The study of Torah is equal to them all

No understanding of haredi society is possible without an appreciation of the preeminent place of Torah learning in the pantheon of Jewish values. We begin our morning prayers with the affirmation that "the study of Torah is equal to all [the mitzvot]." All mankind is commanded to subjugate the world (kivshuha); the Jewish people alone were given the task of studying Torah. Though we recite a blessing over a great gentile scientist, we would not do so over even the greatest Jewish scientist, such as Einstein, for his principle purpose in life is the attainment of Torah, not secular, knowledge.

When we view a great Torah scholar, we recite the blessing: "...Who has shared His wisdom with those who fear him." Upon viewing a great gentile scientist, however, we make a completely different blessing: "...Who has given His wisdom to flesh and blood."

The two blessings are different because Torah and secular knowledge are qualitatively different. Only through the study of Torah does one attach himself to the Divine Will. That is the meaning of the well-known Zohar that "the Holy One, Blessed be He, and the Torah are one." Thus God "shares" His wisdom with a Torah scholar; a bond is forged.

By contrast, secular knowledge creates no ongoing relationship - it is "given" and the relationship ends.

While this view of the transformative impact of Torah study on both the one who studies it and the entire cosmos will strike many as mumbo-jumbo, it defines haredi society. Yeshivot are not just one more institution of that society; they are its very raison d'etre.

In no society does everyone live up to the society's highest ideals at all times, and the haredi world is no exception. But the emphasis on the ideal of Torah lishma (for its own sake) has produced a dedication to Torah study unparalleled by any other community. That dedication is evident in study halls packed late at night and during the yeshiva semester breaks. Nor is it accidental that the lion's share of outreach work everywhere in the world has been done by haredim who burn with a passion for sharing the Torah with their fellow Jews.

No serious Torah scholar considers himself non-productive. On the contrary, he believes his Torah study transforms the entire world. Our Sages interpreted the verse "...If not for my covenant day and night, Heaven and Earth I would not have established " to mean that if the study of Torah were to cease for even a moment, the world would return to its original formless state. The Talmud is replete with statements about the protective power of Torah. When King David went to battle, for example, he did not do so like any other general. For every combatant, he enlisted another Jew to engage in full-time Torah study.

ADMITTEDLY, present-day haredi society has no historical precedents. There has never been a Jewish community in which every male was engaged in full-time Torah study. On the other hand, the general Jewish society today is also historically unprecedented. Virtually the entire world of Torah scholarship was wiped out in the Holocaust. For the past 60 years, the leaders of haredi society have viewed our period as one of "a time to act for God [because] they have voided your Torah," as they attempted to recreate the vibrant Torah learning of Eastern Europe before the war.

(The halachic principle of "a time to act for God," incidentally, underlies the rejection by the overwhelming weight of halachic authority over the past 500 years of the passage in Maimonides quoted at length by Itamar Marcus as normative Halacha.)

Present-day Jewish society is historically anomalous for another reason. Never before has such a small percentage of Jews been mitzva-observant or literate in classic Jewish sources. Haredi society has become the "tribe of Levi" described by Maimonides at the end of the Laws of Shmitta. Maimonides explains that because the Levites were the teachers of the Law, they were removed from all mundane pursuits and therefore did not inherit the Land. Maimonides further adds that whoever understands the supreme importance of teaching Torah can separate himself from all mundane matters and attach himself to the Levites, and nothing could be more praiseworthy.

In the process of fashioning itself into a modern-day tribe of Levi by placing such a heavy emphasis on the primacy of Torah learning, the haredi world has inevitably given less importance to other important values, even important Torah values, such as the physical defense of the Jewish people.

One can never maximize all values simultaneously. Anyone who thinks, for instance, that there is no tension between his identity as a Torah-observant Jew and full participation in Israeli society is extremely na ve.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the most eloquent modern proponent of the importance of demonstrating the relevance of Torah to every aspect of life, was under no such delusion. His writings are filled with the necessity to remove oneself immediately from any pursuit that threatens one's belief or actions as a Torah Jew.

Hesder yeshivot are most often cited by those who believe that a magic formula exists for resolving all tensions. And indeed one is filled with awe for the young men who use every spare moment on the battlefront to snatch another bit of Torah study.

Yet it is worth noting that most of the greatest Torah luminaries identified with the national religious world - including Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, Rabbi Moshe Zvi Neria, Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli, and Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook - ardently defended the deferment for full-time yeshiva students. For all the uncontested contributions of the hesder yeshivot, they have not succeeded in spreading a passion for Torah learning to the broader national-religious community. The percentage of graduates of religious high schools continuing on to hesder yeshivot is in rapid decline, with more graduates each year going on to the military academies or straight into the army.

