It seems sometimes in the Mistake of Israel that anybody who isn't anti-religious, which essentially is most of the country, is Charedi, ie. claims to be. Oh I'm Charedi. Oh he's Charedi. That's what one hears from people as they march along with their smart phones, flags, and blue jeans. And I won't even give you a picture of how their wives and daughters dress and conduct themselves. They are all Charedi. I suspect that they make this claim because they see that irr-Religious Zionism is so empty. Oh, they still buy into all the myths about the Mistake and the army but they see intuitively that there's nothing else there. They want to latch onto the rich life of real Charedim, and the easy way to do that is with a simple declaration.
And what about most of the country being anti-religious, well that's not necessarily how they'd describe themselves. After all, some have religious brothers and sisters and grandmothers. Some are just not hostile people and aren't loud and proud enough to take on 4,000 years of tradition. Not wholesale. They think this is stupid and that's stupid and this isn't for them and that isn't for them. But they wouldn't call themselves anti-religious even though if you add up all the little opinions you get one big opinion of anti-religiosity.
I say often here that I came to the Mistake of Israel slightly positive on the subject of Zionism. I was suspicious of parts but trying hard to buy into the prevailing view of people in my life that the Mistake was a good thing in, if for nothing else, all the wonderful help it was giving Jews to be Jewish.
I came to see very quickly that there was very little that was Jewish about this place. It's like what Rabbi Miller says about colleges. They are heretical in their foundations. If you find some good there - like honor codes - that's just a byproduct of the training students and professors got from their upbringings. It isn't a product of the colleges themselves. So too in Israel one finds some Jewishness but it's not because of the Mistake. It's in spite of it.
And so we have a country that steals the symbols of Judaism, steals the language, steals the literature even as it ignores the central message of that literature, steals the holidays - well the dates of those holidays and a sliver of its customs, even steals the little sympathy we get for our sufferings and then boldly - everything here is bold - proclaims itself the Jewish State.
It's all a lie, all a fraud. And in that fraudulent environment we get the fraudulent Charedim.
So earlier this week I had an event to attend in Jerusalem. The invitation had on it only a street address. Now Charedim are in a tough position today because we don't have smart phones and really need maps to get places and maps aren't so common today or detailed. But obviously I have Internet access - with a strong filter - so I entered the address in Google maps. Well to make the story short, Google had the address wrong and placed the location in the middle of a mall. I spent two hours walking around and near that mall to find the right place. I asked at least two dozen people for this place and none had ever heard of it. Next to nobody in this land of selfishness gave me the time of day or any real help. It was an unbelievably exasperating situation.
And here's what would have circumvented the problem - an invitation with some directions, maybe a cross street. The address was a boulevard that's over 7 km long so a cross street would have been very helpful. Or a landmark. Half a km up from the mall would have been a good one. But it seems the creator of the invitation was as selfish or just unthinking or just as fake Charedi as the people in the mall. I'll add that this was supposed to be a Charedi event but I would call it a fake Charedi event not just because of the situation with the directions but the event itself.
Eventually, I got there with the help of an Anglo baalas teshuvah that I knew to live in the general area. I called her and she helped me. I mention that she is a BT because it is my belief that growing up amongst the goyim is where she learned to be nice and helpful.
When I went to some or the organizers to explain, they all denied all fault. The address is correct all of them said separately as if they had planned the response. You see, Israelis are always right.
So on the way home, after I calmed down, I stopped off in a non-zionist yeshiva because I realized I was passing it and had been wanting to stop in to meet a talmid chocham who runs the place. Now this place is a little hard to find but a few weeks ago when I was first trying to find it a true Charedi man who I approached at the bus stop walked me over to it, taking about 8 minutes of his time at the risk of missing his bus. And this time a different true Charedi man of the non-zionist variety told me that the rav wasn't there but was home and walked me over to it. The rav welcomed me into his home and was as kind and humble as could be.
You see these are the real Charedim. They show us we don't need to learn helpfulness from the goyim. The good Jews are even better at it. But somehow these real Charedim and good Jews also happen to be fiercely anti-zionist.
Somehow? No it isn't just correlation. You can't be religious and zionist at the same. The term Chardal - or Charedi Dati Leumi - is a contradiction in terms. You can't be Charedi Religious Zionist. You can't even be Religious Zionist. That's why I often add the prefix irr before the term Religious Zionist. Oh, they may keep Shabbos and practice religion in some way but in a way like the Northern Kingdom during the first Temple. They keep some things even as they worship idols. That's what zionism is, an idol worship. And like all avodah zara, it produces selfish people which is what most of the world is today, not just including secular Israelis but especially secular Israelis.
