Real world diplomacy: Basketball player meets N Korean dictator

Weiss-Dodelson case: Rejection of Rosh Yeshivas letter

Rabbi Dovid E. Eidensohn

/2 Phyllis Terrace/Monsey, NY 10952

 phone 1-845-578-1917

21 Adar 5773

A  signed letter from major Rosh Yeshivas has been issued attacking Rabbi Avrohom Mayer Weiss for not giving his wife, a Dodelson, a GET. The letter declares three things: One, that the Siruv given the husband by Beth Din Machon LiHorah requires everyone to treat him as if he was in Cherem. Two, everyone should pressure him with public humiliations and by taking away his livelihood to force him to give his wife a GET.

All three things are completely wrong. Let us begin with the Siruv issued by Beth Din Machon LiHorah. Yes, they issued a Siruv and claimed that he did not respond to their demand that he go to a Beth Din to settle his issues with his wife. But there is another Beth Din, that of Rav Gestetner  in Monsey, that has issued a Bitul Siruv, claiming that the husband acted in a proper way and did accept the obligation to go to a Beth Din. The family claims that it has over twenty pages of proof [click here to view them]  in writing that they did accept the demand by Machon LiHorah to enter the Beth Din process to resolve the issues with his wife.  So the issue must be resolved by a third Beth Din, impartial and fearless and not the cousin of the wife as in this letter.

Number two,  is the mistaken demand made by the Rosh Yeshivas that everyone publicly humiliate him.  Humiliating a husband so that he is coerced to give a GET makes an invalid GET. This is taught in the Rashbo VII:414, Radvaz II:118, Bet  Yose 154 DH kosuve,  and Chazon Ish 108:12. If the humiliation is very strong, such as the kind of humiliations demanded by the Rosh Yeshivas, Rabbeinu Yona considers it worse than murder (Shaarei Teshuva 139). See Brochose 23Aa Talmid Chochom  was humiliated in public and committed suicide.  Surely  severe humiliation creates an invalid GET.

The same is true of the demand by the Rosh Yeshivas that people take away the parnoso of the husband. This is fiscal coercion that renders a GET invalid.  See Choshen Mishpot 205:7 Ramo, Gro and others based on the sugya of Pardiso in Bovo Basro; Michtov MaEliyohu Simon 19.

Anyone who signed this document is not educated in the laws of Gittin or Choshen Mishpot. The fact that Rosh Yeshivas sign together with a cousin of one side and pasken as if they are the Beth Din  even though they were accepted by only one side and did not hear the side of the husband shows they are ignorant of the most basic laws of Beth Din.

The Beth Din of HaGaon  Rav Nissim Karelitz  shlit”o in Bnei Braq has recently issued a letter stating that anyone who humiliates a husband or damages his income to force a GET has produced an invalid GET.

The  letter from the Rosh Yeshivas in utter defiance of the most basic laws of Choshen Mishpot and Even Hoezer is wrong and is a disgrace.  For shame.

Shalom,

Dovid Eidensohn

Musmach liRosh Beth Din of Gittin by Posek HaDor HaGadole Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashev zt”l

Netanyahu & the Charedim in the crosshairs & at the crossroads

Guest post by RaP

Why is it taking so long for all the political parties in Israel to agree to come together and form a government for the good of the people?

Many people are puzzled by this great question, that after four weeks of trying and dealing with such intelligent party leaders, yet PM Netanyahu cannot form a coalition government. He has just received a two-week extension after four weeks of trying.

One would think that with the threat of Iran going more nuclear by the day; Syria in civil war spasms; Hamas and Hezbollah primed like vipers to strike Israel with rockets; Egypt dominated by the new Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated regime; hostile Arabs; rebellious Palestinians; 300,000+ gentiles from the former USSR who have no Jewish identity; porous borders to patrol; poverty; housing shortages; educational challenges in a high tech world; economic threats; worries about what America and Europe could do to harm Israel; and much more, that the Israeli political leadership would come together quickly and face the threats seriously and efficiently.

But no, that is not what they are doing. Firstly there are two new actors on the political stage who have never held any office before with large parties behind them: TV showman Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid (19 seats) and businessman Naftali Bennett of Bayit Yehudi (12 seats), who are acting according to their own agenda of essentially creating a situation that could destroy Netanyahu once and for all, which is precisely their goal.

