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To: dervish

>>The two tribes are Issachar and Zebulon

Not to mention the tribe of Levi, Who were completely dedicated to spiritual pursuits and who were subsidized by all the other tribes. Unfortunately, the secularists in Israel don't perceive the importance of having a sector of society devoted solely to spiritual development and see them as leeches.


156 posted on 08/04/2005 6:50:32 PM PDT by blurb
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To: blurb; Piranha

I forgot Levi. Levi did perform Temple Service and they were excluded from a land portion entirely.

To be fair, there is some basis for the resentment.

As Piranha noted in post #38, the concept of learning instead of working has become different in Israel than it ever was in the history of Judaism. It involves a much larger segment of society and for a much longer duration.

For my own view, I think there are exceptional students, Talmidei Chachamim, who merit support from the community. But to a large extent the Haredi community, without reference to ability or even whether an individual's character is suitable to the rigours of sitting and studying all day, pushes its members to study and not work or join the army. That leaves them as an economic underclass, a drain on the economy without giving the benefits of their learning back to society.

But the greatest resentment in Israeli society comes, I believe, from their opting out of military service which is mandatory for all others. If you are a parent who must see your son off to risk his life in service to the country, you may resent others who don't. Army service occurs right out of High School and even brilliant secular students must wait to attend college.

Some in the Haredi community have hidden behind the learning deferment to avoid military service. Some Rabbis in the community have spoken of military service as a tainting experience on the innocence and purity of their religious youth.

Perhaps the average Haredi student should be given a limited army reprieve of a short duration to pursue studies and demonstrate their committment and ability.

I must admit I have great admiration for the Hesder students who manage to be Orthodox, study and do Army Service. That group is also overepresented in the settlements.


159 posted on 08/04/2005 7:22:18 PM PDT by dervish
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