Please tell me he is a Sex Offender or at least an Embezzler

Last week a former member of Shas, Haim Amsalem became a persona non grata in the Haredi world.

 

Amsalem stated that “Israeli society agreed back in [David] Ben-Gurion’s time to the ‘Torah is his faith’ exemption from IDF service for 400 Torah scholars. They [secular Israelis] never thought or dreamed the numbers would reach today’s enormous quantity that’s gone beyond all proportions. They say we have become a burden on them? The truth is we have become a burden on ourselves. We’ve abandoned the field and let them disparage us, and call our students ignoramuses. We’ve made them hate the Torah.”

He furthered his point by emphasising that “study in a kollel is not a goal, but merely a means of training the next generation of rabbis and scholars. Whoever isn’t built for this, it’s a waste of his time. Earning a living for himself and his family is more important than anything else.”

Since making these remarks the Haredi world has not only disassociated themselves with Amsalem but labelled him as a ‘ben Amalek’, ‘roshoh’  and  destroyed his children’s chances of marrying within the Haredi community.

When I heard that Haim Amsalem had been admonished by his community who also happen to be Jews, I thought that he had committed severe sex offences, embezzlement or fraud. It breaks my heart to see a man’s communal life destroyed by speaking the truth. It is beyond me how Jerry Yechiel Brauner and other Haredi sex offenders have not been castigated by the community, yet a man who speaks his mind is destroyed. Why do the Haredim commemorate Tisha b’Av if this is the way they behave? Weren’t the Betai Mikdash destroyed because of sinat chinam?

(Haim Amsalem, if you have any daughters please put them in touch with me. I am 22, Modern Orthodox, obviously my life is more complex but I will explain in our future correspondence)

A satirical piece about the Haredi world or is it based solely on fact?

May I have an iPad?

Definition: Schnorrer (שנאָרער; also spelled shnorrer) is a Yiddish term meaning ‘begger’. The word Schnorrer also describes a person who frequently asks for little things like cigarettes or little sums of money, without offering a return.

I have no doubt that they are good people. People who want to provide for their family, community and yeshivos. However, they continually frustrate me. This is not because I refuse to give them money or that they refuse to speak to my mother, who raised beautiful, dedicated yidden, but rather because they do not understand the Modern Orthodox world.

Let me explain to you the typical week of a schnorrer who comes from overseas to Australia.

Day 1: Typically a Thursday. Settle in. Receive the list of the massive donors. Their palms become sweaty and cheeks flush due to the excitement of a lot of money in a short space of time. Who said money never comes easy?

Day 2: Collection of the big bucks.

Shabbos Kodesh: Speaks for itself.

Day 3: Sunday: The Modern Orthodox ‘donors’. The Mistake. If these schnorrers understood the Modern Orthodox world, they would understand that failure is inevitable on a Sunday. Lets take a step back. Saturday night: drinking, clubbing, bed at 4am. We are not going to be functioning at 9am! Schnorrers please stay away. My ears are ringing and the last thing I want is to hear a doorbell and behind the door a guy who vaguely looks like Gandalf.

The Charedi Failure

Over the past few days there has been much animosity in the comments towards my blog. If these comments were written by a genuine charedi who values torah and mitzvot, I am truly shocked and appalled. In fact, devastated that a man of God can speak in a manner which is simply not appropriate and constitutes the breaking of halacha. For all you charedim stratching your heads and wondering what I am referring to, it is the idea of speaking with carefully chosen words and making sure that the subject matter is suitable. It is known as nivul peah. The fact that you write in such an aggressive manner is beyond words and to even go as far as placing a pulsa denura on me, my family and neighbours is terrible and worthy of excommunication.

After much thought and consideration I believe that I have found a potential reason for the aggressive manner shown by this charedi. It is not this poor charedi's fault for writing in this manner, halachicly he is consider a tinok shenishba, a Talmudic term that refers to an individual who sins inadvertently as a result of having been raised without an appreciation for the rules of Judaism, rather, it is the structure of charedi society which caused this hatred.

Fear is one of the many things which causes man, in the universal sense, to act. Look at today's society. Fear is what causes us to look at Muslims with a disapproving eye. Fear is what is keeping Guantanamo bay open. Fear is a multi-million dollar industry. Look around, private security groups exist in every sector of society. Why? To protect us from the unknown and the other who we view wants to inflict pain on us and make our society impure.

Fear is also what keeps the charedi society in tact. To their credit, it has been successful. However, is that really the best way to life? Is that really what God wants? I cannot answer this, but when I study the talmud and works of Ramban and Rambam I find it hard to believe that a restrictive world with little free thought is what God wanted. God wanted people to love His torah and mitzvot through one's ability and intellect, not primarily through fear.

It is easy to have ignorant followers following through fear. Teaching that all is bad and evil, and cannot be embraced unless approved by a godol. Openness and intellectual thought, discussion and argument is what ultimately gives a Jew an appreciation for torah and mitzvot.

Why insult when you can argue? This is a blog which attempts to shed light on religious issues. You may disagree with me, but to steep as low as to insult me, my family and friends is beyond belief.

I would like the authors of the aggressive comments below to ask their rabbis what they think of the language they implemented in the vicious attack on me and my blog.