I met him one evening as he was coming home from work. From
afar, I noticed that he was walking somewhat hunched over, a
sure sign of a depressed state of mind. As an old friend, I
immediately asked him, "How are you feeling? Did anything
unfavorable happen to you today at work?"
"No, boruch Hashem," he replied, "but today, in the
course of a monthly talk to the workers, the company brought
a lecturer on economics, some university professor. I left
his talk with a very bad feeling. The gist of his words was
that the chareidim are not productive and don't contribute
anything to the national economy. He explained that the
average schooling of a secular citizen is twelve years,
whereas the chareidi Jew studies for 23 years, without
emerging with any title at the end of that period.
"The power of a nation, he said, is based on economics, and
the economy depends upon education which produces
professionals of high caliber. This, he stated, causes a
country to flourish. On the other hand, not only don't
chareidim join the work force of the national economy but
their higher education does not even enrich them with any
form of professional expertise. The country has no benefit
from them. This is what he said and repeated for an hour-and-
a-half. The people in the audience kept on glancing sideways
at me as if I had stolen something from them. It felt very
unpleasant."
I decided to encourage my friend: "That professor did not
appear especially intelligent nor very sincere. There are
thousands of unemployed hi-tech people on the loose, men of
high professional education who had raked in high salaries in
their heyday, who would be more than happy to land a job that
required no more than a high school education or a brush-up
course of a few months at worst. And there he stands, our
university professor, declaiming about the strength of the
nation resting on higher education!
"So what does he want from the chareidim? If they don't join
the work force, what difference does it make if they have or
lack a profession requiring higher education? And why is he
so disturbed over the fact that they are not going out to
work? If they did join the potential work force, one hundred
and fifty thousand strong in addition to the two thousand and
seventy already unemployed `white collar' professionals,
would the strength of the country be any greater? Did he tell
you the academic level of the population in the oil rich Arab
counties which shovel in billions of petrodollars by the
month?
"In any case, is economics a serious, worthwhile subject? The
economists of the Treasury department maintain an altogether
different opinion than those of the Bank of Israel. And these
are totally put down by the economic experts of the
industrialists, or of the Histadrut labor camp, or of the
media. And all of them possess advanced education and
academic degrees. How does he explain the fact that a few
businessmen, including chareidim, who never saw the inside of
a university, are doing business on an international level
and rolling in hundreds of thousands of dollars without
requiring to moonlight to supplement their income by way of
lectures in food plants once a month?"
At this point, my friend began laughing out loud and his mood
improved perceptibly. "You see," I added, "one clever man,
asking some pointed questions at that lecture, would have put
that economic scarecrow in place. But this doesn't absolve us
now from clarifying for ourselves our own position in the
matter. According to him, the chareidi invests 23 years in
study but he fails to relate to the question of what this
chareidi is studying. The professor only said that no
profession is gained from this study.
"Let us assume this to be true. But what emerges is something
much more valuable. This person learns what life is all
about, why he is living it and how to live it to the fullest.
This should be the most important question a person ever
asks, a question that truly requires years of study to arrive
at the answers. The strength of the nation is also dependent
upon the moral fortitude of citizens who know how to live
properly and who know why they are alive.
When does the secular person ever study this? Not in
university. There is no faculty there that deals with these
questions. In their life cycle of work- entertainment, there
is no place for this study and when one reaches the last stop
at an old age home, it is already too late.
To us, this question is of primary importance. It is dealt
with at the very beginning of life, when the head is
uncluttered with nonsense and with ulterior interests like
earning a livelihood, providing security, health, family
etc.
"And here is the place to ask: What shall we eat? Without a
source of minimal livelihood, it is impossible to survive.
Fortunately, our obligation to occupy ourselves in Torah is a
supreme commandment which the A-mighty gave us. And He is,
after all, the ultimate One in charge of our security and
wellbeing, of our livelihood and sustenance and everything we
need to keep us going.
"There is no reason to think that He would punish those who
keep His important commandments and not provide them with the
wherewithal of survival. This is an integral part of our
primary and elementary belief in the Creator as a Provider
and One Who guides the world in kindness and justice. But
even one who lacks faith yet has a discerning eye can see how
man is incapable of determining or controlling his own future
in these matters.
"It was not so long ago that people talked about the
burgeoning of the national economy in the area of hi-tech and
the tremendous success in scientific areas that placed Israel
among the most developed countries in the world. The economy
boomed and everyone scurried to seize a place on the
bandwagon and grab a portion of that success. And then, when
the huge bubble reached its blown-up capacity, the incredible
took place: something unforeseen jabbed a needle into the
balloon and it deflated into a rubber nothing, thus snapping
the economic staff. And the economic commentators are
shamefaced, wondering how they had failed to foresee what lay
in store.
"Similarly, not too many years ago, the experts and the media
showered lavish praise over the military prowess of the IDF.
The Jewish brain had built an invincible tank, the like of
which not even the great powers possessed. Gigantic countries
like China wooed us to buy our latest air force
sophistication. And then, along came some Arab youths with a
sixth-grade education at best with stones in their hands, and
the super tank, along with the Arrow missile, plus Israeli-
made satellites plus self-developed brilliant intelligence
planes -- all failed to withstand these youths. The security
bubble that had been inflated in all the newspapers and
hailed by all the experts was punctured by an unforeseen pin
and expired to nothingness.
"Any person who abides by the truth can easily draw his own
conclusions from reading the papers, that one cannot rely on
higher education, nor on military prowess, nor on diplomatic
strategy. Within bullet range, there crouches in his den the
chief murderer responsible for the death of hundreds of Jews.
But we are incapable of touching him, because he has powerful
friends in America who call the shots.
"It is very easy to be a person of faith. We see with our
very eyes that we have absolutely no control over events and
affairs. Even if all the workers of democracy shout till they
are hoarse: Baal, answer us!, not even one drop of
water will fall down. Nor will the distance towards peace
contract by a single meter.
"The highways will continue to claim tens of thousands of
victims and hundreds of fatalities every year. Drug abuse
will continue to spread and destroy people's lives. The
parity between school and education will continue to widen
and violence on the street and in the family will increase.
The number of deprived and unfortunate people of all kinds
will continue to grow and the measure of general happiness
and satisfaction will dwindle more and more. The list of
misfortunes and tragedies is so long that we cannot even hope
to enumerate them.
"The Tanach continues to beam its messages to us daily: If
you shall verily listen to obey -- the good of the land shall
you enjoy. And if you refuse and rebel -- it will not be good
for you, G-d forbid. All the accounts of the Tanach
revolve around the oscillations of the Jewish nation between
these two poles. One negative extreme has been reached and is
coming out of our ears. Has the time not yet come to forsake
the idols crumbling before our very eyes and to cast an
anchor at the positive pole and rope ourselves in towards
it?
"My friend, you are free to transcribe what I just said,
omitting the personal angle, and send it directly to that
professor. Perhaps it will finally succeed in opening his
heart to the truth."
