This poster is brilliant. It portrays all of the rabbis in the Talmud who worked and what their job was. It calls to mind a joke. A woman gets on a bus in Measharim headed for Bnei Brak. Her dress does not reach her ankles. She sits down next to an ultra-Orthodox man who pulls an apple out of his bag and gives it to her. "What's this for?" she asks. He responds, "Until Eve ate from the apple, she did not know that she was naked." The next day, the same woman gets on the bus and sits down next to the same man. As the bus pulls away she removes an apple from her bag and hands it to him. "What's this for?" he asks. She says, "Until Adam ate from the apple, he did not know that he had to work for a living!"
It is remarkable how truly depressing this joke seems these days.
Today is the 10th of Tevet, a minor fast day in Judaism. We fast from before sunrise until sundown (it is not a 25 hour fast like Yom Kippur or Tisha B’Av) in commemoration of the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Ultimately, this siege led to Jerusalem’s destruction.
It isn’t always easy to find the motivation to fast in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem now that it is under Jewish sovereignty. The events in Beit Shemesh of the past few weeks have highlighted the tensions between the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) communities and the larger Israeli society. These tensions are certainly not new, but they have been inflamed. Anyone looking for new motivation to fast for the destruction of Jerusalem need not look any further than the erosion of Jewish values that flourishes in parts of the haredi community.
Before I write one more word, I do want to be clear that the haredi world is complex. There are many different haredi communities, many of which have significant disagreements with one another over issues of Jewish law. Not every sect shares similar views about women, Law, theology, Gentiles, secular Jews, etc. Not all haredim impose their religious norms on other people. It is important to become educated about these differences, and this is a good place to begin.
There are, however, certain issues about which most Israeli haredi sects are univocal: larger civil and secular society is problematic to the extent that it should be completely shut out of their world. There should be no social or civil interaction between these communities because that would lead to a weakening of the haredi faith. This, in my opinion, is a demand that must never be accommodated in Israel. It will lead to the destruction of the Jewish state. In many ways, the greatest threat to Israel’s future exists from within.
Haredi communities, with some exceptions, contribute almost nothing to the state. They should be permitted to object to the mandatory army service on religious grounds, but that should not exempt them from fulfilling their national service in other ways. The notion that they are serving the country by studying Torah is an exploitation of Judaism, the state, and their fellow citizens who must bear the burden of supporting them. One who objects to national service and on principle, contributes nothing to the national civic community abuses the welfare system which is meant to be a safety net, not a paycheck for Torah study.
You may think that this is their right and that I am over reacting. Consider this: the haredi population makes up 8-10% of Israel’s 7.8 million people. They have, on average, eight children per family, and comprise one fifth of all primary school students. In other words, the fastest growing Jewish population in Israel is receiving a haredi education. You can work out the implications of this.
In large part, this is all made possible thanks to the government of the State of Israel. They finance these schools. The segregated bus lines in which women are relegated to the back (something that the Israeli Supreme Court ruled to be illegal, by the way) are state funded public buses. The government gives exemptions for “compulsory” national army service to haredim. The deeper one looks into these issues, the more it becomes clear that the state of Israel is either tacitly approving haredi values by looking the other way or funding them.
Can anyone control the misogynists, extremists, anti-Zionists, and zealots within the haredi community? No. No more than we can control them when they are part of non-haredi communities. But the State of Israel can wage a cultural war against attitudes of intolerance and fundamentalism. They can stop funding their projects and cease enabling their public sexism; not doing so is a choice.
I am not advocating making haredi Judaism illegal. I am arguing that the choice to be haredi doesn’t exempt one from all other obligations of civic life, such as work, national service, and paying taxes. I am arguing that if a school wants to teach that evolution never happened and eschew the study of history, they should not receive a penny from the state. I am arguing that public signs that threaten women who dress a certain way should be illegal. I am arguing that bus lines insisting on gender segregation must be private.
There are organizations that are fighting for the survival of an open Zionist soul for the Jewish Homeland. We should support them. The Masorti movement is waging this campaign on a daily basis with constant challenges, especially financial. They made the brilliant posters that you see on this post. They are waging legal battles and trying to shape the intellectual conversations. They are on the front lines in the battle for the future of the State of Israel, and to the degree that we are able, I think we should support them (click here to do so).
On this fast day, read the words of the ancient prophet Jeremiah who knew that the holy Temple could not protect the Jewish people from destruction when the pious were stealing, murdering, committing adultery, and swearing falsely. He tried to remind his fellow Israelites that if they engaged in such immoral acts, their “piety” was false (see Jeremiah 7:1-15). I will end with Jeremiah’s words in the mouth of a modern Jeremiah, who tried to share them in Beit Shemesh and Measharim and at the Kotel saying,
Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Israel who enter these gates…Thus said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Mend your ways and your actions, and I will let you dwell in this place. Don’t put your trust in illusions and say, “the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord are these [buildings].”... See, you are relying on illusions that are of no avail. Will you spit on eight year old girls, relegate women to the back of the bus, call women in jeans whores and prostitutes, shun national service, and refuse to work and contribute to society, and then come and stand before Me in this House which bears My name and say, “We are safe”? – [Safe] to do all these abhorrent things! Do you consider this House, which bears My name, to be a den of misogynists? And now because you do all these things – declares the Lord – and though I spoke to you persistently, you would not listen; and though I called to you, you would not respond – therefore I will do to the House which bears My name, on which you rely, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers just what I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of My presence as I cast out your brothers, the whole brood of Ephraim.
If Israeli society does not act now, we may be witnessing the beginning of the walls being breached by the new Babylonians, only they are dressed in shtreimels and believe that science and math are treif. Boy, would Dr. Maimonides turn in his grave…
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