https://cross-currents.com/2024/05/23/response-to-rav-feldman/
This is going to be short. Others might have much more to say. I would only like to contrast Rav Feldman’s approach with that of R Moshe Sternbuch, shlit”a, – whose anti-Zionist credentials are even richer than those of R Feldman – penned just a few days after Oct. 7. Here is a free translation of his words:
The Gri”z, zt”l, said a lofty thing. When the navi Yonah boarded the ship to escape to Tarshish, and Hashem brought a tempest to the sea that threatened to capsize the vessel, Yonah’s reaction was, “I am the cause of this great tempest.” Now, there were many actual idolators aboard, as it is written, “Each man cried out to his god.” Nonetheless, Yonah did not attribute the cause of the tempest to the sins of all the others on board the ship. He attributed the fault to himself. The Gri”z said that this instructs us on how to react at a time of great affliction – for, after all, only prophecies that had continued relevance to all times were recorded. At such times a person should not seek out the sins of his friend and those around him. Rather, he should say, “I am the cause of this great tempest.” He should examine his own actions, and how to repent for them.
The whole "We are the vanguard of Torah" and "It's our Torah learning that preserves the state" are now mostly a subject of ridicule for everyone else. And "Everyone else is wrong because we're right!" doesn't carry any weight outside the community anymore. No one cares what Chareidi leaders think.
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