The village is burning and the children are dancing • Eichler explains

I received a letter from a citizen whom I do not know, in which he warns of a relatively new phenomenon in the Haredi community: young people who grew up under the rule of secular, do not feel that the purpose of government is to uproot everything, but it is forced to do it slowly and methodically and not fight the rest of the remnant of faithful Judaism head-on.

It's like the youth who grew up in captivity and does not feel that the lord can and want to enslave him and lets him eat and drink and play with the geese, the haredi public does not understand that they want to throw it into the military "melting pot" which is aimed at disconnecting youth from Torah and Judaism. The Haredi public is not afraid of those who plot to assimilate it into the evil culture of Western society which is sinking into depths.

Luckily for the Hareidi boy who matured into an avrech,
Gedolei Yisroel saw ahead, in the past and present, the danger and found the way to participate in elections and to create a political power to prevent the government decrees. So we became accustomed to seeing a great and mighty nation going in the way of Hashem with no one bothering it. Indeed, someone even gets it tax refund budgets of a fraction of what we pay to the secular government. The young public forgot that the wolf is at the gate waiting to enter and devour young kids and cut them off from life and thinks that we live in a free country where there is freedom of religion. He does not realize that the state does not recognize the right haredim to live and raise children in a Jewish lifestyle. Without a political struggle there is not exemption from the Compulsory Education Law, there is no recognition of those whose Torah is their profession and certainly no budgets for Yeshivos and Kollelim. Indifference is due to an optical illusion, for which we will pay a heavy price.

Already now the secular regimen's hand is getting heavier from day to day and month to month, on the hareidi public life. It creates the initiated housing shortage and blocks all hareidi livelihood sources, and denies the human rights of hareidim starting from birth grants to cuts in benefits that children are entitled to under the law. But young hareidim are "lo chali ulemargish einish demitrachish ley nisa" (a person is not ill and does not feel that a miracle is occurring to him) on every day, every hour and every moment.


I'll quote a few lines from the letter itself:

"Because of my work I come into contact with many young people from diverse and different strata and I have noticed haredim who are not among the circles of fanatics, but they do not vote in the elections on various grounds on "politics" and of a tendency to Frumkeit prevalent today. As if all Gedolei Yisroel, the Tzadikim and Chassidim, the Geonim of recent generations, were less "frum" than those who do not join the Kanoim explicitly, but the atmosphere in their society, is "shev ve'al ta'ase adif" (refraining from doing something is better). I have no claim against the circles of kanoim and their rabbis who forbade the elections. The intention is to those who grew up in the Litvishe Yeshivas and Chassidic circles where all their Rabbonim decreed a "chov kadosh" (holy duty) to participate in elections, to rescue the survivors from the decrees of the government, like a lifeguard at the sea, and they rule for themselves to be "frum" more than their teachers not to get involved in politics".

"The propaganda of kanoim's laws has risen by high levels and it seems that much money is invested in it. They distribute colorful brochures colorful with invested content on a high visual and verbal level. They distribute them in the shulls and yeshivas and show as if most of Gedolei Yisroel forbade the elections. However we all know that the opposite is true. Yahadut Ha'Torah, in contrast, invests primarily in secular propaganda and in rather trite press ads and street posters that do not penetrate the heart of youth, "writes the voter.

He argues that some of those who refrain are sons of parents who are came over the last decades from overseas, where fanaticism plays a stronger force, and awareness of the dangers of the lack of representation in government for the haredi public does not exist. "The 'chutznikim'", in his words, "do not feel the necessity to participate in elections because in the Diaspora it really does not matter much which non-Jew will rule and there is no danger of damage to Yiddishkeit by the government."

So much for the letter which offers to urgently publish orderly and compelling material and a Birur Halacha (clarification) which obliges one to vote, and no election posters or fliers, rather material which constitutes a counterweight to the claims of the circles of kanoim.

After reviewing the initial letter indicating the danger of indifference by much of the public, I still do not agree with the author's conclusion about how to deal with the problem. Although there is a problem of many young people do not vote because of the propaganda of "do-nothing better." But we believe there is nothing res judicata.