A 1999 Bar-Ilan University study found that only 69% of graduates of the high-school yeshivot are religious, even by their own liberal self-definition, and even before they start army service. Approximately 20 years ago, all haredi rabbis were kicked out of the yeshiva high-school system. Today, as the Bar-Ilan study noted, those yeshiva high schools find themselves in crisis, and haredi rabbis are being brought back in to infuse students with an enthusiasm for Torah learning. At any large gathering of national-religious youth, one is instantly struck by the number of secular wannabes, to judge by dress and hairstyle. Habbakukianism (an acronym for Habad-Bretzlav-Carlebach-Kook) has become the spiritual elixir for religious youth whose spiritual needs are not being met through mitzva observance and Torah study.

I NOTE these facts not because I believe that haredi society has no vices or other religious approaches no virtues. Both propositions are patently false. Rather my intention is to point out how complex is the problem of balancing different Torah values, and how difficult to navigate the shoals of modernity while leaving the Torah unsullied.

To strike that balance, the haredi community seeks the guidance of its greatest Torah scholars. Haredim do so precisely because they do not view the Torah as merely a checklist of ritual laws; nor do they limit rabbis to ruling on mixtures of milk and meat, with everything else to be determined by the politicians. Because haredim see the Torah as a guide to all of life, they turn to those who have most fully made themselves one with the Torah.

The balancing of different Torah values changes in every era. Within haredi society, for instance, there is a growing recognition that the battle to rebuild what was destroyed by the Holocaust has largely been won. With respect to the army as well, we could be entering a new period. Until now, the most ardent advocates of drafting yeshiva students, such as Ran Cohen of Meretz, have freely admitted that the army neither needs nor wants haredi recruits. Their stated goal has been to remove yeshiva students from the study halls in the name of equality.

Today, however, it is possible to envision a situation in which every able-bodied male would be needed for the army or civil defense, and then the calculus would change.

One thing, however, is clear. The primacy of Torah study will always be the defining value and purpose of haredi society, and any threat to it will be rejected.

That there are a number of approaches among religious Jews is hardly a secret. And it is even understandable that different religious groups might point out the failures of other approaches as part of their internal educational program. The Jerusalem Post, however, is not the forum to be hurling selected religious sources or epithets at one another.

As we enter the three weeks prior to Tisha Be'av, we would all be better served by focusing on what needs correction in our own homes than in building ourselves up by putting others down.

Yes, I forgot to post the "Point"

POINT, BY ITAMAR MARCUS: Evading 'tikun olam'

By ITAMAR MARCUS

The perpetual rejection by certain yeshiva students of a productive, self-supporting profession, together with the evasion of army service in the name of Torah ideology, is a flagrant distortion of Judaism. This non-productive, dependent lifestyle is antithetical to both Torah ideology and rabbinical Judaism, and its representation by savvy religious political parties as the authentic Judaism is one of the greatest dangers Judaism has faced in years.

The Torah is often mistakenly understood as an instruction book for Jews about religion. It is not. Rather, it is instruction book on how to build a better society in all its aspects, which includes promoting universal social justice, scientific development and religious instruction. Judaism's vision is tikun olam, "fixing the world" in all its components, and the interaction between God and the individual, commonly called "religion," is just one aspect of it.

This problem of Jews attempting to limit Judaism's scope to "religious" traditions has existed since biblical times. The prophet Isaiah begins his book describing God's disgust with people who practice only the "religious" traditions of Judaism - people whose religious observance would categorize them as "Orthodox" by today's standards. Not only did God condemn their omissions, but He even rejected their religious worship. He called their Temple offerings "abominations." He "doesn't want their sacrifices." He "hates" their observing holidays. "Your many prayers I do not hear," He says. He even rejects their keeping of the Sabbath. [Isaiah 1]

Isaiah was fighting people who were trying to turn the Torah into nothing more than a "how to" primer on worship, Sabbath, holidays and prayer. Isaiah's message was that even though their "religious" practice was according to Torah law, it was useless because it wasn't part of the total package of Judaism. It was even an abomination. They would have been better off going to the beach.

And what are some aspects of the total package of Judaism so flagrantly ignored by today's perpetual yeshiva students?

The Torah's very first words to the first people after creation were: "Populate the world and 'control it' (kivshuha) - that is, 'develop it,' make it more hospitable. All scientific, medical, technological and even positive social development - past and future - is a fulfillment of that first demand by God to humankind.

While taking the first half of the verse, "populate the world," very seriously, the perpetual yeshiva students ignore the equally basic principle of the second half, "develop the world."

