Loose Lips Sink Ships

 

It’s been a week since the Israeli elections and it’s time to move forward. In general, virtually all of the religious Jews in Eretz Yisrael are pleased with the results. As it stands, all of us won.

In my previous post, I took exception to the way certain prominent members of the Degel HaTorah camp were carrying on. I called it totally inappropriate for the Torah elite and that I cannot join forces with this kind of conduct, so I needed to distance myself from it. I wrote that I am going to vote for Shas, and I did (as did my eishes chayil).

The only commenter I had on the last post enlightened me that, just a few months earlier, the leaders of Shas also publicly expressed the Lashon Hara or Motzi Shem Ra – depending on one’s hashkafa – that I was protesting against. I responded that I didn’t know this, and I can’t say for certain what I would have done if I had. It seems like in this country there is always some reason to hold a grudge against everyone.

Now that the elections are over, and I can truly hope that this will bring us to a stable and rational government that will endure an entire term, and that there won’t be another election anytime soon, I hope we can put our grudges aside.

I don’t regret what I posted and don’t retract what I posted, but since, whether rightly or wrongly, it ultimately tarnishes the image of Degel HaTorah and the Yeshiva world and at least one prominent Rosh Yeshiva, it is not worth keeping up.

Despite the fact that I “abandoned ship” on Degel HaTorah for this election, I am very happy for the seven seats they got and would have been even happier to see them get an eighth seat, which they almost did.

I read in one report that they lost that eighth seat by a mere 990 votes. Just a bit less than 1000. As I wrote, they certainly lost at least two of those votes from me and perhaps some other members of my immediate family. I think I can state that I am not the only person who got turned off and alienated from the harsh negative advertising of the Rosh Yeshiva, Shlita. Plus, I always stumble upon people who have other reasons to hold grudges. Sometimes those other reasons are borderline and then something like this just nails the coffin.

The point I am trying to make is that, aside from Torah guidance and inspiration from our leaders and Roshei Yeshiva, we also like to see wisdom, foresight, and good “business acumen”. Straight thinking and common sense.

So, the question looms, who was this Rosh Yeshiva addressing and what was he trying to accomplish? It seems that he thought he was talking to the Yeshiva students who have been won over by Otzma’s political message and had decided to vote for them. He was trying to win them back.

How? By "upgrading" a safek lahv to a safek Kares? By employing religious scare tactics about losing olam haba just because one votes for Otzma?

How many of those people fell for that? How many changed their minds? How many even heard what he said?

Ironically, I think that those who were linked to the news media outlets and heard there what he said, were mostly disillusioned from these tactics. I know I was, and I can’t be the only one.

All told, I don’t think he gained anyone back and he certainly alienated quite a number of those who otherwise would have been loyal to Gimmel.

How many voters was it? Two? Ten? 100? 990? More?

We’ll never know, but if anything, this outburst may have cost UTJ their eighth seat. Only 990 votes. If not all of that, it certainly contributed to this loss.

And if the entire right-wing majority would have been standing on just one seat, and didn’t make it because of the 990 votes, what a disaster!

I don’t even want to think of it.

I am removing my previous post, but I meant what I wrote. There are lessons to be learned here. And some of these lessons need to be learned even by Gedolei Yisrael.

Sinas chinam will ruin us and must be avoided at all costs. Those who think they’ll gain from it will be the biggest losers, and they can sink the entire ship along with them.

כלנו בני איש אחד נחנו, כנים אנחנו

As Elon Musk said, “Let that sink in”…

...before we’re all sunk.

Tova HaAretz Meod Meod 2 – Update for 2020

Author's note - Please see the previous post on this topic if you have not yet done so.


Rabbi Zechariah Wallerstein has a message for us. This made a bit of a splash last week. Apparently, it was an hour-long schmooze but this is the excerpt I got in my inbox.

(Note – Embedded video may not appear in email version. You can get an audio segment HERE).

Essentially, he is telling us that "It is time to go [to E"Y]" while acknowledging that he cannot bring himself to do it as of yet.  He is really struggling. So was I - 23 years ago. It isn’t easy.

We made aliya to Eretz Yisrael in 1997 and all I can say is that I am sure glad we did.

Why did “I” make Aliyah? (I am talking about myself right now, not my wife.)

·       Firstly, as the narrative in my previous post relates, it was my wife’s dream. You could say I did it for shalom bayis. And, yes, we are still talking.

·      Secondly, as the son of a Holocaust survivor and a “student” of holocaust history, I knew only too well how the comfort of the tolerant “Western” society is a mere illusion that could vanish in a moment. At the time, in 1997, my father asked me why I want to make Aliyah? In addition to the previous point, I told him, “Look, we are in golus here just like we were in Europe. Sooner or later there is going to be a mahapeicha (upheaval) here just like there was in Spain and Europe and everywhere else. There has always been. HKBH sees to it. So there will have to be another one. It’s only a question of ‘when?’.  Why should I stick around here and entrench my family and wait for it to happen?” He could not disagree with me on this. (Incidentally, his immediate goal after liberation was to get to Eretz Yisrael. However, he was stymied by the Zionist anti-religious bureaucracy and wound up in the US instead.)

·       Thirdly, the religious Zionist Bnei Akiva indoctrination of my youth left a lasting impression on me and a sense on nationalistic pride – ahavas ha’aretz – even though I had long felt that they fell quite short in ahavas Torah and I had to move on to “blacker” pastures.

·       Fourthly, we had six children at the time and had no plans of shutting down the factory (we have since more than doubled). The excessive tuition and health care costs made it impossible for a large growing family to get ahead financially by natural means. It would always be a struggle. And, as many other olim have said. “If we’re going to struggle anyway, may as well struggle here in E”Y.”