Secondly, Lapid and Bennett, using the best propaganda techniques of yore, are portraying the Charedim (with 18 seats) as "parasites" who are not doing their share. The "solution" according to them is to throw all young Charedim into the army! Sergeants and corporals and drill masters will then "fix" the Charedim and make them into "good soldiers" who will serve the state and not the yeshivas and bais yaakovs.

Who made up such stuff?

Obviously it's people who know nothing about Jewish history, that for 2,000 years it was precisely "Yavneh and its Sages" that saved the Jewish people and overcame all wars and armies. What Israel needs is more of "Yavneh and its Sages" and not of the army and its sergeants!

From it earliest days, the Likud (31 seats) was put into power by the balance of power votes of the Charedi parties. Netanyahu always crafted coalitions with Charedi parties. But the alliance of Lapid and Bennett is determined to stop that and hence destroy Netanyahu's ability to hook up with his natural allies and function politically. But more than that, Lapid and Bennett want to neuter Netanyahu completely. Lapid has never held office, a year ago no one took him seriously as a politician, but he now openly declared he "will be" prime minister of Israel in "eighteen months"! He wants Netanyahu's job without ever run anything but his TV studio. Bennett worked for Netanyahu, then became a CEO of a high tech company that he sold for $150 million so he figures he can be "CEO of Israel" and he is now fighting to turn the tables on his old boss. There is no love lost between any of them, so how can there be a "cabinet" between them?

The one refrain that is heard over and over again from Lapid and Bennett is that they want to conscript the Charedim, as if that is the greatest goal any human can aspire to. Not even the Labor party (18 seats) wants to conscript Charedim!

If Lapid and Bennett have done one thing it is to unite the Charedim like never before. For the first time the two leadership Moetzes of both the Degel HaTorah and Agudas Yisroel met together. Chasidim and Litvaks are now 100% united to fight their common adversaries. Add to this that the Sefardim under Shas are as tightly united with Yahadut HaTorah (UTJ) as the UTJ is internally united within itself, all due thanks to the outside threats from Lapid and Bennett. Thank you Yair and Naftali for accomplishing achdus in the Olam haTorah! Yidden are praying harder to HKB"H because of you!

Most seriously, the threats to drag Charedi boys into the army has become an obsession that is going nowhere. It is becoming a frenzy that is heating up the "lynch mob" mentality among the Chilonim. Are they going to put 50,000 bochurim in jails? If so, why not put 500,000 Mamas and Tatas and brothers and sisters of the Charedim into "detention camps" for harboring "deserters" just like the British put potential olim in such camps in Cyprus for having the chutzpa to want to come to Israel?

Imagine a bochur is 18 or 19 and he is learning quietly like a masmid, not bothering anyone, just shtaiging in Torah and Yiras Shomayim and suddenly he is informed that if he, or she because they want girls to serve to, does not show up to "register" for the army he/she is subject to "arrest" and "imprisonment" thereby becoming "criminals"! This is truly the "mida of Sedom" whereby innocent people are deemed "guilty" while genuine pimps, perverts, prostitutes and perps roam the streets of Israel freely because they have previously "served" in the army! How crazy is that!

The last time Jews faced a massive threat of conscription like this was under the Czars of Russia that for hundreds of years subjected Jews and other citizens to long army service that eventually contributed to a massive overthrow and revolution, and we know how that ended for the Czars and their nobles and their army.

One thing about Netanyahu, like him or not, all the years, he has always come out creating an alliance with the Charedi parties and even though he growls at Charedim from time to time, he has never outright bitten or smitten them outright. Not so the new forces of Lapid and his so-called Yesh Atid ("Ein Atid" would be more apt) and Bennett and his so-called Bayit Yehudi (Rav Ovadia Yosef called it a "Bayit Shel Goyim") who want to destroy Netanyahu, who scheme to thereby stop Netanyahu's ability to ally himself with the Charedim and thereby destroy his main zechusim, and in their delusional fantasy CH"V destroy the world of Torah learning.