From the time Gedolei Yisroel Shlita shlit"a who live with us and those who passed away placed the foundations of existence of Haredim in the Holy Land, they laid down halacha le'maase that each and every one must act and activate others to vote for the list of Yahadut Ha'Torah. We should not argue and debate with kanoim who oppose elections according to the opinion of their Rabbonim. We do not have but the words of Ben Amram.

After the Mahar"a of Belz zi"a and the Chazon Ish and the righteous Rebbes of Gur – the Beis Yisroel, and the Rebbes of Vizhnitz zi"a and Rebbes of the different chassidus zt"l and the Tshebiner Rov zi"a and dozens of the greatest of Litvish Rabbonim, and all the Gedolim of our generation zt"l, and it would suffice to recall the Hgra"m Shach and the Steipler zt"l - that nobody can teach them what "kanous" is, the Poskim of the previous generation Hagry"s Elyashiv and R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt"l and the great majority of Gedolei Yisroel Shlit"a in our generation both in the Litvish, the Sephardi and Hasidic, all determined that participation in the elections is to save Judaism, who are we to determine otherwise, and on the halachic and hashkofa side of the elections. For any argument about it misses the target to educate the generations on the Mitzvah of "Ve'asita kechol asher yurucha."

The story is told of a Chossid who tried to explain to his friends that his Rebbe is right. He got so excited until one of the elder Chassidim stopped him and asked: How do you know your Rebbe is right? Who are you to understand the Rebbe and to persuade others that your Rebbe is right! Today you argue that your Rebbe is right, and tomorrow you might understand about some matter that your Rebbe is not right?! Only then did the young Chassidim understand that one does not argue that the Rebbe is right. So there is no point in arguing the justice of Gedolei Yisroel's of all generations. Those whose motivation to participate in elections is politics, one can argue with him about the political wisdom of the elections. But the righteous and the sages were and are far away from politics as East from West. All seats in the Knesset and in the municipality are of less interest to them than last year's snow. They determine that this is the savior of Judaism and saving of the generation and saving the Yeshivos and saving Jewish existence in the Holy Land, are beyond dispute. Their words are holy commandments and flames and whoever questions his Rav it is as if he questions the Shekhina.

In the realm of information one can convince that it is not obeying the Torah sages who say that "right is left." Even then it says, "And you shall do all that they instruct you" and "you only have the Cohen in your days." You can convince every boy that "right it right" that the success of the elections is outright saving lives. One has to be blind and deaf not to understand that in the secular state of Israel there is no existence for Torah and Judaism, with a strong representation in the Knesset and the authorities. All the troubles in housing, education, cuts and poverty, are due to the weakness of Hareidi political leadership. Whoever does not participate in the elections and puts five Knesset seats upfront against a hundred and fifteen opponents, presets the defeat in the battle. Without the poor political power which remains in our hands, "we were almost like Sodom, we resemble Amorrah". Each day they add their wickedness and evil and destroy the earth like the generation of the flood, G-d forbid.

All that remains from Judaism, is to save the nation of Israel and the rescue of the land of Israel from shmad, G-d forbid., But also to the Hareidi public itself, the evil kingdom would not spare a boy and an old man and will wreak havoc in Haredi education, once we abandon the scene to the secular government. The angel of destruction would close all the Yeshivos without any doubt. It has enough police and army armed to quell any religious rebellion and win international support. Look what they did to the settlers in Gush Katif and how they devastated villages brutally without any hesitation. No big demonstration and cries will deter them from their goal which was and remains to mobilize all bochurim to the army, only to remove them from religion of Torah, without mercy. They do not need Hareidi soldiers and are afraid of many thousands of armed Hareidim who might rebel against the secular reign, but they do want to take them out of the Yeshivos in the method of economical stifling. They do want to rend educational and spiritual breakdown that will topple the youth into their hands, as it was during the British Mandate, when most youth fell by the trial of poverty and in the fifties when the Sephardic immigrants also fell by the trial of poverty. So this is not money and politics, but the existence of Judaism, no less.

In conclusion: There is no arguing about the voting obligation set by Gedolei Yisroel and not by brochures of clarifying the Halacha in this matter. However, we have been commanded to encourage and activate all Hareidim to recruit all forces in the campaign, which is a war for Yiddishkeit, by adding thousands of notes of "Gimel" in the ballot, so that we shall not be those shouting about the past and groaning under the yoke of oppression, the day after the elections.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!