The Knesset’s Labor and Welfare Committee held a discussion on Monday on denying the National Insurance budgets to a child who is in prison for a terror offense.
During the discussion, the members of the committee were amazed to hear that, absurdly, the Supreme Court overruled a similar law because the judges refused to deprive the budget of a child accused of terrorism and even serving in prison.
Chairman of the committee, MK Israel Eichler, sardonically stated: “For now, the Knesset has the right to enact laws as it sees fit, as the messengers of the public. It is true that the Supreme Court later invalidates the laws of the Knesset members but in the meantime, it doesn’t prevent them from enacting laws. Indeed, it’s impossible to know how long it will be until the Supreme Court also denies the right to legislate.”
He then commented on the Supreme Court’s hypocrisy: “I am amazed to hear that the Supreme Court does not allow interference in the denial of allowances of terrorist children but allows the denial of aid allowances and budgets for children whose father’s great sin is that he studies Torah, and for this reason, it is permissible to deny them education budgets, yeshiva budgets, and who knows what else.”
He added: “On the one hand, Supreme Court judges protect the children of terrorists, and on the other hand they deny daycare subsidies to the children of Chareidi working mothers for the ‘sin’ of the father’s limud torah. This is incomparable wickedness and disgrace. It is appropriate that all citizens of the country see this shocking hypocrisy.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
What do you expect from Sodom
Terrorists are not a threat to the Zionist dream. They are too weak and disorganized to be anything worse than a nuisance. Chareidim are a realistic existential threat to the Zionists. There is no chance that the Jews of Israel will wake up one day to find out their country is the “Islamic Republic of Palestine”. There is a real threat, based on demographics, that one days Medinat Yisrael will be replaced by a Jewish state.
The children of terrorists are not in galus the children of charaidim are in galus
“the denial of aid allowances and budgets for children whose father’s great sin is that he studies Torah” is a gross and deliberate oversimplification. There are many great Torah scholars from the Hesder yeshivot who proudly serve in the IDF, some of whom recently made סיומים on various מסכתות.
What grates on the Israeli public is that there is a burgeoning, politically aggressive group of religious Jews who contribute nothing to society and consider themselves superior to everyone else. Remember the late Charedi leader who publicly said that the raison d’être of the non-Charedi world is to underwrite the Charedi lifestyle? The effrontery, especially given that those who choose to lead such a life have no right to demand anything, as the Chaza”l teach פַּת בַּמֶּלַח תֹּאכֵל.
The Torah states לֹא תַֽעֲמֹד עַל־דַּם רֵעֶךָ, which Rashi explains as refusing to save our brothers’ lives when we have the power to do so. By refusing to serve or at least to support those who serve, we are committing this very grave sin.
The mitzvah of פדיון שבויים supersedes learning. In Devarim 7:8 it says וַיִּפְדְּךָ – G-d Himself did פדיון שבויים when He took us out of Egypt. Further, even one Jewish hostage renders this war a מלחמת מצוה.
The Torah commands us שֵֽׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבֹד. That so-called Torah scholars are leading many of our children to a life of shiftlessness and poverty is a הימל געשרייַ. It is as though Rabban Gamaliel never said: וְכָל תּוֹרָה שֶאֵין עִמָהּ מְלָאכָה סוֹפָהּ בְטֵלָה וְגוֹרֶרֶת עָוֹן
So, no, Israel is not out to get people וואָס קוועטשן די בּאַנק (as my father ע”ה would say). It is about מענטשלעכקייט.
כל ישראל ערבים זה בזה
Ari Knobler:
Written like a true reform heretic, quoting lots of pesukim but totally ignoring the Torah’s view. The Zionist ideology is shmad. Its army is the major indoctrination force of that shmad, including redefining Judaism (of its inductees) as Zionism.
And you have the nerve to write such a bald lie that the Zionist state is about “מענטשלעכקייט”? Yaldei Tehran and Teiman, to pick just two examples were not very good examples of “מענטשלעכקייט”. Neither is the recent incident of Zionist nazi police brutalizing an old man at Meron, and on and on and on.
@Ari_Knobler: This is not a shiur forum, but I would suggest discussing the various sources in Torah with a knowledgeable Talmid chacham not known for his political views. I will leave you with one bit of food for thought: Are you are that the Shulchan Aruch paskens that talmidei chachamim don’t need to contribute to a security wall in a city, since it doesn’t benefit them due to the fact that their Torah is actually their shemirah? I’m not even going to tell you where that can be found in Shulchan Aruch, because that would be missing the point. It’s not about one mar makom or another; its about becoming educated as to the actual pertinent halachos.