Even among the Likud, there are those, like former General Moshe Yaalon who warns that there must not be sudden harsh acts to conscript Charedim. If anything, one must allow for a "evolutionary" process and try to accommodate the needs of Charedim to make it comfortable for VOLUNTEERS to join. In any case, no normal person wants forced conscripts to "defend" anything! In fact, there are many in Israel who assert that Israel is at the point where it could do away with the draft for everyone and switch to an all-volunteer professional army, with citizens receiving some basic self-defense training. But this you never hear about, unless you read the news very closely.

Great Rachamei Shamayim is needed, it is an Eis Tzara LiYisrael !!

Chareidi Thought Police - "adaptation" is a dangerous word

The following indignant letter was published by Binah (Between) Magazine (February 25). Not sure which was worse - the letter demanding the avoidance of the word "adaptation" because it implies Evolution chas v'shalom - or the apologetic tone of the editor promising to be more careful in the future. 

Dear Binah Between,

I was surprised and disappointed when I read the following sentence, found in issue 317's Binah Between, regarding tropical rainforests, "lt's pretty shady down here, so plants adapt by growing long leaves to snatch whatever sunlight filters through..." Using the word "adapt'' in this manner connotes a concept contrary to that of ma'aseh bereishis, when all plant life was fashioned in the precise form necessary to support optimal existence by the Borei Olom Himself.

I think that I represent the majority, if not all, of your varied readership when I kindly request that you take more care to present our children with reading material which will benefit not only their minds, but their neshamos as well.

Thank you !
Sora Rivkah Daina
Modiin lllit, lsrael

Editors response:

Dear Mrs. Daina,
Of course during ma'aseh bereishis everything was created for optimal existence; the word adapt in this instance is merely indicating that during ma'aseh bereishis, the plant was created in a way that it would be able to adapt to whatever sunlight it was exposed to, at different times. There was no intention of minimizing Hashem's Creations, chas v'sholom.

We will be more careful with our wording in the future.

========================

Update: The fact is that biological adaptation is an accepted fact in the gemora

Shabbos (31a):Our Rabbis taught: A man should always be gentle like Hillel, and not impatient like Shammai. It once happened that two men made a wager with each other, saying, He who goes and makes Hillel angry shall receive four hundred zuz. Said one, ‘I will go and incense him.’ That day was the Sabbath eve, and Hillel was washing his head. He went, passed by the door of his house, and called out, ‘Is Hillel here, is Hillel here?’ Thereupon he robed and went out to him, saying, ‘My son, what do you require?’ ‘I have a question to ask,’ said he. ‘Ask, my son,’ he prompted. Thereupon he asked: ‘Why are the heads of the Babylonians round? ‘My son, you have asked a great question,’ replied he: ‘because they have no skillful midwives.’ He departed, tarried a while, returned, and called out, ‘Is Hillel here; is Hillel here?’ He robed and went out to him, saying, ‘My son, what do you require?’ ‘I have a question to ask,’ said he. ‘Ask, my son,’ he prompted. Thereupon he asked: ‘Why are the eyes of the Palmyreans bleared?’ ‘My son, you have asked a great question, replied he: ‘because they live in sandy places.’ He departed, tarried a while, returned, and called out, ‘Is Hillel here; is Hillel here?’ He robed and went out to him, saying, ‘My son, what do you require?’ ‘I have a question to ask,’ said he. ‘Ask, my son,’ he prompted. He asked, ‘Why are the feet of the Africans [negroes] wide?’ ‘My son, you have asked a great question,’ said he; ‘because they live in watery marshes.’ ‘I have many questions to ask,’ said he, ‘but fear that you may become angry.’ Thereupon he robed, sat before him and said, ‘Ask all the questions you have to ask,’ ‘Are you the Hillel who is called the nasi of Israel?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘If that is you,’ he retorted, may there not be many like you in Israel. ‘ ‘ Why, my son?’ queried he. ‘Because I have lost four hundred zuz through you,’ complained he. ‘Be careful of your moods,’ he answered. ‘Hillel is worth it that you should lose four hundred zuz and yet another four hundred zuz through him, yet Hillel shall not lose his temper.’

Nursing home refuses to do CPR on sick residents

Plague of 30 million Locusts hits Egypt

YNet   A plague of locusts descended Saturday on agricultural farms in Giza and on Cairo. Egyptian Agricultural Minister Salah Abad Almoman said the swarm is comprised of an estimated 30 million insects and was causing great damage.  n Cairo, residents burned tires to create a black fog to keep the locusts from settling in the city. Swarms were also reported to have reached Egypt's Red Sea city of Zafarana, some 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Cairo, and then the Upper Egyptian city of Qena where locusts appeared in at least three major villages.

