and left.

And she avoided me for the rest of Shabbat.

I felt really bad at the time because I felt like I’d pushed her over some kind of edge. I’d engaged in a confrontation without even realizing it. And I wasn’t looking to break or crush anyone.

I tried to make it up to her by being really nice and non-threatening during the rest of Shabbat, but every time I approached her, her eyes widened and she took off.

Oh dear.

But that & the discussion with the thoughtful university Leftist clinched it for me: There is a cult-like mentality regarding IDF service that overrides all reason and logic.

Media Incitement

To further hammer home this point, Ynet military correspondent Yossi Yehoshua has publicly stated on Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) that there is currently a surplus of IDF soldiers and that in only 2 more years, that surplus will reach 17,000. (Please see We Don’t Need More Charedi Soldiers for more.)

So why all the pressure?

Ironically, despite this secular Israeli mentality of “Army Service Over All,” many of those same people don’t care much whether charedim serve.

Because they wish they didn’t have to serve, many of these same people aren’t so upset by charedim avoiding the draft. It makes sense to them. So it depends who. Some resent the seeming unfairness, others are apathetic.

It's a contradiction, no?

Why is there such a contradiction? It's because much of the outrage, resentment, and self-righteousness isn't really real. It's media-created.

You have certain Jewish media & politicians whipping people into a frenzy about an issue that, on their own, many actually don’t care much about.

Why?

There clearly is some kind of an agenda at work here.

Why else is such propaganda and brainwashing needed? To what means?

The reason why it’s important to know that this mentality exists is because when you read a newspaper article written in self-righteous indignation or when you encounter a fellow Jew condemning charedi avoidance of army service & glorifying female participation ("We don't care about decapitating pilots in burning jets! More grrrl power!"), it’s important to realize the basis for much of this resentment and the feelings of victimhood.

Like, who is really victimized by a yeshivah bachur learning Gemara in yeshivah rather than watching American sitcoms as a "soldier" on an army base?

Some Jewish media sets out to convince people that because charedim do not face an all-out mandatory draft, then non-charedim are being victimized by this fact.

(BTW, there are 3000 charedim serving in the IDF right this moment—mostly in combat units.)

To sum up:

The self-righteousness, resentment, and feelings of victimhood are mostly not based on logic or reason, but simply a result of media incitement & propaganda INTENDED to whip people’s emotions into the above-mentioned states.

For more stand-alone posts in this series (for which I haven't yet figured out a title), please see:

Now that's funny. I don't see the State of Israel here ANYWHERE. Huh...

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The Hidden Truth: How Eliezer Ben-Yehudah Nearly Caused the Mass Expulsion of the Entire Jewish Population under the Ottoman Empire, & Who were Ultimately Saved by the Wise Intervention of the Sephardi Sage Rav Yaakov Shaul Elyashar & the Ashkenazi Sage Rav Shmuel Salant

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Story #1: "At Least He Did His Army Service."

Story #2: How Dare She Not Swing Her Ponytail for the Cause!

Story #3: Armored Corps Avoidance Anxiety Disorder (ACAAD)

Media Incitement

Myrtle Rising

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