·       And, finally, because I could.

This last point has several connotations. At its simplest level, it means that the door is open in ways that did not exist in previous generations.

At a stronger level, it means not only that I can, but that this is a very auspicious opportunity and it is not likely to stay this way. I was at the prime of my life and the prime of my financial strength and the Israeli economy and international standing (post-Oslo) were in their prime as well. I felt it is sort of a “now or never” situation.

But at the most profound level, I saw it as a responsibility. The conditions were so favorable that it was as if I saw a “heavenly” neon light with an arrow pointing to Eretz Yisroel blinking as if to say, “Go this way >> Go this way >> Go this way >>”. I honestly felt that I would be betraying the fulfillment of the aspirations of generations of ancestors if I did not capitalize on this opportunity.

I also felt a responsibility to my diaspora neighbors. If people like me who have such an opportunity don’t take advantage of it and go, why should anybody go? If I can set an example for others, I need to do it.

So we did. No regrets. I can’t stop thanking my wife, and my Dad, and HKBH.

So last week, Rav Zechariah Wallerstein got onto the Net and told us like it is. It is time to go. He’ll shut the lights.

We all know that the United States of today is not the United States of yesterday. It may not be a communist country, but it is getting closer every day to George Orwell’s Animal Farm – with genuine two-legged animals. In Animal Farm, the mantra “All Animals are Created Equal” was amended to say, “All Animals are Created Equal – but some are more Equal than Others.”

America is a bit different. The mantra “All Men are Created Equal” has been amended to say, “All Men and Women and Children and Animals and Illegal Aliens and Criminals and Straights and Gays and Democrats are Created Equal”. America has become much too equal.

The American masses are starting to discover that we Jews are not created equal. All the non-law-abiding moslems are created equal. All the LGBTQIXYZ are created equal. Black Lives Matter, M-13 Lives Matter, sexual deviants’ lives matter and any chicken’s life matters – but your Jewish life doesn’t matter. Not to them.

More and more distinguished people are saying that it’s time to go (or time to come). Until now it was easy to brush off. Now, it’s getting serious. The most common excuses are: (1) “I have my parnassah here. I have no idea how I will make a living in Israel” and (2) “My extended family is here. How can I disconnect myself?”.

Enter Covid-19! (May it exit just as fast.)

Covid-19 has wiped out the parnassah of 25% of the population. And it has made a significant dent in that of everyone else. It doesn’t answer the question of how one will make it in Eretz Yisroel but, “If we’re going to struggle anyway…”

Covid-19 also introduced may of us to Zoom and its clones. After faxes, emails, electronic banking and online purchasing, distance doesn’t matter as much anymore. I have been more “in touch” and “face to face” with my parents in the US since this crisis began than ever. Of course, I wish they were here, but I am not out of touch. Sure we can’t all be at all the weddings and bar mitzvas, but lately a lot of us have been missing weddings and bar mitzvas even while living in the same town!!!

Moreover, as I wrote in my essay which is displayed in my previous post, Aliyah causes a snowball effect – one sibling goes, then another, then the parents decide they may as well go and be near the siblings who went…and then the rest of the siblings go.

No, it’s not easy. But it isn’t going to get any easier. Right now, the planes aren’t flying. But I believe HKBH will give us (i.e., you) another chance. The planes will get back up there…for a while. But the next time they go down, you may need to pump those bicycle tires like in Roy Neuberger’s 2020 book.

What do you need to do? And what does Rabbi Zechariah Wallerstein need to do?

You need to contact Nefesh B’Nefesh and open up an Aliyah file even if you have no current plans to go. Just go through the motions. Make believe. It only costs $65 to open a file and maybe $130 for a mandatory FBI clearance check (we did not need these). Get the letter from the Rabbi and a photocopy of the wife’s/mother’s kesuba (nobody asked us to show ours when we landed.) And update all of those passports!

If you don’t go through with it, you can always renew the file. NBN will tell you all the rules. You probably won’t even need to set a date up front because the planes aren’t flying anyway. Just be ready for when they are.

Another thing you can do is to open a bank account here in shekels. Not a big one to give you tax issues but enough to have something to come to. Incidentally, the dollar has been slipping against the shekel for the past ten years. If it totally collapses, the shekels will be here.

My dear parents already own an apartment here and they bought karka on Har Hazeisim years ago. But they still live in the US as do two of my married siblings. We want very much for them to come for good on the upper part of the plane with all the seats. So, I asked my father, the Holocaust survivor whose 60 year diamond business was finally KO'ed by Corona, why he doesn’t just come? He told me if “this shmegega” (Joe Biden) reaches the White House, then he’s done with the US.

I told him, “Just for this, I am going to vote for him!”

The only way to succeed at making Aliyah is to commit yourself to making Aliyah. There are no shortcuts!

When I announced my intentions to make Aliyah to my community, some people came and asked me if we are only going on a trial basis to see if we manage or going full steam and burning my bridges?

I answered that we are uprooting a house with six children aged one to ten packing things, selling things, buying things, and shipping things all being subsidized by the Jewish agency. It’s a monumental undertaking. Imagine if in a number of years I have seven, eight, or nine kids and I feel like undoing it all and coming back without any subsidies from the Jewish Agency. Would I be able to manage such a thing? 

So we are here in Eretz Yisrael. We are still here. Yes, I am out of work (lots of time to learn!), which is why I write, but I am far from hungry, B"H. We eat mahn and we drink mei be'er and we are here watching our loved ones in the US trying to stay afloat. We are concerned. We don't like what we see. Decay never reverses itself.

