By David Weinberg, ISRAEL HAYOM
Israel’s most urgent task when it comes to its ultra-Orthodox citizens is not to enlist them to the military and propel them to the front lines to fight Hezbollah, but rather to pull them out of the unemployment benefits lines. Not to give them guns, but to help them earn their own bread honestly. Not to bus them to the Tel Hashomer IDF induction center, but to entice them to enter the high-tech industry.
Consequently, it is time to change the focus of the debate over the place of haredim in our society — drafting them is less important than drawing them into the working world.
The haredi world is admirable in so many ways: Haredim live modestly, they prioritize Torah study and spiritual aspirations, their communities are suffused with good works and social assistance ventures, they are meticulous in observance of mitzvot, they emphasize family values and are generally free from the drugs, booze, pornography, sleaze and slavish devotion to stupidity (as expressed in most TV shows and movies) that characterize much of modern society.
But three problematic rules are corrupting and pauperizing the otherwise estimable haredi world. First, and most destructive of all, is the rule that bright and healthy young men cannot work or get professional training, at least not if they want to be respected. The ideal is to stay in yeshiva and study only Torah for as long as possible. Inevitably, this means that many haredi families are impoverished and dependent on charity in one form or another.
Rule number two is that despite rule number one, you have to buy or own an apartment as soon as you marry. This is called a “siddur maleh,” an all-encompassing marriage arrangement that provides the young couple with housing and all the necessary furniture and appliances.
This is what tripped up Aryeh Deri (the ultra-Orthodox politician who served almost two years in prison for corruption). At his trial, he provided a fascinating study into an ailing ultra-Orthodox world of marriage, dependency, poverty and pride. Deri said that he was considered a good match, or a “catch” in the haredi world, and therefore was clearly entitled to a “siddur maleh.” But Deri’s in-laws provided no such backing. Facing the stigma of poverty and wanting to get ahead, but untrained for anything other than political panhandling, Deri worked things out illegally with his buddies. They arranged the coveted housing for him in return for other deals that Deri threw their way.
Regular people just starting out, not shackled by crippling haredi codes, simply rent an apartment or take a mortgage and work to pay it off.
The third haredi rule, which applies to all those who don’t have the kind of friends Deri had, is that the government must solve the problem. If housing is expensive, the government will build subsidized housing in preferred areas at ridiculously low prices, exclusively for the ultra-Orthodox public. If schools, health care, youth groups and municipal taxes are expensive, the government will reduce the fees to almost nothing for kollel students (religious schools for married ultra-Orthodox men), or simply provide the services outright.
That is how a haredi world of dependency was created, in which haredim live off the dole. Crisis-level poverty has become the product of this self-imposed isolation and asceticism. Half the 64,000 children in haredi Bnei Brak live under the poverty line. One-third of all elementary school children in Israel are now ultra-Orthodox, according to statistics presented to the Knesset last week. Only 57 percent of these haredi students are taught the (reduced) core curriculum assigned by the Education Ministry to be taught in haredi schools. And just 0.7% of haredi 17-year-olds complete high school with a full set of matriculation exams.
Equally unhealthy is the trap created by the all-encompassing government support system for yeshiva students. It doesn’t pay to leave the yeshiva. The minute a 35-year-old kollel man leaves yeshiva, the municipal taxes he must pay triple, his health care and education costs double, and he is no longer entitled to a monthly study stipend. What high-enough paying job can he possibly obtain, without any skills relevant to today’s high-tech workplace, to offset these automatic losses?
The situation is not only tragic, it is sacrilegious. The modern-day haredi credo, ‘”Thou shall not work, only study,” is a perversion of tradition. “A father is obligated to circumcise his son, to redeem the firstborn, to teach him Torah, to marry him off and to teach him a profession,” instructs the Talmud (Kiddushin 39a), saying a man “should not become a burden on the public.”
“It is preferable that man eke out a livelihood bitter as an olive through work, and trust in God, than to accept honey-sweet support from another man,” teaches the Talmud again (Eiruvin 18b). “A craftsman who studies Torah but simultaneously supports himself merits all the honor and good in this world and in the world to come,” asserts Maimonides (Laws of Talmud Torah 3:10).
Make no mistake about it, Maimonides warns sternly. “One who studies Torah professionally and fails to work, counting on charity for a livelihood, desecrates God’s name, shames the Torah, extinguishes the flame of religion, harms himself and abdicates his place in the world to come … Torah that is not accompanied by work has no staying power and inevitably draws one into sin.
“As Rabbi Yehuda taught in the Talmud, the man who fails to learn a profession or to work, ultimately will come to steal from others.”
Current haredi rabbinic leadership, however, feels differently than the sages of old. It is not only blocking forward movement on the draft issue — even the mildest of reforms — but fighting a rear-guard battle against the so very necessary integration of the ultra-Orthodox population in the world of real work and productivity. It is tragically trapping haredim in an impossible world of imagined restraints and limitations, deeming what we would call normal life “ossur” (forbidden).
