Why Do They Keep Boasting?
These are difficult days for Israel. One of Netanyahu’s most ardent detractors actually wrote something positive about him. “Perhaps Netanyahu has changed,” he admitted. “Or perhaps he was never really what we thought.” What he meant was that Netanyahu has turned out to be absolutely consistent; he has been sounding the warning for years about the Iranian threat (and rightly so, considering that Iran’s nuclear program was close to completion), and when the moment of truth arrived, he did not hesitate to take action. And that action was successful. Israel has been preparing for this operation for many years; further details on the bold operation and its success appear in a separate article.
Last week Binyomin Netanyahu visited to the Kosel on Thursday and began increasing his use of the phrase “b’ezras Hashem.” This reminded me of when Shlomo Lorentz, a member of the Knesset and confidant of Rav Shach, told an unfortunate story: During the Yom Kippur War, he asked then-Prime Minister Golda Meir to mention Hashem in her speeches to the Knesset and the media. Meir responded in complete seriousness, “If I do that, the people will think we are on the brink of obliteration.”
I once did some research and discovered that whenever the heads of state boasted about Israel’s strength and the power of the IDF, the country suffered a blow shortly thereafter. I demonstrated this by tracing the statements of prime ministers ranging from Ben-Gurion to Menachem Begin, as well as numerous chiefs of staff and IDF officers from the era of the Yom Kippur War through the October 7 massacre. Hence, I found it very encouraging to observe that Netanyahu may have learned that we must turn to Hashem for salvation at critical moments. I was also quite saddened to hear Defense Minister Yisroel Katz declaring haughtily this week, “Anyone who attacks us will be brought to their knees.” A little humility never hurts, especially at a time like this, when the Attribute of Judgment is clearly in force.
Broken Windows in Bnei Brak
Let me just summarize a few of the events of recent days to give you an idea of what has been happening: A missile strike on a multistory building in Bat Yam claimed the lives of eleven people. At 6:00 in the morning on Sunday, Magen David Adom reported that at least 200 wounded victims had been evacuated from various places throughout the country, most of them from the building in Bat Yam. Earlier that morning, the media reported that Teheran had threatened a devastating reprisal after the attack on their refinery and responded with the largest barrage yet, with 100 missiles launched. In addition to the strikes in the village of Tamra, in Rechovot, in Tel Aviv, and in Bat Yam, the missiles struck other places as well. Some landed in open areas, and others did not explode or disintegrated. But the vast majority of the Iranian missiles were intercepted!
In Bnei Brak, unlike elsewhere in the country, residents were calm. The Chazon Ish famously said that the zechus of Torah learning will prevent missiles from landing in the city, and they relied on his promise. To be honest, I felt the same confidence in Yerushalayim, since my own neighborhood of Givat Shaul is similar to Bnei Brak; it is a community steeped in Torah and chessed. I began to feel fear only when I heard that shrapnel had fallen in Har Nof and in the city of Elad. I don’t know if anyone in America has had the opportunity to experience this sense of fear mixed with the clear knowledge that everything that occurs in the world is the product of a Heavenly decree. A baal teshuvah once related that he received a drink from Rav Uri Zohar, who asked him to recite a brocha over it. Rav Uri taught him the brocha of shehakol nihyeh b’dvaro, which states that everything occurs on Hashem’s command, and the man shouted the words of the brocha, adding on his own, “Literally everything!” I have had a taste of this feeling as well: On leil Shabbos and then again on motzoei Shabbos, I witnessed the missiles flying through the Yerushalayim sky, and I watched the interceptions taking place in midair. Through it all, I felt that I was living through a real-life fulfillment of the tefillah of Al Hanissim.
