Local Charedi newspaper makes a pathetic and childish attack on former MK Dov Lipman

A local newspaper in Bet Shemesh printed the following article about Dov Lipman:

It is difficult to part from you!

In the context of the political upheavals that happened this week, the Knesset parted ways with the first MK from Bet Shemesh, Dov Lipman from Yesh Atid who was placed number 16 on the list and did not succeed to return to the Knesset and who will join the long list of former MKs. Here are a variety of pictures from Dov Lipmans important and plentiful work as a testimonial to the man and his work.    

This is a really childish and pathetic attack on Dov Lipman. While you can certainly disagree with his methods and actions, no one can deny that he worked hard in the Knesset, showed up to all of the meetings, and tried to get things done. Pretending that the pictures shown above represent what his Knesset service was about is very low blow.

Charedi newspaper בקהילה: Don't help poor families that didn't vote for a Charedi party

NRG quotes an editorial from בקהילה that the Charedi tzedaka organisations shouldn't give any money/help to families that didn't vote for a Charedi party in the elections. Below is my translation of the article and then some commentary:

Don't Help Needy Families that didn't vote for Charedim

The editor in chief of the the weekly Charedi newspaper בקהילה, Dov Greenbaum, wrote in an editorial that in his opinion "the support organisations in the Charedi population should investigate very thoroughly those that voted with their feet against enhancing Charedi power. They should reject and throw out the ingrates in our camp who out of laziness didn't go and fulfil their duty [to vote]".

The elections are behind us but the tension is still in the air - and now the time for revenge has come. The editor of the the weekly Charedi newspaper בקהילה, Avraham Dov Greenbaum, called on the Charedi charity organisations to not help help families where the parents did not vote for a Charedi party, either because they voted for a different party or didn't vote at all.

It would be good if the heads of "Yad Lamishpacha" and other support organisations in the Charedi world would investigate and reject those who this past week voted with their feet against enhancing Charedi power, writes Greenbaum in his weekly column. "Throw out those ingrates in our camp who in their laziness did not go out and fulfil their duty [to vote]. Remove and cut off the individuals who sanctified a war against the Charedi leadership".

Greenbaum does not specify exactly who he is referring to, but hinted that he is also referring to those who voted for the right wing-Charedi party of Eli Yishai or didn't vote. "2 sides to the coin he explained, those who are pushing nationalism that is not lacking in the Charedi world and those that are pushing zealousness that is growing in our streets. The zealots and nationalists don't get along with their Rebbe all year long, what does he understand?"

"Nationalism we saw in Eli Yishai's stillborn party" writes Greenbaum, "They are trying to make a revolution on their way to the Knesset. To hurt/attack Litzman, Gafni, Deri. The last time they attacked Yishai as well. That is how it is. Attack the establishment. Why not? They get the great dividends of the Charedi world and every other benefit, but when asked to give of themselves once every 4 years, 1 vote for Charedi Judaism, they turn their back".

In a conversation with NRG, Greenbaum explained that he was not referring to those who based on the order of their Rebbe voted for Eli Yishai or didn't vote, rather, only those who made their own decisions. " Charedi Judaism is suffering from the syndrome of 'I also have an opinion'. This is expressed by those who vote against the orders of their Rebbe among other things. Either because of their spreading nationalism or because of learned zealotry. The 2 together 'take revenge' on the Charedi population as a whole and the reduction in seats that the Charedim received is to their credit. He added: "Whoever doesn't eat [maror] bitter herbs with us won't sit with us for the meal". 

Regaring his call not to give them any help, even though among them there are needy families, Greenbaum justified his position by saying: "There is no need to say a lot regarding the fact that they are not justified in taking part in the Charedi consensus whether for good or bad. Whoever separates himself from the group in a time of trouble, Chazal taught us that he cannot be included with us in a time of joy. He even added and said "There is no choice but to not give to those who are not a part of us what we work hard to get with little power". 