Boro Park: Man attempts to grab 10 year old girl

NY Post   A man was arrested for trying to lure a 10-year-old girl into his car in Brooklyn, cops said today.

Chaim Fried, 53, had parked his car at the corner of East Second Street and 18 Avenue in Borough Park at about 8:30 a.m. Thursday when he grabbed the girl's arm and told her, "Come with me!" sources said.

The girl pushed him off and broke free.

He tried the same trick on Friday morning at the same location. But this time, police were waiting and put him under arrest.

Fried was charged yesterday with attempted kidnapping, attempted unlawful imprisonment and reckless endangerment of a child.

Family of judge suspected of child abuse says accusations a lie

YNet    The family of the judge accused of alleged child abuse commented on the allegations for the first time Saturday, saying that the accusations were "a lie."

In a statement released by the family's media advisor, they said: "We were shocked to see and hear that someone has pronounced the judge's verdict without having a shred of information on the case and while leaning on warped, harmful and inaccurate information."  

They stressed that the judge was never ordered to undergo counseling or treatment for violence, that Social Services never visited his home and that he sought counseling on his own accord.

The judge's media advisor claimed in his statement that "His children are presently supporting him and want what is best for him," and that since the children have been under joint custody, "They have never refused to visit their father's home. The opposite is true. The children want and asked to go to their father's home even more than what was stipulated as the visitation hours, and so it was."

Last week and nearly three years after the complaint in the matter was filed,  Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein ruled that the police investigate the suspected judge. The decision was made following a long delay and solely as a result of public criticism. [...]

Beitar - Parents reported abuse & son has no school

Kikar Shabbat

לפני כעשרה ימים עצרה המשטרה את ישראל מלאכי בניאס, מלמד בעיר החרדית בית"ר עילית, בחשד שלכאורה התעלל ותקף באכזריות מספר רב של ילדים בכיתה בה לימד בשנים האחרונות.

בין המתלוננים נמצאים הורים לילד חרדי בן 9, שעל פי החשד גם הוא עבר מסכת התעללות קשה על ידי בניאס, לדברי ההורים, בעקבות התלונה במשטרה שהגישו, עברו מסע התנכלויות בקהילה. 

בראיון לעופר חדד בחדשות 2 שיחזרו ההורים את הרגע בו גילו שהילד עבר את המתקפה הקשה: "הילד התחיל לקשקש על הידיים, לעשות דברים מוזרים, ואני פשוט לקחתי אותו לחדר ודובבתי אותו. אמרתי לו- אתה מכיר 'מלמד' בשם ישראל מלאכי?, אז הוא אמר לי 'אמא, הוא רשע', אמרתי לו- מה הוא עשה לך?, הוא אמר לי- הוא לקח אותי...", בשלב זה האמא לא הצליחה להמשיך לדבר ופרצה בבכי.

מסכת היסורים הקשה שעבר הילד ומשפחתו לא מסתיימת בזה, לדבריהם: "ידענו את המפקח ואת המנהל, התגובה שלו הייתה מאוד חריפה, 'מה פתאום תיקחו טיפולים לילד?', 'תלכו לרבנים, הרבנים יטפלו"'.

• עשו לייק לעמוד הפייסבוק של 'כיכר השבת' ותישארו מעודכנים

"הילד הולך לתלמוד תורה וחוזר, ואחרי זה יומיים הוא בבית סיפרה האם וטענה שהילד עבר מסע התנכלויות. "מה עכשיו? 'לא היה לי מחברת', 'לא היה לי מחק'" תירץ הילד את ההיעדרות מבית הספר.

לדברי האבא: "מנהל אגף החינוך בעיר אמר מפורש 'בגלל שהלכתם למשטרה אז אנחנו לא נטפל בילד הזה, תמודדו איתו לבד', הוא אומר 'איך אתם רוצים, איזה מנהל יקבל אותו?, הרי יש לו כתם, יש לו בעייה'".

Get given because of embarrassment is Get Me'usa

The UN vs. Israel: Is Israel the worst country in the world?

