When I posed this question to an Adam Gadol here in Yerushalayim a few decades back, he answered that the Chachmei haTorah accepted Herod’s refurbishing of the Beis Hamikdash, despite that fact that he was a rosho. We don’t find that anyone at that time disqualified his “contributions” because it was “treifene gelt.”
BTW, I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, but those who think that the “true” Chareidi groups are not accepting zionist money are living in a dreamworld. While they are probably not accepting funds directly from the education ministry budget, there are scores of line-items in the national budget under various “innocuous” names and part of other ministries’ budgets that are quietly accepted. Sometimes funds are routed through the municipal budget (which some claim isn’t so treif) or assorted “foundations.” Bottom line: let no one be excessively naive about who really accepts or doesn’t accept govt. funding.
Brisk might be an exception to the above. In fact, Reb Avrohom Yehoshua commented a short while back on the Eida/Peleg protests: “sure, the ‘gezeiras ha’gi’us… gi’us kesafim.’ (Gius=army conscription; it’s also used to refer to “fundraising.”)
The original prohibition of taking zionist money starting about 120 years back was specifically for chinuch, for schools, and not other “favors,” like health care, buses, electricity, trash collection, etc.
A very great number of Gedolei Torah in the past and in the present allow accepting these funds from the medinah. If you are part of a group that doesn’t, that’s fine, so don’t. Just make sure you’re not being 2-faced about it, and accepting monies from other govt. sources, while hollering “gevald” at the other “lenient” ones who follow their manhigim who do openly allow it.
Menu