But the real Charedim, oh, what a delight they are. And this week I saw the contrast. Night and day.
And what about most of the country being anti-religious, well that's not necessarily how they'd describe themselves. After all, some have religious brothers and sisters and grandmothers. Some are just not hostile people and aren't loud and proud enough to take on 4,000 years of tradition. Not wholesale. They think this is stupid and that's stupid and this isn't for them and that isn't for them. But they wouldn't call themselves anti-religious even though if you add up all the little opinions you get one big opinion of anti-religiosity.
I say often here that I came to the Mistake of Israel slightly positive on the subject of Zionism. I was suspicious of parts but trying hard to buy into the prevailing view of people in my life that the Mistake was a good thing in, if for nothing else, all the wonderful help it was giving Jews to be Jewish.
I came to see very quickly that there was very little that was Jewish about this place. It's like what Rabbi Miller says about colleges. They are heretical in their foundations. If you find some good there - like honor codes - that's just a byproduct of the training students and professors got from their upbringings. It isn't a product of the colleges themselves. So too in Israel one finds some Jewishness but it's not because of the Mistake. It's in spite of it.
And so we have a country that steals the symbols of Judaism, steals the language, steals the literature even as it ignores the central message of that literature, steals the holidays - well the dates of those holidays and a sliver of its customs, even steals the little sympathy we get for our sufferings and then boldly - everything here is bold - proclaims itself the Jewish State.
It's all a lie, all a fraud. And in that fraudulent environment we get the fraudulent Charedim.
So earlier this week I had an event to attend in Jerusalem. The invitation had on it only a street address. Now Charedim are in a tough position today because we don't have smart phones and really need maps to get places and maps aren't so common today or detailed. But obviously I have Internet access - with a strong filter - so I entered the address in Google maps. Well to make the story short, Google had the address wrong and placed the location in the middle of a mall. I spent two hours walking around and near that mall to find the right place. I asked at least two dozen people for this place and none had ever heard of it. Next to nobody in this land of selfishness gave me the time of day or any real help. It was an unbelievably exasperating situation.
And here's what would have circumvented the problem - an invitation with some directions, maybe a cross street. The address was a boulevard that's over 7 km long so a cross street would have been very helpful. Or a landmark. Half a km up from the mall would have been a good one. But it seems the creator of the invitation was as selfish or just unthinking or just as fake Charedi as the people in the mall. I'll add that this was supposed to be a Charedi event but I would call it a fake Charedi event not just because of the situation with the directions but the event itself.
Eventually, I got there with the help of an Anglo baalas teshuvah that I knew to live in the general area. I called her and she helped me. I mention that she is a BT because it is my belief that growing up amongst the goyim is where she learned to be nice and helpful.
When I went to some or the organizers to explain, they all denied all fault. The address is correct all of them said separately as if they had planned the response. You see, Israelis are always right.
So on the way home, after I calmed down, I stopped off in a non-zionist yeshiva because I realized I was passing it and had been wanting to stop in to meet a talmid chocham who runs the place. Now this place is a little hard to find but a few weeks ago when I was first trying to find it a true Charedi man who I approached at the bus stop walked me over to it, taking about 8 minutes of his time at the risk of missing his bus. And this time a different true Charedi man of the non-zionist variety told me that the rav wasn't there but was home and walked me over to it. The rav welcomed me into his home and was as kind and humble as could be.
You see these are the real Charedim. They show us we don't need to learn helpfulness from the goyim. The good Jews are even better at it. But somehow these real Charedim and good Jews also happen to be fiercely anti-zionist.
Somehow? No it isn't just correlation. You can't be religious and zionist at the same. The term Chardal - or Charedi Dati Leumi - is a contradiction in terms. You can't be Charedi Religious Zionist. You can't even be Religious Zionist. That's why I often add the prefix irr before the term Religious Zionist. Oh, they may keep Shabbos and practice religion in some way but in a way like the Northern Kingdom during the first Temple. They keep some things even as they worship idols. That's what zionism is, an idol worship. And like all avodah zara, it produces selfish people which is what most of the world is today, not just including secular Israelis but especially secular Israelis.
But the real Charedim, oh, what a delight they are. And this week I saw the contrast. Night and day.
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