Reconstituting a Torah Nation in the Land of Israel (Part IV)

Please note: this is a direct continuation of Reconstituting a Torah Nation in the Land of Israel (Part III). If you have not yet read Part I and II, please click here for Part I or click here for Part II.

The Dati Leumi Challenge

The Dati Leumi population, as mentioned in my previous article, developed its own emergency response. They decided they will attempt to work within the secular state, using it as a vehicle towards the redemption. The problem, in my opinion, is that the Dati Leumi population entered this relationship completely unprepared to practically effect change, and they had not determined how to protect themselves from secular elements.

As a general rule, the Dati Leumi population believes that society will naturally evolve on its own toward a Torah society. It seems, however, that they lacked true vision and did not plan on practical implementation of this plan. 

What developed was a religious sector united around the philosophy that our return to Eretz Yisrael is the beginning of the redemption process, but without a true unified call to concrete action. Thus everyone turned, for all practical intents and purposes, to the State of Israel, the antithesis to Hashem’s Torah. 

The Haredi sector perhaps lacks nuance, but it didn’t lack clarity in its call to action. Among Haredim, you don’t see much diversity; everyone adheres to what their gedolim say.

Among Dati Leumi there is much more diversity, and this is not necessarily a good thing, especially in the way it is expressed. For example, there is the Dati "Lite" population, who keep a basic semblance of Shabbat and Kashrut but are completely part of secular society. Then there is the mainstream Dati Leumi who do care about Torah and Mitzvot; they do not necessarily devote as much time to study, but they know and adhere strictly to the halakha, more or less like an average Haredi. Their identity is very much wrapped up with the state and establishment right-wing politics. Within this circle is the Mercaz HaRav crowd, the intellectual elite who do indeed devote much time to studying Torah. Some even study in Dati Leumi kollelim.

Finally, you have the Hardal/Torani sector. These are people who are essentially Haredi in their day-to-day life, minus the attire. Regarding national issues, they tend to be more involved than Haredim. Some will view the state more positively; others, especially hardcore settler types, may indeed see the state negatively due to its anti-Torah actions. 

The reason I believe there is so much diversity is because the Dati Leumi world lacks clear marching orders and is engaged in secular society. As a result, there are mixed results among the population. They work within secular society, serve in the army under secular generals, and often live in mixed secular-religious settings. This influences mainstream Dati Leumi society with secular considerations – in the way they speak, the hobbies they have, the music they listen to, the attitudes they have toward various cultural issues, and the way they view politics. Their politics, at best, reflect the politics of other right-wing nations, which are void of concrete Torah considerations, and their culture, although certainly religious in terms of their observance of Mitzvot, is very much intertwined with mainstream secular Israel lifestyle.

If I were to summarize the main soft spot of the Dati Leumi, which is harder to pinpoint since they have a wider spectrum in their society than the Haredim, I would say they are extremely vulnerable to secular considerations and influences. Indeed, it is common knowledge that the highest rates of "going off the derech" (becoming secular) are found among the Dati Leumi population; after all, when most of your life outside the Yeshiva and Beit Knesset are spent in secular society, the lines begin to blur. This is exactly what the Haredim try to avoid for the most part, and have done so far more successfully than the Dati Leumi population. 

The Dati Leumi world needs to recognize that although it is true the Torah has a national vision for our society, this national vision cannot come about by engaging with a system that stands diametrically opposed to Hashem’s Torah.

Rav Kook understood this long before there was a state. The Dati Leumi sector will need to recognize that the state operates through a modern western lens; the Torah cannot be warped to fit this lens. Indeed, Torah should not be warped to fit any lens; when we study Tanakh, Mishna, and Gemara, and we learn about how our greatest leaders saw our laws and tradition, we come out with multiple potential independent visions for building a holy society. The Torah vision, even as variegated as it can be, is not compatible with the ideologies of other nations, whether it is communism, capitalism, or democracy. That's not to say that elements of those ideologies are not found to varying degrees within the Torah's vision; but it does mean that the vision stemming from Hashem's Torah functions independently from the box of current ideologies developed by other nations.

