Not just the Modern (aka Sometimes) Orthodox but also many Litvacks have lamented the extremism that has set upon the Orthodox world over recent decades. How did parnassah become osur is one common question. The nearly completely uniform dress code for men is another. The tendency towards chumros that are not in accordance with the halacha of one's father or grandfather is another issue.
Many have posed the theories -- a pulling back from the immorality of the larger world, a single-minded rebuilding after the Holocaust, a focus on mitzvos of the limbs at the expense of duties of the heart as influenced by the world's materialism. All good theories.
But I have another, one that I have never heard proposed before, and that is Zionism both the influence of it and a response to it.
Culturally, Orthodox Judaism has been based for the last half century in New York and Israel but increasingly in Israel. And Israel, contrary to the impression one may get in America when the great majority of Israels he encounters are rabbis on fund-raising trips, is a secular, military society. Due to many factors, it's a looney place. Some, in a mysterious effort to be dan l'chaf zchus on non-religious Jews, blame it all on Arab hostility -- as if we are in no way the cause of much of that.
But let's put aside the commonly ignored probability that the Talmud prohibits our seizing this land even post-Holocaust and that Arab hostility is a result of our violation of this prohibition. I still wonder if we can chock up Israeli craziness to the Arabs. There hasn't been a war here in 40 years and statistically Israel is safer than America, on average.
I propose that the craziness of Zionism is the primary cause of the craziness and the extremism, the extremism being a response to the craziness.
Jews need Torah. Jews without Torah overwhelm the world says the Gemara (Peah 85). And the founders of the State were by and large renegades from Eastern Europe. Some were misguided, some lost, some rebels against Hashem, some psychopaths. See Ben Hecht's Perfidy for more on that.
A rocket needs thrust to leave orbit. And people who want to leave religion tend to be very anti-religious as were the founders of the State. Note for example, as Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro's son did, that Jerusalem contains no streets named after the Avos or Moshe even though they are nearly all named after historic figures. The founders of modern Jerusalem were not interested in the founders of the Mesorah, only the conquerers of the land.
And so, these crazies from Europe, abandoned Judaism and embraced 19th century European nationalistic-militarism with some culture sprinkled on top. As they couldn't just use European culture and needed some of their own they stole the poetry of the Tanach, pretending it to be part of their heritage, and ignored its central message of repentance. How one could read Tanach and ignore that message is beyond me, takes huge dosages of self-deception.
And so, these crazies from Europe needed land and people and played all kinds of games to acquire both. They cozied up to the British and limited immigration in the midst of the Holocaust, even hiding the Holocaust from people who could have escaped it. Then, once the British were gone, they obstructed efforts for Holocaust refugees to emigrate to lands other than Palestine, and did this again when the Iron Curtain fell decades later.
We are talking about crazy, crazy people who set up this society. The original unfortunates who came here were regular Jews, some somewhat religious, some not, but still people possessing Jewish traits. Hence we get the cliches about the Sabra with the good heart. I have met a few like that, all over the age of 60. Their fathers are from the Ukraine or Morocco.
Their children don't have such good hearts. They are Sabra inside and out. Because today we are dealing with 4th and 5th generation Israelis who grew up with a military culture that becomes more savage with each generation. When you cut a rose from the ground it still looks like a rose for a day or two. But after a month it becomes rot.
And that's Israel today. Oh, I'm not saying it's worse than any gentile country in the world. I'm not buying into the world press. I'm saying it is a gentile country but drenched with a craziness of Jews who don't keep the Torah.
The Orthodox community here has to deal with it, and in very big ways. Americans are used to a government that mostly lets you practice your religion; although I argue that educational dictates are a serious intrusion into religion. They don't understand the the State of Israel can be terribly hostile to the Jewish religion and nowhere more so than with military service, the culture of which is the near opposite of Judaism.