IMHO this is a very dangerous tack for the Charedi world to take.  If we take his words to their logical conclusion then the government should provide no support to the Charedi world at all. Why should the government provide security to Charedi neighbourhoods when Charedim are not willing to participate and give their share (e.g. serve in the Army and security forces)? Why should the government provide money to Charedi schools when Charedim are not willing to teach their kids secular studies? Etc. The Charedi world is trying to have it's cake and eat it too. On one hand they participate in the elections, elect MKs and get all kinds of government money, while on the other hand refusing to give anything back to the state and in fact being anti the state. As I wrote here  at least the Satmar are honest about what they are doing. 

There is a very big question. How can they make a demonstration [against the Israeli government] in front of the non-Jews when they themselves are part of the government and taking money from the government? Why should the non-Jew understand? The Charedi is benefiting from government budgets, is part of the government and has MKs in the government, why should he be any different then a chiloni? This is exactly what the government is asking from the Charedim, to share the burden. The non-Jew can understand that those God fearing Jews who don't participate and have nothing to do with the government and get no government money have a right to not be drafted as well and therefore a demonstration is worthwhile.

Now, you can disagree with his point regarding those who don't take government money, but his point regarding those who do take money is very hard to refute. If you participate in the government and take money then you also need to contribute, the government is not simply a cash machine.

There is another important point to make here. These same organisations that Greenbaum is saying should not help needy families who didn't vote for the right party, have no problem collecting money from those same type of people. They have no problem collecting money from people who voted for other parties, people who served in the army and people who are not listening to the Gedolim but rather think for themselves. Lets see him put his money where his mouth is and do the same kind of checking before accepting money as he is advocating before giving out money, I guarantee you that won't happen.

Election analysis 2015 Israeli Elections - Updated Results

Now that the elections are behind us here is an analysis of the results.

Results

Likud - 30

Machane Hatziyoni (Herzog and Livni) - 24

United Arab List - 14 13

Yesh Atid (Lapid) - 11

Kulanu (Kachlon) - 10

Habayit Hayehudi (Bennet) - 8

Shas - 7

Yahadut Hatorah - 6

Yisrael Beitenu (Lieberman) - 6

Meretz - 4 5

Yachad (Eli Yishai) - 0

Winners

Big Winner

Netanyahu and the Likud. He greatly outperformed all expectations and got between 5 and 10 more seats then the polls gave him.  His 30 seats combined with the fact that the next largest party in the government will be only 10 seats will give him tremendous power. He should be able to make a pretty stable coalition.

Other Winners

1. Kachlon - His party will be the second largest in the coalition and he will most probably be the Finance Minister
2. Deri and Shas - Eli Yishai's party failed to reach the threshold 

Losers

Big Loser

Eli Yishai is the big loser of these elections. He gambled that he could get enough votes (4 seats) and get into the Knesset and he lost. He fell short by 10-15,000 votes. This loss probably finishes him in politics.

Other Losers

1. Herzog - The polls had him leading and he ended up losing by a big margin. He will be stuck in the opposition
2. Lapid - He went down to 11 seats and will be in the opposition
3. Bennett - Fell all the way down to 8 seats.
4. Lieberman - fell all the way to 6 seats, will probably disappear in the next election.

What will the next government look like?

There is really only one realistic coalition based on the results, however, there are 2 other remote possibilities that could happen if for some reasons the negotiations go south.

Probable Coalition

Likud - 30

Kulanu (Kachlon) - 10

Habayit Hayehudi (Bennett) - 8

Shas - 7

Yahadut Hatorah - 6

Yisrael Beitenu (Lieberman) - 6

Total: 67

Probable Ministers

Here are the major ministries and who will probably be the minister:

Prime Minister - Netanyahu

Finance Minister - Kachlon 

Foreign Minister - Likud (Erdan or Steinitz)

Defense Minister - Likud - Yaalon

Justice Minister - Likud

Education Minister - ?

Health Minister - Yahadut Hatorah (Litzman)

Interior Minister - Shas (Deri)

Internal Security Minister - Lieberman?

I would hope that the government doesn't change the law and sticks to 18 ministers.

