Yes To Jewish Autonomy, No To Statehood

Quick catch-up: I’ve been arguing that a Jewish state can serve as a catalyst for Jewish renewal, but that all of the dominant ideologies in Israel miss this point. We have seen that secular nationalists thought that the state could replace the Jewish community with a civil community and that religious anti-nationalist imagined that a Jewish state would have no effect – or negative effect – on Judaism. Now let’s consider the case of religious nationalists.

Religious nationalists had to contend above all with a proposition regarding which secular nationalists and religious anti-nationalists were in full agreement: that religion and nationalism were incompatible. In particular, as we have seen, the founding of a viable modern state would necessarily entail fundamental changes in the traditional Jewish ethos. Jews would need to assume more positive attitudes towards political authority and towards military culture and the scope of halakhah would need to expand to incorporate (at least some) national affairs.

Early religious nationalists, such as Rav Yaakov Reines took a pragmatic approach to the opportunities and dangers: they considered the trade-offs and decided that, given the Jews’ precarious political situation, the package was worthwhile. For most religious Jews who embraced the nationalist movement, however, the millennial significance of a return to Jewish sovereignty in Eretz Yisrael was too momentous an event to frame in terms of pragmatic trade-offs. To them, it seemed more appropriate to reinterpret the challenges presented by secular nationalism as essential components of a Grand Plan.

Thus, the new definition of national power was embraced. The necessary tools of state-building – agriculture, military, industrial – were not simply necessary burdens but sacred endeavors worthy of the kind of veneration earlier reserved for matters of the spirit. Army uniforms were the new priestly garments. Furthermore, political subversiveness was replaced by its polar opposite, mamlachtiut: the doctrine that whatever apparent flaws the products of this redemptive process – the state and its institutions – might suffer from, they and their proximate agents should be regarded as endowed with a divine imprimatur. Finally, the state was designated as the appropriate authority for deciding and regulating religious matters. The state would appoint rabbanim, enforce religious legislation and fund religious services. Voluntary religious community organizations would be upgraded to state institutions. Secular officials, by virtue of being agents of the state and hence the bearers of profound religious longings of which they might be unaware, could be trusted to manage religious affairs.

In this view, the anticipated Jewish state would not replace religion, as secular nationalists anticipated, but rather would upgrade and subsume it. This optimistic view envisioned a mythical state different than the one anticipated by the bulk of Israel’s founders and, indeed, different than the one that actually exists. The actual state of Israel is a civil democracy in which political rights are grounded in citizenship, which is influenced by, but not determined by, ethnicity or religious commitment and in which laws are influenced by, but not determined by, Jewish tradition. To imagine that it could have been otherwise, that it is otherwise or that it will be otherwise in the foreseeable future is to live in a fantasy world.

The inability or unwillingness to acknowledge the yawning gap between the mythical state envisioned by religious nationalists – the one that is yesod kisei hashem ba-olam – and the actual civil state – many of the institutions of which are structurally anti-religious – prevents religious nationalists from comprehending political events and, hence, from reacting to them in a rational manner. In the mythical state, the millennial narrative unfolds slowly but inevitably, guided along by the government and its representatives. As God’s chosen agents on earth, the Labor party commanded both the loyalty and the fawning admiration of religious nationalists from before the founding of the state until God elected the Likud in 1977. The courts, the army, the rabbanut and other state agencies were all playing their roles in the entirely deterministic unfolding of redemption and as such they too commanded the loyalty of religious nationalists. To criticize them was to rebel against God’s representatives on earth.

Among the silly policies this mindset encourages are two that we considered earlier. The first is nanny state socialism. In the religious nationalist view, Jewish Government is good, so Big Jewish Government is even better. If the state was meant to assume all the roles of pre-state communities, then, in particular, it ought to gather under its benevolent wing all communal righteousness. Never mind that welfare and assorted social benefits mostly serve as a mechanism for massive subsidization of Arabs by Jews, encourage the dissolution of families and discourage actual charity. Actual consequences in the actual state are of less importance to religious nationalists than that the state, as a symbol, be seen to be righteous.

