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IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Chazal tell us that when the besieging Romans substituted a swine for the
lamb that should have been sent up for the korbon tomid, the animal
drove its hooves into the wall of Yerushalayim and uttered a cry that
convulsed the entire land. Convulsions have continued to rock the city to
this day, with a succession of conflicts over the character of Yerushalayim
ir hakodesh. Will it retain its unique spiritual nobility, or will it
be rebuilt to reflect the decadence of the European capitals? Against those
who have sought and who seek to perpetuate the city's destruction,
defenders have risen, willing to do battle on behalf of its past and future
mission.
Rabbi Yisroel Spiegel, veteran chareidi journalist, spoke to R. Gartner
about some of the conflicts of the recent past, and Deputy Mayor of
Yerushalayim Rabbi Uri Maklev outlined the current challenges to the
character of the sacred city in the future.
Bayomim Hoheim . . . In Those Days . . .
with Rabbi Yisroel Spiegel
Rabbi Spiegel's pen has been recording the ongoing struggle to protect
Yerushalayim's sanctity for the past several decades. Starting out as a
junior clerk for the Agudas Yisroel publication, Kol Yisroel, Rabbi
Spiegel has become one of the leading writers in the world of chareidi
publishing, with his work appearing in Hamodia, Digleinu and now,
Yated Ne'eman. What were the challenges to the city's special
character? Which of the struggles were won and which were lost?
The Rule Are Different Here
Q. How is Yerushalayim different from all other cities?
A. That is one question that I don't need to answer. All our sources
identify Yerushalayim as the city of holiness and of the Beis
Hamikdosh, as the city of Hashem.
Q. But according to halochoh, is Yerushalayim confined to the
area within the walls of the Old City?
A. "In the future, Eretz Yisroel will spread to all lands," and
Yerushalayim will also expand . . . admittedly, the halachic discussion
concerning the special laws of the city's sanctity centers upon a specific
area, however, in its role of Heavenly City, Yerushalayim has no
boundaries. When we speak about Yerushalayim, we refer to the spiritual
entity towards which each and every Jew directs his prayers, to the city
whose mention set generations of Jewish hearts quivering, to the city of
holiness, of hope, of yearning and of dreams.
When Jews said about Yerushalayim, tiboneh vesiconein, may it be
built and established, they certainly didn't have theaters in mind, nor
even spectacular buildings, though when the posuk (Tehillim 48:3),
describes Yerushalayim as a "beautiful region, joy of the entire land," it
certainly means literally as well. Anyone with a neshomoh inside him,
who goes up to Har Hatzofim (a name that has great significance), and looks
at the vista that lies before him, will feel uplifted by the beauty of the
view.
This beauty is spiritual as well. There is an interesting thought which
HaRav Menachem Ziemba zt'l, Hy'd, said at the third Knessia
Gedolah in 5697 (1937): On Tisha B'Av in the special prayer
Nacheim, we mention the posuk, "And I will be for her, says
Hashem, a wall of fire roundabout and I will be a glory within." HaRav
Ziemba asked, that the prophet usually ends with the words, "says
Hashem," yet here these words appear in the middle of the posuk.
His answer was that Yerushalayim's beauty does not lie in tall buildings
and stately mansions. Its beauty lies solely in the word of Hashem. The
posuk should thus be understood as meaning that "says Hashem"
is the wall of fire, and Yerushalayim and Hashem's presence is the
glory inside it.
Q. Do you recall any other comments that gedolei Yisroel have
made concerning Yerushalayim?
A. Yerushalayim's holiness is the focus of the holiness of the entire
land. The Torah's admonition to guard the land's sanctity applies with even
greater force to Yerushalayim. Our outlook, which today has been borne out,
is that our ability to be here is conditional upon our keeping the Torah's
warning, "Do not defile yourselves with all these" [abominable practices]
(Vayikra 18:24). The more we increase kedushoh, especially in
Yerushalayim, the firmer our hold on the land.
One of the Ponovezher Rov's more famous speeches was about the holiness of
the land. He gave it in 5704 (1944), while Europe was a bloodbath. The Rov
didn't know what had happened to his family or to his thousand
talmidim. What did he demand at such a time? That we sanctify the
land! Another cheder, another yeshiva, another Jew who lays
tefillin! In this sense, the attitude to Yerushalayim, and the worry
over every breach that occurred there, was special.
