First, They Came for the Charedim. And I Did Not Speak Out. Because I Was Not Charedi.
An excerpt from YWN (but not Arutz Sheva):
Rabbi David Fendel, the Rosh Yeshivah of the Hesder Yeshiva in Sderot, explained his decision to take part in the Chareidi protest against the arrests of bnei yeshivos in Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon.
“I see it as a great zechus to join the mass tefillah,” Rabbi Fendel said. “Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn’t reject the tefillah of many.”
Rabbi Fendel slammed “the military-legal system for trying to chase down and arrest yeshivah bochurim without finding a solution, without understanding or working with the public, without seeking the right path within the IDF for those who are not learning, and without developing alternative programs.”
“We know this is an attempt to bring down the right-wing government—an attempt to divide and fracture the religious and faith-based public,” Rabbi Fendel added.
“This is a protest against arrests that serve no purpose other than to help the left win elections and deepen the divisions within our people.”
Rabbi Fendel also warned that if, chalilah, a government were to be formed without Torah representation or without an understanding of the importance of limmud Torah, the next to be targeted would be the Hesder yeshivos.
“It won’t help to remind anyone of the pure korbanos—the many fallen soldiers who came from our own Batei Medrash, including ours,” he emphasized. “They will only seek to harm the rebirth of kedushah, this neis of so many people learning Torah.”
My summary of the opposite logic:
- First, they came for the Charedim.
- And I did not speak out.
- Because I was not Charedi.
- Then they came for Hesder.
- And there was no one left.
- To speak out for me.
(And we mentioned this rabbi before here.)