How tragic.
Things are beginning to change, however. Quite a few academic training centers for older ultra-Orthodox men have opened in recent years. But the late start in seeking a livelihood makes this an enormous challenge, a solution that works for only a stalwart few. And the innovation has taken root only at the margins of the haredi community.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should take the lead in helping haredim emerge from the hole they have dug for themselves by exempting them of almost all army service (even though this is unfair, I know) and ending the all-encompassing government support system for those individuals who do not even attempt to earn a living.
@ Ted Belman:
Arabs are heavily subsidized in Israel few work in productive jobs, do not serve any positive function in or for the State of Israel, do not recognize the Zionist and Jewish dominant construct of the state, and are even for the most part antagonistic in thought and deed.
Few adhere to our laws, avoid taxes, avoid paying for local services like water and sewage infrastructure, don’t pay the electricity bills, steal from the Jews whatever is not bolted down and produce above the national average more Arab babies that we stupid Jews pay them to have.
Shy is correct cut them off from the treasury ATM, and in short order things will change, make military service a condition for receiving educational budgets and things will change. This also applies to the Arabs. Many young Arabs facing such restrictions and dead ends might decide to leave Israel and the territories.
Many youngsters born into wealthy and middle class Israeli families also avoid military service and there is an over representation in the IDF from the farms and small towns and villages outside of the major Urban Centers.
The Kibbutzim were never self sufficient and always subsidized by the government because they sent 10% of their membership to political activist positions in political organizations friendly to their projects and within the political establishment, they were always over representative.
When the Likud gained power, it was a death certificate to the traditional kibbutz movement.
@ steven belsky:
Substitute Belsky for haredim and you could be describing yourself substantively.
@ Aryeh Moshen:
Don’t take offense at the truth. Our educational system produces precisely what society needs in order to function. Within two months of Sputnik my high school received college-level textbooks from the National Science Foundation dealing with astrophysics and advanced topics in mathematics. When we needed typists and bookkeepers, my mother graduated with a “commercial degree” from an NYC public high school.
Fast forward! What does America need now. Nothing much! The top ten percent will always flourish and provide all the talking heads we need. Anything else can be acquired through F1 visas. Since Americans do not have to produce anything, education is superfluous. Black males are certainly not required for the functioning of America. Thus, they can be ignored with impunity. If we needed them, they would be learning math, physics, history, Greek and Latin. Indeed, ANYONE who is not learning these things in high school is flotsam, but it is particularly obvious with the black male. I did not do it, but I did notice it. Not my fault.
@ Laura:
Understand this. The heredim do not accept the sovereign authority of the state of Israel. Their authority is the Messiah, who is scheduled to arrive on this earth, but seems to be stuck in traffic somewhere. Perhaps over O’hare airport. The good haredim are acutely antizionist, antiwork and against anything that is not related to Torah. End of story.
Why attack Weinberg since that is exactly what he is saying:
I want to add: I am always suspicious of those who claim to speak for G_d and who judge others in his name. The appearance of piety, and the claim of authority therefrom, is often a cover for the cunning. the truly righteous are obvious and are a light to the world.
This places the emphasis on the Haredim and the society as a whole but it does not take into account the position of those who serve in the IDF. If the Haredim do not put in their fair share of soldiers then the non Haredim are carrying their burden and are disproportionately at risk of their lives and injury. A non Haredi is lesslikely to die if there are more Haredi in the iDF. What is the justification for this:
The implication is that they are more pious, and therefore righteous that others. The Jews value piety and righteousness. But is this true? Does the Torah command the righteous to reject their share of burden in society, to have others do it for them. Perhaps even the same ones that they will throw stones at and judge, as self appointed representatives of G_d, as if G_d needed them as his religious police to fulfill his punishments and judgements. Some say that it is only a few who cast stones but from where do these behaviors emit culturally: from self righteouness, which is vanity. I have seen this spirit displayed before by religious muslim fanatics stoning the wicked to death. Is this the logical outcome? Is it pious to despise the infidel yet live off his efforts, or is it hypocrisy? Reading the Torah and “Davening” is not synonymous with righteousness and piety. A canny lawyer with a cunning mind can always find the loopholes to support what he wants. I was never impressed by the hiring of the gentile to open the synaguogue and to switch on the lights when I was a little boy. I noticed early that the more “expressive” a mans davening was identified with the more religious he was. who are these vanities meant to impress?
Do they perform these good works and mitzvot for those outside their own communities?
Ted Belman Said:
I understood that this is exactly what the Haredim have been purported to have been doing, and yet they end up in exactly the opposite place. I suppose that it is possible to study and read the Torah, to “daven” in the most profuse manner and yet still be without the Torah and G_d. Perhaps there is more to piety than appearances.
