I
moved recently from a Dati Leumi (National Religious) neighborhood to
a Charedi one. The move was necessary. When I came to Israel, I
didn't know that the Modern Orthodox (ie. Dati Leumi) here are often
far less religious than than the least observant ones in America. I
saw women in baggy pants in Teaneck but mini-skirts? Also, while the
American Modern Orthodox are very fixated on college and careers, in
Israel it's all about the military. College I can pass off as secular
wisdom, depending on what one studies, but all this military stuff is
hard for me to absorb into my picture of Jewish life. All
Israeli-Palestinian politics aside – and I don't see it as good guy
verses bad guy – involvement in the military seems to me to harden
young people but not in a good way. They look damaged to me. When I
suggest this to Dati Leumi parents they as a rule take great umbrage
and proclaim how proud they are of their children for their “military
service.” They can be proud all day long. It doesn't mean the kid
wasn't damaged. For the Dati Leumi my view is blasphemy, literally.
But I see the worship of the military as blasphemy, literally. So
that neighborhood wasn't a good fit for me.
The
Charedi neighborhood is another world. Kids play outside together.
The mothers sit outside watching them. Men hold sefarim as they walk
to shul. Interactions with them are much more pleasant than with the
typical Israeli. In the DL neighborhood, the streets are much emptier
of children. I suppose they were home playing with electronic
devices. I was very rarely permitted entry into a DL home but when
for various reasons I did enter one, sure enough the children and the
parents were on their devices. And that is certainly the case with
teenagers and adults on the streets. Right arms seem to all have
grown by the portion of the I-phone that sticks out from the hand.
So
throughout the move we had to deal with various workmen, most of
which seem to be former IDF people. You can always tell by the
aggressiveness with which they do everything. We had an appliance
repairman who was supposed to look at our AC but first went to our
circuit breaker and shut off all the lights in the house. He didn't
say he was going to do this. He just did it, at night, as the people
in my family were engaged in various activities that depended on the
light. It was a little scary and dangerous. One person was on a step
stool at the time.
One
workman, an American oleh, who was Orthodox, made some comment about
the Peleg demonstrations and mentioned that he was in the military. I
started to probe him as I always try to do to learn more about the
military. What was it like? Was it anti-religious? Did they try to
brainwash you? (I only ask the latter questions of religious people.)
He
told me, like many have, that the rough handling of basic training
was very hard to take. Lots of screaming and demands to do
ridiculously arduous physical tasks. It left him depressed. But he
didn't feel that he was brainwashed against religion. He was in a
non-religious unit but was able to be religious there for the most
part. I didn't inquire as to his standards of kashrus or mixing with
the opposite sex. The couldn't have been very high as it was a mixed
unit. He talked about how he made a kiddush Hashem by studying Torah.
Unfortunately, for many people today Torah study has become nearly
the entirety of Torah observance.
Then
he got to talking about Arabs. About how they all want to kill us,
and they only understand violence, and that the Israeli military is
so moral and drops leaflets before it bombs apartment buildings, and
how Jews never kill anybody.
This
got us arguing of course because I don't believe any of that stuff
and nobody I have ever met uses facts to prove it, only assertions
that seem to me entirely self-serving. For if that's all true, we
have every right to be extremely tough with the Arabs. They are
trying to kill us right?
And I
realized, he was indeed brainwashed. It's not that he received
19th century style attacks on the Talmud. The
brainwashing is in being taught to be a killer. And this is what many
gadolim have told us about Nationalism (Zionism). That the haskalah
didn't succeed in pulling everyone from Judaism with its attacks on
Judaism so Nationalism stepped in to create a new definition of a
Jew. With Nationalism you don't have to become a communist or an
Xtian, no you can still be a Jew, an even better Jew, one that isn't
meek and golus-like.
And
that's what I saw in this workman with the long beard. He was
aggressive in his style. Our debate was not a debate. It was violence
without fists, mostly on his part. He was ferocious. And I imagined
how he acted as a soldier. He told me some of it. How Arabs had to
learn to obey.
I see
why Likud never really considers a state for Palestinians. The
military is their avodah. And the Israeli military is all about
aggressiveness, striking first, being sneaky, being bold. It's an
entire personality type. It's the new Jew. They wouldn't know what to
do with themselves if they had peace.
So
they brainwash the soldiers to justify brutality. Every colonial
force does this – from Columbus to the Nazis. So you can tell me
that the military doesn't obstruct Shabbos observance or Torah study.
There's more to Judaism than that. The Gemara in Makkos tells us that
all mitzvos are built around faith in Hashem. That's the essence of
the mitzvos and of the Jew. We are devoted to Hashem.
The
Dati Leumi are dedicated to the army and the state that serves it.
Shabbos observance comes along for the ride. The men who founded the
state were rebels against Judaism. Bold people by nature. And since
they stuck their state in the middle of Arab societies that don't
want to be dominated by Westerners, they were able to cajole the rest
of us into taking on their style in order to battle the Arabs. We are
supposed to be a people of humility, modesty, and compassion. The
army creates arrogance, immodesty, and hardheartedness. It is the
anti-Jew. I'm not saying that every solder is a stone-faced killer.
But I am saying that the army brings them down, makes them more that
way than they normally would be. The leaders and the policies are
cruel and the soldiers are terribly influenced by it as they carry
out orders. Many try to retain their humanity but three years is a
long time for a young person to hold up an undeveloped personality
against a ferocious owner. And while you are in the military, it owns
you. Nationalism doesn't convert the Jew to some other religion but
rather converts the Jewish religion to something that we have no word
for really - fascism comes closest. It certainly isn't Torah Judaism.
I can see that in the difference between my old neighborhood and my
new one.
