Released: 14/05/2015
The Real Asifah – for the real dilemma
There was something very unique about the Asifah we participated in on Sunday afternoon.
It was unique that so many of us attended an event to show support to a dilemma that is worsening year on year, and yet short of davenning Mincha, saying some mizmorei Tehillim and trying to stay warm, we will have not gone a yard further in solving this worsening crisis facing not just our community but Klal Yisroel at large.
Of course, an event attended by huge swathes of our community, a gathering that pulled together the numbers it did from such a diverse section of the public is in itself a huge Kiddush Hashem. No one is denying this.
Many will argue that we weren’t supposed to be to solving anything. They will argue that when our local Rabonnim issue a proclamation asking of all the community to come together as a show of moral support to our brethren in Eretz Yisroel then that is the purpose. They will contend that rather than spend time analysing an event and its implications, we should simply pause and empathise with the extremely challenging and difficult circumstances that so many Torah institution and truly Toiradike families now find themselves in. Basic funding, given by the Israeli government to every public educational organisation has been shut off almost overnight to our mekoimos Hatorah crippling establishment to the point of potential fatal consequence. They will point out that families, for whom the few dollars distributed by the Kollelim are the difference between children eating supper or going without certainly deserve our fullest understanding, compassion and indeed assistance in any way possible. No one is denying this.
But perhaps an occasion like the one we experienced can also be the catalyst to begin to actually look at ourselves, to give ourselves a more microscopic examination, an MOT of the engine of Klal Yisroel and see whether we are all still roadworthy. Is the vehicle built by our holy post-war tzadikkim, leaders like the Chazon Ish zt’l and Reb Aaron Kotler zt’l still the same exact same mode of transport that works for todays modern roads?
When Reb Aaron arrived in America in 1941 he was told in no uncertain terms that he was wasting his time trying to rebuild what was destroyed in Europe because Jewish students of college age were interested only in earning a degree that will enable them to make money and had absolutely no interest in learning, mastering or understanding Jewish law just for its own sake (Torah lishma). Reb Aaron with extraordinary vision, with a visualisation granted only to yechidei hadoir responded that he will ‘plant’ Torah in America and stated publicly on more than one occasion that this was to be his life’s mission. Through his Yeshivah he did indeed rebuild Torah throughout the United States of America. He would constantly send away his best students his most senior talmidim to open other Yeshiva’s throughout North America. One man who transformed post-war Klal Yisroel.
The Chazon Ish settled in Eretz Yisroel in 1933 and though he held no official position became the most recognised worldwide authority on so many matters pertaining Jewish life. His encyclopaedic mind absorbed ‘kol hatoirah kulah’ whilst somehow simultaneously gaining knowledge in secular sciences such as astrology, mathematics, botany and anatomy to name but a few. He was not appointed as a communal leader, yet his positions and rulings influenced the life and institutions of Yahaadus and indeed still do so today. One man who transformed post-war Klal Yisroel.
They both, in their holy wisdom saw a Klal Yisroel pummelled, destroyed and devastated by events in Europe and pressed the ‘emergency button’ – Limmud HaTorah must be rebuilt, Klal Yisroel reconstructed and with immense siyayta dishmaya achieved in sixty years that which took tens of generations and hundreds of years in the centuries before. Surely even they could not have envisaged a world in which anew Kollel is established somewhere each week, a world where tens of thousands of Yiddishe children would stop learning any secular studies by the age of thirteen and spend the next ten, fifteen years of their life in front of a Gemorrah.
Fast forward to the 21st century and this extraordinary success perhaps need re-examining. Charedi Klal Yisroel is ba’h larger in numbers than it ever was. Reb Aaron’s dream has been realised but unfortunately we don’t have Reb Aaron here anymore to ask, ‘and now what?’ ‘Where do we go from here?’ Do you still want every single Bochur and newly married Yungerman to sit and learn the whole day? Even when they are not made for it? Even when they are not actually learning? Even if they spend less time ‘full-day learning’ than a baal haboss does going to a shiur in the morning and a chavruso at night? Even if they are the ones that help Yerusholayim shtieblach run 24-hour minyanim by being the perfect bridge of last minyan Shachris to those that wish to daven Mincha Gedoila? Even when the Birchas Hatoirah recited each afternoon is the sum total of their day’s learning? Is Reb Aaron and the Chazon Ish magnificent vehicle still able to drive the whole of Klal Yisroel?
Not for a moment is anyone painting everyone with the same paintbrush. I was in Yerusholayim during the recent snowstorm and witnessed yungerleit who walked miles (there was no transport) just to ensure they wouldn’t miss their Seder. We all will witness in a few weeks how the Bottei Midrashim will be filled to the rafters with bochurim who will spend their entire bein hazmanim ensuring that their hasmadah displayed throughout the winter should not slip even for a single day. These are the on-going fruits of our Gedoilim’s brainchild and we salute, applaud and support them with our full heart. In fact we will even spend an hour in the freezing cold saying Tehillim for their continued Hatzlocha.
But quietly we should ask ourselves – what about the others? Can someone organise an Asifah for them too?