Let me add a story about the recent events in Bnei Brak. There is a talented, affable gentleman named Yehoshua Mandel who lives in Bnei Brak. He is a Vizhnitzer chossid, and he is also a deputy mayor of the city. On Friday night, he was at the Rebbe’s tish in the bais medrash of Vizhnitz, along with thousands of other chassidim. The Vizhnitzer Rebbe recently returned from Los Angeles, where he underwent an operation, and is currently being treated at Hadassah Hospital in Yerushalayim while temporarily residing in Moshav Orah near the hospital during the week. On Friday night, the Rebbe was in Bnei Brak and everyone was excited by his presence. Reb Yehoshua informed me on motzoei Shabbos, “On Friday night, in the middle of the tish, a yungerman who drives an ambulance arrived. He told us that he had been summoned to the home of a secular woman on Rechov Tirtzah in Ramat Vegan, who lived alone with her two children. ‘To which hospital should I take you?’ he asked her, and the woman replied, ‘No hospital at all! Take me to Bnei Brak, where there are no missiles.’ He brought her to Rechov Golomb, which is on the border of Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan, but the woman refused to get out of the ambulance there. ‘This isn’t Bnei Brak,’ she insisted. ‘Take me to Rechov Chazon Ish, in the middle of the city!’”
I also received an update on events in Bnei Brak from a yungerman who lives on Rechov Chazon Ish. This yungerman informed me that when a missile hit Ramat Gan on motzoei Shabbos¸ it shattered a number of windowpanes in Bnei Brak. “The missile landed on Rechov Tirtzah, which is on the border between Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan,” he said. “I was in the safe room in my house, and the force of the impact caused me to fall to the floor. The windows shook from the impact, and we realized that the missile had landed nearby. We were terrified. I later discovered that the homes on the nearby Rechov Beeri and Rechov Aluf Simchoni had been damaged. Windows were shattered in dozens of apartments in Bnei Brak. Of course, I went to see the damage in Ramat Gan, and hundreds of other people from Bnei Brak did the same. The site of the missile strike was eerily close, and the destruction was awful. We felt that we had experienced a genuine miracle.”
My Own Aborted Travel Plans
Not long ago, I was invited to visit a city named Sarajevo this week. All I know about the city is that it is located in a country named Bosnia, where there are virtually no Jews. Bosnia is a Muslim country, and the Standing Committee of the Conference of European Rabbis was scheduled to hold a conference there on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I was invited to attend along with a number of rabbonim and other journalists from Israel. The conference was due to be attended by chief rabbis of various countries and cities throughout Europe, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Great Britain, and the participants planned to discuss all the important issues affecting the lives of Jews in Europe. I presume that the subject of anti-Semitism would have been at the top of the agenda.
I wasn’t certain whether I should attend the conference. In the past, I have always accepted the invitations I received from Rav Aharon Shmuel Baskin and Gadi Gronich to attend these events, not only because I admire the CER and relish the chance to meet with Dayan Menachem Gelley of London, but also because the conferences always provide me with enriching material to share with my readers. I have taken advantage of every conference to interview rabbonim from different countries. This time, for some reason, I felt that the exertion involved in the trip would be too great. And when Rav Pinchos Halevi Lipschutz visited Israel for Shavuos, he agreed to exempt me from attending the conference this time.
In the interim, the conference shifted to a different location after a minister in the Bosnian government spoke out sharply against the holding the event in Sarajevo at a time when Israel is “murdering” children in Gaza. Denouncing Israel as “an entity that commits genocide and despicable crimes against humanity,” he called on the government to prevent the conference from taking place. A Muslim cleric echoed his anti-Semitic call, and the president of the CER, Rav Pinchos Goldschmidt, decided to move the conference to Munich while speaking out against the provocation. “This sudden boycott led by a government minister against Jewish citizens of Europe, whose sole intent is to promote Jewish life on the continent and engage in democratic dialogue, is an outrage,” Rav Goldschmidt said. “The conventions of the Conference of European Rabbis are meant to advance dialogue, to increase interfaith activities, and to encourage civic involvement. We thank the Bavarian government for supporting the transfer of the event to Munich, and we will continue to act without hesitation for the benefit of Jewish communities throughout Europe.”
I received an invitation to attend the event in Munich as well, but I made a recent visit to the city and wrote about it for this newspaper, so I graciously declined this invitation as well. Twenty-four hours later, I discovered that it would be impossible to leave the country in any event, regardless of whether I would be traveling to Munich, Sarajevo, or any other destination. The guests from Israel will now be participating in the conference on Zoom.
