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3 Cheshvan 5760 - October 13, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
Different Methods, the Same Aim

by Rabbi Nosson Zeev Grossman

A relentless campaign to protect the Torah institutions, the yeshivos and kollelim, has been taking place for decades. Ever since the State of Israel was established, various secular circles have challenged the value of Torah study for its own sake: the devoting of one's life to intense Torah study.

This battle is being carried out in two spheres: First, the practical sphere in which active political lobbying tries to eliminate various types of harmful decrees. Second, in the ideological sphere, trying to explain to the general public the stand of Torah Jewry who see full-time Torah study as a preeminent principle.

The second sphere is not secondary to the first and to a certain degree they are inseparable. Our mussar sages have taught us that if we truly cling to the Torah, if we fully believe in all the principles for which we are devotedly fighting, others will not even attempt to harm these sacred values. When we personally reinforce our belief in these principles, a spiritual segulah "broadcasts" them to others.

We have witnessed during the last year a new and sophisticated attempt to harass Torah study, to nibble away at the splendid edifice of the Torah World founded by the past and present gedolei Torah. Until now our enemies have mainly attempted to taunt us by employing the argument about our duty to serve in the armed forces and to assume "our share" of the responsibility for our country's security.

We have always responded by clarifying unambiguously that the security of Am Yisroel is totally dependent upon its spiritual condition. Yeshiva and kollel students are the true defenders of our nation. They are the ones foiling any threat to our physical existence and nullifying the designs of those aspiring to destroy us.

Lately these anti-Torah groups have abandoned this worn-out method of using the "country's security" to goad us and have formulated a new "value" with which they try to effect changes and open breaches in the Torah World. The new principle is called "the need to join the working force." Secular politicians, "intellectuals" from Leftist circles and the "objective" media, have carried out a constant campaign to explain to the general public the "vital need" to uproot thousands of Torah scholars and "integrate them in the work force."

We do not know the reason for this change of tactics, for their swapping the previous specious arguments against the Torah World for the new one. Perhaps it is because the principle of the "sanctity of the army" has begun to crumble among the general populace and therefore the old argument has lost its powerful ring. Perhaps they realize that compulsory drafting of yeshiva students will never succeed since Maran the Rosh Yeshiva has declared that we must be moseir nefesh to oppose such a plan. These anti-Torah groups have changed their slogan with the hope that their new approach will not face such resolute opposition.

Be that as it may, they have devised a theory proving that there is a vital economic need to integrate thousands of Torah scholars into the working force.

It seems that after seventy years, these critics of Torah students are trying to resuscitate the ideas of A.D. Gordon and other secular chalutzim who preached the "religion of work" and saw it as a supreme value.

It is superfluous to point out that the Torah-true do not consider that efforts toward making a living are a "value." At best such efforts are an unfortunate necessity. We should not forget that "in the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread" is one of the curses given to Odom Horishon. How is it possible to turn a keloloh into a cherished ideology?

The truth of the matter is that the aim is but one. Neither expanding the working force nor military service is their real aim. Their real aim is destroying Torah institutions. The Brisker Rav zt'l taught us that the true objective of the Haskalah and Zionist Movements is uprooting Judaism. Using innocent ideas such as settling Eretz Yisroel, procuring general knowledge and intellectual concepts, are no other than poisonous demagogic means, highly sophisticated methods, through which they strive to gain popular support. They want to shake our belief in the sacred values upon which we have educated our children. Techniques have changed, but the objective has remained the same: uprooting Judaism.

The fact is that Knesset Members and secular newspaper reporters expressed their utmost pleasure with the proposals presently being discussed of military service for chareidim. According to these proposals, chareidim would be granted the alternative of a shortened military service at even a young age. Until now the IDF offers a shortened service for all those drafted at older ages (such as new olim), and the proposal currently being considered by the army is to expand this arrangement for young chareidim.

The secular spokesmen announced that if the chareidim agree to this arrangement, they will consider it a first-rate achievement, a true breakthrough. Some even went so far as to suggest full exemption from military service on the condition that yeshiva and kollel students leave their Torah institutions and join the work force.

What has happened to them? Have they suddenly "forgotten" all their declarations about the need to share the burden of military service?

The answer is clear: They are neither concerned with the military service of the yeshiva students nor do they care about economic demands. They are simply resentful of the phenomenal growth of the Torah world and are prepared to do whatever they can to erode the sacred values upon which our children were educated in their attempt to dislodge kollel students from their studies at the pinnacle of their development.

We must realize with whom we are dealing. All secular parties who display "concern" at the pitiful economic plight of the chareidim and want to "merge them into the work force" are those who in the past were "concerned" with our not taking part in military service. The honest truth is they have but one objective: we should leave the yeshivos and kollelim.

If there is no hope of achieving this by arguing the principle of identical military burden, they try their luck with another principle: our economy's need to blend the chareidim into the work force. If you do not believe in the "sanctity of the army" perhaps you will believe in the "religion of labor."

The attempt to secure popular acceptance of the secular approach that a life devoted to Torah is "time wasting," a "burden on the public," and "living at the expense of others," constitutes an insolent initiative of those not prepared to admit the fact that the Torah world is flourishing. The sight of thousands of avreichim and their families sacrificing their lives to Torah and casting away all material aspirations annoys them terribly. Although they realize that they cannot change this blessed reality through external methods, they have the audacity to demand from us "cooperation" in solving the "problem" of the "culture of scholars" and "too many avreichim."

