Almost every day I receive in my home mailbox leaflets with heartbreaking stories about widows and orphans, brides and grooms whose windows have been opened by death. Although these leaflets are actions that arrive in the mailbox every day, I try not to remain indifferent to them. I read them, sometimes shedding tears, and when I can, I even try to help and assist with a modest donation to those poor and unfortunate people.
But all that changed a few days ago. Then I had the chance to read the Tzipi Yarom's column. I read and suddenly it hit me like a thunderbolt on a clear day. A small faith like mine. We are at the beginning of the month of Sivan - about three months until Rosh Hashanah. Which means that the alimony of those widows is limited for at least another three months. Who am I, to doubt the Holy One, blessed be He, and think that I am the one helping them with my meager contribution? And that the boss of the father of the family who passed away, the one who used to pay him his salary every month, is the one who has supported the family until now? Why are there so many charitable organizations? Why are there children who cry to their mother for promising them chicken for Shabbat? And that the mother is the one who decides whether there will be chicken or not?
But fortunately, this difficult question did not start with me. The Gemara in Tractate Nidda (page 8) also addressed this question: We learned from Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah that ”Ha bla hai la sagi” – along with spiritual effort, we are also obligated to engage in physical effort. And also in the Midrash Tehillim (136:29): ””That the Lord your God may bless you“ – can even one who is sitting and idle? Learn to say (Deuteronomy 14:29): 'In every work of your hand that you do'.'.
All moralists explain that this effort and this understanding is not a problem with faith. It is faith.
We are not the breadwinners, but...
True. There is no dispute that we are not the breadwinners and that a person's sustenance is rationed for him, and yet it is our religious duty to make the effort. From the moment we were cursed, "By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread," a person must make his own efforts in order to earn a decent living.
When the High Court decides to cut the income guarantee for the young men, then yes. There is room to take stock of that. Not because perhaps the state, which you call Ms. Yarom, "the Fritz," is the one that provides for us, but because the state is the emissary of the Holy One, blessed be He, to provide for us. If a decision is made to cancel the income guarantee, does it perhaps mean that this year the Holy One, blessed be He, will provide for those young men a little less than last year, and that it is only expressed in this way? You call the amount awarded "poor pennies that are thrown at the young men," but many young men do not have the privilege of calling this amount a poor pennie. This poor pennie is their children's bread.
In your article, you call the country "the Fritz" and recommend listening to a Satmar rabbi.
I would like to present a small statistic: with all the cuts, that "Fritz" is still the largest Torah holder in the world. If only the state leaders had known better than to call the yeshiva budget by another name, say the "Wolfson Fund," and under the name "Fritz" we would have called it "the well-known governor, the great rabbi," I suppose that at rabbinical weddings it would even be given a place of honor in the East. And yes, those budgets, even if they are only "poor pennies," they still hold Torah for decades.
Maybe we should go down to Toulouse?
And in general, the more you think about it, maybe you're right.Perhaps the Satmar Rabbi was right. Maybe we should disconnect from the country and get out of it. I tried to say this to Rabbi Yonatan Sandler and his two sons, but they were shot and murdered outside the school in Toulouse, or to the couple Emmanuel and Mira Riva who were shot and murdered outside the Jewish Museum in Brussels. What they both had in common was that their only sin stemmed from the fact that they were Jews.
But even if we don't wander to the distressing news, I'm sure that you, like me, read last Tuesday's Yated Ne'eman, and even the headline there screamed "Anti-Semitic Europe" - with the rise of the far right to power (and no. The 'far right' does not refer to Dr. Michael Ben-Ari or the youth of the hills).
All of this is happening around us while here – in Jerusalem, the holy city, hundreds of thousands gather for the "Millionth Demonstration," in ultra-Orthodox attire, with beards, wigs and turbans that sway in the wind and declare their loyalty to God and His Torah. Not only does this event pass peacefully, but the one who is responsible for providing buses and securing the event is 'the Fritz." It may be that the Satmar Rav was right. You are welcome to try it in Europe.
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