We got a call from our son Yaki, who is in the Israeli army. He had been awake since 6:00 in the morning – of the day before. He has been up for over forty consecutive hours.
He had to say goodbye so that he could shower and get to sleep…before being awakened again in three and a half hours.
He came home for Shabbat. He left his base early in the morning and arrived in the afternoon, and went back on Sunday.
We asked if he would be home for the Seder, for the first day of Pesach. He doesn’t know yet.
Last Friday morning I was doing errands to prepare for Shabbat. Out of curiosity, I peeked into a local synagogue, a “shteible,” that has minyanim all morning.
Two of the rooms were filled to capacity with people – some of them young men not much different from Yaki – and realized that they were all davening Shacharit.
The rooms were crowded with people who, in a conventional sense, look more “religious” than Yaki or I do. Many of these are people who look at themselves as the vanguard of the Torah world, those who are zealously protecting the tradition from people like Yaki.
It was 11:05 a.m.
(Lest anyone misunderstand my point, I’m not interested in judging the religious practice of anyone. If someone wants to pray at 11:05 a.m., that’s between him and G-d and no one else. However, there were undoubtedly people in that room who have received military exemptions because of their supposed dedication to full time Torah study. This is no longer about their private religious commitment, but their claim that others need to take on a greater share of the military burden so that they can dedicate themselves exclusively to their version of Torah Judaism. Given that this is their claim, the rest of us who pay the price have a right to call them out when their religious commitments – the source of their military exemptions – are found wanting.)
This particular group is represented in the Knesset by Yitzchak Goldknopf and his Agudat Yisrael party.
Goldknopf was filmed recently dancing at a family wedding to a song whose words are, “We do not believe in the government of the heretics… We will not appear in their [military] offices.” (He subsequently apologized.)
Thus, some people who claim to be guarding Judaism from people like our son woke up late enough to get to an 11 a.m. minyan. Meanwhile, soldiers stay awake for 40 consecutive hours, before getting less than four hours of sleep and then starting again.
Bein Hazmanim – the thrice-annual yeshiva vacation period – recently began, with yeshiva students across the country getting four(!) consecutive weeks off. Meanwhile, soldiers hope that they’re allowed to come home for yom tov.
Politicians and students merrily dance to a song celebrating their dereliction of duty, and which openly denigrates the country which is paying them to stay in yeshiva. Meanwhile, soldiers risk life and limb, forgoing comfort and exerting themselves physically to an extreme, to protect the lives of those who call them heretics.
There are some individuals in the chareidi and chassidic worlds who act in an exemplary manner. There are others who are an absolute disgrace. A disgrace to Torah Judaism.
While many of us have been shaken to our core over the past 538 days of war, others have shocked us by digging in their heels, and saying, “I have no part in the People of Israel” – and then demanding that the rest of the People of Israel pay them for the privilege of staying in yeshiva rather than joining their brothers in defending the People of Israel.
Our nation lacks unity. And those who celebrate their self-exclusion are among the greatest culprits.
