Recently, an article in the Yated Ne'eman described an
attack by secular activists on a religious school in Tzoran
in central Israel. We read that the Pe'elim/Lev L'Achim
movement has set up a new school in this apparently
predominantly secular area. The article described how the
leader of the crowd of secular demonstrators surrounding the
school refused to allow a Beis Yaakov teacher with her twenty-
five three-year-old girl pupils to enter the school building.
"Leave, or we will kill you!" one of the protesters is
reported to have shouted.
The teacher afterwards told the Yated correspondent:
"I don't know where I got the courage to do such a thing, but
I clutched the girls' hands and charged right through the
gate. We just made it to the door when a barrage of stones
spattered the wall all around us."
The events seem almost unbelievable. How can Jewish men (not
anti-Israeli Arabs) actually throw stones at an innocent and
defenseless teacher with her three year old girl pupils?
However, this incident is unfortunately not an isolated one.
Some months ago the Beis Yaakov movement asked if they could
use two purpose-built kindergarten buildings in Ramot Bet in
Yerushalayim which had been standing empty for several years.
After a lengthy battle with the educational authorities, they
managed to obtain permission to use the buildings. However,
on the first day of school, the entrance to the kindergarten
was surrounded by a group of some two hundred men, women and
young people, who shouted and booed at the parents as they
entered the school with their children.
The parents demonstrated the same sort of courage which was
shown by the brave teacher in Tzoran. Ignoring the shouts,
they walked right through the crowd and took their children
into the school.
We may well ask the same question asked by the writer of the
article about the incident in Tzoran: "When and where did
this incident occur? Sixty years ago in Nazi Germany?"
Surely we are duty bound to give careful consideration to
these shocking happenings in Eretz Yisroel. We must ask
ourselves why it is that when we sit on the buses in Eretz
Yisroel we hear again and again so-called impartial
commentators asking why "Yeshiva bochurim do not serve
in the army." We hear over the bus radio commentators telling
the passengers that "the chareidi community are parasites who
are taking everything from the State of Israel and not giving
anything back." We have to suffer when we see large anti-
Torah posters pasted on the sides of buses. We read that the
gedolei Torah have issued a statement headed by the
words: "This is a time of great trouble to Yaakov." Are we
indeed in Nazi Germany sixty years ago? The answer to this
question is a resounding "No!" We are not living in Nazi
Germany -- we are living in Eretz Yisroel, the Holy Land of
our ancestors.
Two thousand years have passed and HaKodosh Boruch Hu
has lifted the gezeira on our people after the
terrible Holocaust. HaKodosh Boruch Hu has decisively
reopened the gates of Eretz Yisroel and we can now come here
with relative ease in our thousands and tens of thousands. We
can now all enjoy the spiritual beauty of the holy air of
Eretz Yisroel. We can visit the Kosel and pray
standing close to the remnants of our holy Beis
Hamikdash.
Here we can lead true Torah lives and listen to the
shiurim and words of wisdom of our great Torah sages.
Here we can rejoice in the fact that it is openly agreed that
some thirty thousand young men are devoting their entire
lives to the study of the Torah, while their wives their
eishes chayil -- proudly help them.
The Torah community in Eretz Yisroel is also intimately
connected through family and marriage with great Torah
communities in chutz la'aretz, so that it is as if we
have become one worldwide great Torah community centered in
Eretz Yisroel. In the former Soviet Union, yeshivas and
kollelim flourish, taught by rabbonim and
avreichim from Eretz Yisroel and from the Torah
communities in chutz la'aretz. Is this, then, Nazi
Germany of sixty years ago?
And yet the question remains and demands an answer. Why are
we being subject to such wicked attacks from so-called
"secular Jewish activists?" First, we must agree that the
"Jewish secular activists" are only a minority -- even a tiny
minority -- of the Jewish community in Eretz Yisroel. They
have loud voices because they control a large and important
part of the Israeli communications media. However, in actual
numbers they are relatively insignificant.
The vast majority of the so-called "secular" nonobservant
Jewish community in Eretz Yisroel in truth has very little
objection to the chareidi population and their lifestyle. On
the contrary, we cannot help feeling that deep down they have
a certain admiration for the chareidi approach. They have no
desire at all to try to stop the practice of
Yiddishkeit. Maybe they do not want to observe all the
mitzvos of the Torah, but they know in their hearts that the
religious chareidi community forms the backbone and the
foundation of life in Eretz Yisroel.
To take an example again from the new Beis Yaakov
kindergarten in Ramot Bet. After it became clear that the
Beis Yaakov movement had won its fight to use the empty
kindergarten buildings, the angry crowd of demonstrators
disappeared and did not return. Instead, the Beis Yaakov
children settled down happily to learn in their new
buildings. Next door to them are two other kindergarten
buildings where the so-called "secular" kindergarten children
learn. There is no friction or antagonism between the two
groups at all. The two schools learn happily side by side,
and the neighbors seem to get nachas from seeing the
little children learning and singing near each other.
Where is the dispute forecast by the secular leaders? It does
not exist. We see only harmony and happiness.
In order to answer our original questions, let us look into
the writings of the gedolei Torah. HaRav Elchonon
Wassermann, zt'l, in his sefer entitled
BeIkvese DeMikshicha -- On the Heels of the Moshiach --
describes in exact detail the time in which we are now
living. Rav Wassermann, zt"l, states that in our times
we will find that the Jewish people will be divided into
three groups. Two of these groups will be minorities, and one
group will form the great majority of the Jewish people. The
largest group, the great majority, stated HaRav Wassermann,
zt"l, will be made up of Jews who are sadly ignorant
of the Torah. However, deep in their hearts they will respect
and love the Torah.
The second group of the Jewish people -- one of the two
"minority groups" predicted by Rav Wassermann, zt"l,
will be made up of the Torah true observant Jews.
The third and last minority group, states Rav Wassermann,
zt"l will be made up of so-called anti-religious
secular Jews who will openly adopt an anti-Torah attitude.
Their battle cry will be: "Let us be like the goyim."
Unfortunately, this last minority group will hold significant
positions of power and will exercise much control over the
media and the secular leadership. This is exactly the
situation in which we find ourselves today.
However, we must comfort ourselves by reminding ourselves
that the so-called "secular activists" are in fact only a
small minority of the whole Jewish people. We must do our
best to counterattack and nullify their dangerous arguments
and criticisms.
In the end, however, the best remedy is to realize that in
fact we have nothing to fear. We must remain stronger than
ever in our love for the Torah min haShomayim. If we
continue in this style of life in our true and sincere
manner, then the first group, the great majority of the
Jewish people who are today ignorant of the Torah, will
surely come over to our way of life and join the chozrim
beteshuva that are making such a significant contribution
to the Torah way of life, ken yehi ratzon.