Similarly, in this view, one of the state’s main purposes is to subsidize, and hence regulate, religion. In the actual state, as opposed to the mythic one, state subsidization of religion results in market distortions that produce unmotivated state-appointed rabbanim. And regulation invites state agencies, especially courts, that are indifferent – if not hostile – to religion, to weigh in on religious matters. Religious nationalists often seem completely blind to the damage such intervention causes. In fact, when the rabbanut ruled against the views of many religious nationalists regarding conversions and shemittah, religious nationalists themselves turned to the secular courts to force the rabbanut to recant.

The divergence of religious nationalists’ mythical state and the actual state of Israel has become so great that the myth is becoming unsustainable. The Labor party and the Supreme Court long ago adopted the agenda of the unaffiliateds, the rabbanut has been infiltrated by anti-nationalists and even the army played a leading role in the “disengagement”. In short, the main actors in this drama seem to have lost the script. What is one to do? The die-hard mamlachtimquibble among themselves about which inconvenient events are mere plot twists, which are produced by rogue actors and who are the rogue actors. It is a sad spectacle.

But quietly, young religious nationalists are rejecting the worst ideological excesses of religious nationalism.

From Ben Chorin, here.

How The IDF Lies To Us

Don’t Believe Their Lies

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed

Rav Eliezer Melamed

Question: Rabbi, what is your reaction to the violent incidents which took place Monday night in the Shomron against the Brigadier Commander, Deputy Brigadier Commander, and soldiers?

Answer: I don’t know exactly what happened, but one thing I am sure: Whatever the media reports is extremely exaggerated. The media and the I.D.F.’s dubious reputation have been acquired over many years. Till this day, there hasn’t been one story which I was familiar with that was reported correctly. And I’m not talking about a slight inaccuracy due to human error, or even bias owing to a reporter’s leftwing viewpoint making it difficult for him to identify events accurately. Rather, we’re speaking about scandalous and intentional bias.

The I.D.F. spokesmen operate in this method because this is the nature of an army. The army uses all the means in its possession to defeat the enemy – including manipulation, fraud, diversion, etc. Woe unto us if the army did not prepare itself in such a way against the enemy, and woe unto us that in recent years the government and the Minister of Defense use the army and its methods against the settlers – the loyal representatives of the Jewish nation throughout history.

The erroneous reporting in the media stems from an obvious concerted attempt to malign the settlers by all possible means, in order to destroy the settlements in Judea and Samaria.

Now as well, the motivation to defame the settlers and to spread division amongst their ranks by inciting a wave of condemnations within the camp is clear – to open the way for the destruction of the outposts. And behold, the scheme has succeeded. According to reports, the Prime Minister, from the Likud Party no less, has assembled the security forces, directing them to deal with an ‘iron fist’ against so-called “Jewish terror” – in other words, to plan a wild destruction of houses in the outposts.

This position of mine is based on long, personal experience. Many of you remember the defamation spoken against me when the Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, decided to remove Yeshiva Har Bracha from the Hesder program. But now, let me recount one example out of many others.

The “Broken Leg” of Guy Hazut, Battalion Commander of the Paratroopers

On the eve of the last day of Pesach 2006 while staying at Kfar HaRo’eh, I heard the news on the radio that a serious confrontation had occurred between settlers in Har Bracha and soldiers, and that settlers had closed the settlement’s gate on the commander’s leg, and broke his leg. I was hurt and angry. How could people from our community dare do such a thing! I was realized that the media does not like us, but never in my mind did I imagine they would make-up a story that didn’t actually happen. Familiar with the heavy iron gate of the community, I thought that a group of people had confronted the battalion commander, and as he tried to enter the settlement, they forcefully closed the gate on his foot.

