plonis3141: Obviously I’m not upset at anyone who actually works, pays FULL taxes, pays FULL arnona, pays bituach leumi & mas briut, doesn’t complain about being discriminated against just because someone asks for everyone to work & pay their own way, etc. Look, I know that it’s not easy to see that someone who is different than you and doesn’t agree with a hashkafa that you may associate with is actually not out to get you. I don’t hate chareidim at all despite the attacks I’ve received about that here. It’s not chareidim that I really disagree with, it’s the leadership of the chareidi parties and the others that help set the chareidi culture that I disagree with. I feel that they’re creating and still pushing an unfair and unsustainable system. Chareidi people who work and pay fairly are in my book the same as anyone else here.
The army thing is an important topic that can’t be ignored either. I’ve said several times that the chareidi movement as a whole (again, the movement and the leadership, not necessarily the individual family) could have done much better by working with the soldiers as opposed to turning their backs on them (at best) or even cursing them (at worst). Make the soldiers feel that their learning is actually part of the betterment of the nation and for our defense. Try setting up chavruta programs with soldiers, set up Shabbos hospitality for soldiers who are not as frum as you, hold special prayer and learning sessions for the safety of the soldiers and security personnel. I don’t mean just hold a tehillim session for your own safety when the missiles start flying but truly daven & learn for the safety of the soldiers that are your counterparts – just like they did in the time of the Tanach. By now, it’s too late and the non-chareidim who have been serving in the army or sheirut leumi are upset and feel used. This was a huge loss for the pro-Torah cause in this country and a missed opportunity for the chareidi movement to improve the religious situation here.
yichusdik – you said everything so well – and you have a way of saying it that hopefully won’t be taken as inflammatory the way my words are sometimes.