TORAH STUDY IS IN DANGER – AND WHERE REALLY IS THE MONEY?

The preface to the Oslo Expense Report states: “With this amount [933 billion shekels], it would have been possible to guarantee the current income levels for 3,500,000 Arabs over a period of fifty years in exchange for their willing emigration. Reducing the Arab population and isolating the country’s enemies would enable Eretz Yisroel to impose its sovereignty over the entire territory of Yehuda, Shomron, and Gaza, settling these areas and making them flourish, instead of turning them into terrorist weapon stockpiles that threaten the daily lives of the citizens of Eretz Yisroel.”

Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry

1. 

Last week in Eretz Yisroel began with two major news events. The first was the decision by the “High Court of Justice” to cancel National Insurance Institute guaranteed income allowances for kollel students. The second was the visit by the Pope, with the bareheaded president and prime minister of Israel breathlessly following him at every step. It would seem that these two events are vastly different in nature, but in truth, they are both symbolic of the same purpose: While Israeli leaders continue to give royal homage to those waging war against Am Yisroel, they persecute the scholars of our Holy Torah, which G-d gave us as a means of ensuring the everlasting stature of the Jewish People.

Pope Francis’ recent trip to Eretz Yisroel was no different than those of his predecessors. Many years ago, the Rebbe was already crying out against meetings between the chief rabbis of Eretz Yisroel and leaders of the church – making these Jewish leaders “accessories to avoda zara” or actual idol worshippers. With great anguish, the Rebbe explained that such meetings symbolize more than anything else bowing before the Gentiles without any semblance of Jewish pride. The Moslems, the Buddhists, even non-Catholic Christians don’t try to meet with the Pope, the Rebbe said. Yet, the chief rabbis of Eretz Yisroel, those who are supposed to represent the Jewish People, always seem willing to do anything to have such a meeting. It would be one thing if they did this as private individuals, but they actually thought that they were representing the Jewish People. It never crossed their mind for a moment that they could do anything less.

Thus, at the “welcoming” ceremony for the supreme pontiff, the unbelievable happened. The chief rabbi of Eretz Yisroel stood up and made a passionate speech about the “freedom of religion” that exists in the Holy Land… Indeed, the Israeli government provides freedom of religion for all of the dangerous missionary cults in operation here, freedom of religion for Moslems to incite their worshippers from their mosques to murder Jews r”l, but G-d forbid, there must be no freedom of religion for Torah-observant Jews.

2.

Another line of evil was crossed last week against Torah scholars in Eretz Yisroel. The Israeli High Court of Justice, an institution founded to protect the weak and oppressed, issued a precedent-setting decision, cancelling the longstanding state allocated guaranteed income allowances for kollel students. While this only amounts to a few hundred shekels per avreich, this was money that helped them buy bread and milk for their children and make it through the month financially. We can safely say that these paltry sums are not the reason why the state budget is in deficit. Only a relatively small number of Torah scholars receive this allowance. These are avreichim who truly devote their entire lives to the study of Torah, choosing the ideal of spiritual life over making a material living. In a sizable majority of these families, the wife works as the main provider, while the husband/avreich brings home only a few hundred shekels from his Torah study, in addition to the monthly stipend he receives from kollel.

Exactly how many of these families are there today? According to data currently available, we find that Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, which had previously publicized annual reports stating that most chareidim don’t work, had been consistently misleading the public. According to this false information, only forty-five percent of the ultra-Orthodox sector works. However, it fails to include tens of thousands of baalei t’shuva who are not defined as chareidim in the bureau surveys, since they don’t meet the bureau standards for the ultra-Orthodox profile. In addition, there are at least fifteen thousand chareidim who entered the labor force straight from the world of academics. Yet, the Bureau of Statistics doesn’t count them either, because according to its questionnaire, classification as a “chareidi” is determined by one’s last place of study. Therefore, if this was a college or a university, the person is not considered ultra-Orthodox.

Based on recent data publicized on the Dossim website, it turns out that most ultra-Orthodox work full-time to make a living, and their Torah learning is done as a supplement in an alternate location. As a comparative study, they report that only eighty-five percent of the secular community works, and the numbers don’t appear to be very different than those coming from the ultra-Orthodox community.

Nevertheless, the High Court of Justice was unwilling to allow a small group of Talmudic scholars devote themselves to their studies, and therefore, it snatched away the bread from the mouths of their children in order to stick it to those who learn Torah. It refused to consider the simple fact that no kollel student is going to stop learning Torah and join the work force just because his government allowance was cut off. Yet, from the learned justices’ standpoint, there was one important triumph: We took money from the chareidim.