Unfortunately, both the Dati Leumi and the Haredim are operating based on their emergency responses to the secular state and have not developed visions for society, based on the Torah, independent of their response to secular state. The Haredi sector is defined by its reaction to secular society, while the Dati Leumi sector operates within the presumptions and structures of this secular, western society. 

Dati Leumi and Haredim, especially since the beginning of the current war, see each other as inauthentically living out the Torah. Unfortunately, both do not realize that the other is wholeheartedly committed to Hashem’s Torah, and that their dismissal of one another leads to major blind spots in both camps. This dynamic prevents us from working together toward a Torah society.

For instance, the Dati Leumi bash the Haredim for not joining the army. Meanwhile, the Dati Leumi do not recognize that they are sending their best men, men who are ready to lay their lives down for Hashem’s Torah, to fight for a state full of G-Dless generals and elites who lick the boots of the west. These G-Dless generals value a “civilian” Arab life over that of their own soldiers’ lives; they sent a disproportionate number of Dati Leumi men to the front lines without first bombing Azza to smithereens; they forced soldiers to remove graffiti on the walls of buildings saying “Azza is Jewish” in order to not come across as "racist;" and ultimately, these G-Dless elites will eventually withdraw from Azza after thousands of Jewish soldiers were killed and tens of thousands were wounded, just to give it back to the enemy. It is high time the Dati Leumi realize they are being played and used by the system. Their men are being sacrificed on the altar of western ideals; as a result, the Dati Leumi community is emotionally manipulated by the state into turning around and demanding other Jews join their effort. This is certainly not a system to drag Haredim or any other Jews into. 

The Dati Leumi sector has been manipulated into scapegoating the Haredim and claiming they are a drain on the economy. Yes, it is true that our tradition values the balance of work and study. Furthermore, it is true that the Haredim have developed a culture where large numbers of its male population are encouraged to study Torah all day and not work. However, the Dati Leumi do not approach this matter from a principled perspective. Indeed, this contentious topic is an opportunity to refine an authentic Torah vision regarding how society values study of Torah along with productive work. Unfortunately, the Dati Leumi response appeals to “national responsibility;” this misses the essence of the issue and does not reflect the key points our mesorah makes on this topic. And, quite frankly, this argument is of no benefit to Dati Leumi or anyone else. It is only of benefit to the state, and the state uses the Dati Leumi sector as their figurehead. The Dati Leumi are basically saying (without realizing it): it’s not fair that we get taxed heavily to support you – come work and get taxed heavily as well! The Dati Leumi may very well be touching on something critical, but the angle from which they approach the subject, in my opinion, misses this critical point. Let’s explore the nuance of this critical point and how the Dati Leumi are being manipulated into missing it.

Torah, Work, and the Haredi-Dati Leumi Fault Line

We learn that “Rabban Gamliel the son of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said: Good is Torah study together with a worldly occupation, for the exertion in both makes one forget sin. All Torah study without work will result in waste and will cause sinfulness” (Avot 2:2).

Additionally, Rambam tells us, “Anyone who comes to the conclusion that he should involve himself in Torah study without doing work and derive his livelihood from charity, desecrates God’s name, dishonors the Torah, extinguishes the light of faith, brings evil upon himself, and forfeits the life of the world to come” (Hilkhot Talmud Torah 3:10).

Furthermore, it is a known fact that all of the major hakhamim of the Mishna and Talmud including Hillel, Shammai, Rebbi Akiva, and many others combined their Torah study with an occupation. The one known exception was Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai, whose occupation was indeed known to be the Torah. However, he did not receive charity to support such a lifestyle. He was an exceptional case; he accepted low standards of living and did not seek people to support him. And even about Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai we are told: “Many followed the path of Rabbi Yishmael (combining Torah with an occupation) and succeeded, and many followed the path of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and did not succeed” (Berakhot 35b).

Our sources conclude for us quite succinctly that one should combine their Torah study with an occupation. This runs contrary to the ideal Haredi lifestyle, no doubt. A whole class of society encouraged to learn all day for the rest of their lives is not authentic to the Torah’s vision. Each man has a personal responsibility to study Torah; indeed, a nation engulfed in studying Hashem’s Torah is of utmost necessity. However, our tradition does not support en masse, lifelong subsidization of fulfilling one’s personal responsibility to fulfill a Mitzvah, including that of Torah study – even despite the fact that according to Hazal, this Mitzvah, together with several other Mitzvot like Yishuv Eretz Yisrael and Shabbat, is considered equal to and greater than all the Mitzvot combined.