Goldknopf’s Resignation
But let’s put aside the missiles and sirens for a moment and turn our focus to political matters, which suddenly seem so puny and insignificant—but with all due respect to these harrowing events, the need to protect the Torah world and the country’s yeshiva bochurim and kollel yungeleit has not gone away. Last week, if you recall, I wrote at length about the political atmosphere, the unresolved draft law, and the prospect that the chareidim would vote to dissolve the Knesset. The situation is truly problematic. For a long time, the chareidi parties have found themselves between the proverbial rock and a hard place, understanding that any draft law that they could tolerate would likely be struck down by the Supreme Court, and any law that the Supreme Court would accept is likely to be intolerable for the religious populace. As I mentioned in an article last week, there was a strong possibility that the chareidi vote would be split when the bill to dissolve the Knesset was introduced. I also mentioned that Netanyahu argued to the chareidim that it is not a good time to weaken the government or the country, due to the Iranian threat. I knew that he had made that statement behind closed doors; I simply didn’t know the full scope of what he had in mind.
As it turns out, I was right about the split in the chareidi vote. Two members of Agudas Yisroel supported the bill to dissolve the Knesset: Yaakov Tessler, who represents Vizhnitz, and Moshe Roth, the representative of Sanz. Tessler was obligated to vote in favor of the bill, since he entered the Knesset under the Norwegian Law and took the seat of Uri Maklev, who serves as a deputy minister, while Yitzchok Goldknopf likewise ceded his seat under the Norwegian Law and was replaced by Eliyohu Bruchi of Degel HaTorah. In short, due to political agreements within the party, Tessler had no choice but to go along with Goldknopf, who represents Ger, and the Gerrer position was in favor of the bill. Yisroel Eichler voted against it, as did the members of Degel HaTorah and Shas. Meir Porush did not vote, since he is not a Knesset member; his seat is occupied by Yitzchok Pindrus. As you are undoubtedly aware, the bill did not pass; it was voted down by a majority of 61 to 53. And while it has been less than a week since that vote, it now seems like ancient history.
At the same time that the bill was voted down, Yitzchok Goldknopf sent a letter of resignation to the prime minister, informing him that he was stepping down from his ministerial position. His letter quoted the clause in the coalition agreement stipulating that the status of talmidei yeshivos would be regulated at the same time that the budget for the year 2023 was passed, and that the Knesset would pass a new law termed “Basic Law: Torah Study,” which would carry the same weight as the Basic Law: Equality. Goldknopf noted that the Knesset is in the process of discussing the budget for the year 2025, the third state budget to be passed since the coalition was formed, while a new draft law is still not on the horizon, despite the clear written and oral commitments that were made on several occasions. Making it clear that he would continue to push for the coalition to honor its commitments, the resigning minister wrote, “During these days, when the Likud party has returned to routine and is advancing the judicial reform, we demand the immediate fulfillment of the commitment that was given to pass an amendment to the Security Service Law.” The members of Agudas Yisroel (Goldknopf, Tessler, and Roth) warned Netanyahu that they would no longer settle for mere talk and verbal promises to pass a law in the future. “We insist that the status of all lomdei Torah in the country be legalized immediately. Therefore, we hereby inform you that in accordance with the instructions of our rabbonim, the members of the Agudas Yisroel party will vote against the passage of the budget as long as the issue of the bnei yeshivos hasn’t been resolved.”
What will happen next? There is no question that Netanyahu will work hard to accelerate the process of passing a new draft law. For that purpose, he will have to force several recalcitrant members of the Likud party to go along with the initiative. But Israel is at war, and there is no way to predict how long this process will take.
There Are Many Apikorsim Even Today
Have you ever seen a person sitting on a tree branch and vigorously sawing the branch off the tree? A person would have to be mentally deficient in order to engage in such an act. Yet the State of Israel is waging a fierce battle against Torah learners, failing to understand—with its severe myopia and lack of sense—that this is no different than cutting a tree branch that is holding one up in midair. Unfortunately, a small group of eirev rav holds the reins of power in this country, and they have adopted the twisted view that bnei Torah contribute nothing to the society in which they live. Any effort to convince them otherwise would be akin to trying to explain color to a blind man.
