My office has been located in the Technology Park in Malcha, Jerusalem, for over 13 years. Every day at 4:00 PM, a Mincha prayer service is held in the entrance lobby of my office.
For several years, the vast majority of worshippers were from sectors other than the ultra-Orthodox sector.
Later, they were joined by worshippers from the Haredi sector, the vast majority of whom speak English.
In recent years, the minyan has grown particularly, and the fact that a large portion of those attending the minyan are Haredi is particularly noticeable.
In the past year, a synagogue was built in the Technological Park, where the Mincha prayer is held twice a day. There is no place to put a pin in the two minyanim. The worshippers come from all sectors, with a significant presence from the Haredi community.
Those from the Haredi community are not guests at the technology park, but rather work or study there.
Over the years, I have come to realize that the process reflected in the public tone of the Mincha prayer is a mirror image of the processes taking place in society in general and in the Haredi sector in particular.
I am not here to express a position on whether or not to go to work, but rather to reflect on the existing situation and what is required in order to get the best out of it.
The religious tension
""A man thinks and God laughs." I have heard this expression many times. This expression comes to represent complete faith in God, to the point of eliminating the need for advance planning, since it won't help anyway and doesn't change anything.
On the other hand, everyone knows the phrase found in the "Lecha Dodi" prayer in the Kibbutz Kibbutz, "The end of a deed is thought through first," as well as the phrase "He who labors on Shabbat eve will eat on Shabbat." These phrases are a parable of the need for planning and trouble, a parable that is what leads to success.
There is a constant tension between the belief that everything comes from above, and the need to plan and bother.
I think it is possible to balance it and say that someone who thinks in advance and only then acts and bothers to do so has a chance - God willing - to eat even better food on Shabbat, but there is no guarantee that this will happen.
The purpose of what I have written here - which is a summary of what I said at a panel that dealt with the employment of Haredi and took place as part of the "Conference of Elected Officials - Conference of Elected Officials in the Haredi Sector" - is to shed light on a point that most of us know and agree with, but that I believe should be amplified and its importance emphasized.
A few months ago, my office manager said to me, "You know, they're closing the post office at Malha Mall (which is near our office)." I replied, "It's because of Nokia." Seeing her raise an eyebrow, I explained. For many years, Nokia's stock price went up and up, exceeding $40 per share!! The company's market value was enormous. Everything changed in 2007, when the first iPhone was released. Since then, Nokia has been plummeting to an unprecedented low. So much so that in 2013, at the peak of the stock's decline, its value was below $2 per share, and its market value shrank accordingly. The fall is so dramatic that it is hurting the entire Finnish economy in a particularly significant and significant way.
Knowing how to look ahead
And why did I compare Nokia to the Israel Post?
Nokia, like Israel Post, did not think ahead enough, did not prepare for innovations, and did not adapt to a changing market. Just for the sake of comparison and to point out forward thinking, the American company Amazon - the online shopping giant - is now working, in practice, on deliveries to customers' homes using tiny, pilotless aircraft.
And in our context, the individual does not always think ahead and does not worry about planning the next step, let alone a few hundred meters ahead. The individual, often times, in the face of everyday difficulties, focuses on what is right in front of him, the need to provide for himself and his family, here and now. These dictate his opinion and his way of behaving. The responsibility for setting the direction, the path, the goals and objectives falls on leaders, managers and elected officials.
For example, it seems to me that few have considered the employment opportunities that exist before us in new markets and new fields that were not part of the haredi sector, such as the gas and energy sector, in light of the gas discoveries of recent years. Even fewer have taken practical steps to promote employment opportunities for the general public, or for the public of those who send them to work in the gas and energy sector. There is no doubt that this field will require quite a bit of manpower, as well as diverse employment that is suitable for different types of people, from those with abilities in the technical field, to those in the engineering and design fields, to the management field - and more.
In order to promote and facilitate those who are interested/forced to enter the labor market from the Haredi sector, and especially those who see the private business market before their eyes, preparation is necessary. We must not throw these people into the turbulent waters of the business world, where sharks swim that are even more dangerous to humans than those found in the oceans of nature.
These individuals should undergo various training and education courses on a variety of subjects. For example, training courses on management and entrepreneurship, introduction to the business world, introduction to the system of authorities and their meaning, marketing, raising capital, employees, working with banks, what the different legal entities are (company, association, non-profit organization, licensed dealer) and their meaning, the different options for receiving state funds (loans and grants), different meanings of working with other sectors that sometimes have a different "language," and more.
The future world is already here.
The same is true for employers interested in hiring workers from the ultra-Orthodox sector. If they want to successfully hire workers from the ultra-Orthodox sector and see this as an advantage for their business, they need to undergo training and adapt their business to hiring workers from this sector.
It seems to me that entering the job market without proper preparation can and will perpetuate two types of workers: "loft workers" on the one hand, and second-class workers on the other. Both of these can and do not exhaust their inherent potential.
And we haven't even said a word about technology, which will further reduce the use of unprofessional labor, so that some of the jobs that were previously performed by unprofessional labor will be performed by machines and robots.
Quite a bit has been done in this area in recent years by various entities, including the K.M.H. Foundation, which our office represents, the Joint Organization, and more. More work needs to be done, not only within the framework of higher education studies, a field that has undergone significant change in the Haredi sector in recent years, but also for those who do not desire higher education studies, and have entered the labor market either as regular workers or as people with some kind of initiative.
It seems to me that conferences like the "Conference of the Elected" - which to some may seem like a waste of time, at the expense of important work, at the expense of solutions to needs that are needed at this moment - are actually key, they are critical for trailblazers, elected officials and leaders, in order to get to know the issue in depth, discuss, internalize and try to find ways to advance processes in an informed and optimal manner.
As the head of a law firm that supports many activities in this field, I believe that combining the efforts of those involved in the field, with public leaders and employers, is the key to continuing to address this complex challenge.
The Chazon Ish said that confidence is the putting into practice of faith, and perhaps we could add that effort is the believer's putting into practice.
• Lawyer Zvi ("Tsiki") Wolfson He is a managing partner. At the Wolfson Weinstein & Co. office', and he deals with Commercial and Corporate Law, Dissolution and rehabilitation of companies, Consulting and assistance to corporations and individuals in steps to prevent insolvency.
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