ORA to hold protest against Aharon Friedman in Washington

Stern is unfortunately misrepresenting the halacha as well as the facts in justifying another public demonstration against Aharon Friedman. His claim that Aharon Friedman's motivation is sadism is totally disgusting and simply a lie. I received an email request from the Roll Call reporter to present the other side. But she sent the email to me after it was Shabbos in Israel and she said she had to have an answer within a few hours to meet her deadline.
 Click this link [psak from dayanim of the beis din of Rav  Korelitz]
A Get given because of embarrassment of ORA's demonstrations is invalid - Get Me'usa 

 =====================

JPost   “We are rallying now to continue our efforts to convince Aharon Friedman to give Tamar Epstein a get,” Rabbi Jeremy Stern, the executive director of the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot, in charge of the demonstration, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

“His sadistic refusal to do so is in clear violation of Jewish Law and constitutes domestic abuse. He is an embarrassment to the Jewish community, and it is therefore incumbent upon us to stand together and state clearly that we will not tolerate this abuse in our midst.”

“[Friedman’s] recalcitrance is a form of domestic abuse,” Stern said.

Roll Call Rabbi Jeremy Stern, executive director for the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot, the organizer of Thursday’s protest, said get refusals are a form of abuse to Jewish women by their ex-husbands, who are usually seeking to extort alimony or pressure them into giving up custody of children.

Stern added that Thursday’s protest on Capitol Hill is ORA’s fourth against Friedman — previous protests were held at Friedman’s Silver Spring apartment in December 2010 and 2011, as well as at a conference Friedman spoke at in February 2012.

“Aharon Freidman is a pariah and not welcome in any of the synagogues in the area,” Stern said. “How he can call himself a religious Jew is beyond me. He is an embarrassment, we feel, for the Jewish community.”

Numerous reports attribute the dispute to a custody battle between Friedman and Epstein. Epstein moved with the couple’s daughter to Philadelphia following their separation, and a court denied Friedman’s request to have their daughter moved back to Maryland, where the couple lived while they were married and where Friedman still resides.

Although many prominent rabbis have come out against Friedman on the issue, the rabbinical court Shar Hamishpot issued an opinion in June 2012 siding with Friedman, saying Epstein “had no right to unilaterally relocate their daughter” to Philadelphia.

Importance of Praying that Weberman does Teshuva

Guest post by fordaas Torah

“Why is it important to pray that Nechemia Tzi ben Dina does a complete Teshuvah”

The Talmud teaches that Adam before he sinned spanned from the heavens to the earth and from one end of the world to the other.  This means that on some very real level this world is actually made up of one “Adam” that encompasses the entire world.

This "one-Adam-world" was given a job to do which is really very complicated.  And unfortunately he failed; he ate from the “Tree of Knowledge” while G-d explicitly told him not to.  So Hashem developed this plan where He split Adam's job into billions upon billions of pieces, assigning it to billions upon billions of people coming down into this universe at different intervals of history, each with their own sliver of this “huge cosmic task."

Thus, while we all should be fully invested in working on our own unique mission, we must also remember that in the end we each are dependent on one another to reach our final destination.  In order for redemption to occur every piece of the cosmic puzzle must become fully actualized, so that Adam’s original task gets completed.

I believe that molestation and incest are among the more difficult issues that we need to solve as a community.   We need to work through this stuff, clean it up, and discover the underlying decay in our universe that enables such wickedness. (And perhaps even find some disguised Jewels hiding in this filth, waiting to be rediscovered, cleaned up and rectified.  Perhaps as a nation there are important lessons we can extract from these horrors that can help us get some clarity about what true Kedusha needs to look like.)

Making sure that people stop supporting this evil, support victims instead, and doing whatever we can to ensure the safety of ALL children, are very important first steps.   Then, of course, we must ensure that victims get the help they need to heal from this horrifying trauma, and perhaps even find some meaning to their suffering.

In addition though, a total soul-cleansing teshuvah by the perpetrators seems vital if we are to fully clean this thing up as a “one-Adam-world.”  There is a level of deep-core-knowing about the utter, total wrongness of these actions that must somehow be embodied in our universe.  And who can better accomplish this then a perpetrator turned Baal Teshuvah?  One can only imagine the healing that can come to our “cosmic-Adam-universe” when a perpetrator is able to fully face the despicableness of his actions, the depths of the damage caused to the victim, to himself and the entire universe, and then have the strength to live with this awareness, and have that awareness inform his day to day life.

