HaRav Chaim Shaul Karelitz zt"l
Many of our readers will surely remember the Hashkofoh articles written over many years in the Musaf Shabbos Kodesh edition of Yated by the late Rav Yisroel Shpiegl. As one who accompanied the rise of chareidi Jewry in the Holy Land, he clarified the position of Mafdal, the National Religious Party of yore, in its beginning steps.
The shrinking of Mafdal and its estrangement in these recent years (relevant to when the article was written) as being the central voice piece on religious matters have created a certain illusion that perhaps its leaders have learned something from all of the errors and failures of the past, hoping that they realized that in kowtowing to the secularists and uprooters of Torah, they did not gain a thing. But reality proves that what was in the past, also perseveres in the present and will also continue in the future. The Mafdal as the Mafdal. It has remained the same, and at the proper time, it is publicly exposed in its deceptive form, as in the past and in the present.
In later years, HaRav R' Chaim Shaul Karelitz wrote in Digleinu, the publication of Zeirei Agudas Yisroel, an article reacting to an declaration by one of the National Religious leading rosh yeshivos, why it was important for yeshiva students to enlist to the army. He wrote as follows:
Our luminary, HaRav Shach, enlightened us with a very decisive definition, when in a few select words, he expressed why and wherefore we view PAI (Poalei Agudas Yisroel) as the fifth column in our midst and how sullies the clear waters of our barrel.
When he voiced his opposition to joining forces with PAI in the elections, Maran uttered a single but very significant sentence at a meeting of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah: "PAI has added a fourteenth principle to the Torah: Trust in the State! This is an Original Sin, a root producing poisonous wormwood in everything and which determining everything that they says and do.
The thought arose in my mind when I was shown an article printed in Yediot Acharonot which included an interview with the rosh yeshiva of Shaalabim, Rabbi Schlesinger. All of his words accentuated a soul outpouring of why yeshiva students should enlist in the army and how much benefit they bring to the war cause.
He told the reporter of Yediot Acharonot that at first, army commanders hesitated to accept yeshiva students to their divisions. Who needs problems?! Here — Shabbos observance; there — kosher food; here — they are engrossed in some Talmudic discussion and there — they demand public prayer services. Today, the commanders vie for these soldiers!
And he dropped another pearl: "We are certain that the Divine service which we do in the Sinai Desert and the Land of Goshen comes to mend and atones for the sins of the Jews who left Egypt."
Were Rabbi Schlesinger's words a mere come-on and recommendation for yeshiva students to quit the beis medrash benches and enter the army, I would keep my silence. Do we then lack inciters and agitators on the Jewish street? But Rabbi Schlesinger said to the interviewer worse things by far.
"When the Yom Kippur War erupted, we harbored no hesitations or quandaries. We clearly knew that this was a Torah-obligated mitzvah-battle which obligates every single person — even 'a kalla from her canopy and a chosson from his room.' And a yeshiva student — all the more so!"
And here, Rabbi Schlesinger deteriorated to a level of informer and pursuer. In other words, he referred to Jewish daughters who are not kallos as being even more obligated, and yeshiva students, also, all the more than young men who are not yeshiva students.
From the depths of our memories there arises the battle against the drafting of women for national duty which devoured the very lifeblood of my uncle, the Chazon Ish. This whole issue is presented in Pe'er Hador Vol. 5.
Conjure up to yourselves that when Mafdal recommended the drafting of yeshiva students, it raised a storm of protest even within its own ranks. All of the high school roshei yeshiva raised a hue and cry and all of the Mafdal rabbis protested vehemently by ripping up their membership booklets. The Tsofeh was swamped with acerbic protest letters, while the PAI rosh yeshiva stood stanch in his approval, raising not a single voice of protest. In the PAI ranks, no one uttered a single objection or condemnation against one serving as an informer or of raining disaster upon the last remnant of Torah Jewry.
