The Haredi Chilul Hashem Before the World

A direct translation of the term "Chilul Hashem" would be "desecration of the Name". But Hashem is the name by which we call God every day. The name that is with us always. We are taught that to commit a Chilul Hashem is an act against God Himself.

When a Jew acts in an immoral way that becomes public - becoming drunk, cheating people and more, all Jews everywhere are judged in a negative way for the act of the one. Not by God but by man. People see and judge us as a nation. It isn't fair or just, but it is truth. And in causing embarrassment or pain to the people, you desecrate the will of God as well.

Today, it is suggested that one million Haredi Jews will go out to the streets of the holy city of Jerusalem and commit a great Chillul Hashem. In simple terms, their goal it to bring Israel to a halt to get their message across. They don't want their sons to serve in the army. They want their sons to focus on studying Torah. 

One said he would rather die than serve. What pain that has caused to the nearly 1,000 families who have lost soldiers since the beginning of this war; what agonies to the parents who buried their children while their sons sit in air-conditioned rooms and learn for a few hours and then go walk the streets of our cities without a care in the world, or learn while their wives work, carry their children, and clean their homes.

And to get this so important message across, that their sons must learn Torah and not serve, they have left their houses of study. They have stopped studying Torah and have taken to the streets, where people are inconvenienced, where ambulances can't get through. Where public buses and the train are blocked. Where no service to God or state is happening and where the streets of Jerusalem are being filled with papers and trash.

It is a Chilul Hashem, a contradiction to the direct word of God. In Devarim (the book of Deuteronomy), it says כי תצא למלחמה על איבך - When you go to war against your enemies...

When YOU go, the Torah says, not when your neighbor's son goes. Not when my son goes, but when YOUR son goes.

When David was turning 13 and about to celebrate his bar mitzvah, Elie was fighting in his first "operation" - Operation Cast Lead. In the morning, I heard that it was unlikely the war would end before the end of the month...and the bar mitzvah was scheduled for the following week. My two youngest, Aliza and David, asked me if Eli would be home to come to the bar mitzvah and I realized in that moment that I had to tell them the truth, that it was unlikely he would get home. 

To my surprise, David accepted it with a nod. I think deep down he had already guessed. But Aliza, at age 9, was surprised and very upset. I looked at the two of them and was frozen. How do I explain to a little girl who desperately wanted her brother home. Before I could think what to say, David answered. It was milchemet mitzva - an obligatory war. 

As someone raised in a home that was not religious, I had never heard that term and I listened in awe to the concept and to the fact that my nearly-13-year-old son was comforted by it and offering that comfort to his little sister. 

The streets of Jerusalem have been littered with their garage, desecrated with their determination, against the will of the people, the will of God. Once years ago, I saw a Haredi man standing at a bus station, wipe his nose and drop the tissue on the floor. Without thinking, I turned to him in anger. "On the holy city of Jerusalem, you throw it to the ground? There's a garbage can right next to you! Why?"

To my great shame, I had embarrassed him. He apologized, said I was right, and bent down and picked up the tissue and threw it in the garbage bin right there. It wasn't the right way to do it, I thought to myself, but it was the right thing to do. 

Today, to protest in the streets of Jerusalem against serving in the army of the State of Israel is wrong. To suggest that your sons are too holy to serve while my sons should be called up to defend you is an insult to the word's of Hashem. Jerusalem is holy, Israel is holy. And my sons are holy too.

In minutes, Hamas is scheduled to release the bodies of two more hostages. There are 13 still left. Thirteen families still in the hell of two plus years. Now is not the time to stop your studies to protest for your own selfish reasons.

All of the people of Israel must serve the land. The key to this is the word "serve" and this must be clear to all sides. Serving means giving two years (or three) to this nation. It does not have to be army service. It must be service.

Change the direction, so we all can go forward together. 

So to the rabbis of those standing in Jerusalem in the greatest chilul Hashem in our history, order your sons and students to do national service if you want, but demand they have the decency to serve. 

Do you think your son is more important than mine? Let me answer that - he is not.

Is your son's life worth more than my son's? Let me answer - it is not.

Do you think their learning is more important? Let me answer that - it is not.

Hashem wrote "WHEN YOU go out TO WAR" - not "when you sit and learn and your neighbor's son goes to war. If your sons cannot serve in a combat unit, let them clean the streets or wash the hospital floors. Let them cook the food for our soldiers. Anything to help this nation. That is your obligation as a citizen, as a Jew.

The Torah belongs to all Jews, as does this land. You cannot claim the Torah is yours alone, as we cannot claim this land without you.

As a nation, we have been to hell and back over the last two years. Now is the time to come together. Serve this land as we do; and help all our children learn Torah. 

Update: A 15-year-old boy climbed into a construction zone to get a better view of the demonstration and fell to his death. One said he "would rather die than serve." And now it happened. Does the poor family of this boy feel that way? 

What a horror, what a waste. What pain...for what?