Ted Belman Said:
Have they been lured, if so by whom? Are they poor and in need to live on others charity by circumstance or is it a choice of culture? If it is the choice of culture is it the way pointed by Torah Study and from G_d? If it is not then how would they be considered to be righteous and pious? If they are not righteous and pious then would their actions be fraudulent and manipulative, would they be distorting G_ds word to their own advantage? Many put the Haredi on a pedestal of piety and righteousness but is it real or is it an appearance? My experience has taught me that the ability to be clever and to quote the law is not synonymous with piety. I have found that those well versed are able to quote the law according to the outcome they desire.
Ted Belman Said:
Apparently G_d is on Mr. Mathews side in politics, is this not the sin of vanity?
@ Jerry:
I resent one of your words: “black”. It is not needed for any purpose other than to paint ALL ORTHODOX JEWS as racists. “We have groups where men are reduced to being nothing more than stud horses” would have been well enough. (and btw I am light-skinned Ashkenazic on both sides.)
My Comment was blocked by spammer.
@ Shy Guy:
Agreed but that goes for everyone who is physically able to work especially the Arabs. In a Jewish Zionist country we pay Arabs a monthly stipend to have and raise more Kids, then complain about demographics.
No New immigrant who received Government benefit packages and immigrant loans should be refused exist visas until either they have repaid their loans and aid packages unless they can supply proper guarantees of repayment less they skip out and don’t return.
Every Israeli who gets deferred or is rejected by the IDF should be barred for life from any public sector employment and elected office. Includes lawyers, current judges and civil service employees and politicians including Arabs and Haredim.
This could be a great way to reduce our bloated bureaucracy and the loyalty to the the state by those elected to serve. @ Ted Belman:
@ Shy Guy:
Agreed but that goes for everyone who is physically able to work especially the Arabs. In a Jewish Zionist country we pay Arabs a monthly stipend to have and raise more Kids, then complain about demographics.
No New immigrant who received Government benefit packages and immigrant loans should be refused exist visas until either they have repaid their loans and aid packages unless they can supply proper guarantees of repayment less they skip out and don’t return.
Every Israeli who gets deferred or is rejected by the IDF should be barred for life from any public sector employment and elected office. Includes lawyers, current judges and civil service employees and politicians including Arabs and Haredim.
This could be a great way to reduce our bloated bureaucracy and the loyalty to the the state by those elected to serve.
Ken Mathew send an email.
RE:
Not exactly. I don’t understand why my sons have to go through the army and lose out in the work place afterwards to a bunch of excuse generators who are given a head start in life at the expense of the rest of us.
Want to get Haredim into the workplace en mass? Stop feeding them tax money. That, too, comes at the expense of the rest of us.
Thumbs down, David M. Weinberg, whoever you are.
Culture is what people do together. It is, indeed, what is NOT questioned; it is how people simply lead their lives from day to day. Just as the Hareidi way of life is not questioned within their community, secular society does not question its daily activities and attitudes. As individuals from each side of the fence meet in real life, the respect elicited from seculars when confronted with Hareidi personal restraint is equaled by the fascination of Hareidim with the freedom of the seculars, mostly in the sexual and social fields. Since no one can tell from where their salvation will come, people with power to mold society would be well advised not to be parochial in their judgments about what is better. At the moment, large families serve the needs of the State of Israel – which the Hareidim willingly supply. But the seculars feel threatened by the rise of the Hareidi communities due to their large families. Never fear! The Leftists know precisely how to reduce the size of such families:
1) Educate women, a noble goal except where education is sought solely to reduce fecundity.
2) Tolerate or encourage pre-marital sexual experience. (The old Jewish joke: If you can get the milk for free, why buy the cow.)
3) Reduce the legal and functional positions of the male through “welfare reform.” This method has worked well in the United States where too many black males serve no function other than as studs. Fifty-one percent of all births in the US are now out-of-wedlock.
4) Denigrate the nuclear or extended family system by making it only one of many types of families. One tactic here is to pose the nuclear family as a patriarchal dictatorship that abuses women and children.
5) Require homosexual activity to be given equal status to traditional families.
6) Reduce societal distaste for early exposure to sexual activity – even before pubescence. This works well for the Left, since early sexual experience is abusive in that it reduces the ability of the abused person to later form a stable nuclear family.
Make no mistake about it. The rabbis know full well about the perfidy of the Left and so they oppose mixing of the communities. Personal restraint can only be expected to survive in a community that models similar restraint. Such behavior is delicate and easily undermined. Israel has to-date been a very special place, because it prizes both restraint and personal freedom, something far more advanced than mere democracy. The Left looks askance at such naivete, but they never wonders why they cannot maintain their numbers. They have swallowed their own poison. Evolution moves forward by killing off weak organisms, but the definition of what is weak is tautological: if you died, you were weak, no matter how thick your armor or how clear your thinking.