Natan Slifkin's Blog, page 4

Charedim Vs. Israel

There’s a few hundred young charedi men who are bravely enlisting to charedi hesder units. But most of the charedi population, and certainly the rabbinic and political leadership, are at a very different place; specifically, at war with Israel, as they formally declared last week. And even though there are many in the charedi community who wouldn’t go that far, they do not speak out against those that do.

Meanwhile, in the US, charedi publications won’t even report on the extreme things that are...

Scammed!

I’ve been pretty proud of how I’ve outwitted scammers in the past, whether involving leopards or macaws. So it was not only upsetting, but also humiliating, to discover yesterday that I had been scammed. And it was infuriating to find out where the money seems to have gone. On the plus side, at least I stopped the scam from continuing, and I can help you be warned!

I have some standing monthly payments from my credit card to various charity organizations. A woman called me from one of them yester...

A Communal Response to Charedim

With the charedi rabbinic and political leadership, accompanied by most of their following, not only refusing to help with the war, but also making it harder for everyone else, not caring, and now even openly declaring a state of war with the rest of the country, how should the rest of us respond?

In the past I’ve spoken about how ultimately, change will only happen when the funding which enables their freeloading lifestyle is cut off. This is turn requires massive popular campaigning to make the...

The Eighth War

For much of the last two years, Israel has been fighting against seven entitities that declared war upon it: Gaza, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Iraq militias, and various Palestinian forces in the West Bank. Now, there’s an eighth war: the charedim. This was officially declared last week in a huge banner headline on the front page of Yated Ne’eman:

Of course, they claim that it is the State of Israel that has declared war on them. They declare that it is a war “against God and against His anoin...

Should the War Continue?

I do not believe that it is a moral crime against Palestinians to continue the war in Gaza until Hamas is totally destroyed.

It's easy to moralize against Israel when you're not actually faced with a genocidal terror state on your border. Hamas is sworn to destroy Israel and started the war by launching a horrifically savage attack. Were it to survive to continue to rule Gaza, the ramifications would be immensely damaging to Israel (as well as to the population of Gaza), and nobody aside from Isr...

The Other "Genocide" in Israel

There are too many things going on in Israel right now that are so upsetting and infuriating for me that I can’t even bear to write about them. So I’m going to write instead about something that a lot of other people in Israel are extremely upset and angry about, some even calling it a “genocide,” but about which I don’t think they should be as upset as they are, and I also think they are blaming the wrong people. I’m referring to how COGAT, the government body that administers civilian affairs ...

No, Your Rabbis Don't Know

There’s a fascinating article in Mishpacha magazine by Gedalya Guttentag about charedim and the draft. Guttentag begins in a very valuable way, by speaking about some of the tremendous sacrifice that the rest of the country has made, and noting that there are religious soldiers among the casualties.

The rest of the article, however, is utter codswallop.

A wartime election campaign prompted by a failure to pass a draft law will be about one thing only: bashing the chareidim.

No, not “bashing.” Poin...

The Most Paradoxical Tisha B'Av

I think that this may well be the most paradoxical Tisha B’Av in two thousand years.

Contrary to popular belief today, Tisha B’Av is not primarily about the destruction of the Batei Mikdash, nor about a loss of connection with God. To be sure, those are an aspect of Tisha B’Av, but they are not the primary focus. That’s evident from carefully studying the texts of Megillat Eicha and the Kinnot, which make relatively little mention of those things. Tisha B’Av is primarily about the loss of Jewish ...

Which Connection Are We Missing?

Do we even feel that we are in galus (exile)? Such is the question I saw posed by a certain person today, who lamented that various Jews enjoy the luxuries of their lifestyle and do not genuinely mourn the absence of Mashiach. He bemoaned that they’re just not connected to our nation’s real situation.

Similarly, former Sephardic Rishon LeTziyon Rav Yitzhak Yosef recently expressed horror at how some US restaurants hire yeshiva students to make siyumim during the Nine Days, so that they can serve ...

Secular and Dati Apologists for Charedim

Like many other former Likud voters, I have grown extremely disillusioned with the party in recent years, and believe it to have grown to be harmful to Israel’s wellbeing and security. Still, many other people, rightly or wrongly, are convinced that Likud leadership (and/or Religious Zionism/ Otzma Yehudit) is crucial to the country’s survival. And while the rest of us are of the view that the Left collapsed after the Second Intifada and even more so after October 7th, these people believe that ...