We always tell ourselves, "Someday, we would love to move to Eretz Yisrael." For years, the Jewish Never Again activists have been crying "Never Again is now!" And we (including Rabbi Wallerstein) are crying, "Someday is now!"

Listen to me. Listen to Rabbi Wallerstein. Let Rabbi Wallerstein listen to Rabbi Wallerstein. 

I guarantee you that you will all thank me…in much less than 23 years.

Tova HaAretz Meod Meod 1 - Repost of Original from June 2009

This is from my blog eleven years ago. Next post will be an update...

Anyone who has ever made aliya will tell you that you will never get here by talking about making aliya, no matter how much talking you do. There is only one way to make aliya – you must (figuratively) open a calendar and throw a dart at it. When the dart hits a date, you mark it as the day that you are going, and don’t pull out the dart! Our “dart” hit at July of 1997...

The above paragraph did not make it into the final cut of my book but, maybe, it should have. In any case, for those of us already here in Eretz Yisrael, Parshas Shelach is up this week. You folks still straggling behind in Chutz l'Aretz are - well - still straggling behind.

Parshas Shelach represents the challenges in bitachon that are part of living in Eretz Yisrael. Though I can attest that moving an established family to Eretz Yisrael is no small feat, once done, it is no small achievement, either. Not everybody is zocheh. But everybody can be zocheh. It depends on why you want to come. The key is bitachon and emunah. To make a successful Aliya one must be willing to feel like a grasshopper. But then he can become a giant.

In honor of Parshas Shelach I am presenting the complete Aliya story from my One Above and Seven Below autobiography. Some parts made it into the book but most of it did not. Some people will be able to relate to it, and others will say that their personal circumstances are not as favorable as ours were. Still, one thing I must tell everyone: if you have a serious opportunity to come here, it is a message to you. Do not ignore it. Don't get yourself wait-listed for the last flight out.

Still, at the end of the day, everybody winds up where HKBH wants him to. One thing I said over at my daughter's sheva brachos was:

40 days before the yetziras havlad, a bas kol goes out and says בת פלוני לפלוני . Taken at its word, this chazal is saying that sometime about 25 years ago, a bas kol went out and pronounced that the daughter of Yechezkel Hirshman is destined to be the wife of this young man. The interesting thing is that, 25 years ago, Yechezkel Hirshman didn't happen to be married! He was hanging around Lakewood, New Jersey and telling shadchanim that he needs a girl who is willing to follow him to Natwich (pseudonym for my home town) so he could go into the wholesale diamond business. Meanwhile, this fellow was a zygote by some family in Beit-El (not exactly the chareidi capitol of the world)! Yet, here we are 25 years later in Yerushalayim celebrating the sheva brachos of the new couple. How did we get here from there?

Well, here's how:

Aliya Story by binhersh on Scribd

Even HaEzer and Dr. Kenegdo (or - - Beating Around the Burning Bush)

My series about anomalies in Chazal and the Murex Trunculus debate will need to go on the back burner until after the Yomim Tovim. I have one more test to take on the Toen Rabbani cycle which, due to some scheduling glitches, was rescheduled to two days after Rosh HaShannah. This test is on the second half of Even HaEzer and involves very elaborate issues of Halachic Family law. At present, along with the regular pressures of Ellul and Yom Tov itself, this requires all of my attention.

So lately, I haven’t been able to concentrate on analyzing Agadata – which means looking everything up. I only have time to review the parts of Even HaEzer that are necessary for the test and to read up on the Piskei Din that are released by the Rabbanut courts.

I think Even HaEzer is the neglected child of the Shulchan Aruch family. Nobody really studies it except the dayanim and toanim that need to know it. Of course, every Rosh Yeshiva needs to know how to be mesader Kiddushin, but this involves doing it right. They don’t need to know much about heteirei nissuin or safek kiddushin and, if they do, they call a dayan.

Even HaEzer deals with the most sensitive issues of our lives – not the least of which is hetter agunot. Real agunot. After this are issues of yichus – mamzeirus, geirus, pesulei kahal and pasulei kahuna. In short, who can be married to whom and who cannot. It also covers shalom bayis – marital obligations between spouses and under what circumstances can a marriage be dissolved. Also, marital property rights and what can widows and daughters demand from the estate of a deceased husband/father. And don’t forget child custody.

It doesn’t matter how we feel about any specific Halachos. If we are Orthodox Jews, then by definition, we are bound to these Halachos. These Halachos determine how “kosher” we and our relationships are. Our community and Judaism in general, can only survive if we adhere to them loyally. 

Because Jewish family law is so important and has such dire far-reaching consequences, the founding fathers of this great medinah did one very wise thing. They entrusted all of the Even HaEzer related issues into the hands of the Rabbanut. The most important spiritual parts – marriage procedure, divorce procedure, and all questions of status (eishes ish, Jewish status, pasulei kahal, and pasulei kahuna) are exclusively under their control. Property and child custody can be litigated either in Beis Din or secular court.  

Let me tell you that to be a dayan in Rabbanut family court is no piece of cake nor is it any picnic. Firstly, the scope of just Even HaEzer with its mere 178 simanim (less than half of Choshen Mishpat and a third of Orach Chaim) is vast. It is not something that one can learn in “his spare time”. Secondly, they must deal with the most dysfunctional and base segments of the population. Husbands and wives who don’t get along and who lie and cheat on each other and create all kinds of problems of pasulei kahuna and pasulei kahal and quasi-agunos. They include abusers and accusers who ruin each other’s social and financial lives and then demand monetary compensation after they did everything in their power to render their significant other friendless and penniless. 

Moreover, these problems are prevalent among those who are only marginally religious or totally irreligious and the free thinkers who believe that the Jewish world is better off in an environment of secular civil liberties and unbridled freedoms.

