The haredi Left's comeback

As a result of his unswerving determination to press ahead with disengagement, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently included the haredi United Torah Judaism party in his government, thus revealing the public face of a long-obscured ideological position and returning it to the heart of the Israeli political arena.

The ideology I am referring to is, of course, that of the left-leaning non-Zionist haredim.

In the 70s and 80s the late Rabbi Eliezer Schach of Bnei Brak, with his pro-peace, anti-settler rhetoric, was prominent in highlighting the existence of this group, but in practical terms he was happy to cooperate with successive expansionist Likud-led governments who made no secret of their adherence to the dream of a Greater Israel.

And, indeed, when it came to the 1993 Oslo Accord, Rabbi Schach refused to lend his voice in support, saying in a public letter that the real goal of the peace agreement was to give Israel's leaders the freedom to undermine Torah-true Judaism.

He added, too, that the then leaders of Israel were not capable of representing the Jewish people's interests properly because they themselves were ambivalent about traditional Judaism and its survival.

The recent decision by Rabbi Schach's designated "heir," the nonagerian Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv, to offer his support to a government that will begin the process of unraveling the Greater Israel project is an historic step and one that has only one precedent in the history of the state.

In 1948, with the declaration of independence an imminent fait accompli, the ever-practical David Ben-Gurion began negotiations with the haredi Agudat Yisrael party to obtain its tacit cooperation in the creation of the state.

This group had been a thorn in the side of Israel's founding fathers with its often bitterly expressed conscientious objection to Zionism. But it was quick to realize that for the sake of the many people it represented, noncooperation with Ben-Gurion was not a viable alternative.

To ensure and secure the uninterrupted continuity of the Torah-observant community and its institutions the party agreed, with certain conditions, to recognize the nascent state "de facto" but not "de jure" – that is, it would participate in the life of the state as long as it did not have to subscribe to the state's ideals.

This suited Ben-Gurion, who recognized that this visibly "Jewish" group would undermine the credibility of the emerging state if it publicly and collectively refused to become a part of it.

Since then, with some prominent exceptions, non-Zionist haredim have kept to themselves, allowing the religious life and direction of Israel to be determined by the religious Zionists.

This group – mainly represented by the Mizrachi party – had its origins in the 19th-century Hovevei Zion movement.

Its leaders, such as Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Hakohen Kook, argued that Zionism was part of God's plan for messianic redemption.

This was why – despite its flaws – Zionism represented the new and desired path of Judaism.

Citing biblical and talmudic sources as proofs, religious Zionism created a theology that blurred the lines between Judaism and Jewish nationalism to the extent that they have become, for them, one and the same thing.

This has now resulted in the greatest challenge faced by Israel since its creation – the linking by religious Zionist ideologues of Judaism with the dream of a Greater Israel.

Since the Six Day War, and especially since the election of the first Likud government in 1977, the religious Zionists have drifted inexorably from embracing the State of Israel toward believing that all of biblical Israel must be settled by Jews, and that any withdrawal is a sacrilegious act that denies the messianic redemptive process.

This group, originally apologists for every secular Zionist misdeed on the notion that Israel's needs superseded the needs of Judaism, has morphed into a group that no longer has the needs of Israel at heart but rather the utopian requirements of its warped religious views.

As such it is willing to promote civil unrest and even suggest military mutiny as legitimate forms of protest against the dreaded disengagement plan.

No longer the apologists, religious Zionists now find themselves on the fringes of Israel's political scene fighting to preserve their raison-d'etre before the house of cards comes tumbling down over their heads – as it inevitably will.

Ironically, though, the views of non-Zionist haredim are now congruent with the post-Zionism of Israel's majority and, as such, it is once again to them that those who care about Israel's future turn to achieve the required result.

With the pronouncement by Rabbi Elyashiv, the world's undisputed and most distinguished halachic expert, that it is halachically permitted to participate in the dismantling of Israeli hegemony over biblical Israel, the proverbial cat is out of the bag.

It is clear now for all to see that Judaism is not opposed to disengagement, withdrawal or to making peace with its sworn enemies, as long as the survival of true Judaism and the adherence to Torah remain the dominant priorities.

The writer, an Orthodox rabbi, helped found London's Saatchi Synagogue. (pini@pinidunner.com)

The Haridi Left is not making a comeback, they are being scraped from the bottom of the Barrel in an attempt to keep Sharon in power. A comeback implies that they are gaining strength, while in fact it is the Haridi Right that is gaining members as the left shrinks like Alice in the rabbit hole.

Like the old saw, "There are no atheists in foxholes", there are also no liberals in foxholes. The left is slowly fading away in the face of continued Arab aggression. The left's stand of appeasement of aggressors has a way of being less appealing as the killers kill more and come closer every day despite the bending over backwards of the left wing government (that wears a right wing mask). Every time the IDF hits the Arab insurgents hard they settle down, every time they "pull back" or play "limited engagement" it triggers more attacks. A few thousand times now tends to convince even the most die hard Leftist that it isn't working.

The leftists will be willing to deal away others lives and properties as long as it does not threaten them personally, and will betray their neighbors if it will buy them but a minute of time. But with the withdrawal, the Arabs will be in range to fire at everyone. That is why I think the retreat will be a self solving problem. Even leftists will fight when their back is to the sea. Leftists may not fight for their neighbors, or for righteousness but they will fight for their own skin.