Of course, if a community decides that it needs a Rabbi to lead the community, and the Rabbi is not able to do so due to financial reasons, it is in the community’s interest (if they can) to subsidize the Rabbi’s ability to lead them. That, however, is vastly different from subsidizing tens of thousands of men to fulfill their personal obligation to learn Torah for an indefinite amount of time. Torah must be put into action; when we create an entire society that leans so heavily on learning and on theory, they lose touch with how to implement what they learn into the world Hashem gives us. This dynamic yields perspectives that lack nuance and depth as we have been discussing and exploring.  

Anecdotally, my wife’s friend related how in the Beis Yaakov system (Haredi girls’ school system), the girls are told from a young age that they will be the breadwinners so their husbands can secure them a place in olam haba (the world to come) through his study, contrary to what Rambam tells us. This also flies in the face of the simple dynamics set by the halakha in which a man, according to the Ketuba, must provide for the woman, not the other way around. A dynamic in which the woman is expected to enter the workforce, while her husband is lauded for learning all day, creates an onslaught of issues within family life that are meant to be avoided by simple adherence to the responsibilities spelled out for the man by the Ketubah. 

Had the Dati Leumi perspective come from a principled place that the Haredi lifestyle is not a reflection of authentic Torah values, that would be one story. However, the Dati Leumi often focus on the national economic stress created by the Haredi lifestyle without realizing how far this argument strays from stressing the values of our tradition. I have not researched the true effects of the national economic stress, but even if it is as grand as the Dati Leumi and secular crowd claim it is, this is not the true issue. The true issue is one of principle as discussed above.

As for the economic stress, this aspect comes about mainly as a result of a socialist system that has extremely high tax rates. In addition to the other problems this creates, high tax rates almost always create a welfare sector within a society. One of the sectors benefiting from this welfare economy happens to be the Haredi sector. The fact that the Haredi world plays into that system’s game is, of course, fundamentally mistaken and deeply problematic, and displays inauthentic Torah values. However, their “draining of the economy” is not the issue; the issue is the economic system and the values that come out of it (the Torah's views on economics warrants a separate discussion). Rather than roping Haredim into a system that taxes its citizenry into financial crisis, one should take a step back and realize we should be re-evaluating the values that are encouraged by this system, how we react and behave within this system, and whether the system in and of itself is a reflection of Hashem’s Torah.

The Haredim, on the other hand, very often outright dismiss the Dati Leumi as not truly religious and therefore not worth learning from. First of all, this is not accurate. Yes, there is more diversity within the Dati Leumi camp, and therefore certain segments are nearly indistinguishable from the secular public. However, the mainstream Dati Leumi world, and especially the Torani side of the spectrum, are learned, well-versed in halakha, and care about Torah in their day-to-day lives. 

The Haredi world’s general dismissal of the Dati Leumi world causes a blindness to what the Dati Leumi world brings to the table. The Dati Leumi world may, in many ways, see politics through the establishment state's lens, but they do greatly care about Am Yisrael and how to shape society in Eretz Yisrael according to Hashem’s Torah. In practice, they may have little vision as to how to do this, but the desire and intention is very strong in the Dati Leumi camp.

The Haredi dismissal of this sector causes them to dismiss the very idea of needing to care about building Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael as a Torah society on a national level. The Haredim do not generally interest themselves with what a Torah army looks like, what a Torah economy looks like, or what national Torah leadership should look like. This causes them to have warped views and approaches to national life. As long as they can play the political game to preserve their insular lifestyle, the Haredim are content.

In their pursuit of insularity from secular influences, they have completely blinded themselves to the reality that Hashem gives us a golden opportunity to build up Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael like never before in history. It is time for both sectors to take each other seriously, learn from one another, and realize that both care about Hashem and His Torah.

Both sectors must realize they have been hostages to their emergency responses to the secular state, and both can and should work together to reevaluate their positions in order, with G-D's help, to build a Torah society here in Eretz Yisrael.