And, when their lives crash, the dayanim are expected to clean up this mess.

After reading countless psakei din, my view is that we are blessed with a solid corps of exceedingly learned and dedicated dayanim who carry a tremendous burden on their shoulders and they are doing a hero’s job of it. I don’t envy a single dayan (except for his scholarship). As the cliché goes: it’s a thankless job, but somebody has to do it.

And the only way they can do it efficiently, is if they have full legal backing of the State.

As such, the family courts of the Israeli Rabbanut are an intrinsic part of the legal system and its procedures and rulings have full legal status. It is subject to State law enforcement, perjury, and contempt of court just like any ruling from the secular court. And it needs to be this way.

This is one thing about our medinah that we must appreciate and support. It is vital to preserving the Jewish character of the people let alone that of the State. It protects our identity and kosher status and also serves to make marriage in our circles more stable and durable. It benefits all of us. 

One important statute meant to ensure that Jewish marriages in Eretz Yisrael are properly regulated by the Rabbanut, is the Marriages Registration Ordinance which is the law of the land. This ordinance gives exclusive authority to the various religious bodies­ – the Rabbanut in the case of us Jews – to regulate marriages and to determine who is authorized to perform them in order to help them protect us from charlatans. There are two basic parts:

1.   To officiate a marriage in EY, one needs to be approved by the Rabbanut. This is not too difficult for any genuine Orthodox clergyman. Some people are certified on a permanent basis and others only temporary. Any Rosh Yeshiva can get a temporary or one-time permit for a specific wedding, such as for a Talmid.

2.   Every such marriage must be registered in the Rabbanut. This helps ensure that one who gets married is Halachically fit to be married and is not currently registered as being married to somebody else. Not fool-proof, but it helps.

In order to put teeth into the second part, the law calls for a fine and even incarceration for up to two years for one who performs a marriage and does not register it. 

Remember that this is the law of the land and this is for our protection.  

We have to appreciate the fact that the medinah is reasonable at the very least in the Even HaEzer department. Halevay they should be as concerned about geirus. Unfortunately, even though yichus is in Even HaEzer, geirus is in Yoreh Deah. The state has not yet subjugated itself to Yoreh Deah.

And so it is, Jewish family law is probably the only area where the Chareidi world is on the same page as our secular government. The ironic thing is that this is probably the only area where the liberal non-Chareidi “dati” world is not. Those who believe in civil liberties and freedoms for all. Thus, my stomach twisted into knots when I was shown a recent blog (Aug. 23, 2018) in Times of Israel written by Dr. Susan Weiss titled: When the judges answer to a Higher Authority

If you don’t know who Dr. Susan Weiss is, here is the blurb on the blog post:

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Susan Weiss is the founder and director of the Center for Women's Justice (CWJ), an NGO leading the battle to advance the civil and religious liberties of Israeli women when compromised by state institutions.

Yes, I know. A few posts back I was criticizing JCW (Jewish Community Watch) and here I am criticizing the founder of CWJ. I don’t know what it is about these three letters, but I don’t get along with them. Incidentally, I am not too fond of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), either.

More about Dr. Weiss. As the blurb says, she is a fighter for civil liberties, which means living any way one wants, and for religious liberties, which means liberties from religious constraints. 

But, guess what? Even though she does not cover her hair, she is mitzvah observant. I personally spent a Shabbos in her house over three decades ago. Also, for all her work helping women get divorced, she herself has only been married once and still is. She has never been divorced (her husband wouldn’t dare!). Kol Hakavod! I suppose the “label” of left wing Modern Orthodox would fit. But Orthodox she is.

Back to her blog, the subtitle reads: Muscling in on areas where you have no jurisdiction violates civil liberties and makes a mockery of religious authority

This tips us off that she is quite concerned about civil liberties (if you didn’t read the blurb). She claims they have been violated due to encroachment from those with “no jurisdiction”. I find this claim questionable. She adds that it “makes a mockery of religious authority”. This part cannot be denied because she spends the rest of the blog mocking it.

Here is how it opens (emphasis mine - YH):

Last month, right before Tisha B’Av, police summoned Rabbi Dov Haiyun to their offices. In police hands was a decision of the Haifa State Rabbinic Court ordering them to open up a criminal investigation against Rabbi Haiyun — the head of Moriah Congregation, of the Conservative movement. Among other complaints, the court claimed that Haiyun had violated the Marriage Registration Ordinance, when he failed to register a marriage at which he had officiated. According to reports, police “put him in a prisoner transportation vehicle complete with iron bars on the windows, and took him away.”

If you are curious about what were the “other complaints”, it is for officiating at a wedding for an invalid woman. It could have been a suspected eishes ish, non-Jew, or mamzeret – the type of marriage that produces more non-Jews or mamzeirim. Of course, it may have been merely that she was pregnant with or nursing a child from another man which is only Rabbinic and temporary. But it is still forbidden.

Both of these activities (performing the marriage and neglecting to register it), if indeed they were done, are against the law. In other words: criminal. Jailbait.

With this, Dr. Weiss is insisting that the State Rabbinic Court is overstepping its jurisdiction and is very bothered that they choose to answer to a Higher Authority. (I wonder if she eats Hebrew National). 

She then goes on to list a few other incidents where she personally, in one case, and some unknown woman litigant, in another case, were held in contempt by a Beis Din and threatened with punitive measures. In her view, the State Rabbinic courts are overstepping their jurisdiction and evidently, she needed to write this blog post to lament this tragic state of affairs (and to mock the religious authority). 