Other Possible Coalitions

There are 2 other possible coalitions:

1. Yesh Atid replaces the Charedi parties, that would create a coalition of 65. I don't see this happening because I believe that Netanyahu has no interest in dealing with Lapid. The Charedi parties will be a lot easier to satisfy, throw them a little money and they will be happy.

2. Unity government with the Machane Hatziyoni, the 2 parties together have 54 seats they could then add other parties (Kachlon) as needed. I don't see this happening either as the idealogical divide between the 2 parties is quite wide.

The Charedi Perspective

I think that even though the Charedi parties lost seats, they came out winners in that they will be a necessary part of Netanyahu's government and therefore will be able to reverse some of the budget cuts. The bottom line with the Charedi parties is money, and since they will be in the government they will get to feed at the government trough.

Interesting points about the Luchos

In last weeks parsha (כי תשא) we read about the luchos (both the first and the second). There are a lot of questions and interesting issues that come up in relation to the luchos.

I. Did the first and second Luchos have the same text

From the pesukim it sounds like they did, the pasuk states:
וכתבתי על הלוחות את הדברים אשר היו על הלוחות הראשונים אשר שברת
However, there are a number of sources that say that the 2 sets of luchos had different text.

Gemara בבא קמא נד - נה

The Gemara has the following story:

R' Chanina ben Agil asked R' Chiya bar Abba why in the first dibros it doesn't say טוב and in  the second dibros it does? R' Chiya answered, you ask why it says טוב  I don't even know if it does say טוב and he sent him to ask R' Tanchum who explained that since the first luchos were broken they didn't say טוב.

Many acharonim ask the obvious question, how could R' Chiya not know if it says טוב in the dibros? A number of Acharonim (Pnei Yehoshua, Rif, on the Eyn Yaakov and others) explain the Gemara as follows. The discussion between the 2 was about the luchos (as we see from the Gemaras answer). R' Chanina assumed that what was written on the first luchos corresponded to the first dibros and what was written on the second luchos corresponded to the second dibros. R' Chiya answered him, I don't know what was written on the luchos, go ask R' Tanchum. R' Tanchum validated R' Chanina's assumption and explained the difference in the luchos explaining that since the first luchos were broken טוב was not written on them. Now we can understand R' Chiya, of course he knew the pesukim in Chumash, but he didn't know what exactly was written on the luchos.

We see according to these acharonim that the maskana of the Gemara was that טוב was written on the second luchos but not the first.

Ramban 

Shamor and zakhor were both on the first luchos, and only zakhor on the second luchos

Beis Halevi

The Beis Halevi (דרוש י"ח) explains that the first luchos had all of תורה שבכתב and all of תורה שבעל פה written on them. However, the second luchos had only the 10 dibros. 

נצי"ב

The Netziv in Haamek Davar, states explicitly that the first luchos had the text written in Yisro and the additional text from Vaeschanan was Torah She Baal Peh, and then the second luchos included the

additions from Vaeschanan, and were therefore in some respects greater.

II. In what כתב were the luchos written?

The Gemara in Sanhedrin (21b) has a machlokes between R' Yosi and Rebbi whether the Torah (e.g. the luchos) was given in כתב עברי or כתב אשורי. R' Yosi says כתב עברי and Rebbi says כתב אשורי. 

Geonim

The Geonim and Rashi understand R' Yosi literally, that כתב אשורי was not used until עזרא came and changed the כתב. In other words, the writing on the luchos and every other sefer torah, tefillin, mezozus was in כתב עברי until עזרא came and changed the כתב. 

Ritva

The Ritva is bother by a number of questions:

1. There are so many halachos/derashos related to כתב אשורי how could it be that it was not given at Har Sinai?

2. The Gemara in Shabbos says that the ם and ס of the luchos were a נס. That only works in כתב אשורי

Therefore, the Ritva claims that the luchos were given in כתב אשורי, however, כתב אשורי was considered to be too holy and therefore all oner seforim etc. were written in כתב עברי. Then, עזרא came and changed the כתב so that all seforim would be written in כתב אשורי.

