"Jewish Home" and MK Yitzhak Cohen's Zinger
Rav Ovadia ZT"L had called the Bayit Hayehudi party a "Bayit Shel Goyim". People were up-in-arms about it then and many never got over it. But the unfortunate truth to his statement is still being revealed over a year later. (Of course, he was referring to the party and its unJewish policies - not the people who voted for it.) Two recent decisions of theirs underscore this idea.
MK Aryeh Deri mentioned this after the Shaked Committee just decided to allow criminal sanctions on Haredim who refuse to serve:
Deri criticized Bayit Yehudi, which he said was cooperating with Yesh Atid against the haredim.In addition, after the Stern Bill to localize Giyur passed its first reading with the support of Bayit Hayehudi,
“Bayit Yehudi’s behavior in the enlistment committee has proven that Rabbi Ovadia [Yosef, Shas’s late spiritual mentor] was right about the party,” said Deri during the Shas faction meeting on Monday.
MK Eli Yishai said (my translation):
There are those who think they know better than Moshe Rabbeinu and all Gedolei Yisrael what is right to do and what is wrong. I don't believe that they would be so brazen as to enact a health law without consulting with doctors. But a law that's so sensitive, they pass without consulting rabbis. Here, they breach all fences. I want to deliver a message to the people of Bayit Hayehudi. Bayit Hayehudi [Jewish Home] is voting for a law that uproots the true Jewish home - not the political one.And regarding the same decision, MK Yitzhak Cohen issued this zinger (my translation):
Something evil is transpiring in the current term of the government. There is a total erasure of the Jewish identity of the state. There is Hutzpah here. They ask the Palestinians and Abu Mazen to recognize us as a Jewish state at the same time that they intentionally destroy any semblance of Judaism in the state.I'm reminded of this quote from A Fish Called Wanda:
When Rav Ovadia said about Bayit Hayehudi, "Bayit Shel Goyim", it wasn't Bayit Hayehudi that should have been offended, but the Goyim who should have been offended!
Otto West: Don't call me stupid.May Hashem annul these evil decrees quickly.
Wanda: Oh, right! To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!
posted by yaak @ 2/18/2014 04:10:00 AM
9 comments
9 Comments:
Chutzpah yasgeh
Thanks Yaak for this fine piece. Absolutely true; there is evil going on in the 'knesset' of Israel. MK Yitzchak Cohen said it best when he called it
'chutzpah' that Netanyahu wants the State to be referred to as a Jewish state, when, at the same time, it is undoing everything Jewish about the State. We're watching a farce, but it's nothing to laugh about.
As a yeshiva bochur myself, I feel pretty strongly about this. I feel that to apply this without any regard to rabbinical opinion is a grave mistake, but I do think there is a problem with dodging a draft. If everyone is required to join the army, to have some people say that they don't feel that they have to can be seen as pretty rude to those who aren't religious, or even those who are, but still go to the army.
The problem is only compounded by those who go to yeshiva only in order to dodge the draft. To go to yeshiva due to a genuine want to learn should be encouraged, but those who go simply to dodge should be cracked down on much harder. This ruling is very much a case of punishing the many fit the actions of the few. It is not so drastic as 'an attempt to destroy our religion' as I have seen it described.
The problem is only compounded by those who go to yeshiva only in order to dodge the draft. To go to yeshiva due to a genuine want to learn should be encouraged, but those who go simply to dodge should be cracked down on much harder.
I don't care about their motivation for joining a Yeshiva. Rather, if, Lema'aseh, they're learning, they should stay learning. If they're fooling around in Yeshiva, they should go to the army. (The army also needs to make itself more conducive to religious needs, which reports indicate it seems to fall woefully short. Hopefully, they can overcome that obstacle very soon.)
Of course, if they are genuinely learning then by all means they should stay in yeshiva. I think that it's a circular problem. Because relatively few yeshiva bochrim join the army, the army didn't feel the need to create an atmosphere that they would be comfortable with. If more go, then the army will have to compensate more for orthodox units. Hesder is one attempt at fixing the problem, but there are some flaws in the system, in addition to the fact that those Yeshivot tend to cater only for specific kinds of people.
'They Insult Our Rabbis, and We Remain Silent'
Jewish Home MK blasts hareidi Knesset MKs over 'ingratitude' to Jewish Home, Religious Zionist community.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/177597#.UwRunGthiSN
The other side:
Minister of Senior Citizens Affairs (Bayit Yehudi) Uri Orbach admits that he does not understand his dati leumi colleagues.
“Each time I am astounded by the gap between our efforts in Bayit Yehudi to save the chareidim from the ‘gezeiros of the draft’ and the outpouring of hate they display in Knesset and in their newspapers. Not that we need their thanks, but almost the entire party is working that chalila a single chareidi is not compelled to be drafted into the terrible army Hashem Yishmor”.
Addressing his colleagues Orbach adds “Faction meetings have been dedicated to diluting the ‘criminal’ sanctions for not complying with the draft until Moshiach arrives towards being considerate to the chareidi demands as much as possible. This is costly for at present, there is an all out assault against hesder yeshivos for it appears that Stern and the non-religious have despaired regarding the chareidim. Enough!”
“As a result of the attempts to please and appease the chareidim and show that we care about the chareidi Torah world (including those who don’t learn), we forget that a combination of Torah study and the army is ideal. A person must be a ben Torah and earn a livelihood and support his family, yes, nonsense like that”.
“So now the chareidi MKs get up at the Knesset podium, one following the other, and use every opportunity to defame us. ‘A house of goyim’ [they yell] as they soil their mouths about our rabbonim and we remain quite, silent. It is not pleasant to fight and they are really misfortunate and nebach but perhaps they can be with us on the fight for Eretz Yisrael (ha ha). Yes, politics often requires patience and forbearance but maybe sometimes we are taking this to an extreme”.
Neshama,
I saw both those articles earlier. BY should never have joined this government. If there were a united front against both Lapid and Kerry, we could have accomplished so much more. Instead, BY has gone against Judaism Mamash! The DL community needs to get rid of them and start over with new MKs or else change their party name to Bayit Hayehudi Reformi so as not to confuse true Torah Jews of the DL community.
Thank you Yaak for your last comment. Exactly what I wanted to write, but you beat me to it. The real trouble started when Bayit Yehudi pairs up with the most leftist, anti-religious, anti-Jewish Party and its head, Lapid. Everyone who could think was asking the same question, why are they doing that? No matter how many complaints about this insane 'couple'; Bennett said he is not leaving this combo. Something was wrong then and it has all been proven what a farce it has been. There is definitely something not right and there is also a definite war against the religious. I had already commented that first they go after the chareidim, then the nationalist religious, traditional, all the way to even the average secular non-leftist. They are working towards making the State a state for all its citizens and completely distancing themselves, r'l, from Judaism. What fools!
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