We all know that Mr. Weberman isn't the only molester around, unfortunately.  Yet Mr. Weberman has become a "public-figure” regarding these issues.  The fundraiser and the intimidation of witnesses drew lots of attention to his trial and probably indirectly caused his steep sentence.  (Yet this is the way of the universe; actions have repercussions.  Getting people to give money for your defense because they believe you are innocent, when in fact you know that you are guilty, comes with a steep price.

Now given that all this unfortunate stuff has happened, and Mr. Weberman will probably be spending the remainder of his life in prison, wouldn’t it be such a waste of suffering if he doesn’t achieve a full teshuvah? Prison indeed is a place where people are forced, in some sense, to face who they have become as a result of their wrong choices. Yet sadly, by definition, most perpetrators suffer from extreme narcissism, which surely makes teshuvah so much more difficult for them.

But as we contemplate the fact that Mr. Weberman too is a part of our greater whole, shouldn’t we seek to do whatever we can to ensure the most mileage out of this horrible saga for our “collective-cosmic-Adam”?  I believe there are two steps we must take as a community to help move Mr. Weberman along towards this goal.

Firstly, we must stop this nonsense of insisting that he is innocent.  Teshuvah is in part the ability to see the truth for what it is, regardless of how unappealing that reality might be.  Crying “anti-Semitism”, “ community being on trial”, or “kangaroo court”, just takes the focus off from the truth, and makes it all the more difficult for Mr. Weberman to face up to the truth about himself.

And secondly, may I suggest that we each take a couple of moments every day to beseech Hashem to grant Mr. Weberman the courage and honesty he needs to enable him to move onto the path of teshuvah.  May each day bring with it for him more enlightenment about the greatness of Hashem, the utter holiness of every Jewish body and soul, specifically those of his victims.  May he realize more and more how molestation is akin to soul murder, and how accountable we each are for our actions, regardless of whether  we can hide them from the public or not.  And perhaps his teshuvah can be the catalyst to awaken our community, so that we no longer are willing to exchange real Kedusha for the appearance of Holiness.

Perhaps deeply integrating the above truths can serve towards a soul-cleansing teshuvah for Nechemia Tzvi ben Dina.
=====================
Postscript by fordaas Torah: Perhaps one reason we struggle with accepting the realities of molestation is because we struggle to accept that someone we know personally can be such a monster.  Our habit of “black or white thinking” makes it very difficult for us to dismiss someone that we know personally as an evil individual who doesn’t deserve any sympathy whatsoever.

Also, incest by definition involves a family member, someone the victim might have strong feelings for.   So here too, the question arises for the victim; “how do I orient my feelings towards the perpetrator who has acted like a monster, yet is still my close relative?”

The answer to this dilemma might be to totally condemn the perpetrator’s actions, while still viewing him as a human being, i.e. as someone who has purpose and can contribute to our world.

I believe praying for them to do teshuvah is the way to accomplish this.  On the one hand it doesn’t minimize how horrific these actions are, while it still leaves space for us to interact with the perpetrator as a human being. 

I understand that the “teshuvah” concept is often grossly misused when dealing with these issues.  I.e. people often claim the perpetrator has done teshuvah without having any proof to believe that.  Thus the victim is then urged to stop complaining and let bygones be bygones, when the truth is that if a real teshuvah was done the perpetrator would understand that it is his responsibility to be מפייס the victim, and no way does the victim need to curb their righteous indignation in order to make the life of the perpetrator easier.

However I am advocating here for us to pray for the perpetrator to do teshuvah, not to decide that the perpetrator has done teshuvah.   I believe we can pray for this while still holding on to the truth of how difficult it is for a proper teshuvah to be done when it comes to these matters.

12 Good Reasons Why Secular Israelis Reject Haredim

Jewish Press      In an article titled "Maybe the Secular Are Right?" that was published this winter in the Haredi Kikar Hashabbat, Rabbi Bloch asks: "Why is it so common for Haredi pundits and public figures to pin the motives for secular hatred against Haredim only on the formers' bad qualities, their emptiness, anti-Semitism and the ignorant man's hatred for the scholar? And another question we should ask ourselves is whether, in some cases, the value benefits from this conduct or another are worth the consequent heavy price of hilul Hashem (desecration of the Holy Name).

