I'll start with full disclosure: I was not born Haredi.<\/p>\r\n
I was raised in a religious state and a high school yeshiva. When I was 17, I attended a 'Bnei Torah' camp, where I was sent as punishment by my teacher, who made my continuation of my 12th grade studies conditional on attending a Bnei Torah camp.<\/p>\r\n
I was a camper and instructor in the 'Ezra' youth movement, and when I went to the Bnei Torah camp, I discovered a dark and wonderful world. A world of dedication to studying Torah, from the depths, while building a personality based on moral values.<\/p>\r\n
The world of the 'dosis', as we called them in high school.<\/p>\r\n
I left my entire world and retired to the world of learning.<\/p>\r\n
The warmth radiated from the words and touch of my teacher and rabbi, Rabbi Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi, affected my soul...<\/p>\r\n
I had to convince my parents, who were originally from Germany and believed in Torah and the way of life, that I was leaving just before the matriculation exams that sum up 12 years of study for the real test of life. "They're taking him to the Beit Midrash.".<\/p>\r\n
Under the guidance of four yeshiva students - Danny and Hagai Avidan, Hadari Glazman, later son-in-law of Rabbi Baruch Mordechai and currently serving as Chief Rabbi of Ateret Israel, and my uncle Lau, who had just gotten engaged and currently serves as Chief Rabbi of Israel - I began the path of my renewed life.<\/p>\r\n
For the first time in my life, I learned the ways of the righteous, and the Mesilat of the Righteous, a clear Mishnah, and not a shortened Shulchan...<\/p>\r\n
After a few months in the small yeshiva of Ateret Yisrael, I was privileged to transfer to study at the Kiryat Malachi yeshiva under the leadership of Rabbi Amit. I was not an easy student... The energy of youth and attention deficit disorder, which my generation still did not know how to diagnose, gave me no rest.<\/p>\r\n
The supervisor, Rabbi Baum, guided me every day, detailing the fibers of my soul like a violinist on his instrument...<\/p>\r\n
I have instilled in myself a worldview of one truth. God, the Holy One, looked at the Torah and created the world. The entire world was created for the sake of mercy, my son.<\/p>\r\n
I, who retired from my studies at the kollel after about a year and went to work, did not withstand the test of poverty of a loaf of bread, but how many tears have I shed before the Creator of the world since then. How many reincarnations and trials in the lowly world of work, which is all material and corrupt values.<\/p>\r\n
If I had stood the test, I would today be immersed in a world that is all good.<\/p>\r\n
I try to be a good Jew. I don't like catalogs and catalogers, I'm not Lithuanian and I'm not a blue shirt.<\/p>\r\n
I am not anxious. I am peaceful.<\/p>\r\n
But my peace is disturbed as I see the city of God humiliated. How the tower of light that was a safe haven for my generation, and the house of creation for Torah and virtue, is being destroyed by its sons.<\/p>\r\n
Faced with the test of 'and you did whatever he told you,' I leave my anger with the ultra-Orthodox activists and politicians who worry about themselves, and turn a blind eye to what is happening on the street, with the thousands of students who are financially bankrupt and are still blocked from learning a profession that will allow them to earn a decent living.<\/p>\r\n
Not every person can withstand every test. And the life of an Abrecht is a life suited to the virtuous. Sons of kings, truly princes, but not all of us were born with the mental strength and power to survive like that.<\/p>\r\n
I leave behind the anger at business and scheming, and even the arrogance of room managers who don't accept children into a room, just because their father is out working... or their mother doesn't meet the room manager's external test.<\/p>\r\n
Everything is dwarfed by one point: gratitude.<\/p>\r\n
I owe the happiness in my life to the Creator, who sent me Rabbi Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi, who shouted to me: "Yitzhak Elchanan, to the left..." Without that cry that woke me up, I would today be very, very far from being a Torah-observant Jew, not to mention the supreme pleasure of studying Torah.<\/p>\r\n
I have been privileged to complete several tractates in Shas, and I intend to complete many more... because the certainty and sweetness of the Torah is the flavor of my life.<\/p>\r\n
And when a member of the Council of Torah Scholars instructs me to vote, I am a member of all who respect you.<\/p>\r\n
I will place an envelope with the letter C in the ballot box.<\/p>\r\n
My hands will shake and my eyes will shed tears, but gratitude for the Torah I was taught is more important than any other consideration.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I leave my anger to the ultra-Orthodox activists and politicians who worry about themselves, and turn a blind eye to what is happening on the street. Everything is dwarfed by one point: gratitude.","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[315,6079,901,6559,8369],"class_list":["post-137988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-138","tag-315","tag-6079","tag-901","tag-6559","tag-8369"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n