3.

And where is the money? For years, we’ve been used to hearing that the chareidim are the ones who have been stealing from the state coffers, and they are the sole cause for the country’s financial woes. Now, we suddenly discover that what the ultra-Orthodox get from the national budget doesn’t even scratch the surface. If that’s the case, then where did all the money go? 

In a report publicized by the Likud Party’s Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) faction, the vast financial dimensions of the “Oslo process” and its cost to the Israeli economy over the past twenty years were revealed for the first time. According to the report, it comes to 933 billion shekels – and that’s not all.

What this means is that according to the most conservative estimates, the Oslo Accords and the idea of dividing Eretz Yisroel have cost nearly a trillion shekels(!) – and the expenses continue to mount as time passes. This astronomical sum stunned the staff of researchers who prepared this report, as they originally believed that the amount was far lower. 

The preface to the report states: “With this amount [933 billion shekels], it would have been possible to guarantee the current income levels for 3,500,000 Arabs over a period of fifty years in exchange for their willing emigration. Reducing the Arab population and isolating the country’s enemies would enable Eretz Yisroel to impose its sovereignty over the entire territory of Yehuda, Shomron, and Gaza, settling these areas and making them flourish, instead of turning them into terrorist weapon stockpiles that threaten the daily lives of the citizens of Eretz Yisroel.” 

Furthermore, we haven’t even begun to discuss the billions of shekels allocated in the state budget each year for entertainment, culture, television, theatre, and more. Here’s just one example: Last week, the Municipality of Yerushalayim authorized an allocation of seventy thousand shekels for an “alternative Tikkun Leil Shavuos” event at the BINA “Secular Yeshiva.” This is a tremendous amount of money for a one-night program! Did any chareidi institution ever get such a large chunk of city funds? Were Chabad houses also privileged to receive such sums for their regular activities or financing holiday events? 

4.

It’s a great pity that Israeli leaders have failed to internalize the findings of this stinging report on the economic damage caused by the Oslo Accords. Instead, they’ve been too busy looking for money in the yeshivos or the settlements. However, what’s far more painful is to see how two political parties that should be working together against this madness – are instead fighting one another.

The same Bayit Yehudi Party chairman, who has been an active partner in the national atmosphere of incitement against the ultra-Orthodox community and taking the last scrap of bread from Torah scholars, acts with sheer intransigence. Yet, why does an ultra-Orthodox party, such as Yahadut HaTorah, demonstrate the same blockheadedness? Last week, a grossly exaggerated “investigative report” was issued against the Jewish settlement of Avichayil. Although it has already received infrastructure connections and paved highways at a cost of millions of shekels, its official status remains incomplete. Its residents are full-fledged citizens of Israel, they serve in the IDF, pay their taxes, work for a living, and – thank G-d – they’re not even chareidim. The only problem is that due to political considerations, the Minister of Defense has still not given his official approval to their settlement. Does this mean that because of some political-bureaucratic glitch, these people will be denied the right to travel along the highway to a yishuv that the state built?

However, the media’s hypocrisy is not surprising. What did come as a surprise was when one of the ultra-Orthodox Knesset Members, known for raising the banner in the struggle to preserve the world of Torah, came out before the cameras as soon as the report was released to announce that he will expose the state budget allocations to the settlements and put a stop to them. You would think that this was the only threat to Torah scholars.

In his defense, this MK will naturally claim that such is the way of politics. He makes threats against those who shoot arrows of hatred at him, as a possible means of convincing the latter to come to his senses and stop causing incitement against the ultra-Orthodox sector. But does such a claim justify fighting against Torah-observant Jews, our brothers faithfully protecting Eretz Yisroel with their very lives in devotion to the same Torah that he represents? Is it possible to wage war for one Torah value while tearing down another at the same time? Are all such methods appropriate in the achievement of political objectives?

It’s most regrettable that politics manages to disrupt the proper order. Instead of fighting together for the same goal, the Torah-observant community in Eretz Yisroel finds itself divided. Some join the anti-chareidi forces in order to goad the ultra-Orthodox, while others join the left-wingers as a means of exacting their revenge upon the religious nationalists.

And what about the Torah? Perhaps the time has come at last to act according to the Torah, according to Shulchan Aruch, and not according to the passing whims that change with the partners in the governing coalition.