The Rebbe gave us a mission, and we don’t have the luxury of sitting idly and lamenting over this government’s failed policies of fear and loathing. Instead of crying over the hostile atmosphere, we can offer a solution. With boundless love for our Jewish brethren and unwavering determination, we must act with all our strength to bolster our efforts in doing the Rebbe’s holy mivtzaim, giving the Jewish People the special connection they need so desperately – the connection to holiness, spirituality, and the Word of G-d as brought forth in the Shulchan Aruch.
Translated by Michoel Leib Dobry
1.
The Nineteenth Knesset, recently dissolved after only twenty-two months in office, was the second shortest in Israeli political history (only the Fourth Knesset lasted less time). The government established solely on an agenda of hatred has been sent packing. Yet, while it served less than two years in power, it has managed to cause destruction that will take another several years to repair. “The comrades in arms,” who created this government of hatred on a program of “Out with the chareidim,” have revealed for all to see that while it’s quite easy to despise someone, it’s much harder to take steps toward building something true and long-lasting. Although they failed to fulfill their great promise before the last election to deal with the high cost of living, they did succeed in demolishing the protective wall of Yiddishkait – and big time.
This government will be remembered as an eternal disgrace. During this truncated parliamentary term, legislative initiatives were proposed and enacted into law that had been shunned for many years. The Knesset passed the “Conversion Law,” which took authority for conducting conversions away from the chief rabbis of Eretz Yisroel; a square for mixed Reform prayer services was established on the site of the Western Wall in Yerushalayim; the process began on dismissing municipal rabbis who reached the age of seventy – in contradiction of the halachic ruling stating that it is forbidden to dismiss a rav from his duties; the system for registering marriages, which served as a means of guarding the entry to the Jewish People, was wrecked in a most arbitrary and irresponsible manner; the passage of the malicious Military Conscription Law designed to cause untold pain and anguish to yeshiva students; the slashing of National Insurance Institute child allowances for large families; depriving Torah institutions of desperately needed budgetary allocations, thereby placing their very existence in serious danger for the past two years; eliminating the “Jewish culture” budget, which funded hundreds of ultra-Orthodox institutions offering Torah classes and activities, replacing it with a “Jewish renewal” program and providing tens of millions of shekels for “non-Orthodox study centers,” including for the Reform movement…
While this is just a partial list, it clearly reflects the devastation and ruin that this government has left behind at every Jewish level – and we haven’t even begun to talk about the burning hatred of discord that has prevailed in Eretz Yisroel over the past two years. Therefore, it’s good that this evil government has passed from the scene. Furthermore, it’s good that the outgoing Knesset will forever be remembered with great humiliation as one of the shortest in Israel’s parliamentary history.
This was a government born in sin. The only uniting force that connected all factions within the ruling coalition was the appalling hatred towards the ultra-Orthodox community. The hi-tech worker from Raanana and the media host from Tel Aviv struck a “deal”: Let’s kindle the fires of hatred and we’ll take control of the government. While many people today have already forgotten this, just two years ago, there were provocative banner headlines agitating the public at-large against the chareidim. It was the kind of incitement that no one had seen here for sixty years. At every available opportunity, the chairman of the Bayit Yehudi Party made certain to declare that he would take the ministries of housing and religious affairs from the ultra-Orthodox and return them to the people… In the pursuit of votes, everything is permissible.
And what has happened since then? They took control of the government by storm, but they didn’t know how to run the country… The military conscription law turned into a cruel joke. A piece of legislation designed to encourage army enlistment among the ultra-Orthodox sector became a law designed to punish the chareidim. Naturally, this law didn’t just fail to encourage greater chareidi IDF enlistment; it slowed the whole process down. Furthermore, while the Israel Defense Forces had previously acquired tremendous respect and honor even within the ultra-Orthodox sector, chareidi soldiers were now suddenly embarrassed to walk through ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods wearing their army uniforms. The rampaging hatred last winter against the chareidi community was so intense, it was already quite clear that this law had no connection to drafting yeshiva students – it was pure hatred towards yeshiva students.
