I live with the feeling that, for me, the feeling of connection with God is more reliable and<\/b>R<\/b>Yalit more than anything else I can think of... I feel close to God more than anything else [I seek your face, conversations with Rabbi Lichtenstein, p. 17].<\/b><\/p>\r\n
The late Rabbi Dr. Aharon Lichtenstein passed away this week, and with his death, Judaism lost one of its "greatest of generations." The emotional eulogies of his many students, as well as his enormous influence on religious Zionism and observant Judaism in general, over the past decades, have taught us that the Rosh Yeshiva of Har Etzion, a giant of Torah and thought, a genius of scholarship and knowledge, was indeed one of the greatest rabbis and Torah scholars of the last generation.<\/p>\r\n
And yet, for a significant portion of the Haredi public, the passing of the famous yeshiva head [who was not even mentioned in some Haredi newspapers] did not shake the foundations of the faith, did not move them to reflect on the passing of one of the 'greats,' and it is sad to say that a significant portion was not even aware of this.<\/p>\r\n
Why? How did it happen that in the limited Israeli space \u2013 the religious State of Israel \u2013 one of its central figures passes away, and an entire public enjoys the privilege of not talking about it? Not lamenting about it, not crying about it?<\/p>\r\n
They [the secularists. A.H.] have many who reciprocate. They have many who are genuinely concerned about the future, the path, the existence of the Knesset of Israel. And I don't mean just the existence of the State of Israel, but also of the Knesset of Israel [ibid., p. 141].<\/b><\/p>\r\n
Between the religious and the secular in the State of Israel, Professor Yedidiya Stern once wrote, there is no discourse based on dialogue. The relationships are tainted with mutual rejection, exclusion, and contempt. Neither side attributes the other a central place in the Jewish experience of the period from a historical perspective.<\/p>\r\n
And Stern turns out to be right. The most obvious confirmation is before us, the Day of Remembrance for the fallen of Israel's systems as well as Independence Day for the State of Israel. A huge cross-section of the people is unable, not out of malice, it must be said, to place its heart, its culture, its narrative, in the place where the heart, culture and narrative of another large public in the State of Israel are located.<\/p>\r\n
In Torah Talmuds, yeshivahs, and women's seminaries, there will be no plays, works, memoirs, or poetry performed around the two national days of the State of Israel. There is really no rhetoric of sadness or joy on these two days. Sadly, and similarly, it must be said, even on the sad days of traditional Judaism such as Tisha B'Av and the Seventeenth of Tammuz, there is really no discourse of mourning and destruction over the Temple in the secular Israeli public.<\/p>\r\n
Does this apathy or lack of care, which characterizes Israeli society, also exist between the two segments of the observant public \u2013 the religious and the ultra-Orthodox? It turns out that it does. Rabbi Lichtenstein is no longer with us, thousands of his students mourn his loss, and there are young people on the ultra-Orthodox street who don't even know his name.<\/p>\r\n
[On the attitude towards the State of Israel:] I think we need to be aware that the risks are great. That the responsibility is enormous. And when there is a heavy responsibility, we should not retreat. On the contrary. We need to go towards it. Do the best we can [ibid., p. 179].<\/b><\/p>\r\n
The described gap, which seems almost unbridgeable, between the various populations, ultimately forgets one basic axiom: We live in the State of Israel.<\/p>\r\n
A country headed by a Jew who speaks Hebrew and is committed to maintaining the security of its citizens. A country that, in addition to the great secularization it brought with its wings, has also known how to flourish the great world of Torah since the destruction of the Second Temple.<\/p>\r\n
We, the young Haredi, living in the relatively peaceful State of Israel, are not familiar with the basic feeling of insecurity that characterizes many Jews in the Diaspora, including those living in the most established and 'friendly' countries.<\/p>\r\n
We, the ultra-Orthodox and non-religious Jews, have never felt uncomfortable because of our Jewishness or our lifestyle. Even the Avrechim among us live a reasonable lifestyle in a country that provides a scholarship for each of them, and even the extremists among us from Jerusalem and Bnei Brak receive health services and hospital days free of charge, totaling tens of thousands of shekels, without any distinction between gender, sect, or level of religion.<\/p>\r\n
For this country, it's time to admit - we have a responsibility. For us too. We are an intrinsic part of it, alongside the national religious and secular public. 'What unites us,' says the clich\u00e9, recalling the Jewish genome, 'is greater than what divides.'.<\/p>\r\n
'"We have no other country," another clich\u00e9 constantly reminds us. We have no other place to be, not even us Haredim. Ask the Jews of France. This is our only country. This is our lonely country.<\/p>\r\n
And this is no longer a clich\u00e9.<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the death of Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, Judaism lost one of its Torah giants who lived in the last generation, but on the street, as well as in the Haredi press, there was no shock that shook the swordsmen. \u2022 Why? And how does this relate to the days of remembrance and independence of the State of Israel?","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[8748,8278,2372,2415,2984,2672],"class_list":["post-161516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-138","tag-8748","tag-8278","tag-2372","tag-2415","tag-2984","tag-2672"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n