On February 21, the Supreme Court struck down the so-called Tal Law, under which ultra-Orthodox men studying at yeshivas were granted a draft exemption. Concurrently, an equally auspicious event, from the viewpoint of the Haredi community, was held. This one was a surprise meeting between the two leaders of the ultra-Orthodox courts from Belz and Machnovka.
The meeting was the result of conciliatory efforts between the Belzer Rebbe and the Satmar Rebbe - the latest episode in a soap opera that has riveted hundreds of thousands of Haredim around the world since last January. The protagonists are the Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokach, and his brother-in-law, the head of the Satmar sect, Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum. They lead two of the largest Hasidic courts in the world, they are both 64, and they are both married to daughters of Rabbi Moshe Yehoshua Hager, the head of the Vizhnitz Hasidic dynasty and a wholesale producer of daughters for Hasidic courts (a third daughter is also married to a rebbe ). The two sisters, Sarah Rokach and Sasha Teitelbaum, played a key bridging role.
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ReplyDelete1. End of Tal Law. Oh no. What next? A law is passed that one must work?
2. If I am in association with a long term yeshiva student, that is, if I work so he can learn & not have to work, does it follow that he learns so I can work & not have to learn?
3. Many hareidi shuls won't say the Misheberach for Tzahal. So these shuls are saying that they won't asked Hashem to protect them from the arabs and that Hashem should not protect Jewish boys.
4. The concept of a Medinah (Jewish sovereignty via the State)is a separate institution from the memshalah (elected government). So if most hareidi shuls won't say any type of tefillah for the Medinah, how can one demand $$$ from the very institution despised?! And don't tell me this is not so. Having taught in yeshivas many years, I know quite well what rebbeim teach their students.
5. The hareidi leadership handed over control of Eretz Yisroel to secular Zionists 1900-1939 when they said "Don't go."
This is only HALF true because Satmar is split in two, divided between the two sons (both NOW referred to as "THE Satmer Rebbe") of the previous Satmar Rebbe, Rav Moshe Teitelbaum: Rav Aron and Rav Zalman Leib and while the Belzer Rebbe has made "peace" with his wife's brother-in-law Rav Aron Teitelbaum ONLY (mainly based in Kiryas Joel, Monroe, New York) -- the other half of Satmar, maybe even its biggest portion, is controlled by Rav Zalman Leib Teitelbaum (mainly based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn) who has NOT made "peace" with Belz and in fact, as publicly reported in some Charedi media sources, recently attacked and denounced the Belzer Rebbe's statements and called him various derogatory names for backing off from taking on the Zionists in Israel and it's therefore highly doubtful if there will ever be real "peace" between Satmar and Belz as long as Rav Zalman Leib Teitelbaum and his half of the Satmar dynasty remain 100% opposed to the Belzer Rebbe and to the Belzer movement.
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