Oct 29, 2015
Please do not stab Haredim. We are not your enemy
Mishpacha magazine (Hebrew) has come under fire today in both social media and on some news sites, and subsequently on the radio talk shows, for something they printed in the latest edition, distributed today.
Here is the image of the offending text:
This is being described as an ad by Mishpacha asking the Arab terrorists to not stab Haredi Jews becuase the Haredim are not a side in the conflict - they do not go to Har Habayit, "so please do not murder us".
Obviously that is a disgusting and offensive ad to run, an offensive request to make.
The problem with it is that the above is being taken out of context. While it itself is inappropriate, it is not an ad being run by Mishapacha asking Arabs to not stab Haredim. It is an excerpt from an editorial in Mishpacha that is being taken out of context.
The first line of the next paragraph after the above excerpt begins "Now, seriously,...". The writer goes on to explore why Haredim are targets, and why in a town like Beitar, with neighboring villages like Husan, things have been relatively quiet. He refers to a conversation he had with a Palestinian laborer in Beitar. He explores the possibility that it is because Haredim are the most easily identifiable as Jews. He explores the possibility that it is a religious war, and Haredim are [perceived as] the most religious.
While the opening paragraph is surely offensive and inappropriate, it is NOT an ad asking Arabs to not stab haredim.
The real purpose of the article is the conclusion. The entire issue of the stabbing and Haredim being targeted is in order to point out to the readers that the Haredim are more representative of the Jews than any other group. Even though he points out that now is not the time to argue over who is more Jewish than whom, he is basically patting himself on the back for the revelation via the stabbings that the Haredim are more Jewish than everyone else.
Here is the image of the offending text:
This is being described as an ad by Mishpacha asking the Arab terrorists to not stab Haredi Jews becuase the Haredim are not a side in the conflict - they do not go to Har Habayit, "so please do not murder us".
Obviously that is a disgusting and offensive ad to run, an offensive request to make.
The problem with it is that the above is being taken out of context. While it itself is inappropriate, it is not an ad being run by Mishapacha asking Arabs to not stab Haredim. It is an excerpt from an editorial in Mishpacha that is being taken out of context.
The first line of the next paragraph after the above excerpt begins "Now, seriously,...". The writer goes on to explore why Haredim are targets, and why in a town like Beitar, with neighboring villages like Husan, things have been relatively quiet. He refers to a conversation he had with a Palestinian laborer in Beitar. He explores the possibility that it is because Haredim are the most easily identifiable as Jews. He explores the possibility that it is a religious war, and Haredim are [perceived as] the most religious.
While the opening paragraph is surely offensive and inappropriate, it is NOT an ad asking Arabs to not stab haredim.
The real purpose of the article is the conclusion. The entire issue of the stabbing and Haredim being targeted is in order to point out to the readers that the Haredim are more representative of the Jews than any other group. Even though he points out that now is not the time to argue over who is more Jewish than whom, he is basically patting himself on the back for the revelation via the stabbings that the Haredim are more Jewish than everyone else.
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So it is pretty despicable either way. And poorly advised, since many people see it as separatist and despicable.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Haredi-newspaper-sparks-outrage-by-asking-Arabs-Dont-stab-us-we-dont-go-to-Temple-Mount-430389
The Mishpacha Magazine has just exposed themselves to the real Jewish world that they do not have Jewish neshomos. This was a despicable example of treachery against H' and His children. Yet, he has the audacity to call himself Yehudi.
ReplyDeleteIn the last intifada, someone said they were patting themselves on the back that they had lower rates of bus bombings (heaven forbid). In that specific lecture that I sat through, the speaker said "the Gedolim" were attributing it to their adherence to tzniut.
ReplyDeleteThe whole concept made me shudder at the time, thinking, please don't brag about these kinds of statistics. And now, l'tzaareinu....
Any kind of statistical divisions are not a blessing....
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteNo, the people who have no Jewish neshamos are those who endanger thousands of their brethren by going up to Har ha Bayis and enraging the Perei Adam, all in the name of some Zionistic-Messianic pipe dream. The State of Israel has no intention of conquering that piece of territory. It is not happening. So going up there, apart from its halachik problems, accomplishes nothing but endangering Jews. (And spare me the part about how the Arabs lie about changing the status quo. Arabs lie. Rabid dogs are irrational. That is no chiddush. If someone takes a stick and pokes a rabid dog, and he runs around biting people, it is no defense for the poker to say, but the dog overreacted. That is the defense of a shoteh.)