Radvaz

The Radvaz has a fascinating yeshiva about this issue. He starts off assuming like the Rtva. However, he then finds a Yerushalmi in Megila that states that according to the opinion that the luchos were given in כתב עברי the ע was the letter that was בנס in the luchos.

Based on this Yerushalmi, the Radvaz explains the following. The first luchos were given in כתב אשורי, but the second luchos were given in כתב עברי and that is what the Yerushalmi is talking about.

Brisker Rav

The Brisker Rav in Menuchos (29b) has a fascinating pshat in the Gemara. The Gemara there has the famous aggaddta where Moshe sees Hashem putting the כתרים on the letters and Hashem explains to Moshe that R' Akiva is going to darshen these. The Gemara then says that Moshe asked Hashem מי מעכב. The Brisker Rav is bothered by the לשון of מי מעכב. He explains the Gemara as follows. The Gemara is going like R' Yosi that the Torah was given in כתב עברי and like the Geonim, that even the luchos were in כתב עברי. We know that כתב עברי doesn't have כתרים, so Moshe was asking, מי מעכב, what is stopping you from giving the Torah in כתב אשורי so we could already have the כתרים. 

We see a number of fascinating things from this Brisker Rav:

1. The Gemara in Menachos is going like R' Yosi
2. He understands R' Yosi like the Geonim 
3. The derashos of the כתרים only came into existence at the time of עזרא

III. Who wrote the second luchos?

While most assume that Hashem wrote the second luchos as well, there is a Medrash Raba in Shemos  (http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14385&st=&pgnum=370&hilite=) which states explicitly that Moshe wrote the second luchos.

Can a modern state be run based on Halacha?

According to the Bostoner Rebbe the answer is no. At a news conference (http://www.nrg.co.il/online/11/ART2/680/325.html?hp=11&cat=1102&loc=8), the Bostoner Rebbe said that "he is afraid of a halachic state".

Here is the full context of his statement:
אני מפחד מהיום שיהיו 61 חברי כנסת, כי אני לא יודע איך ניתן לנהל מדינה עם האחריות של שמירת התורה. לדוגמה, לסגור את שדה התעופה בשבת, בעולם המודרני אני לא יודע איך אפשר לעשות את זה". ובכנות הוסיף ש"ברוך השם שלא באים לשאול אותי שאלות כאלה".

I am afraid of the day when we have 61 MKs because I don't know how you can run a state with the responsibilities of keeping the Torah. For example, shutting down the airport on Shabbos, in the modern world I don't see how you can do that. And in a moment of candour he added "Thank God that no one comes to ask me these types questions"

Unfortunately, this is emblematic of the modern Charedi leadership,  don't deal with the modern world, rather withdraw from it. Don't engage with the world, rather have everyone sit and learn.

The problem is that it puts Torah in a very bad light. The Torah is supposed to be a blueprint for society, and yet the Charedi leadership says that we can't run a modern society based on Torah because we don't have answers. What does that say about the נצחיות of Torah?

This was not always the case, R' Waldenberg (שו"ת ציץ אליעזר) wrote a whole sefer about these issues as well as many teshuvas and R' Sholmo Zalman Auerbach was already available to address these issues.

It's very interesting that the Bostoner Rebbe pointed to closing the airport on Shabbos as a big problem. IMHO, that is the least of our problems. Power generation, police and army activity on Shabbos are much bigger problems. How do you deal with industries (for example Intel's chip factories) which can't be shut down once a week? How would you create a workable justice system given the Torah's rules of evidence? The list goes on and on.

Additionally, there are very serious economic issues to be dealt with. Modern economies are based on credit and interest, for example, every modern state sells government bonds which pay interest. What about the prohibition of ריבית? How do you square advertising with the prohibitions of אונאת דברים?

To their credit the RZ Rabbis are trying to deal with these issues. To their credit they are publishing seforim which focus on halacha in the modern world, dealing with issues like the army, police, economic issues, etc.