Incidentally, from what she writes, there is no indication whatsoever that Dr. Weiss knows anything at all about the third incident beyond the one-sided report that she heard from the mouth of the offended woman. (Déjà vu all over again!) No indication at all that she researched the incident and can verify it.

At this stage, Dr. Weiss makes a very bizarre distinction. She writes:

Admittedly, the above situations are not identical. While rabbinic judges theoretically had the authority to hold me and the woman in contempt (we each had been present in their courts), they had no jurisdiction whatsoever over Rabbi Haiyun, who had not appeared before them.

Dr. Mrs. Weiss claims to be lawyer and a PhD (I am neither). A prerequisite of these credentials would be that one should know how to read. She claims that Rabbi Haiyun did not appear before the court. The document seems to say otherwise. (See it HERE) Although it is not 100% clear, the document says that Rabbi Haiyun “admitted [his involvement] as appears in the court protocol” at a court session that took place on July 16, 2018. This seems to indicate that he did indeed appear before the court. If he did not personally appear, he must have at least submitted a tatzhir (affidavit) which is a signed statement subject to perjury or other judicial scrutiny. All told, this is definitely an active case in the Haifa Rabbinical Court. It’s case number 1181464/1 if you are interested.

So the distinction that she admitted to may not be much of a distinction. But, sadly, she missed the more obvious distinction – or, at least, won’t admit to it. And, if she can’t see this distinction, it calls into question her credentials as a lawyer. It is this:

She and her woman friend were censured by the court for contempt. This requires an appearance in court. Rabbi Haiyun, however is not being called out for contempt. He is being called out for alleged criminal activity. And who is allowed to complain to the police about alleged criminal activity? 

Anybody. 

Any citizen has a right to complain to the police about a violation of the law. This is everyone’s jurisdiction. And who should we expect to be the watchdog for this law if not the official body that is charged with seeing that it is upheld?

She continues:

Yet the above situations have this in common: abuse of judicial power. In all of the above, rabbinic judges acted more like police than like judges. Judges adjudicate. Legislators legislate. Police use “legitimate” force to detain and imprison. This is called “separation of powers.” It’s the way democratic states check power to power, ensuring that government officials do not abuse the liberties of citizens who extended those powers to them in the first place.

"acted more like police than like judges." How so?

The Rabbinic court filed a complaint to the police as any citizen, and certainly any judicial body, may. Dr. Weiss may be disturbed at the bossy choice of words בית דין מורה which means Beis Din is instructing (or ordering) the police to investigate. I mean, why couldn't they ask nicely? Yes, it is firm language, but this is the style of a Rabbinic court which, as we noted, has the same authority as the secular court in this department. 

So they requested or “ordered” an investigation. Cool. The police did what they did. The court did not order the police to put anyone in prison or even into “a prisoner transportation vehicle complete with iron bars on the windows”. Just to investigate. We democracy lovers call this “separation of powers”. (Where have I seen this term mentioned recently???)

Incidentally, when she wrote in her lead paragraph “…and took him away” she makes it sound like they took him to some underground torture facility like Guantanamo Bay and he hasn’t been heard from since. I presume they took him no further than to the local police station. I also presume he did not spend the night locked up. 

From all this, it looks to me that Dr. Weiss is overstepping her jurisdiction. 

As the article continues, Dr. Mrs. Weiss gets totally carried away and loses sight of her opening paragraph (perhaps this was her goal). She writes:

Thus, state rabbinic judges, in violation of our personal liberty, have ordered the detention of rabbis and have punished uppity litigants by putting them in jail. In violation of our freedom of contract, they can force attorneys to step down from their cases

A few comments:

“in violation of our personal liberty” – Dr. Weiss is somewhat delusional. Clearly, Dr. Weiss sings HaTikva and takes the line about להיות עם חפשי  – to be a free nation – way too literally. Every person has their perception of “personal liberty” and she certainly has hers, but the only ones that count are those that are enshrined in the law. When it comes to marriage law, the state has deferred to the Rabbanut which does not exactly support every leftist’s idea of personal liberties. The personal liberties which she would like to be protected under law, unfortunately are not. They only exist in her PhD head. So if they are not protected, then they are not being violated.

“have ordered the detention…” – Not so! Dr. Mrs. Weiss is blatantly and knowingly stating a falsehood. I have read the order. You can read it, too (right HERE). What it says is what Dr. Mrs. Weiss herself said in her lead paragraph, the Haifa Rabbinic court ordered the police “to open up a criminal investigation against Rabbi Haiyun”. They did not order him to be detained. Of course, in many police investigations the person being investigated is detained for questioning for a few hours. That’s how they investigate. But they are free to investigate without detaining. The order was for investigation, not for detention.

I think it is well beneath the dignity of somebody like Dr. Mrs. Susan Weiss to twist the truth like a standard yellow journalist. Well, perhaps not. Perhaps she is just reaffirming her credentials as a lawyer.

“…of rabbis…” – This is another distortion of the truth for propaganda purposes. The implication of her generalism “detention of rabbis” is used as if to bemoan a sacrilege of persecuting holy pious “men of the cloth” who should have some kind of divine diplomatic immunity. From where I sit, and even in the eyes of secular Israelis, the term “Conservative Rabbi” is an [oxy]moron. 

Dr. Weiss is probably definitely old enough to know the 1960s joke about My Son, the Captain (see joke HERE). The punchline of the joke is:

Listen, sonny. I don’t have to tell you, by Mama you’re a captain, by me you’re a captain, and by you you’re a captain. But by a captain you’re no captain.

