Rabbi Mordechai (Motke) Blau was a guest on Gabi Gazit's show on Radio 103. This is how it went:
Gabi Gazit: Our interlocutor, who I really like to talk to, Rabbi Motka-Mordechai Blau, chairman of the 'Kivdash' and Education Watch, does not think that the kidnapping is accidental... After all, nothing is accidental, everything, as the secularists say among us, 'comes from above,' and among you they say 'everything is by His will,' right?
Rabbi Blau: Do you like to hear texts written by a great Jewish physician? Maimonides says (Ta'anit, Chapter 1) that when trouble comes, let them know that it is because of their evil deeds, as it is written, 'Their iniquities are gone,' and only this will remove the trouble from them. But if they do not cry out... but say, "This is a worldly custom that has happened to us, and this trouble is accidental," then this is a cruel way and causes them to cling to their evil deeds and add other troubles... as it is written in the Torah, 'And you walked with me in the wrath of the LORD, and I also walked with you in the wrath of the LORD.'.
I am involved in education. If I have to deal with a rebellious child, then I have no choice. I punish him according to the accepted rules and laws. But if I see that the punishment has not helped and he continues to resist, what do I do with him?
Gazit: I'll tell you what the problem is here. You're punishing the good kids here... because the kidnapped are the good kids, they don't have a future and they're in favor of equality in burdens... So God chose to punish three yeshiva students and their parents, is that your logic?
Rabbi Blau: God punishes those who deserve to be punished. If there is an autistic person sitting in my class, will I punish him?
Gazit: Oh, not a good example...
Rabbi Blau: I know, I just want to take it to the extreme. God punishes those who know how to hear the bells, those who know how to relate to the bell.
Gazit: But he didn't punish the one who did the evil deed!
Rabbi Blau: God forbid, God forbid, three righteous, fearing, and peaceful boys, cute boys...
Gazit: What did they sin, from the perspective of God?
Rabbi Blau: God wants to light bells for us... Guys, there is a government here...
Gazit: So punish Lapid, sabotage his car... I know what?
Rabbi Blau: No, he's waiting for Yair Lapid upstairs...
Gazit: Ah, so he punishes the wicked above and the good below...
Rabbi Blau: No, there is a concept in the Torah called 'a righteous man and it is bad for him, a wicked man and it is good for him'...
Gazit: There's a question mark at the end, by the way...
Rabbi Blau: Do you know of any bad people in the world who are punished?
Gazit: But I ask a different question – Rabbis come to you and tell you that it is heresy to try to interpret the actions of God Almighty as to why He brings these troubles upon us. How do you know, since just as you don't know why He made the decision to carry out the kidnapping, so do we pray to Him now and ask Him to remove the evil decree?
Rabbi Blau: So let's move forward with this matter. A. We are not prophets and we do not know. B. But we know from what is written in the Rambam and also in the Torah: 'If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments, I will give peace in the land and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid.' We believe with complete faith that there is a connection between reality and what happens spiritually.
Gazit: Oh, God holds a board of directors meeting in the morning and decides...
Rabbi Blau: I don't speak in that style...
Gazit: I do...
Rabbi Blau: You are, I know, not a small epicure...
Gazit: (laughs) This is so that everyone understands me...
Rabbi Blau: Come on, understand. First of all, I do 'al heta' on my chest, and now I'm looking for how to become stronger, and how to learn more Torah, and how to uphold a person for his fellow man, and how to uphold more modesty, more commandments, more kindness. But there is something called publicity, publicness. We are here in the Land of Israel, a king's palatine, a government stands and enacts evil laws, 30 laws on the Knesset table, all to tear and tear the Torah to pieces, by any measure, on any subject and persecuting matter...
And you know what?...Social justice too, you want to talk about it? You took the matrena from my child, from my grandson...
Gazit: Motka, they argued with you somewhere else, they told you that they understand that God is behind everything, but they don't understand the audacity of people, like you for example, to think that they know all of heaven's calculations.
Rabbi Blau: We don't know. Do you know what the title of the Yated Ne'eman article was that lit the whole fire? "But we are to blame," that's what it says. Read the article. It doesn't say that we are pointing the finger of blame at anyone.
But if I want to do a public accounting, then I have the Torah gurus of every generation who explain the situation to us, and tell us, gentlemen, that's right, we'll strengthen ourselves inwardly, check the house, but there's a terrible and horrible situation here. God, the Almighty, does not love us now.
Gazit: We are constantly called to pray.
Rabbi Blau: This is another stage. Prayer is another stage.
Gazit: Wait, what is this prayer? It's a call to appeal the initial decision of God, blessed be He, we say to Him, listen, blessed be He, you took these three, now we ask you to reverse your decision and return them?
Rabbi Blau: Do you know a court? There are character witnesses, there are arguments for punishment, we ask the Lord of the world to be merciful and gracious. We have arguments for punishment, we will try to be better, come and give us back these sweet children. Do you know what Torah is going to be here? Tomorrow, Friday, an hour before the Sabbath begins, including Jews who are not observant of Torah and mitzvot?
Gazit: And no one will say anything heretical, like, for example, why did he harm three young children, lovers of the Torah and keepers of the commandments, and not harm 'Epicureans' like me, for example?
Rabbi Blau: Because I told you, God, the Blessed, leaves the heretics to above...
Gazit: Ah, the fire awaits us above, but in the meantime, Torah students and lovers...
Rabbi Blau: I'll tell you something too harsh: If the northerners receive the blow, it will excite us, the Dossim, less, because we see that you hate us...
Gazit: So you idiots will continue to debate the question of why you kidnap every time and you don't know why... and then you tell us... well, you have a microphone, you have 15 seconds to shout...
Rabbi Blau: Gentlemen, 'Return to me and I will return to you,' says the Creator of the world. Friends, understand, we are in the Land of Israel, not in Las Vegas. We are here in the Land of Israel. Why did we come here? Because this is a land that the Bible gave us, and if it gave us - it is so that we can fulfill the commandments in it and become better, more qualitative, more human. And if not...
Gazit: Rabbi Blau, we're scheduling another meeting in a few weeks...
Rabbi Blau: Yes, but I ask you tomorrow, to welcome Shabbat early, to light Shabbat candles...
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