Protecting the City
Q. How did they fight against these breaches?
A. On the whole, gedolei Yisroel were very wary of street
campaigns. I think that in all cases really, with the exception of some
very special cases, the rabbonim opposed demonstrations that were organized
by youths. Such events lead to forbidden acts, like stone throwing, and
they turn these children into brazen young men who later do whatever they
want.
I remember when I was sixteen years old, I walked past a demonstration.
Suddenly, two trucks arrived, carrying kibbutzniks from Tzova. They
began beating with truncheons on all sides and they didn't spare me either.
I arrived home bruised and beaten.
But there is another point as well. The rabbonim never thought that any
gains could be made in this way. It may be fitting in certain cases, but
not as a general approach.
Q. But there were also some successful street campaigns.
A. Our attitude should be different where the irreligious harm us, as
for example, with the campaign to close Kikar haShabbos to traffic on
Shabbos. We were talking about a major traffic artery that passed right
through the heart of the chareidi neighborhood. This was a campaign against
the desecration of the holiness inside our own territory, and it was a
success. I remember cars that used to drive freely through Meah Shearim,
especially army vehicles that used to come from the Schneller army base in
order to provoke, in the guise of "security needs." Once, they even threw
smoke grenades.
It was the same with the campaign against the stadium in northern
Yerushalayim. Here too, the secularists tried to harm us by blocking the
spread of the chareidi neighborhoods. That battle also succeeded and Ramat
Shlomo stands upon that hill today.
If you look carefully, you'll see that Rechov Hapisga in Bayit Vegan, the
street where I live, is wider than the average street that runs through
chareidi neighborhoods. Why the sudden generosity? There was originally a
plan to connect Rechov Hapisga with the Bezek road [now a major traffic
artery nearby], in order to drive a wedge through the middle of the
neighborhood. That plan also didn't succeed.
When we fought against the conscription of our daughters, we won. When we
fought against autopsies, we won. The result was different with the
Abortion Law. Not a single doctor has been imprisoned. Where are the
judiciary and the police? Of course, I'm only offering a layman's insights,
and have no intention of diverging from the policies of gedolei
Yisroel. The idea of making gains through legislation is a
Mizrachi idea. It stems from the belief that the State represents a
step on the road to the Geulah and that a kipah and payos
should therefore be slapped onto it.
The Beginnings of Conflict
Q. You have been in Yerushalayim for a long time.
A. For a hundred and fifty years . . . on the side of my great
grandfather, Reb Moshe of Lelov zy'a, who arrived in Yerushalayim
when he was seventy-four and who lived here for seventy-four days, a day
for a year. (He was buried at Yad Avsholom. His grave was desecrated
by the Jordanians and has disappeared.) Then the pioneers started to arrive
and the struggles began.
From the eighteen-eighties, there are signs of secularization in the city.
The pioneers started to open schools and the like. What's interesting is
that all the buildings that they erected are passing into chareidi hands,
bisayaata deShmaya.
Q. Like the building of the Laemel School at the top of Rechov
Yeshayah?
A. Laemel was a symbol in its time! A serious issur was
proclaimed against sending children there. Today the building houses the
talmud Torah of the Ruzhiner chassidim. Opposite the school
they built the Edison movie theater, which is also on the way into the
right hands.
The Mapai leadership had unlimited control of the city. One of the mayors
was a Mapainik, who was obsessed with preventing the growth of the city's
chareidi population. On the other hand, he used to go to beis
haknesses every Shabbos.
Q. Such adherence to tradition . . .
A. Then there was the campaign over the "Quarrel Club," a clubhouse
that was built next to Meah Shearim. The club's builders threw down a kind
of challenge: `You will stay in your own neighborhoods. You will not spread
out more in this city.'
But people need to live and to marry off their children. The borders of the
chareidi neighborhoods thus spread beyond the complex of old neighborhoods.
Blessed are those who were the builders of Yerushalayim -- Treiger, Herbst
and the brothers Lipschitz -- who invested their energies into the city's
development. The building that we are sitting in was also built by a
chareidi planner.
Q. What is his name?
A. Rabbi Avrohom Ravitz, one of the building's inhabitants.
Today, all of central Yerushalayim is completely chareidi. But then . . . I
remember Menachem Begin speaking in Zichron Moshe before elections.
