Natan Slifkin's Blog, page 13

Lions and America

As you may recall, a while ago I announced a new book that I am working on, about Biblical natural history and the significance of Israel. It has two distinct parts to it; the first part is essentially an elaboration of the Biblical Museum of Natural History tour, discussing the identities and symbolism and laws relating to the flora and fauna of the Torah, with a particular emphasis on how these can only be fully understood in the geographic context of the Land of Israel. The second part delves...

When Yeshivos Crushed Syria

A few months ago, we learned a suprising revelation from Israel’s charedi Yated Neeman newspaper. It turns out that when thousands of Hezbollah fighters had their hands blown off, this was not, as was widely claimed, the result of a meticulously planned Mossad operation. Rather, it was solely the result of (charedi) yeshivah students learning Torah. This week, the Yated quotes the Rosh Yeshiva of Grodno, the “Gaon” Rabbi Derovkan, who informs us that the collapse of Syria demonstrates the power ...

Daas Torah's Violent Death

One of the many differences between American yeshivish Jews and Israeli charedim is how the former is often so unaware of the realities of the latter. A powerful example is a highly significant story in one of the world’s top charedi yeshivos that is assiduously not reported by any of the yeshivish print press in the US. But I guess you can’t blame them, since it blows up popular notions of Daas Torah.

At the prestigious Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, there is a power struggle over leadership. Of...

2025: Next Level Charedi Resentment

It’s 2025, and that means that there’s a significant new development in the conflict between the charedi community and the rest of Israel.

In the year and a quarter since the war began, there’s been increasing resentment from the rest of Israel towards the charedi community for not participating in the war effort and for not even caring. In numerous posts I’ve noted the increasing burden that the charedi community forces to be placed on the reservists - the endless months spent away from their jo...

Needed: More Yeshiva Students!

We’re all familiar with the charedi claim that it’s essential to have yeshiva students learning Torah in order to protect Israel. And it’s not a specific number or proportion of the nation - it’s as many as possible. As Rabbi Dov Lando, head of the Lithuanian charedi world just declared, "Only because of the Torah learning have the Arabs not united to destroy its inhabitants, G-d forbid…. those who wish to diminish Torah are endangering all of Israel." And several months ago the Rishon MiTziyon...

The Blood of the Maccabees

When an Israeli committee decided to pick a flower as a symbol for Memorial Day in 1955, they deliberately avoided the poppy. This was because the poppy already possessed such symbolism for the British – whose colonial government had been responsible for the deaths of many Israeli martyrs. Instead, they selected a Levant flower known in English as the red everlasting, Helichrysum sanguineum. It blossoms each year in April during the season of Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, but the primary...

"And For The Miracles"

This Chanukah, it occurred to me that maybe we should express appreciation not just for the miracles of two thousand years ago, but also for the miracles of this year:

"And we thank You for the miracles, for the redemption, for the mighty deeds, for the saving acts, and for the wonders which You have wrought for our nation in these days, at this time—

In the days of Netanyahu, along with Gallant and the entire IDF, when the wicked Hamas launched a terrible attack for which Israel was appallingly u...

A Gazan Voice on Hamas

Whose fault is it that there has been a war in Gaza lasting over a year, with tens of thousands of casualties in Gaza, including many civilians as well as combatants? And whose fault is it that the war started in the first place?

Many people claim that it’s all, or mostly, on Israel. As someone commented on my post last week about Israelopathic Jews, “The responsibility of the war does not lie with the Palestinians. Gaza was a violently subjugated state on October 6th, ripe for revolution.” And ...

Prepare your Horses

A prevalent worldview in the charedi community is that Hashem is the sole determinant of Israel’s successes in war, and that He does so based on the Torah that Jews learn and (to a much lesser extent) the mitzvos that Jews perform, and therefore there should be less (or zero) emphasis placed on military effort and more focus placed on Torah and mitzvos.

Polemicists frequently quote verses such as Eleh v’rechev v’eleh be’susim, “Those people rely on chariots and horses, but we cite the Name of Go...

A "Fire" Sale

Last week, we heard a speaker at the Agudah conference declare that American Jews should follow the lead of charedim in Israel, and not be upset about the war, because it isn’t happening for them.

Do you want to know how disconnected the charedi community is from the war?

This is how much:

This is an advertisement outside a store in Mea Shearim selling shoes. The English translation of the words on the upper right is: “North or South, it doesn’t matter - with us, the war is raging!”

Only in a commu...