Minimally, every Jew is obliged to make an attempt to be self-supporting and not to be a burden on the community. A most explicit statement of this was written by Maimonides, in his compilation of Jewish law, the Mishne Torah: "A person should always force himself, even rolling in pain, not to become needy of others, and should not throw himself [as a financial burden] on the community... Even a Talmud scholar, an honored person who became poor, should work [even] in a degrading profession and not become dependent on others. Better to skin animal carcasses and not say to the community: 'I am a scholar, support me.' The great scholars [of the Talmud] worked as wood cutters, beam carriers, water drawers for fields, steel and coal workers and did not ask for community support and [even] rejected it when it was offered." [Matanot Aniyim, 10:18].

Beyond this general prohibition, Maimonides especially condemns and prohibits accepting payment for Torah study: "Anyone who plans to study Torah without working at a profession and to be supported from charity has desecrated God's name, disgraced the Torah, extinguished the light of the religion, caused himself harm, and has taken away his own life from the World to Come, because it is forbidden to profit from Torah [study] in this world... Any Torah [study] that is not accompanied by work ultimately is wasted, causes sin, and this person will ultimately be stealing from people." [Talmud Torah: 3:10]

These are not the words of Shinui Knesset Member Yosef Lapid during a Knesset debate attacking state funding of yeshiva students. This is Jewish law. And whereas evolving Jewish law accepted the principle of community support for religious scholars and students, the intention was to support outstanding individuals, just as secular universities grant scholarships to students of outstanding potential.

COMPOUNDING ALL of these violations of the spirit and letter of Jewish law by willingly becoming a financial burden on society is the avoidance of army service by the perpetual yeshiva students in the name of "Torah study."

On the purely legal level, Jewish law demands that in an "obligatory war... defending Israel from an enemy that comes upon them," [Mishne Torah: Kings 5:1] everyone must participate, even "the groom and the bride."

But beyond the violation of Jewish law, the evasion of military service in the name of Torah study is a total deviation from Judaism as expressed conceptually throughout the Bible.

The Bible narrative, though a recounting of Judaism's striving toward social and spiritual excellence, is accompanied by the incessant struggle for physical survival, with the physical and spiritual often going hand in hand. Starting as early as the Patriarchs: Abraham had a standing army and military alliances, and didn't hesitate to go into battle when necessary. Jacob, likewise, fought his own military battles. King David, the spiritual harp-playing writer of Psalms, was also the great warrior who slew Goliath. Samson, for his religious nazir [Nazerite] status, received extraordinary physical strength, not a stipend for a lifetime of yeshiva study. When a number of Israelite tribes asked Moses for permission not to cross the Jordan River, he chastised them in the most critical language, beginning with the rhetorical question: "Will your brothers go to war while you sit here?"

To Moses, it was impossible and unthinkable that people would expect others to fight their battles for national survival. And Moses did not offer them the option of prayer or "yeshiva studies" as a replacement, nor did they ask for it.

This twisting of Judaism into a religion promoting a passive and dependent existence is an odious distortion. Those sitting in yeshiva and not "fixing the world" - having their "brothers" fight their wars and support them financially in the name of "Judaism" - have reformed Judaism no less than others' movements in the past, but lack the intellectual honesty to call themselves Reform Jews. Indeed, the first Reform Judaism as a movement did not distort the Jewish religion - it openly declared its intention to practice it differently, selecting certain elements and excluding others, even though each had been a foundation.

This new ideology, which is also a selection of some elements and an exclusion of others, is a different "Reform Judaism." As such, it should at least have the honesty to admit it.

CONFRONTING THIS distortion of Judaism is one of its greatest challenges today. For, beyond the damage to the misguided who have adopted this lifestyle, the immense publicity it has gained due to the political debate over this issue has many Israelis perceiving it to be "authentic" Torah Judaism. Today, so many of our young people are running away from Judaism - seeking spiritualism in other religions, and ethical values in other humanistic ideologies, when those values are actually paramount in their own heritage, often having originated in Torah Judaism. Today's youth, instead of seeing Judaism as the rich social and spiritual heritage demanding dedication to solving the pressing challenges facing all of humankind, see it as stagnant, parasitic, self-serving political nonsense, spiced with a touch of superstition taken from the Middle Ages.

What healthy teenager would want to be a part of that?

With two sons studying in yeshiva, one in Otniel following his paratrooper service and another in Ma'aleh Gilboa prior to his induction into the army this summer, and having myself spent many years in Torah study and giving Torah lectures, I cannot be accused of undervaluing the yeshiva world. The Torah is the instruction manual directing the world forward toward loftier ideals in all realms of life. Those who limit their world perpetually to the confines of the yeshiva, however, are not fulfilling Judaism; they are just reading and re-reading the instructions.

It's time they stopped reading the instructions, and started practicing Judaism.

The writer is a Jewish educator and director of Palestinian Media Watch (itamar@pmw.org.il).

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