This certainly applies to “Rabbi” Haiyun: By Rabbi Haiyun he is a Rabbi, by Dr. Weiss he is a Rabbi, by the police he’s a Rabbi, by his followers he is a Rabbi, even by me he can be a Rabbi… BUT by a Rabbi, he is no Rabbi. By the dayanim of the Rabbinic Court in Haifa (who aren’t really natives of Haifa but are from Yerushalayim and Bnei Brak and they know their stuff), this guy is no Rabbi.

After a few more paragraphs where Dr. Weiss digresses towards other “sins” of the Rabbinical courts, she gets down to what is really eating at her. She closes:

All this, and there are many more examples, because, as mentioned, Israeli state religious functionaries answer to a Higher Authority. In a theocracy, you may vote, but God legislates, judges, and executes.

At the end of the day (and the beginning of the next), Dr. Mrs. Susan Weiss PhD is shooting the messenger. If she has a problem with the Higher Authority, why doesn't she take it up directly with the Higher Authority? Why go beating around the [burning] bush? It doesn't seem like she has a whole lot of respect for the Higher Authority.


She is clearly an advocate for uninhibited civil liberties. Even HaEzer does not promote such civil liberties. The Beis Din upholds Even HaEzer. This is their job. They do it, and do it well. Regardless of whether or not “civil liberties” were violated, in the view of the Beis Din, the law was certainly violated. Both the law and Even HaEzer may not be a friend to “civil liberties” but they are on the books – not the “civil liberties”. 


Liberal minded people who don’t value these laws think that reporting violations like this to the police is nitpicking. But in the world of legalistics, there is no such thing as undermining any law. And for a veteran lawyer such as Dr. Weiss PhD to do just that is highly unprofessional. 

We all know there are two types of lawyers: one whose goal is to help people stay within the law and one whose goal is to enable people to circumvent the law. It is shameful to see a lawyer make a mockery of the law. It is blasphemous to see a shomer Shabbos Jew make a mockery of the Higher Authority.

On Rosh HaShannah we all daven that HKBH should be our King. He should rule over us and the entire world and we should live by His rules. We pray for this because it is what is best for us and the world. In short, we pray that the world should become a theocracy.

So, I wonder if Dr. Mrs. Susan Weiss PhD goes to shul on Rosh Hashannah and if her machzor says what mine does. And, if so, does she really say it? And if she does, what is she thinking?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is it for 5778. Kesiva v’Chesiva Tova to all my friends, relatives, and readers!

תכלה שנה וקללותיה, תחל שנה וברכותיה!

Close the Window, I Feel a Draft Coming In!

Let me open this post with an announcement.

It looks like I will have a second son joining the IDF.

A quick rundown. I am blessed with six sons (and even more daughters). The oldest is the one I called Yaakov. He is more of a leather yarmulke type. He joined Nahal Chareidi in 2010. I wrote about it then. He did his three years and was discharged about five years ago. He has even done a stint in miluim. After the army, he went to Bar Ilan U and got an M.A. in financial mathematics. Currently, he works in the financial office of a large law firm in Ramat Gan. He is a very, very eligible bachelor.

Next is the one I called Yossi who was the star in many of my Shidduch posts. He went through the Israeli Yeshiva system and obtained an official p’tur. Then he went to Lakewood, found a bride and came back. He is currently learning in Kollel in EY and, I hope, living happily ever after.

Next up is one I will call Yitzi. He was only three when we came, but still, like his older brothers, he didn’t really take to the Israeli Yeshiva social system. He also managed a p’tur from the army and then promptly bugged off to the US and is currently learning in Rhode Island with some college on the side.

I will skip to my two younger sons, both Israeli born who blend in nicely with the “system”. They are both in Yeshiva Ketana (high school) and don’t seem to be candidates for army service in the long term.

And this brings us back to son number 4 – Eli. Eli is my first son born in Eretz Yisrael. Actually, he is my only child born in Yerushalayim. Everyone after him was born in Bnei Brak. Like his father, Eli is an independent thinker, left-handed, and very opinionated. In line, he is an idealist. Though his ideals are much more nationalistic than mine. He is not pro-Medinat Yisrael but is he very pro-Eretz Yisrael.

Eli is quite a character. Even though he never attended the Zilberman school system, he fully adopted their Vilna Gaon shitos. He doesn’t shave, he wears techeiles, tries to wear tefillin all day, and stops bentching after “al yechasreinu”. So he is part Zilberman with a touch of “hilltop” and 100% activist. He is a Lehava activist and Temple Mount activist and a Kahanist. He learns in Yeshiva Raayon Hayehudi which is the yeshiva established by Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY”D. He is pre-messianic which means he believes we should first build the Beis HaMikdash and reinstitute the avoda and [only] then Moshiach will come.

This means clearing out the Yishmaeli interlopers and he is all for it. He doesn’t believe in firing warning shots. He would just love to get his hands on an M-16 and so, he decided to sign up.

For those who don’t know, the chareidi presence in the army is expanding. Until now, there was only Netzach Yehuda (Nahal Chareidi) which is an infantry battalion in the Kfir brigade. They are now starting a Chareidi Tzanchanim (paratrooper) battalion and this is what he tried signing up for.

Unfortunately, he is a bit scrawny, very nearsighted, and, as I said, avidly idealistic so he wasn’t really able to get past the few physicals and the army shrink. So he is settling for Plan B which is to go into Rabbanut Tzvaii in the Shachar battalion.

What comes out of all this is that out of the offspring of yours truly, [Anglo] Chareidi-in-Chief, I might wind up with 2 out of 6 (equals 1 out of 3) boys doing IDF army service. And I am certainly not the only chareidi baal-haboss who is experiencing this phenomenon. All this without any crazy mandatory laws.

Which brings me to the point of this post.