Q. Inside the shtieblach?
A. He stood on the bimoh in the central beis hamedrash! I
was there. He wanted to speak in Meah Shearim as well, but I don't remember
if he was successful there or not. People said that the zealots dismantled
his loudspeakers.
Q. And in Zichron Moshe the zealots kept quiet?
A. That was not their territory. It was then a modern neighborhood.
But in those days, there were even irreligious Jews living inside Meah
Shearim. There was one old man who lived next to the Meah Shearim
shtieblach. If he's still alive he must be around a hundred years
old. I saw him several years ago. He used to wear a hat but he wasn't
religious. And there were more like that.
Unrealized Expectations
One of the editors of one of the large newspapers was from Meah Shearim. He
used to write about the chareidim with hatred. He devoted his literary
talents to what he called "the chareidi expansion." [His opinion was that]
the chareidim should be suffocated inside Meah Shearim and Botei Ungarin.
Slowly, people started to buy apartments in Geulah, and so it went. My
brother got married forty-six years ago. He rented an apartment in Rechov
Tzefania [in central Geulah, in what is today the heart of the chareidi
part of the city]. On Shabbosos they used to hear the radio playing in the
neighbor's house. Nobody dreamed that the boundaries of the holy part of
the city would expand as much as they have today.
Then, people thought that the chareidim would not be around for very long.
They believed that the chareidim would fade away and that others would come
and fill their places.
One of the members of my wider family left the chareidi path. He lived in
Kfar Bilu. Once, he came to a bar mitzva and was astonished to see
the bar mitzva boy wearing a hat and jacket, and all his friends from
cheder, who looked just like him. He didn't think that the chareidim
would last. I think he got a great shock from the whole event. We walked
back together and talked.
Immediately afterwards, he founded a minyan and a shiur in Kfar
Bilu. He died not long after, at the age of fifty-two, having done
teshuvoh.
Our Attitude Today
Q. What should our attitude be, for example, to chilul Shabbos
at the bottom of Rechov Yaffo? And to the stores there that are an eyesore
to those making their way on foot to the Kosel?
A. Gedolei Torah will give their ruling as to how we should
conduct ourselves according to halochoh. However, with regard to the
communal aspect of the problem, I would like to quote from Rav Mordechai
Shmuel Krol zt'l, who was the first rov of Kfar Chassidim: "As soon
as there will be no mechalelei Shabbos, there will also be no
chilul Shabbos."
You can't fight chilul Shabbos as long as there are mechalelei
Shabbos around. How much stronger are you than they? What power do you
wield over them? Obviously, we have a moral argument, however, "Just as it
is a mitzvoh to say something that will be listened to, it is also a
mitzvoh to refrain from saying something that will not be listened to."
The thrust of our efforts must go into reducing the numbers of
mechalelei Shabbos. To open schools and to teach their children, is
holy work. Once a child goes to a Torah school and brings home what he
learns there, his parents have no choice but to let a little Shabbos into
their home.
Q. And what about all the Christian symbols throughout the city?
A. The destruction of Yerushalayim is still going on, despite the
fact that "Har Habayis is in our hands," as though that were in fact
true. One of the features of the churban is arrival of strangers, who
defiled the city. The Zionists have deluded themselves into thinking that
we have the upper hand but the facts today are that we do not rule supreme.
The territories which Israel "returned" were not really returned because
they were never truly in our hands. This is how we have to view the
situation.
In conclusion, together with our concern for the future of the city's
image, we ought not to forget the full half of the cup, namely the
spiritual city of Yerushalayim, with its yeshivos and its chadorim.
The number of people learning in a yeshiva like Mir, is the same as that of
all the European yeshivos together. Think about that.
Bazman Hazeh . . . At This Time
with Rabbi Uri Maklev, Deputy Mayor of Yerushalayim
One of the projects currently under consideration by city planners is the
construction of a skyscraper with a revolving restaurant perched at the
top. From the windows, diners would be able to view the Mediterranean coast
to the west and the Dead Sea to the east, as well as taking in the whole of
Yerushalayim. Nearby, from a lower level, a cable car would leave for a run
from the Armon Hanetziv neighborhood all the way to the Old City. Diners
could finish their meal and make a northerly descent to Har Tzion. The
cable car would stop near to the tomb of Dovid Hamelech, at a site that is
known at present as Tochnit Har Tzion (Mount Zion Plan).