Rav Dov Yaffe once said, “The mortal eyes of apikorsim see the benefit that is brought to the world by working people, such as the farmers who provide food and the doctors who treat ailments, but they do not see the benefit that the world receives from those who learn Torah.” He went on to quote a passage in the Nefesh Hachaim: “The truth, without any doubt at all, is that if the entire world, from one end to the other, were to be devoid of our involvement and contemplation of the Torah even for a single moment, chas v’shalom¸ all the worlds would be destroyed instantly and would be reduced to nothingness and emptiness.” Rav Yaffe added that Rav Elya Lopian used to point out that the city of Sodom would have been saved from destruction if there were enough tzaddikim there, even if the people of Sodom continued practicing their wicked deeds. The inhabitants of Sodom wouldn’t even have known that the tzaddikim were the cause of their survival, and they would have continued viewing them as nonproductive idlers whose presence had no value. He also quoted the Chofetz Chaim’s famous comment that the bochurim in the yeshiva in Radin had effectively “donated” hundreds of beds to the local hospital, since their intensive Torah learning prevented hundreds of people from becoming ill.
“Rav Elya’s point was to sharpen the awareness that even during our days, unfortunately, there are many apikorsim who denigrate bnei Torah, claiming that they do not contribute to the security and economy of the state,” Rav Yaffe added. “In response to their misguided attitude, we must strengthen our recognition of the truth. Torah learners are humanity’s elite and sustain the entire world. We can never know how many evil decrees were averted because of them.”
Amsalem’s Rebuke
Dudu Amsalem’s fiery speeches in the Knesset have become such a fixture that a member of the opposition recently complained at the Knesset podium, “We file our motions of no confidence in the government, and Amsalem gets up every week and goes berserk!” Of course, he should really take a long look in the mirror rather than complaining about Amsalem’s attacks. If the opposition stops filing motions to bring down the government, Amsalem’s responses will stop as well.
Last Monday, Amsalem delivered another round of stinging criticism to the opposition. “The left in the State of Israel has everything,” he declared. “They have the media, soldiers, and a ton of money. They are lacking only one thing, which isn’t all that important: ballots in the voting booth.” He went on to respond to MK Matan Kahana, who had presented the latest motion of no confidence. “I believe, as you do, that the Torah is a supreme value in the State of Israel,” Amsalem said. “Without the Torah, the people of Israel would not exist; that is a fact. Even when they had no state of their own, even when they were victims of pogroms, the Jews have always held on to their Torah…. There are people who walk around in our state, some of whom call themselves Jews, and some of them do not even know what that means and feel that we should be like all the nations. Therefore, I feel that the study of the Torah should be a supreme value. It is no less important, in my view, than enlisting in the IDF. I once said that I consider it a weakness that I am not capable of learning Torah all day long; it’s too difficult for me. If I were capable of it, I would do it, because I believe that it is the best thing one can do for the people of Israel.”
The members of the Knesset are no longer surprised by Dudu Amsalem. Week after week, Amsalem manages to neatly undercut their venomous invective. “I am merely responding to you,” he says from time to time, in a mock apology for puncturing their arguments.
“Let me tell you something, Matan,” he continued last Monday. “No one really wants chareidim in the IDF. As soon as the first battalion of chareidim joins the army, there will be protests on Rechov Kaplan calling for them to be expelled, or not promoted, or kept at the lowest possible rank. Just look at what they are doing to Zini, and look what they are doing to the head of the Central Command. They abhor the thought that the chareidim will take over the army; it would drive them mad. In fact, they don’t really want to draft chareidim. They are terrified of the prospect. Imagine that the Central Command was headed by a general who wore a shtreimel on Shabbos. That would devastate them. They would dub our army ‘the Khomeini army.’
“There is a process that is beginning now, and there are many concerns,” Amsalem said. “The average chareidi father might say, ‘Look, I want to send my son to the army as a chareidi and have him return as a chareidi. That is what interests me.’ Their cries express pain and fear. They want to enlist in the IDF, but they do not trust the IDF, because the army has broken all the agreements that it made in the past. The IDF has no intention or desire to establish an army of chareidim; they do not want to create the proper conditions for chareidim. That is the truth. When the first brigade was opened in the IDF for the chareidim, there was an agreement that the army did not honor….”
