To The Editor:
The article by Rabbi Roth in the 11th Tammuz edition of the
paper was thoughtful and well argued. We are all trying to
understand what the Israeli elections mean -- for surely they
effect us in chutz la'aretz as well. Whether the
Jewish antisemites and Torah haters did better than in the
previous elections or whether they merely shifted their votes
from Labor to Meretz and the racist Shinui is open to debate.
Whether Torah Jews should take a lower profile or be more
visible is something which can be argued. There is a time for
both, just as there is a time to go public and a time to work
behind the scenes. The skill is in knowing when to do what
and how much, and to act as Pinchos acted, for the sake of
heaven and for the Jewish people.
It is not a time for the Torah observant to withdraw into
themselves. Israel may be a golus, but it is not
chutz la'aretz. Those outside our communities are not
gentiles, they are mostly Jews. In England and the U.S. it is
easy to live our lives apart because we live in the midst of
the gentile world, and the secular Jews largely assimilate
and disappear into the surrounding world.
This is not the case in Israel. In many ways the secular
world impinges more strongly on and is more of a challenge to
Torah Jews in Israel than outside it. The struggle in
chutz la'aretz is social and cultural, while in Israel
it is far more existential.
The struggle in Israel is peculiar in other ways. Throughout
the western world, which the leftists try to imitate and
which they admire so much, leftist ideology has been thrown
into the dustbin of history. Indeed, the only thing that is
actively leftist about the Israeli left is its hatred of
Torah. Hatred of Torah and Torah leaders is its self-
definition. While the gentile world is preparing to enter its
21st century, the Left in Israel is desperately trying to
stay in the 19th century. The Left in Israel is a living
museum.
While there are plenty of disciples of Dosson and Avirom
among the Left in Israel, it is not they who are of concern.
Rather, it is the majority of nonobservant Jews of whom we
must be aware and for whom we need to act, to try to prevent
them from going the way of the haters. It is for their sakes
as well as for our own.
The actuality is that all sorts of things need to be done at
the same time, and even more importantly, to counteract the
lies of the leftist media in the daily interaction between
the Torah observant and the nonobservant. It is what we do
that has a greater impact than what we say. In this the
burden is on each one of us. Even more important, between
ourselves we must have achdus and show the greatest
respect to one another.
Yours sincerely,
Levi Sokolic (Dr.)