We must conclude that both these so-called concerns are enact evil decrees. Jewish history teaches us that those who enacted decrees upon us first tried to do so forcefully and if that did not succeed they tried to convince us to agree. Since force has been unsuccessful they are trying to persuade us that their proposals are solely for our benefit. They want to change the values of the chareidim and wear away the sacred principle of devoting one's life to studying Torah by those who are Torosom umnosom.

In his Igeres Teiman, the Rambam writes that ever since the Torah was given to us, all those who enacted decrees on am Yisroel initially endeavored to do so by the sword and then they tried to entice and fool us. The Creator promises: "No weapon that is forced against you shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn" (Yeshaya 54:17).

Those who have cast away the yoke of Torah undertake various tactics with just one objective in mind: attacking Torah institutions. They are always similar plots with altered forms and definitions.

We will, however, proudly dismiss their proposals and not recognize the authenticity of their arguments. These plots, which are all basically one, are rejected by every sensitive person who realizes the dangers of shaking the pillars of the Torah World that were built with much toil and mesiras nefesh by our previous gedolei Torah.

"Make me wise from my enemies" (Tehillim 119:98). We should therefore not be duped and swayed by the smooth arguments. We should not even for one minute believe they are genuinely interested in our benefit. We should frustrate any evil decrees -- both the threatening and the apparently attractive ones -- since our entire life is only the Torah.

Chazal (Sukkah 29) cite several aveiros and reasons for a solar eclipse. One reason is based on the posuk: "For he found her in the field and the na'aroh hame'orosoh cried out but there was none to save her" (Devorim 22:27). The Likut Chidushei Geonim in the Ein Yaakov cites from the Beer Rechovos that Chazal explain here with a moshol that the result of harming Torah is a solar eclipse.

The Beer Rechovos explains at length that all the powers of Creation are dependent upon observance of the Torah, as is explicitly written in the parsha of vehoyoh im shomo'a of Krias Shema. Even the heavenly luminaries are reliant upon the enormous brilliance of "Torah is a light" that is a "light to my path" (Tehillim 119:105). Shlomo Hamelech, the wisest of men, said, "I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness" (Koheles 2:13). The Beer Rechovos writes:

"It is known that talmidei chachomim are the armor bearers of the Torah since they promulgate it and increase its observers. `A tzaddik is the foundation of the world' (Mishlei 10:25) since he stabilizes the world by his actions. Chazal (Bovo Basra 75a) go so far as to compare talmidei chachomim to the hosts of the heaven: `The face of Moshe was like the face of the sun and the face of Yehoshua was like the face of the moon.'

"The posuk about the na'aroh hame'orosoh who cried out but there was none to save her refers to the Torah being disgraced and people neglecting to occupy themselves with it. Chazal (Brochos 57a) write that we should read the posuk, `Moshe commanded us Torah, the inheritance (moroshoh) of the congregation of Yaakov' (Devorim 33:4) not as moroshoh (an inheritance) but me'orosoh (a betrothed woman).

"Apparently this posuk contradicts a principle Chazal teach us in Ovos (2:12) that you should `apply yourself to study Torah for it is not yours by inheritance.'

"Chazal want to resolve this apparent contradiction. `But his delight is in the Torah of Hashem and in his Torah he meditates day and night' (Tehillim 1:2). The gemora (Kiddushin 32b) teaches us that before we study Torah it is the Torah of Hashem but after we labor over it the Torah is considered our own.

"Actually the Torah is not an inheritance for any person in the world. It does not belong to anyone. Since Am Yisroel sincerely proclaimed, `We shall do and we shall hear' (Shemos 24:7) they have the right to consider the Torah as theirs when they study and satisfy their soul with it, like an engaged couple. They are not yet married, she is not altogether his wife, and he does not yet head their home. Yet she is tied to him in such a way that if he eventually marries her she will become his wife.

"The same is true with the Torah. For a Jew it is like a man engaged to his future wife. The Torah cannot yet be called his. Only after he marries it, after he makes a kinyan on it, which is his laboring over it, is it completely his. Before we labor over the Torah we have no more zechus to it than other nations . . . only after laboring over it constantly does the Torah becomes ours. This is what Chazal mean when they explain the posuk, `Moshe commanded us Torah, the inheritance (moroshoh) of the congregation of Yaakov' (Devorim 33:4) not as an inheritance but as a betrothed woman.

"The posuk, `For he found her in the field and the na'aroh hame'orosoh cried out but there was none to save her' refers to the Torah that calls out to be saved and supported. Those who study Torah are considered by many as alien children and even those who should rightfully support Torah do not recognize or help the talmidei chachomim. If the peel that guards the fruit has withered, the fruit becomes spoiled and a sinful wind comes and uproots it. This is the na'aroh hame'orosoh who cried out but there was none to save her. Because of such a situation the luminaries are damaged. Without wisdom there are no moral values and darkness takes over. `The fool walks in darkness' (Koheles 2:14) without any light since the heavens have become darkened and the luminaries have shadowed."


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