Even on other issues, the government operated in stark contrast to every reasonable manner of public conduct. Opening marriage districts, granting recognition to Reform Judaism at the Western Wall, waging war against the “Tzohar” rabbanim, the Conversion Law – all this was done in the most crude and abusive fashion. Instead of achieving the objective of transforming the Jewish religious issue into a cherished legacy belonging to all sectors of the population, they gave us hatred towards rabbanim, hatred of the ultra-Orthodox, and hatred of every religious institution. Anyone who claimed that he was bringing the issue of improving the rabbinate to the national agenda in order to make religious services in Eretz Yisroel more gratifying to the general public – achieved the exact opposite. Throughout the entire process, a campaign of slander and falsehoods was conducted against religious services in Eretz Yisroel, convincing more and more currently non-observant couples to give serious consideration to the possibility of boarding a plane for Cyprus.
2.
We can sit, complain, and cry over the disagreements, the grievous injury to religious services, the trampling of Torah institutions, and the drastic reductions in child allowances, bringing hunger to hundreds of thousands of chareidi children. A better course of action, however, would be to supply the missing elements. They brought greater hatred; we can bring greater love. They worked to instill revulsion for Yiddishkait; we can work to create a deeper sense of Jewish awareness and bring our fellow Jews closer to their Father in Heaven. They brought destruction; we have the strength to build and repair.
The Rebbe’s “mitzvah campaigns” are the best answer to the hatred towards Jewish tradition and the sowing of discord left behind by the aggressors of the past two years. None of the harsh edicts put forth by this government can be an excuse for weakness and despair. On the contrary, it provides an excellent reason for us to intensify our activities in spreading Yiddishkait with even greater force, while conveying the clear message of reaching out to more Jewish souls and preparing the world to greet Moshiach Tzidkeinu.
We must connect the Jewish People to their true and eternal principles, uniting them around the announcement of the Redemption and the Redeemer, as a means of strengthening their faith and connecting them to their roots. The simple conclusion from the collapse of this government is that true unity can only exist in an atmosphere of Torah values. Unity based on hatred toward others eventually led to this chaos. We must unite the People of Israel around the truest of all messages: Besuras HaGeula in anticipation of Moshiach’s imminent arrival.
When confronted by hatred, we must increase our efforts in Mivtza Ahavas Yisroel. When faced with the nonstop persecution against religious institutions, we must intensify our campaign for greater study of Torah, bringing it to each and every Jew. When we see hungry Jewish children going to school with nothing to eat, we must encourage fulfillment of the mitzvah of Tz’daka and expand the charitable activities of Chabad Houses throughout Eretz Yisroel and the world. When we bear witness to the neglect of battei midrash and their programs to make Yiddishkait more accessible to Jews thirsting for knowledge, we must utilize all our resources in providing proper Torah education to our fellow Jews, young and old.
The Rebbe gave us a mission, and we don’t have the luxury of sitting idly and lamenting over this government’s failed policies of fear and loathing. Instead of crying over the hostile atmosphere, we can offer a solution. With boundless love for our Jewish brethren and unwavering determination, we must act with all our strength to bolster our efforts in the Rebbe’s holy mivtzaim, giving the Jewish People the special connection they need so desperately – the connection to holiness, spirituality, and the Word of G-d as brought forth in the Shulchan Aruch.
There can be no doubt that the oppression we have seen over the past two years is merely a part of the process of Geula. As the Rebbe once said, if they give away portions of Eretz Yisroel, this will become a “depraved country,” and it is written in the prophecies of the Redemption that prior to the coming of Moshiach, the sovereign powers over the Holy Land will become heretical.
The Midrash asks why did G-d make it possible for the magicians in Egypt to do the same miracles and wonders as those performed by Moshe Rabbeinu, and then answers its own question: If the Redemption had come without giving the Egyptian sorcerers a chance to bring it on their own, they would have claimed that the Redemption was incomplete, because they could have brought it themselves. Therefore, G-d enabled them to act using their own powers – the powers of impurity. However, it’s clear that since these powers were proven to be limited, the Redemption could not materialize through them.
Even this government was another stage in the process of Redemption, another clarifying phase en route to the ultimate objective, when the prime minister of Eretz Yisroel will be Moshiach Tzidkeinu. As the Rebbe said nearly twenty-five years ago to Israeli News correspondent Oded Ben-Ami: “I do not mix into politics. Furthermore, and this is the main thing, I hope that very soon the prime minister there will be Moshiach Tzidkeinu. However, for those very few moments until Moshiach comes, it is imperative that the approach be like his approach has been: that concerning all of the ‘territories,’ even the smallest part cannot be relinquished.”