BS"D
"Over This We Mourn"
By Binyomin Feinberg
8 Av, 5780 °° July 29, '20 Erev Tisha B'Av (Parshas Naso)
Communal Protest of Evil:
We
also know that "Middah Tova Merubah," i.e. Divine Reward is far more
generous than Divine Retribution is strict. As much as failure to
properly protest persecution could destroy the Bais HaMikdosh, how much
more potent is properly speaking out in rebuilding it. In this day and
age, despite the multitudinous hazards of technology, we are blessed
with the capacity to speak out against rishus (evil) like never before.
We cannot force people to listen, but many, many certain would. (We
hope and pray that these posts as well humbly serve as at least a modest
example of what can be done by concerned individuals to combat rishus,
even on the other side of the world.)
"What
can I do?" many ask. It's related from one of the Torah sages of the
previous generation that it's not that G-d gives tasks to the capable;
rather, he graces those who take the initiative to undertake vital
causes with the capacities they'll need to succeed.
In
"Kovetz He'oros" on Yevamos, Aggada, chapter 10, the world-renowned
disciple of the saintly Chofetz Chaim (d.1933 CE), Rav Elchonon
Wasserman (martyred by the Nazis, y.s., in the Holocaust), distinguishes
sharply between threats to the Jewish People that endanger our physical
survival - as was Nazism, and threats to our spiritual survival - as
was Communism. The former are in the category of a "ma'aseh HaShem,"
demanding our spiritual efforts, including repentance and prayer. The
latter - threats to our spiritual existence - demand our vigorous
efforts to resist in the physical plane.
Reb
Elchonon relates how the saintly Chofetz Chayim regretted that he
didn't actually launch a physical revolution against the virulently
anti-Jewish
What's
striking is how nowadays even a few individuals - of average capacity -
can access the wherewithal to lauch a global "Awareness Revolution" -
all without shooting a single bullet. By identifying potent stories of
courageous individuals, and leveraging related current events, one can
publicly expose all sorts of evil being perpetrated by powerful abusers,
state, corporate, and individual offenders.
We
also know that IF we do our small part properly, G-d often - eventually
- provides us with the wherewithal to accomplish far beyond what we
originally dreamed we could.
°°°
And now, for some of the latest news on innocent girls being targeted for the Israeli military draft:
On Sunday, we posted these, regarding a Ukrainian immigrant Ba'alas-Teshuva being targeted by Maitav, Kesanya Z.:
Subsequently, we learned that Batsheva D., a religious girl not even 17 years old, was recently targeted
She
had innocently called the Draft Office to learn standard procedure to
apply for her religious exemption from the female draft. On the spot,
the army recruiter nonchalantly instructed her to come directly to a
scheduled religiosity "interview," a "Rayon Dat."
Volunteers
who assist girls in these matters over the past couple of years note
that this is the first case in which they've seen such blatant and
early-stage deception of a 16 year-old religious girl by Maitav; not
only had she not stepped into the Draft Office, or even mailed in her
religiosity verification affidavit.- she had not even visited the
Rabbanut to obtain her religiosity affidavit to begin with - and
nevertheless got summoned to a Rayon Dat.
° Explaining the
"Method behind the Madness," one of the senior volunteers observed that
by initiating the Rayon Dat process early, the Israeli government places
any resistant girls into the "draft-complication" process
("histabchut") earlier on as well.
° It's
important to realize who's being targeted here. It's not the girls who
comply with the Rayon Dat, but specifically the most upright - those who
don't (reminiscent of the proverbial paradigm: "No good deed shall go
unpunished").
° Additionally, at an earlier age, the Rayon Dat
can be administered when girls are more susceptible to being tripped up,
duped into enlisting, or intimidated into enlisting.
°
Moreover, this "zerizin mak'dimin" schedule will grant the Army Draft
Office more time before draft age (18) to try to emotionally and
psychologically wear down the girls and their families, thereby
broadcasting to the weaker ones that it's not worthwhile to even bother
"fighting City Hall."
Bear
in mind that the Israeli military has a huge amount of funding at their
disposal to seek out and identify - and then effectively stalk and
traffic - these teenage girls, relentlessly, by virtue of the
fungibility of foreign aid obtained under pretext of national security
and legitimate defense needs.
°
This "Head Start" headhunter initiative could also be seen as part of
the broader Maitav effort to whitewash the Rayon Dat phenomenon. The
very notion of Rayon Dat, in such cases, is actually an extralegal
maneuver. It's been put into practice without benefit of due process of
law. Otherwise put, If you can't make it Law via legislation, do so by
procedural innovation. This extralegal dexterity also helps avoid
conflict with the concern over implementation of procedures against the
will of the people, because the people won't even know what hit them
until they've already become accustomed to it, and unfortunately
resigned themselves to the Rayon Dat directives as a done deal.
°°°
May we soon witness the Final Redemption in the merit of helping expedite it.
~~~
"...
And if someone, like Pinchos, is one among a multitude, and every man
is against him when he dares to speak out for truth and to fight for the
Law -- the more lonely his stand, the greater the number of his
adversaries, the more powerful is his word, the mightier his deed."