Why is Charedi Poverty Getting Worse? A heartfelt column from a 30 year old Charedi man with no economic future

YNet published a column today by a 30 year old Charedi alumnus of Ponovezh who feels that he was done an injustice by the Charedi educational system. The column is in Hebrew so I am going to translate it because I feel it is a very important statement from a born and bred Charedi. Below is my translation of the column:

Charedim, lets admit that we made a mistake

At the age of 30, unemployed and divorced, I understand that an injustice was done to me. I could have been a doctor or a lawyer but you prevented me [from doing this]. We need to break this cycle.

I am a born and bred Charedi from birth. I attended a Talmud Torah that focused primarily on Torah subjects. "Secular subjects" - that is what they are called in the Charedi world - were only there as "helpers for torah subjects". I will explain in simple terms. To learn Gemara you need some minimal knowledge of math or for example, in order to write Torah novella there is a need to know some elementary syntax and grammar. 

Because of this, we spent very little time on secular subjects. Multiplication tables represented the apex of our mathematical learning, we could only dream of anything further. We didn't learn any English whatsoever, after all, in the Gemara there are no English words.  If anything, it is more relevant to learn Aramaic. History? What does that contribute? The only history that we learned was the history of the Jewish people that is found in Tanach. And with this, the years passed by slowly. I then studied in an advanced Yeshiva where all we studied was Gemara. 

And then at age 20, I got married and to no ones surprise, glad that you guessed, I continued learning in Kollel where there also we studied Gemara exclusively. I received a stipend of 2000 shekel a month. My wife worked as a secretary and somehow we managed. After a year we had our first child and then we started to feel the financial difficulties. After our second child was born, the difficulties become too much to bear. The financial pressure caused tension and fights and in the end to my great sorrow, at the age of 26 I found myself divorced and penniless.

Now that I was obligated to pay child support, I had to go out and look for a job. Luckily, I found work at a Charedi bank that agreed to hire me after a series of tests. Even though I didn't have a HS diploma or a degree, I am quite intelligent. Since this was a Charedi bank, they understood the simple fact that Yeshiva students are lacking knowledge with respect to the secular population but are very smart. In my innocence I believed that I had managed to penetrate into the Israeli economic scene without a HS diploma. I invested myself fully into work. I finished courses with excellence and I surpassed all of my colleagues with degrees. I thought that I was living proof that it is possible to prosper without a HS diploma or college degree, however, it didn't last very long. The economic situation is not great and less then a month ago I was laid off because of labor force reductions.

Again I found myself at a starting point. I am now 30, divorced and paying child support, and I now understand that I was done an injustice.  If I would have gotten a HS diploma at an early age and a college degree after that I would have been able to do whatever I wanted, doctor, lawyer, economist, psychologist. However, now at age 30 I found myself deliberating between working at a call centre for minimum wage and becoming a bus driver at a slightly higher salary. Is this what is appropriate for me? Definitely not! However, I need to support myself and the injustice screams out to the heavens. I am a talented guy, in fact very talented. I have 1 simple question - why? Why am I supposed to work in a job that is not suitable for me only because they prevented me from getting an education? It is a moral injustice to push whole generations into the cycle of poverty. It is not possible to support a family without a college degree, certainly not without a HS diploma.

When you meet a Charedi doctor or architect the first question that you ask him is when did you become a Baal Teshuva? If it wasn't so sad it would be funny. Imagine a scenario where the Charedi population would combine learning for a degree alongside Gemara. Suddenly we would see senior Charedi doctors, and also architects who are alumni of yeshivas. In general, the Charedi population would become a contributing and important piece of Israeli society. This is not impossible. It may be too late for me but it is not too late for all those Charedim who are following the same path. 

I turn to the Charedi leadership: For the future generations, combine torah learning with secular studies. We will continue to learn Gemara but at the same time we will get a HS diploma and degree so that the next generation won't get stuck in the cycle of poverty. Someone has to stop this cycle. It is time to admit the simple truth, we made a mistake.

Yisrael, an Alumnus of Yeshivas Ponovezh