Rabbi Bloch then poses 12 questions which he encourages his Haredi readers to ponder.

    1. We've chosen, for understandable educational reasons, to withdraw and live in exclusively Haredi cities and neighborhoods, avoiding as much as possible any social contact with the secular.

    This is legitimate and understandable, but as a result they don't really know us, amd so they naturally view us as bizarre, in our manner of dress, our behavior, and our language. This creates aversion and alienation. Why, then, we are angry at them for treating us this way?

    2. We chose, for educational reasons—although some of us really believe it—to teach our children that all secular Israelis are sinners, vacuous, with no values, and corrupt.

    This could possibly be a legitimate view, but, then, why are we shocked when the secular, in return, teach their own children that the Haredim are all primitive, with outdated and despicable values?

    3. We have chosen, for the sake of the preservation of Torah in Israel, to prevent our sons from participating in carrying the heavy burden of security, and instead tasked them with learning Torah.

    Of course we could not give that up, but why are we outraged and offended when the secular, who do not recognize nor understand this need—or rather most of them are familiar with the issue, but argue that there should be quotas—see us as immoral, and some despise us as a result?

    4. We chose for our sons who do not belong, by their personal inclination or learning skills to the group of Torah scholars (Yeshiva bums and worse), to also evade enlistment—including into perfectly kosher army units. And when it comes to the individuals who have joined the Haredi Nahal, we do not praise them, but despise them instead, and we certainly show them no gratitude, while the Haredi press ignores them—in the best case.

    Why, then, are we outraged when the secular don't believe our argument, that the purpose of keeping yeshiva students from enlisting, is to maintain Torah study and not simply the Haredim's unwillingness to bear the burden?

    5. We chose to teach our children not to work for a living, and to devote all their time to Torah study. Clear enough, but, then, why are we shocked when the secular—who do not consider Torah study an all encompassing value—feel that we are an economic burden on their necks, as a mere 38% of us take part in the labor force, and they hate us for it.

    6. We chose not to teach our children any labor skills, and we condemn those who do pursue a profession. As a result our kolelim include all of those who do not belong among the scholars and still prefer not to work for a living.

    Why, then, do we complain when the secular feel, and say so with an increasing volume, that we are parasites, living off of their efforts?

    7. We chose (for educational considerations?) not to educate our children to show gratitude to the soldiers who risked their lives and were killed or injured for our sake, too. So we do not mention them in any way by any special day or prayer or special Mishna learning that's dedicated to their memory. Moreover, not a single Mashgiach or Rosh Yeshiva ever talks about it in a Mussar Schmooze, and you'll find no mention of it in the Haredi press.

    Why, then, are we surprised that the secular feel that we are ungrateful and despicable, and that the reason for our not enlisting is simply because we are parasites, living off the sacrifices of others in society?

    8. When extremist, delusional groups behave in ways that besmirch the name of God—e.g. the spitting in Beit Shemesh, dancing during the memorial siren, burning the national flag—our rabbis chose not to condemn them, clearly and consistently ( except for a few faint statements here and there). Why, then, are we explaining away the fact that the secular believe we all support those terrible acts? Why do we insist that their hostility stems from their hatred of the scholars?

    9. We've opted to allow our public officials and pundits to curse out all the secular all the time. Why, then, when the secular media treat us the same way, are we offended and cry out that they're persecuting us?

    10. The Haredi press will never offer any praise of or express support for secular Israelis who perform good deeds. Why, then, do we jump up and down when we are rewarded equally? And, in fact, while Haredi spokespersons rarely point anything positive about secular society, the secular media often gives positive coverage to Haredi organizations like Yad Sara, Hatzala, Zaka, etc.

    11. We would not agree, under any condition, that secular Israelis turn up in our schools to teach our children heresy, and we would have kept them from putting up stands with books of heresy in our areas. Why, then, do we not understand when the secular do not agree that we seduce her children into denying their parents' heresy?

    12. We do not agree—in my view, rightfully so—that secular people move into Haredi neighborhoods. So where do we get the arrogance and audacity to call anti-Semites those secular who don't agree that Haredim move near their homes, in secular neighborhoods?