So the Haridi left is not making a comeback to anything but political power, and it will be the death of them in the end. The Haridi left has a history of ignoring what the country needs and padding its own pockets with its political leverage. It is a way of raping the treasury in public and as more and more Israeli's are forced under in this very economically trying times, the Haridi public feeding at the public trough will cause such resentment by the taxed to death general Israeli public that the backlash will cause massive damage to ALL Haridi.

Which is a great shame, because the Haridi Right is about the only hope for Israel. Israel must turn back to her God, it is her only hope. And these self serving Leftist in Haridi costume are the poison pill with a sugar coating in Israeli Politics.

God demands that those that love Him love Israel also. And to show your love there is no better way that to obey God. To politically steal from the public and do it in God's name will bring not only the wrath of the public on these leftists, but the wrath of the Almighty God.

I pity the Haridi Left, they have been handed the key to their own destruction. May they read the Tanach and discover that God is a Right winger. (my tag line is from the Tanach)

I became a religious Jew years ago. Once I did, I found so much Hypocreaceae, lying and stealing that I felt I was dealing with a band of criminals. I have since given it up being a religious Jew. Why should I follow the laws of the Sabbath - but if you lie, cheat and steal from a neighbor or a stranger – that is fine. In a suburb of Kansas City a Rabbi stole hundreds of thousands of dollars – he fled to Israel and no one wanted to make a federal issue out of this because of course you did not want to make Orthodox Jews look bad to the rest of the world. In Seattle, the head of the Orthodox Jewish Day school stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the school – and NO ONE wanted this man arrested as this would bring to light so much corruption and give Orthodox Jews a bad name so he left the community to move onto Minn./St. Paul to work in another school (he moved from San Diego to Seattle because that school system also had lost tens of thousands of dollars) – this man is still an orthodox rabbi who wears all the garb today. The School even bought this crook’s contract out. The community condemned me because I refused to give money to the school to pay this crook’s contract off. In another community I was in the Orthodox rabbi was caught having sex with underage girls and blackmailing them into not informing the community. The community hushed this fact up. Today this man supervises the process of kosher food. In New York the community in New Square makes up a list of phony students to steal a tremendous amount of money from the Federal government – Hilary Clinton covers this up for the sake of getting their votes (I can go on and on and on about the scandals of the Jewish community.)

Why should I keep kosher if a child rapist supervises food being kosher – to me it is a JOKE to keep kosher. Why should I keep the strict laws of the Sabbath – if those who claim I need to keep the laws lie cheat and steal money from the very children they are trying to supposedly teach about how important it is not to steal, lie and keep the Sabbath? THE WHOLE THING IS A HYPOCREACEAE! It is better to be honest, treat your friends, neighbors and strangers honestly along with being a good person than to keep the Sabbath, keep kosher, I became a religious Jew years ago. Once I did, I found so much Hypocreaceae, lying and stealing that I felt I was dealing with a band of criminals. I have since given it up being a religious Jew. Why should I follow the laws of the Sabbath - but if you lie, cheat and steal from a neighbor or a stranger – that is fine. In a suburb of Kansas City a Rabbi stole hundreds of thousands of dollars – he fled to Israel and no one wanted to make a federal issue out of this because of course you did not want to make Orthodox Jews look bad to the rest of the world. In Seattle, the head of the Orthodox Jewish Day school stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the school – and NO ONE wanted this man arrested as this would bring to light so much corruption and give Orthodox Jews a bad name so he left the community to move onto Minn./St. Paul to work in another school (he moved from San Diego to Seattle because that school system also had lost tens of thousands of dollars) – this man is still an orthodox rabbi who wears all the garb today. The School even bought this crook’s contract out. The community condemned me because I refused to give money to the school to pay this crook’s contract off. In another community I was in the Orthodox rabbi was caught having sex with underage girls and blackmailing them into not informing the community. The community hushed this fact up. Today this man supervises the process of kosher food. In New York the community in New Square makes up a list of phony students to steal a tremendous amount of money from the Federal government – Hilary Clinton covers this up for the sake of getting their votes (I can go on and on and on about the scandals of the Jewish community.)

Why should I keep kosher if a child rapist supervises food being kosher – to me it is a JOKE to keep kosher. Why should I keep the strict laws of the Sabbath – if those who claim I need to keep the laws lie cheat and steal money from the very children they are trying to supposedly teach about how important it is not to steal, lie and keep the Sabbath? THE WHOLE THING IS A HYPOCREACEAE! It is better to be honest, treat your friends and neighbors fairly and be a good person than to keep the Sabbath, keep kosher etc... and be a true criminal in all your other ways.

In any group of people you are going to find some who are less than perfect. It's foolish to turn your back on G-D because there are some people who don't follow His commandments as they should.

My children live all over the world from the USA to Canada to Israel to Russia and they have dedicated their lives to teaching the word of G-D and Torah. I would prefer to believe that there are more people who have a positive, enriching experience with Orthodox Judaism as a result of meeting one of my children than those who have turned away from G-D because of the hilul Hashem (desecration of G-D's holy Name) caused by someone wears the costume but who doesn't walk the walk.

The last time I was in Israel, I visited some relatives in Meah Shearim with my son, who is in the IDF. My cousin asked him why he shaved his beard and cut off his payess. He answered that he was more of a Jew than all of the fried-out "yeshiva boys" who hang out at porn stores.

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