This morning Deri made a campaign promise that would have the State giving every young man turning 13 years of age, ie turning bar mitzva, a set of tallis and tefillin. As well, he will force the Ministry of Education to allot an area in every school where any students who want to will be able to pray.

Deri says this is in response to harsh promises made by some (ie Yair Golan and others with similar ideas) that would be a threat to the Jewishness of the State of Israel - he says they want to turn Israel into a State of all its citizens [rather than a Jewish State]. Promises such as to remove religion from the public sphere or acting to remove Messianism from the schools...

Deri's promise is to pass this program he is calling "Tefillin for every child" - seemingly a spin on the old "a computer for every child" promise for imporving the educational system and giving children from lower socioeconomic families/communities a hand up to help them be less disadvantaged in relation to wealthier students. Deri says tefillin has been a symbol of the Jewish nation throughout the generations and this program will deepen our connection to Judaism and Jewish tradition, and will stregthen the security of Israel. The Torah says "the nations will see Gods name on you and will be afraid of you, and Chazal say that refers to them seeing the head tefillin. Tefillin is the spiritual power giving us the ability to defeat our enemies. The choice is clear, Deri says; either we strengthen the Jewish state ([in its Jewishness] and we deteriorate to a state of all its citizens, God forbid. 

Journalist Yoeli Brim has made a quick calculation of Deri's promise. According to Brim, if the current coalition parties win the upcoming election and will be able to form a coalition, and if this law or directive gets passed and goes into effect in 2027, the boys in 2027 who will be bar mitzva and get these sets were born in 2014. In 2014 there were 130,000 Jewish children born. Assuming statistically approximately 51% of them are boys that would be about 67000 Jewish boys who will get these tefillin sets. Assuming approximately 2000nis per set, that will require a budget of at least 135,000,000 per year. In five years that becomes more than half a billion shekels - pocket change.

State sponsored kiruv/religion always irks me the wrong way. We can leave that aside. 

I assume Der won't give tefillin sets to girls, but why should only the boys get stuff for fre from the State? Why can't the girls get anything too? If he only gives boys, and only Jewish boys, I see a discrimination suit potentially on the way. What would the girls get for their bat mitzva? A set of Halichot Bat Yisrael and/or Tzeea Ureena seems too small when compared to tefillin. Maybe girls get a free wedding dress when they get married? Maybe a free set of candlesticks to light for Shabbos?

And let's say we put aside a potential appeal to the courts for discrimination or whatever.

Why does the State need to buy tefillin for kids - why can't parents continue buying their kids tefillin as we have all done for thousands of years? Should the State also be paying for our Shabbos groceries? for our tzitzis? Holiday paraphanelia (e.g. lulav and esrog, sukka, seder plate, afikomen present, chanukah menora, etc)?

Tradition is meant to be passed down from father to son, not from legislator/politician to citizen. We should not be transferring our parental duties to the State, and we should not be passing our responsiblity for bearing the torch of tradition to the State. Some are trying to turn the State into one big kibbutz.

Truth is, I am just upset as I have no more boys coming up for bar mitzva... but on the bright side maybe my grandkids will benefit from this...