Following a walk around the batrak (the Arab market), the finishing
touches to the day's entertainment would be placing a note inside the
Kosel.
Who will guarantee that restaurant won't revolve and the cable car won't
run on Shabbos? Who will ensure that such casual visits to the Kosel
won't result in desecration of the site's holiness? This project is not the
only one slated for Yerushalayim's future development.
We went to speak to Rabbi Uri Maklev, who immediately pointed to demography
as the crux of the problem. There is currently negative chareidi population
growth in Yerushalayim as young couples and families move out to the new,
cheaper housing projects. In addition, the city is planning to expand
Yerushalayim's municipal boundaries to include non-religious populations of
towns that are currently in a different municipal jurisdiction.
Rabbi Maklev argues forcefully that preservation of the city's holiness is
inextricably bound up with the demographic equation, whose future, in view
of the these two factors, is by no means a forgone conclusion. Will the
boundaries of the holy city of Yerushalayim continue to expand, or will
they, choliloh, shrink?
Intercession is Still the Only Way
The interior of the new offices of the Yerushalayim municipality are
arranged on open plan. Gone are labyrinth corridors. The clerks now all sit
in the same large hall, with low partitions dividing each desk and
reception area from the others. Have all the barriers disappeared? Is
this new openness reflected in the way our community's needs are addressed?
Was the euphoria over the election of a religious plurality (UTJ is the
single largest party), to the city council in the last municipal election,
justified?
Rabbi Maklev: The barriers have not disappeared. On the basis of my
experience, I would like to say that even if thirty-one members of the
[sixty seat] city council were to be chareidim, the situation would be
better but not all that much better. City services, and city officials are
not organized with a view to providing chareidim with ongoing service,
without constant intervention and intercession. How much more so is this
the case today, when we do not even have a majority.
Blessing or Blight?
The prospect of our attaining an outright majority seems to be receding. A
special committee that is currently holding hearings has been given the job
of sanctioning the annexation of additional areas to the municipal
boundaries. Officially, the plan is the city's but it could quite
reasonably be called the mayor's plan, for the mayor is one of its ardent
supporters.
Expanding the city eastwards [to include areas populated by Arabs] is of
course problematic. The plan therefore is to expand the boundaries
westwards, to include Motza, Mevasseret Tzion, and other towns along the
Jerusalem Corridor. This would add a well-to-do or, in their words, an
economically "strong" population sector, to the city's inhabitants.
Rabbi Maklev: When they say a "strong population," they really mean
strong in terms of attaining their ends. They know exactly what they are
about. They are sitting and racking their brains for ways "to save
Yerushalayim." Don't imagine that they aren't scared [by the prospect of
further chareidi growth]. It bothers them! When they meet for discussions
[about annexation], this is what they talk about!
Q. So your attitude to the city is the same as it was during the
previous mayor's tenure?
A. Absolutely.
Q. So what is the basis for the feeling people have that "the
Yerushalayim municipality is in our hands?"
A. This notion is a mistake. We don't even have a majority. On a wide
range of issues, all the irreligious members automatically close ranks
against us. Neither do we have a full partnership with the National
Religious Party. They don't vote with us on most issues. Besides, the law
gives the mayor very extensive powers, by virtue of his direct election.
The administrative level has power as well as [their own established]
procedures and agendas, that eat away at the authority of the elected
council members.
Q. Do you include the mayor himself in what you are saying?
A. Certainly. Although it's always done in a cunning way, they are
quite open about it. The mayor supports his own men and his advisors. We're
not enjoying any "seven years of plenty" at the moment. We must simply
increase the Yiddishkeit [in the city] more and more. We have
suffered a lot from the fact that the mayor feels that he has been honored
everywhere [even among the chareidim.] I have told him this myself. It's
true that he speaks nicely. It's also true that there is good will and a
new approach on the part of the municipality but there is still a very long
road ahead!
They take encouragement from what is an unfortunate fact from our point of
view: the negative chareidi population growth, as people leave the city for
the housing projects.
A Buried Housing Project in Yerushalayim
If the prices of apartments in the city remain high, the youth will
continue streaming to the housing projects. There is no definite figure for
the current size of the chareidi sector. Voting patterns don't tell the
whole story either. It's known that we comprise more than a third of the
population, probably something in the region of forty percent. But what
will the future bring? The young are currently leaving Yerushalayim and if
there are no young families, who will fill the city in years to come?