Kol haMeracheim al haAchzar sofo lihyos achzar al haRachum.
The Zionists do both very, very well.
Yashar, that is a גמרא in ב”ב. Yes, the מחבר brings it as הלכה למעשה – and it is about paying for the walls of a city. It is NOT talking about פדיון שבויים, so let us not conflate two wholly separate issues. (By the way, in ב”ב a bit later on, the גמרא states that תלמידי חכמים ARE REQUIRED to contribute to the maintenance of the city’s roads. And מחבר brings this as הלכה למעשה.) Ours is not a religion in which a privileged caste gets to leech and screech. We all have to do our part.
@Ari_Knobler: I actually didn’t realize the Gemara was just in daf yomi, but anyways, I’m so confused: what are you saying? You’re saying that the chareidim should be drafted because of pidyon shevuyim? No one drafted now will participate in any hostage rescue… the timeline totally doesn’t make sense. So that’s why I’m saying that since the Gemara as paskened in the SA says they don’t need to participate in building a security wall, you can see that they are not responsible to help with security of a city. What about that do you not agree with? And why are you mentioning an irrelevant Halacha about streets? Sorry, you seem thought-out, so I assume you’ll have an explanation, but as of yet I just don’t follow your reasoning at all.
Yashar, the issue is one of פיקוח נפש. Israel is facing an existential threat. Part of the IDF’s effort to save Israel is that of rescuing our hostages. There is no question, therefore, that this war is a מלחמת מצוה. Some people in the Charedi world, not all but some, agree with this assessment, as evidenced by some comments on this site. However, because certain anti-Zionist personages of the past (the Satmar Rebbe zt”l and R’ Avigdor Miller zt”l, for example) tend now to predominate in Charedi discussions about Israel, I assume that some of these people are reluctant to express their true opinions on the matter.
Whether the hostage rescue missions are carried out by Sayyeret or the Magavnikim or Golani is beside the point. Would it have made sense during WWII for an able-bodied American young man to burn his draft card just because he was most likely not going to be a Marine Raider on Guadalcanal or an Army Ranger in the Philippines? The issue you raised about the SA’s psak, based on the Gemara, exempting Torah scholars from participating in building security walls, is so immaterial and in poor taste. We are not talking about city walls but about SAVING THE JEWISH PEOPLE. There are over 460 million Arabs in the world and 1.6 billion Muslims, many of whom would be perfectly content if Hezbollah lobbed a loose ICBM into Israel. Given the unpredictability of Iran and their relationship with seedy anti-American and antisemitic governments around the globe, there is no question that we Jews should serve or support those who serve. That this is even open to debate is positively mystifying.
Ari knobler: Torah is a shemirah, as can be seen from the halacha about security walls where the SA says torasam shemirasam. Of course, we can start discussing the other sources, that actually discuss how Torah is a shemirah for others, as well, as this particular psak only pertains to the talmidei chavhamim themselves, but as I said, this isn’t the forum to go through each mar makom. I was just giving an example.
The point is that torah is a shemira for real, not a joke shemirah but an a tul shemirah.
Do you think when Rav yitzchak Yosef says on video (this site had it) that anyone who doesn’t believe that it’s the talmidei chachamim who are protecting us is an APOKORES, he was being too kana’usdik, or too much of a Talmid of the Satmar Rebbe and Rav Avigdor miller, etc.? He’s from a massively different worldview! So whether yiu agree with him or not, I’d think it makes sense for you to do a cheshbon hanefeah after hearing that the totally non kanausdik rav Yosef literally thinks you’re an apikores.
Anyways, here’s the pet that really gets me: you say that it’s mystifying that this is even a debate. If you just mean to ask about it, then fine. But if you mean that you are sure you’re right and you believe what you are saying should be followed, then we have a problem. You’re welcome to follow your rabbonim, but how can you say that something tov of the gedolei had or think shouldn’t even be a debate??
Also, just to respond to your point about tearing up draft cards: Yes indeed, if you aren’t going to be part of that unit… AND YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING ELSE OF EXTRME IKPORTANT, I.e., learning torah, then you should tear it up.