Despite the interjections from his audience, Amsalem held his own. “A chareidi father sends his son to yeshiva with the knowledge that he is condemning him to a life of crushing poverty,” he said. “That is totally irrational. A sane person wants his family to have all the means that they need to support themselves. So why does a chareidi father do this? Because he believes that this is what is best for the nation of Israel, even if some people here think that he is wrong. That is his belief. If we want to integrate them into the army, we need to embrace them, not to threaten them with all these sanctions. Now, just as food for thought, do you really think that these sanctions will bring even one chareidi to the army? We both know that it won’t happen…. The next punishment will be that they won’t be allowed to buy subsidized items in the grocery store. Then we will ban them from voting for the Knesset, and then they will be banished from the country. Why not? Incidentally, just remember that I submitted a petition to the Supreme Court to require the Arabs to perform national service. To date, Justice Amit has postponed a hearing on this case seven times, and now it has been delayed until after the Yomim Tovim. He is waiting to see if the government will fall and he will not have to deal with the issue.”
Defending Torah and Tefillin in the Public School System
The liberal community’s battle against tefillin may have reached its conclusion. Minister of Education Yoav Kisch recently announced that an official policy will be formulated concerning tefillin in the country’s schools. Under his direction, the ministry’s staff has begun drafting a “director’s order,” an official document that is binding on every school principal in the country, containing clear regulations that require all students to be permitted to wear tefillin in schools. “This is a basic right and fundamental value in the State of Israel,” Kisch declared. “The school system under my leadership is restoring the centrality of the Jewish and Zionist identity, and wearing tefillin is an inseparable component of that identity. We will regulate this issue clearly and definitively with a director’s order.” Orel Malik, the young man from the Ohel Shem high school in Ramat Gan, can be certain that he has aced his practical test.
This issue was slated to be discussed on Tuesday in the Knesset Education Committee; however, since all committee sessions have been canceled for this week, it seems that the discussion will not take place as planned. Nevertheless, the day will soon come when no school administrators will be able to prevent secular students from wearing tefillin. If I understood correctly, the debate will focus on whether the students will be able to set up tefillin stands in the school courtyards or will be required to confine their activities to classrooms. I plan to monitor this story and update you as it develops.
On a somewhat related note, MK Galit Distal took a strong stand on behalf of the Torah once again in the Knesset this week. Distal had a fierce debate with a Reform rabbi when he appeared before the Special Subcommittee for Jewish Identity, where she serves as chairwoman. At the end of their argument, Distal turned to the ushers and said, “Please remove him from the room. The Jews would like to continue the discussion without his presence.” In other words, she does not consider him a Jew!
“Reform is not Judaism,” Distal declared firmly in the Knesset. “Judaism is spirituality from beginning to end. You [the liberals] have no concept of what it means. It won’t help you to exploit our holy, wonderful Judaism to claim that we are trying to destroy you and exploit you as if we were all racists and bigots. You can continue fearmongering, and you can repeat your lies over and over, using the same stereotypes to foment strife and hatred, but it won’t get you anywhere. The students in Israel will learn Torah, they will learn Tanach, and they will finally learn what it means to be a Jew, despite you and your opposition.”
Kosel Stones to Be Returned
Sometimes, the Knesset actually accomplishes something rather than merely treading water. The case of tefillin in schools is one example; it began with a motion for the agenda, and it seems that the conflict will soon be resolved. This week, the Knesset apparently scored another important accomplishment as well.
Two weeks ago, a discussion was held in the Kosel tunnels concerning the stones that were taken from the Kosel and put on display in several locations: at the president’s official residence, in the Knesset building, in the Israel Museum, in the center of Tel Aviv, and, most recently, at Ben Gurion Airport. There were many participants in the discussion, including representatives of the Antiquities Authority. They listened to the chief rabbis and Rav Shmuel Rabinovich, the rov of the Kosel, who conveyed the halachic position of Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl. After the three rabbonim unequivocally demanded the return of the stones to the Kosel, they promised to bring the stones back to their rightful place.