Here in our neck of the woods, we are sitting with baited breath trying to get a handle on what is being called the new improved Hareidi Draft Law. It’s a bit like Obamacare (per Nancy Pelosi) – we won’t really know what’s in it until after we pass it. It is as mysterious as it is illogical. But, this is Israel. Everything works this way.

So for the record, I am getting all my information from these few articles in Haaretz which is not exactly the oracle of truth (HERE and HERE and HERE) but they (plus a few others from Arutz 7 and JPost) are the first ones that show up in my Google. 

This bill is a very strange type of compromise. On the one hand, it calls for financial sanctions against the Yeshiva world if certain quotas are not met. By itself, the chareidi parties would never accept such a provision and would bring down the government instead of supporting it. So, to take out these teeth, the bill gives a time schedule as if to say that there won’t be any sanctions for the first two years anyway. After that, there may be financial sanctions but it won’t affect the bill. Only if there are three consecutive years where the quotas fall short, then the bill will be voided and all Yeshiva guys will get drafted.

But, wait! If the bill is voided, the Knesset gets another 12 months to make a new bill before there is any mandatory draft. Mishpacha magazine adds that the Defense minister can issue automatic deferments for even another two years.

It seems that some of the chareidi parties (Shas and Degel HaTorah) are actually ready to support this bill because, at the extreme end, it totally kicks the can down the road for another six years (or more). There won’t be any sanctions for the first two years and for the next three, well, it’s only money.

Let me add, that it will not be easy for the government to apply any sanctions to any Yeshivos. The money the Yeshivos receive is so miniscule that there is almost no way to give less. Sure the government money helps and contributes to the budget, but none of the Yeshivas can and do subsist on it exclusively. Supposedly, Ponovizh has been the showcase Yeshiva for government assistance so they hang up a blue and white flag on Yom HaAtzmaut, but how much do you think Belz and Gur and Vizhnitz rely on government money? Who are you kidding?

And that’s where the numbers of “chareidim” really are!

After absorbing all this, I am puzzled by quite a few questions. First about the quota numbers themselves.

According to the Haaretz article, the numbers call for a starting quota of 3,996 “Yeshiva” guys in 2018 (bear in mind that it is already mid-July) and advance to 6,844 by the end of 2027. This would be a cumulative increase of about 71% over ten years.

The question is: 71%? Where is the army going when it comes to manpower? Does the army really want to grow? Does it need to grow? Does it intend to be 71% bigger in ten years?

Everybody knows that the Israeli army is totally swamped. As long as nothing really drastic happens, they have way more soldiers than they need and, it is argued, than they can afford. Currently, the system brings in enough inductees from all sectors that they are not lacking. They barely call anybody for mandatory miluim anymore.  If, chas v’shalom, some terrible catastrophe would call for the strength of the entire force, there are enough potential reservists between the ages of 22-36 to quadruple the standing force in a flash. This fact will hold year after year. And if even that won’t be enough, it obviously means that HKBH is not standing in our corner so we are anyway doomed no matter how many soldiers we produce.

So the manpower issue is a total joke and everybody knows it. In truth, as the general Israeli population continues to grow, kein yirbu, it becomes evident that the country is facing a more serious dilemma: how to deal with a potential soldier pool that is way bigger than we need?

And this is no joke. Currently, the Israeli government is dealing with it by quietly giving indiscriminate exemptions to people who do not meet the high end of their profile standards - especially if they want to be exempted. Not just to chareidim.

Perhaps, we can alleviate the army surplus problem by sending all the girls home. This might help to minimize what is now the biggest cause of death in the Israeli army – abortion. But, of course, then all the girls would get a head start in law school, pharmacy school,  and optician school while the boys in green are stuck playing shesh-besh by their Humvees and they will corner the job market (this is already happening).

Yep, Israel has its own version of the “shidduch crisis”.

I gather, many readers are probably saying that the purpose of this quota increase is not because the army wants to grow, but they want the proportion of the soldiers coming from the chareidi sector to be bigger than it is. Such a stance is likely to open up another few Pandora’s boxes.

Firstly, the concept of singling out one sector of the population to produce a “quota” is very undemocratic in today’s liberal world. It sort of goes against the principles of the left wing that is pushing for this quota to start with. Quotas for one are quotas for all!

I suppose the counter-argument might be that we would intrinsically apply quotas to any sector but it’s a foregone conclusion that any other “sector” already meets its phantom quota so there is no point in applying one. This may be true, but even so, the idea of even designating a “sector” is disturbing. Are Ethiopians a “sector”? Are Russians a “sector”? Are olim a “sector”? Are the handicapped a “sector”? Ashkenazim? Sephardim? Kurdim? Geirim?

Doesn’t secular pluralistic ideology state that all citizens are a part of one heterogeneous mixture?

The second Pandora’s box is that if we are dealing with a higher proportion of chareidim in an army of a basically static size, their influence and power will grow along with it. Is this really what the left wing army wants? The demands and “special needs” of the chareidim that are already in the army have always been a thorn in the side of the IDF. Real chareidim (not the renegades that run to the army to escape) are not too quick to follow orders that conflict with chareidi ideals. Chareidim will not take part in evacuations of Jewish settlements. They don’t believe in standing like statues while Arabs harass them and endanger them. And how many beard controversies and Torah shiur controversies does the army want?

Or does the army really want to turn black?

For the third Pandora’s box, we need to examine another part of the law as reported in the papers. Let us see what Haaretz writes:

The latest attempt, spearheaded by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, which passed its first reading vote in the Knesset on Monday night, aims to hit the ultra-Orthodox community where it hurts – the pocketbook.

According to the current version of the proposed law, yeshivas will be required to meet a quota of students who move from their studies into the military or do some alternative form of national service.