The true story was quite different. The gate in question is a small, flimsy, three foot-high goats’ pen fence, located on a hilltop two kilometers from the community. The Battalion Commander was chasing after a boy, who he suspected of previously throwing stones at an Arab vehicle, some four kilometers away from the community. During the chase, the Battalion Commander ran into a small post of the gate, hitting his foot. The supposedly injured Battalion Commander managed to wander around the area for another half an hour, cursing the settlers, and ordering his troops to close the two roads leading to the settlement, which at the time numbered a hundred and fifty families. And all this on the eve of the holiday! What’s more, a number of residents with health problems returning from medical check-ups were not allowed to go home for quite a long time. Along with all this, in three different incidents, Battalion Commander Hazut’s soldiers threatened settlers with their cocked weapons.

It should be noted (as the Jews in exile would point out when they attempted to persuade the authorities to treat them leniently) that amongst the community and Yeshiva, there were more over two hundred and fifty soldiers serving in both regular and reserve duty at the time. They and their families were threatened by the soldiers with cocked weapons.

Guy Hazut’s Media Expertise

When it comes to the media, Guy Hazut is quite proficient. Every event that he participated in reached the media in ‘real time’, according to his perspective, of course. After concluding his altercation with the residents, he went to the hospital to have his leg examined, while, simultaneously spreading lies to the media that the settlers had broke his leg. At the hospital, the Battalion Commander’s leg was found to be fine, and he was released immediately. Residents from the community contacted various reporters to deny the story, but the media continued to broadcast the lie, as if the settlers had beaten and injured the commander.

The bad name that Guy Hazut gave the settlement and the residents was difficult to cleanse. There was no point in arguing — no one would listen. All that can be said is – do not believe the media and the army spokesmen. No matter how much you think they’re lying, you’ll still be wrong – they lie even more.

Lies in Hebron

I give this example because, thus far, Guy Hazut has not yet apologized. Incidentally, he is presently the Hebron Brigade commander, and in the area under his command, one of his soldiers accidentally killed Rabbi Dan Marzbach ztz”l. But as is customary in the army and with Guy Hazut, on that very morning, a smoke screen of lies, falsification, and defamation against Rabbi Marzbach were spread in the media, as if he was guilty of his own killing.

Two months earlier, also in Hebron, I.D.F. spokesmen brazenly lied about the murder of Asher Palmer and his infant son Jonathan, saying they died in a car accident in which the father was guilty, having allegedly fallen asleep at the wheel. Only after a hard struggle by family, friends and public figures was the truth proven that they were killed due to Arab stone throwing – while this truth had already been known from the start. Even the I.D.F. was aware of it – the fact is that towards that very Shabbat, the army canceled the vacations of the soldiers in Judea and Samaria for fear of settler response.
“Injured” Policemen

While we’re on the subject, in every demonstration in which civilians are injured, immediately, one of the police commanders orders some of the policemen to lie on stretchers and claim they are injured, to be photographed for television, and sent to the hospital. Later on, you hear on the news: “In the demonstration, thirteen policemen were injured, as well as seven protesters.” Doctors have told me that most of the cops who come to hospitals after the demonstrations were pretenders; nothing actually happened to them, they apparently have to carry out orders to act like they’re injured and be hospitalized.

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed is the Dean of Yeshiva Har Bracha and a prolific author on Jewish Law. Rabbi Melamed is one of the most active leaders amongst the religious-Zionist public. This article was translated from his popular weekly column “Revivim” which appears in the “Basheva” newspaper. According to official media surveys, his column is the most widely read editorial amongst the religious and ultra-Orthodox public in Israel.

Rabbi Melamed’s articles also appear at: http://revivimen.yhb.org.il/

From Honenu, here.

Some Techeiles Supporters – How Many Do You Know?