Q. Rabbi Maklev, in twenty years from now, will there be first grade
classes opening in the talmudei Torah in the city center?
A. We are well aware of the situation.
Q. And is anything being done about it?
A. You mean that we should build another Ramat Shlomo [the large
northern chareidi neighborhood between Sanhedria and Ramot]? Ramat Shlomo
itself hasn't yet made a dramatic difference to our situation. We therefore
need to build in Emek Arazim [at the site of the old village of Lifta, in
the valley below Givat Shaul, at the entrance to the city]. I can refer to
this plan as Emek Arazim, zichrono livrocho. I don't see any chance
of any building being done there.
Q. Is there no other space available in the city?
A. You must understand the rules of the game. This should be
absolutely clear. The municipality doesn't own any land at all. Not a
single dunam. All the land belongs to the Israel Lands Authority (ILA
-- the Minhal Mekarka'ei Yisrael). If the Government and the ILA do not
decide that a specific project will be launched, then there's nothing to
talk about. This is certainly so with regard to the price of the land,
which is also not fixed by the city.
So, does it sound as though "Yerushalayim is in our hands?"
Q. Will Yerushalayim be more or less chareidi ten years hence?
A. The political and the security situations in the country today are
so uncertain, that it's impossible to talk about ten years from now. The
nine months that have elapsed since the beginning of the intifada
seem to us like an eternity; from one day to the next, everything changed.
How can we speak about a longer period of time? It's clear though, that we
don't have any wonderful news. Everyone should be aware that the most
important issue for Yerushalayim, the city's holiness, is the issue of
outward migration. This is the cardinal issue, to which all the leaders of
the different chareidi communities, not just those of us in the
municipality, should pay attention.
Cynical Exploitation
Yerushalayim is a city that has known many struggles for the preservation
of its sanctity. Interestingly enough, there seem to be those who have
found out how to turn this to their own ends. Entrepreneurs who are
interested in moving a project forward, try to turn it into a religious-
secular battlefield in the hope that this will automatically win them the
support of the city's irreligious population.
Sometimes, the planners of a fly-by-night project are desperate to provoke
some controversy to give some impetus to their idea. Public figures are
well aware of this and before they set out to do battle, they examine each
situation in the light of the principle, "The success of a campaign lies in
losing it" [i.e. being perceived by the public as victims of chareidi
coercion]. We must therefore have our finger on the pulse of each and every
new scheme and seek the counsel of gedolei Yisroel as to how to act.
Open on Shabbos, Closed on Sunday
Q. Rabbi Maklev, what is happening with the famous plan for the
development of the city entrance?
A. The plan was shelved after immense efforts and a difficult
campaign. It definitely won't be built at the entrance to the city. It
looks as though it will be moved to the Malcha area.
Q. The Bloomfield Science Museum is open on Shabbos and closed on
Sundays. Was Bloomfield a Christian?
A. No. The Museum Law forces museums to close one day a week. Around
the world, I believe this is Sunday. A number of the city's museums try to
minimize chilul Shabbos by not selling tickets. However, to our
chagrin, this is still the situation.
Q. Is the swine that dug its hooves into the wall still with us? Is
its meat on sale in Yerushalayim R'l?
A. One of the members of the city council (!) owns a network of
stores that sell this meat R'l. He has even been accused of smuggling
meat.
Rabbi Maklev ends our conversation with the following anecdote:
Despite everything, there is still room for hope. Today I called one of the
city's workers, the man in charge of the city's gardens. He is not
observant. I warned him about the suspicions of work being done during
Shevi'is. He denied having done work in Shevi'is and was hurt
by my suspicions. This is what he said:
"How can I cause other Jews to sin during Shevi'is? Listen to what
happened to me a week ago. I was travelling to Ashdod, to comfort some
mourners. It was a chamsin. At a distance, I saw a vendor selling
ices. I called to him to bring me two ice creams. Then my wife told me,
`You ate meat three hours ago.' I felt very bad for the elderly vendor but
I told him that I am careful to wait between meat and milk. He answered,
`Thank you! Thank you! I am very grateful to you for not having caused me
to lead you to sin.' After such a story, could I make you sin during
shmittah?"
There are still Jewish neshomos around!
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