And in another article:

Financial penalties should be imposed on ultra-Orthodox yeshivas whose students fail to meet quotas for military or national civil service, a committee charged with preparing a new conscription bill recommended Monday.

But, wait! Look at this headline and lead from Haaretz July 2:

Explained: The Controversial Law That Would Press Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Community Into Military Service

The defense minister is spearheading legislation to get nearly 7,000 Haredim into the army by 2027. But neither the ultra-Orthodox nor left-wing politicians are happy with the proposed bill…

This is very confusing. Who is this quota calling on – ultra-orthodox Jews from the “community” or the students from any given ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva? If they want a quota of ultra-orthodox Jews, what does this have to do with the Yeshivos? How would one apply sanctions to the general charieidi sector?

So let’s first take the more logical route – this is not really a quota on the chareidi sector in general. It’s meant to be a quota on the Yeshivos. What does this mean? If they get their quota of “Yeshiva guys” they will be satisfied and if they don’t, they will sanction the Yeshivos? If it’s the collective Yeshiva system, which Yeshivos do you punish? Which yeshiva is “guilty”? All of them? Collective punishment?

And if its’ individual Yeshivos, does this mean that every Yeshiva will be given a quota of active students currently enrolled that are supposed to be de-studentized and “turned over” to the army?

Like, Ponovezh will have to go over their current student list and fork over 50 guys? Will they be sohnim or mechablim (or a separate quota of each)? And Mir and Chevron and Wolfson and Rosen and Lomza and Meor HaTorah, etc, etc.?  And what about Yeshiva Grodno Ashdod (don’t make me laugh)? I can assure you this is never going to happen. Not before every major road artery between Tel Aviv and Yerushalayim is repeatedly plugged up to a standstill.

The problem is, if a boy goes into the army, he isn’t enrolled in a Yeshiva! So how is any boy a ward of any given Yeshiva? Which Yeshiva gets all the unaffiliated “wildcard” guys? In terms of increasing from 3,996 to 6,844, do you mean we already have 3996 Yeshiva boys in the army? Which Yeshivos are they from? Why can’t every Yeshiva point to let‘s say ten soldiers hanging around the chareidi battalions and say they came from us?

This looks a lot like the Cantonist decrees to me. Netanyahu is getting way too friendly with Vladimir Putin (or is it Avigdor Lieberman?).

After all this there are more questions. How is the government even going to punish the Yeshivos with sanctions? Give them less money? No money? If the Yeshivos will survive without the government money, what effect will this have?

And if they can’t survive, it means the Knesset is closing them down. I can’t imagine any government willing to take on such as task nor surviving to tell about it. Incidentally, I predict that just as the proportion of the chareidim in the army increases, the proportion of the chareidim in the Knesset will also increase. As the right wing gets more and more established in the Knesset, it is a sure thing that such a debacle as closing down Yeshivos will never pass the plenum.

Sof davar, there is just no chance that these sanctions will ever be applied; especially on a per-Yeshiva basis. The left-wingers and Avigdor Lieberman are never ever going to get their “Yeshiva guys”.  And no Yeshivos are going to get sanctioned.

So let’s go back to understanding this law at a more communal level and assume that they will just have to settle for calling for a quota of chareidim that are not Yeshiva guys.  And, sure enough, if we look at the headline of the last Haaretz item I quoted, the terminology seems to indicate this.This is not a per-Yeshiva quota, but a chareidi-sector quota.

And we are back to square one. With new Pandora’s boxes.

According to the press, “Yeshiva students” and “Ultra-Orthodox” are interchangeable. But this is not the way it is in real life. We already noted a problem of singling out a specific group from a “politically correct” perspective, but now we are faced with a much stickier problem: how do we identify what counts as a chareidi community and a chareidi?

Those who read my book probably know that a big section of it deals exclusively on how to define a chareidi so we know who counts and who doesn’t. Not everybody agreed to my definition. But there is one thing we can all agree on ­– there is more than one definition.

When it comes to demographics, if one does not have a monolithic definition on his subjects his numbers are totally useless. I expounded on this point both in my book (Chapter 9) and in a lengthy post eight years ago about how to define a chareidi for the purpose of statistics.

And,  after all is said and done, is such a thing really necessary? As I opened in this post, the IDF already got my Yaakov and it looks like they will be getting my Eli (I am not sure they really want him!). Are they “ultra-Orthodox” or not? Eli is even currently in a real honest to goodness Yeshiva (even though the founder was banned from the Knesset).

MK Yisrael Katz says the same thing. Right here in Arutz 7:

Minister Katz also stated that the intervention of the judicial system in the law was unnecessary. ​​"The Supreme Court erred when it intervened on this issue of enlistment," he said.

Katz also added an unusual figure that has received no media attention. "According to data presented by a committee in the Defense Ministry, the number of haredim who serve in the army is not far from the percentage of the general public who serve."

Of course, as I have written countless times, the validity of his statement boils down to what counts as a “chareidi”. Though, by my own definition, I believe he is right.

There is really no way out of this Pandora’s box. The Bagatz is spinning its wheels. They can give a hundred 12 month deadlines. There can never be a logical law. We have always defied logic, anyway.

Nobody really knows what this law is. According to Mishpacha magazine, there is currently a rift between Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel. Degel HaTorah is looking at this as a quota for the ultra-Orthodox community, so they can live with it. Agudas Yisroel is looking at it as a quota of Yeshiva boys, so they cannot live with it.

Whether or not this bill passes, nothing is really going to change. It’s all smoke and mirrors. There is only one thing it can accomplish. If you ask Moshe Gafni, it may just save Netanyahu’s coalition.

But if you ask Yaakov Litzman, it may not.