TECHEILES SUPPORT

Note: This page is NOT at all a comprehensive list of Rabbonim who wear and/or support Techeiles. There are many Rabbonim, Roshei Yeshivos, Rebbes, Dayanim and Talmidei Chachamim (some that you probably know or have heard of…) that wear and/or support Murex Techeiles. Some have specifically requested not to be publicized (yet).

 

    • הרב ישראל בעלסקי שליט”א

    • הרב שריה דבליצקי שליט”א

    • הרב זלמן נחמיה גולדברג שליט״א

    • הרב שמואל נדל שליט״א

    • הרב עמרם אופמן שליט”א

    • הרב משה מרדכי קארפ שליט”א

    • הרב גרשון מלצר שליט”א


  • דעת הרב הגאון ר׳ שלמה זלמן אויערבאך זצ״ל

Letters of Support

 

הסכמת הרב בעלסקי

הרב ישראל בעלסקי שליט”א

Harav Yisroel Belsky Shlita is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Torah Vodaas and is a world-renowned Posek, as well as the Rabbinical decisor for the OU. He has given his warm Haskama to publications, education and the advancement of קיום מצות תכלת.

הרב שריה דבליצקי שליט”א

Harav Saraya Diblitzky Shlita is a well known Mekubal and Posek, and a close talmid of the Chazon Ish. He has authored numerous seforim on Halacha, Kaballa, Tefilla etc. He resides in Bnei Brak.

הסכמת הרב זלמן נחמיה

הרב זלמן נחמיה גולדברג שליט״א

Harav Zalman Nechemia Goldberg Shlita is a son-in-law of the late Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach Zatzal, and is a leading Posek in Eretz Yisrael. He heads the Beis Din Hayashar Vehatov in Yerushalayim as well as the Yeshiva Sadigura. He is consulted by many prominent Rabbonim worldwide on matters of Gittin and Choshen Mishpat.

הרב שמואל נדל שליט״א

Harav Shmuel Nadel is a well known Dayan in Bnei Brak. His letter is particularly poignant and worthwhile reading.

 

ר' עמרם אופמן

הרב עמרם אופמן שליט”א

Harav Amram Offman Shlita is a מו”ץ for the בד”ץ עדה החרדית of Yerushalayim. He has been encouraging the advancement of מצות תכלת for many years.

 

rav karp

הרב משה מרדכי קארפ שליט”א

Harav M.M. Karp Shlita is one of the leading Rabbonim and Poskim in Kiryat Sefer. He has published several Seforim including הלכות שבת בשבת וחג בחג, משמרת מועד ועוד that have gained much acclaim in the world of Torah and Halacha.

 

מצות תכלת בזמנינו

הרב גרשון מלצר שליט”א

Harav Gershon Meltzer Shlita is a well known posek and מגיד שיעור in ישיבת מיר ירושלים.


 

הרב שלמה זלמן אויערבאך

הרב הגאון ר׳ שלמה זלמן אויערבאך זצ״ל

Although Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach Zatzal (1910-1995) cannot be listed as a supporter of Murex Techeiles, this page would be incomplete without citing what he did say on the subject, and perhaps more importantly – what he did NOT say. (Some have quoted Rav Shlomo Zalman as being anti-Murex.) From the letter below two things are clear:

  1. He did not look into the subject in any significant way – “אין לי ידע חשוב בענין זה”. (Similar to what Rav Elyashiv said.)
  2. He was definitely not against the concept that Techeiles could be found prior to the coming of Moshiach. (Otherwise he would not need to say that he has not researched the subject (to Dr. Ziderman) or that he is too elderly to start a new campaign (to Rav Burstein).

The first item below is the letter he wrote to Dr. R’ Yisrael Ziderman, one of the first to research the method to produce Murex Techeiles. The second item is a transcript of the conversation between Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and Rav Menachem Burstein:

From Techeiles, here.

ראיון ישן עם הרב יצחק ברנד

הרב יצחק ברנד – להקים ממשלת צללים – 1997 – שעטת הנצח