Tal, "The State of Israel has no intention of conquering that piece of territory"? I take it you either don't know history, or don't think about what things mean when you do read history?
DeleteLEGALLY, the State of Israel conquered "that piece of territory". That is certainly true by Israeli law; and it is actually true by any definition. The question is what do we do with it, now that it is conquered? And Moshe Dayan crafted an answer to that, which has brought us to all the woe we have with it today.
LEGALLY, the State of Israel bears all liability for whatever happens up there. That is why the govt and police continuously agonize over how to handle affairs up there.
LEGALLY, the govt is obliged to protect the rights and lives of its citizens when they exercise those rights. That is also the ruling of the courts in Israel with regard to Har Habayit, twice.
Morally, I take it you figure it would have been better if the State of Israel were not founded at all? Because that is really the "poking the rabid dog". Har Habayit is just an added detail.
Mordechai, the State may have conquered it in 1967, but it has given carte blanche to the Waqf, a foreign entity, to run it, almost as a semi-autonomous area. There is absolutely no will anywhere in Israel to change that. Going up there does nothing but enrage the Arabs, and endangers lives.
DeleteWhether the State should have been founded is water under the bridge. I am sick and tired of so-called religious people endangering everyone by doing something that has been condemned by the vast majority of rabbinic opinion, including both Charedim and RZ rabbis. And then patting themselves on the back as the true Ohavei Yisrael, and condemning Charedim as separatists.
I think now you've described the situation more accurately. And it is a difference that can have profound legal, political, and moral ramifications. I still disagree with your characterization that "there is absolutely no will anywhere in Israel to change that." For one thing, I think you aren't very familiar with the positions clearly published and offered by various figures over the years. Including some (very few) figures who were economically and generally leftists. What's more, the increased attention today is a manifestation of a recognition that Har Habayit has much more political, as well as religious, importance than people like Dayan ascribed to it. Not only have the courts upheld the legal right of access and to pray on Har Habayit; but many people on the Israeli street realize that it is far more important a symbol than they previously thought. Like it or not, that is the case. And the political importance of Yerushalayim is part of an overall religious world view.
Delete"so-called religious people"? Do you think that when Rav Mordecahi Eliyahu advocated building a beit knesset on Har Habayit, that was so called religious? Or when Rav Shlomo Goren carefully mapped out the areas that it would be permitted to enter, that he did so as a 'so-called religious' person?
As for "condemned by the vast majority of rabbinic opinion, including...". I think you are again sloppy with your terms and indiscriminating in your usage. Many of the rabbinim who say it is forbidden to go up there nonetheless do not condemn those who do so. What's more, many who do forbid access do not do so because of your reasoning. I know first-hand that some of them sympathize with the religious and political impetus for going up; but forbid it because that is still their halachic opinion regarding actually setting foot up there. And some of them therefore advocate that the govt should be exercising much greater control up there in any case. Some of them also say that the prohibition should be extended and enforced even more so with regard to non-Jews. So, to be consistent, are you willing to enforce a 'no-entry' for non-Jews as well?
Puk mai hazi amach... The prohibition to go up even on the tosefet is not at all clear-cut. Generations of Jews went up on Har Habayit. Some yes; some no. Let's reintroduce a little intellectual honest into the halachic conversation, shall we?
http://www.hakirah.org/Vol%2016%20Loewenberg.pdf
Sorry for my numerous typos in that response.
Delete+1
DeleteI suppose they just published the "Arabic" portion to try and reach that new demographic?
ReplyDeleteJust wondering: Do you to have buy this weeks copy of Mishpacha to get a Jewish star to differentiate which type of Jew you are?
Also agree about not going up to Har Habayit for religious reasons; that is not the real question here - what these particular chareidim did by their actions towards our enemies (like kapos) is really ugly. How are they any different than the neturei karta? That's exactly what the neturei karta do.
ReplyDeleteDid you read the post above? The ad is a fake, it's a much longer article about why Charedim stand out - i.e. because it *can't*be* because they are spearheading the let's-pray-on-har-habayit campaign.
DeleteWhat about not going to the kotel cause that enrages the arabs?
ReplyDeleteOr living in betar, emanuel, bet shemesh, bnei braq, tel aviv, ashdod, cheifah?