Opinion
& Comment
Sanctifying the Name of Heaven -- Rare Praise for the
Chareidim
by Chaim Walder
The 22 kedoshim killed in the terrorist attack on the
2 bus in Jerusalem had the merit of sanctifying the Name of
Heaven in their deaths and of bringing Jews closer to
emunoh and yiras Shomayim in an unprecedented
way. No measuring device can gauge the effect the past weeks
have had on the hearts of Jews far from Torah and mitzvos.
There are many masks and barriers standing before hundreds of
thousands of Jews -- tinokos shenishbu -- that hide
and obstruct from view the good and enchanting things in our
forefathers' ways. Worldly vanities, anti-religious
incitement, deflecting people's attention to inconsequential
matters and most of all, ignorance.
Secular children, teenagers and even adults know nothing
about chareidi Judaism and the vast majority of them do not
know the fundamentals of their own religion. They are proud
of their Judaism but are unable to pin down of what it
consists. When they try it sounds so hollow and empty, they
would have been better off leaving it undefined.
The media, the window on the world, shows what it wants to
show and usually it opts to emphasize the negative. By the
way, the media does not do this to chareidim alone. The
media's unwritten tenet is that bad is more interesting than
good and what is interesting is what sells. Still, an
attitude of contempt and revulsion is generally reserved for
the chareidim.
And then something happened. A horrific attack in a chareidi
neighborhood in Jerusalem. The media expected the usual
ritual of alternating between the sorrow felt by the families
of the victims to allegations against the government for
policies too far to the right/left, demonstrations and
outbursts of anger, alongside accusations of technical or
security failures.
But this time something different happened. When something
different takes place it piques the media's interest and then
the media aims its floodlights, allowing everyone to see what
happened.
Although for us this was not new, it is worthwhile to try to
see from an outsider's perspective the difference that caused
this astonishment and wonder.
It is said a man can be judged by how he acts in a time of
grief. The same rule applies to an entire sector of the
public as well. Twenty funerals were held and at none of them
could anybody be seen waving signs, crying out against the
government or raging against a soft-on-terrorism policy. It
simply was not an issue. The chareidi sector has never
attributed death or tragedy to an individual or organization,
but only to HaKodosh Boruch Hu's Will. The first
sentence uttered when somebody passes away, even the most
beloved person and the greatest tragedy is, "Boruch Dayan
ho'emmes." We bless HaKodosh Boruch Hu for his
decree. Afterwards one says, "Hashem gave and Hashem took
away. May Hashem's Name be blessed."
And beyond that, nothing else. The Jewish-Arab conflict?
Heavy- handedness? The assassinations policy? Who could care
less at a time like this? People dear to us went to the Next
World because that's what HaKodosh Boruch Hu wanted,
and if any investigating has to be done it is mainly fixing
and self-evaluation among all of those involved.
Everybody can understand that on the surface this is
impossible: that at twenty funerals not a single voice of
politics is heard, just subdued sorrow and Tziduk Hadin.
This type of behavior is the result of strong
emunoh and education. And thus the chareidi public was
displayed in all its glory at the levayos of the
kedoshim, with the great expanse of its spirit and
emunoh laid bare.
This conduct had a powerful effect on the secular public,
which has been trying to cope with its fears and inability to
understand why people die, or for that matter, why they are
born. This sector views death as an absolute end after which
there is nothing. Likewise life is not so great for them
because one day it all comes to an end. And for all they know
the end could come tomorrow, chas vesholom.
Take a look at a few reactions by journalists and you will
realize what a great kiddush Hashem took place.
*
Under the headline "Learning from the Chareidim," journalist
Gidon Levy, known for his pro-Palestinian stance, wrote the
following:
"There was something that awakened respect in the way the
chareidi community accepted the horrifying attack. Secular
society, in which hatred toward chareidim has come to be a
central value, can learn from them how to deal with a terror
attack and what conclusions can be drawn from the atrocity.
While after every attack the majority of Israelis are
accustomed to denouncing only those behind the attack without
thinking that perhaps there was something in their own deeds
that brought the tragedy upon them, it was very impressive to
see how the chareidim searched for blame among themselves.
The direction of their scrutiny could not fail to impress for
its courage and strength."
At this point Gidon Levy penned perhaps his very first words
of criticism against his beloved Palestinians: "The
Palestinians are also invited to adopt this way of searching
for blame within themselves before coming out with
accusations against the whole world."
His father-in-law at Ma'ariv wrote, "The restrained
reaction of the chareidi families and the chareidi sector in
general to the attack in Jerusalem stirred a general sense of
admiration and a good measure of envy among the large secular
majority. The belief that all is in Divine control provided
those who cling to it a remedy for the pain and an inner
strength far out of reach of the nonbeliever . . . "
*
Yoram Kaniuk, an anti-religious novelist who acknowledges
that over the course of his 73 years he has not written a
single kind word about the chareidim, did so for the first
time, unhesitatingly, following Jerusalem's terrorist attack.
His article, headlined "The Nobility of the Chareidim," will
make you rub your eyes with disbelief.
"Instead of feelings of hatred and vengeance in light of the
attack in Jerusalem, the chareidim are asking themselves what
sins they committed. [On a nationally broadcasted news
program] interviewer Shelly Yachimovich spoke very wisely on
our attitude toward the chareidim and of their strength in
times of distress.
"I've been thinking about this ever since the day the bus
exploded in Jerusalem. The bus was packed with chareidim.
Most of the casualties- -the dead and the wounded, some of
them critically--were chareidim or their children. If this
type of tragedy had happened to secular Israelis . . . their
cries of grief would have immediately sought out the guilty
parties: the government, the bus company, the lack of
security guards, and of course the usual cries of `Death to
the Arabs' and the terrible and justified anger against the
human agent that brought the tragedy down upon them . . .
"With a sort of nobility devoid of pathos they live in a
world that lies outside of history. The truths of the world
[sic] are not their truths. They live in a world in which
HaKodosh Boruch Hu loves the Jewish people and
whatever befalls a person is his own doing. HaKodosh
Boruch Hu stipulated to His Chosen People that they must
fulfill the mitzvos and do good in His eyes, and He need not
explain what this good is.
"The chareidim do not believe that calamities occur at
random. There is always One in charge and He knows what He's
doing. When I saw how they stood and prayed over their own
blood, with terrible grief and restrained horror, begging G-d
to forgive them, I could only be envious that my forefathers
were like them . . .
"We live in a world in which [commercialization is an
integral part of life.] . . . The chareidim have nothing to
do with this. They are not interested in Immanuel Kant, Bach,
Beethoven, or the question of how much a pair of Reeboks
cost. When tragedy strikes them they seek to understand
within their hearts, through prayer, what evil might have
been committed by those who have never sinned . . . But their
strength to withstand curses, terror and calamities is a
strength that we, with all of our teachings--our various
"Torahs"--do not know. We disparage them, but they pity
us.
"I never believed that at the age of 73 I would write an
article praising the chareidim, who live as my father and
grandfather did . . . But the moments after the tragedy in
Jerusalem made me realize something that I had not fully
appreciated. And it would not hurt us to try to understand
the nature of their elegant and pained stance at a time when
the soul cries out for vengeance . . ."
These were a few of the intense reactions that opened a
porthole through which millions of Jews got a glimpse of
their believing brethren, and what emunoh does to
their souls and their ability to endure.
In their deaths the twenty martyrs sanctified Shem
Shomayim throughout the world and within us, the living,
who are commanded to carry on the great thing they brought
about through their deaths.
May Hashem avenge their deaths and may their souls be
gathered in eternal life.
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