The incapacity of too many rabbis to tolerate some sort of practical compromise in relation to the state of Israel is one of the most myopic examples of paralysis that recalls the inability to take steps to prevent millions from escaping the Nazi catastrophe. The state subsidizes their academies, supports their families with welfare, and in return asks for some practical social if not military contribution to its safety. The current Israeli government is proposing exemption for genuine scholars and yet the crude responses are the objectionable scenes of religiously garbed and bearded men who ought to know better, accusing other Jews of being Nazis, victimizing those Charedim who do join, calling them rats and traitors, expelling them from communities, abusing them in public, calling rabbis who support the draft sinners and evil men. They might be dismissed as unbalanced harmless village idiots if it were not also dangerous and self-defeating.
What a Chillul HaShem, a Desecration of the Divine Name, to see the New York Times blazoning across its pages this primitive abuse by Orthodox Jews of others, supported by some ( thank goodness not all) supposed great leaders, great wise rabbis. All this does is proclaim in public for everyone around to the world to see and say, “You see, the Jews are as crazy as the Mullahs.”
Instead of finding ways of relating to the issue, instead of trying to offer vocational education alongside Torah education for those who will not be the scholars, they are cutting the ground from under their own feet, humiliating Torah and relying on Superman to save them and their subsidies. They no doubt are, as I write, calling on Kabbalists to issue curses and exorcisms and Golems to do what common sense and good will could achieve.
As we approach the great fast of the Ninth of Av and remember how we blame our own mistakes for those catastrophes that befell us, I pray a spirit of wisdom might enter their souls and get them to think again.