This is indeed an accomplishment for the Knesset. The issue was raised in the Knesset several months ago by MK Avrohom Betzalel, who presented the uncompromising psak on the issue voiced by Rav Shmuel Rabinovich on the instructions of his rebbi, Rav Avigdor Nebenzahl. In response to his speech, the government announced that it would implement any decision made by the chief rabbis; if they ordered the stones returned to the Kosel, the government would comply. The discussion in the Kosel tunnels was the next step in that process.
As I said, sometimes the Knesset actually gets something done.
Rav Ovadiah’s Yarmulke at Yad Vashem
Let me end this week’s column with an interesting story. I recently encountered Avigdor Lieberman at Yad Vashem, but he was a very different man from the Lieberman we all know. Gone was the raging demagogue from the Yisroel Beiteinu party meetings and the aggressor with his explosive outbursts against the world of kollelim and yeshivos. Lieberman arrived wearing a black yarmulke, dispensing smiles and embraces and dripping politeness and pleasantness. Like everyone else at the event, he vied for a few moments with Rav Yisroel Meir Lau, the chairman of Yad Vashem and host of the event. In the Yad Vashem shul, Lieberman delivered an emotional speech about his late father, Lev Lieberman, who insisted on fighting in the Russian army along with his brother to combat the Nazis. “My father’s brother was named Velvel,” Yvette Lieberman said. “Just as we pass on the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim from father to son and from generation to generation, we must do the same with the story of the victory over the Nazis,” he added. “Eighty years have passed, and we must tell the story to our children and grandchildren.”
The event at Yad Vashem was held in honor of German (Gavriel) Zakharyaev, who is a very interesting individual. Zakharyaev’s office is located in one of the largest commercial centers in a suburb of Moscow—a commercial center that he owns in its entirety. He is a member of the Caucasian community and heads a network of Torah and chessed institutions that bring honor to the Jews of the Caucasus in many places in the world, including Israel. Zakharyaev is suffused with love for his fellow Jews and has been blessed with the warmth and caring heart that typifies many Sephardic Jews. In his speech at Vad Vashem, he praised the Shas party and Yisroel Beiteinu for helping him pass the law concerning the Day of Liberation and Salvation, which is celebrated with a ceremony at the Kosel on the Hebrew anniversary of the Nazis’ defeat. The law was passed by the Shas party, and Yisroel Beiteinu did not interfere with it. Zakharyaev wore an unusual, eye-catching yarmulke at the event, and his aide, Dovid Mordechaiev, revealed to me, “German values that kippah very much. It was worn by Rav Ovadiah Yosef!”
Yad Vashem was founded as a memorial for the victims of the Holocaust. In recent years, it has managed to patch up its relationship with the chareidi community, largely due to Rav Yisroel Meir Lau and the chareidi employees of the institution. At this event, I discovered that they also know how to honor their donors. The event in honor of Zakharyaev was perfect in every sense. The guest list included the Russian ambassador to Israel, former General Uzi Dayan (who wore a gun tucked into his waistband), Dani Dayan (who was the Israeli consul in New York until recently, and works in Yad Vashem today), and an assortment of other interesting individuals. I had never toured Yad Vashem before, and it was quite an experience for me. I didn’t enter the memorial halls, but I had a chance to take in the spacious institution and its impressive-looking shul. From the balcony, I observed several Jewish artifacts, such as an aron kodesh similar to the one in the Ponovezh yeshiva that originated in the apple merchants’ shul in the city of Iasi, Romania. Parts of another aron Kodesh were brought from Harlau, Romania. Elegant pomegranates decorating the sefer Torah came from the Adas Yisroel shul in Nurenberg, Germany, and a mantel for the sefer Torah came from a shul in Thessaloniki, while a Polish menorah rounded out the collection. The top of the menorah bore a sculpture of an eagle, which was the symbol of Polish royalty, on which were engraved the words “l’hadlik ner shel Shabbos.” I do not know why it refers to Shabbos rather than Chanukah.