Charedim in Israel have been dealing with this for decades, dealing with the incredibly traife Israeli society for decades. I believe that extremism is the result. It's an extremism that is a response to extremism, that of secular, anti-religious, militaristic, violent Israeli society. The crazies who founded the country were extremists. We are all dealing with the effects of their extremism.
Many have posed the theories -- a pulling back from the immorality of the larger world, a single-minded rebuilding after the Holocaust, a focus on mitzvos of the limbs at the expense of duties of the heart as influenced by the world's materialism. All good theories.
But I have another, one that I have never heard proposed before, and that is Zionism both the influence of it and a response to it.
Culturally, Orthodox Judaism has been based for the last half century in New York and Israel but increasingly in Israel. And Israel, contrary to the impression one may get in America when the great majority of Israels he encounters are rabbis on fund-raising trips, is a secular, military society. Due to many factors, it's a looney place. Some, in a mysterious effort to be dan l'chaf zchus on non-religious Jews, blame it all on Arab hostility -- as if we are in no way the cause of much of that.
But let's put aside the commonly ignored probability that the Talmud prohibits our seizing this land even post-Holocaust and that Arab hostility is a result of our violation of this prohibition. I still wonder if we can chock up Israeli craziness to the Arabs. There hasn't been a war here in 40 years and statistically Israel is safer than America, on average.
I propose that the craziness of Zionism is the primary cause of the craziness and the extremism, the extremism being a response to the craziness.
Jews need Torah. Jews without Torah overwhelm the world says the Gemara (Peah 85). And the founders of the State were by and large renegades from Eastern Europe. Some were misguided, some lost, some rebels against Hashem, some psychopaths. See Ben Hecht's Perfidy for more on that.
A rocket needs thrust to leave orbit. And people who want to leave religion tend to be very anti-religious as were the founders of the State. Note for example, as Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro's son did, that Jerusalem contains no streets named after the Avos or Moshe even though they are nearly all named after historic figures. The founders of modern Jerusalem were not interested in the founders of the Mesorah, only the conquerers of the land.
And so, these crazies from Europe, abandoned Judaism and embraced 19th century European nationalistic-militarism with some culture sprinkled on top. As they couldn't just use European culture and needed some of their own they stole the poetry of the Tanach, pretending it to be part of their heritage, and ignored its central message of repentance. How one could read Tanach and ignore that message is beyond me, takes huge dosages of self-deception.
And so, these crazies from Europe needed land and people and played all kinds of games to acquire both. They cozied up to the British and limited immigration in the midst of the Holocaust, even hiding the Holocaust from people who could have escaped it. Then, once the British were gone, they obstructed efforts for Holocaust refugees to emigrate to lands other than Palestine, and did this again when the Iron Curtain fell decades later.
We are talking about crazy, crazy people who set up this society. The original unfortunates who came here were regular Jews, some somewhat religious, some not, but still people possessing Jewish traits. Hence we get the cliches about the Sabra with the good heart. I have met a few like that, all over the age of 60. Their fathers are from the Ukraine or Morocco.
Their children don't have such good hearts. They are Sabra inside and out. Because today we are dealing with 4th and 5th generation Israelis who grew up with a military culture that becomes more savage with each generation. When you cut a rose from the ground it still looks like a rose for a day or two. But after a month it becomes rot.
And that's Israel today. Oh, I'm not saying it's worse than any gentile country in the world. I'm not buying into the world press. I'm saying it is a gentile country but drenched with a craziness of Jews who don't keep the Torah.
The Orthodox community here has to deal with it, and in very big ways. Americans are used to a government that mostly lets you practice your religion; although I argue that educational dictates are a serious intrusion into religion. They don't understand the the State of Israel can be terribly hostile to the Jewish religion and nowhere more so than with military service, the culture of which is the near opposite of Judaism.
Charedim in Israel have been dealing with this for decades, dealing with the incredibly traife Israeli society for decades. I believe that extremism is the result. It's an extremism that is a response to extremism, that of secular, anti-religious, militaristic, violent Israeli society. The crazies who founded the country were extremists. We are all dealing with the effects of their extremism.
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