Mekubal HaRav Yaakov Addis Shlita, in a not-so-common act, commented on the controversy surrounding the mehadrin bus lines as well as the mounting secular media campaign against the chareidi tzibur at large.
During a weekly shiur he stated “What is so terrible about women sitting in the rear and men in the front? We are all aware of a women’s nature, and psychologists agree they prefer maintaining their beauty within, ‘kovod bas Melech penima’. Her true honor is tznius, modesty”.
The rav continues that “those who are fighting against this, the modesty of the Jewish women are simply being influenced by the ‘Sitra Achra’, the evil one, for a women who fights her natural instinct to lead a modest life is a ‘total fool’. It requires a basic level of sechel, intelligence, and a normal woman on earth understands this. It is a women’s nature to want to remain modest and not to mix with men.
“I asked secular folks to explain the issue to me, and they explain as jealousy. They are jealous of the holy life led by chareidim. One secular Jew told me who wants his wife to become chareidi, to distance herself from men as much as possible.
“Our role here is we must understand their words [against us] are simply nonsense, simply nonexistent”.
According to the Kikar Shabbat report, regarding the mehadrin bus lines, Rav Addis adds “I told someone that we need a separate bus for men and women, and they must be 100 meters apart from one another at bus stops. The mehadrin lines are a compromise but this is insufficient; they want mixed seating. We should have totally separate buses”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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19 Responses
Mekubal HaRav Yaakov Addis Shlita
does not approve of this article!
No women were asked! But since you are assuming we would like our own lines I say, “Of course we would rather be given our own bus lines-preferably luxury lines, with plush cushioned seats, carpeted aisles, and pleasant music. There should be a baby stroller dock, seatbelts for children over 12 and booster seats for toddlers. Ideally a nursing area for those long rides, and an in house lending library to occupy those who wish to read a nice Jewish publication. Scented air freshener would help promote a calm atmosphere. Companies wanting to market new products to women should be allowed to distribute free samples on board. If this is played correctly, Israel’s women’s only bus lines will be a huge success! AND NO MEN ALLOWED!
With all respect for the Rav…
Look at whom you are talking to.
We have to deal with people taking into account their level.
You can’t tell men who don’t even go to a mikve on erev Yom Kippur, that they MUST go every day.
You can’t tell a man who has never put on tefillin that he MUST put on Rashi AND Rabbainu Tam.
Although the Rav may be right in a perfect world, speaking the way he is, just pushes the Jewishly uninformed and uneducated even further away, because they can NOT understand or relate to, AT ALL, what he is suggesting.
Trying to FORCE these segregated buses will be counter-productive.
We must start with letting the frei know that we are all ONE people, that HaSh-m loves them, that WE love them, and that the reason we want them to learn more about their heritage is precisely for THAT reason, and NOT because we are trying to FORCE our ways on them.
(Regardless of your feelings about Chabad…) Just think about this…
How many baalai teshuva has Chabad created? – and
How many baalai teshuva have these “BeitShemesh-type chareidim” created?
Do you think even ONE secular Israeli has ever looked at these pseudo-‘chareidim’ and said to himself “Gee, I am impressed, I would really like to live like them”.
A disgraceful chilul Hashem. 2,000 years of oppression and now you are going to tell your fellow Jew where they can sit on a bus? No one has any right to impose their beliefs on any other person in the world. Millions of Jews were slaughtered under that premise. Some haredim may not like it, but this is a big world, and you have to live next to your neighbor and follow the law of the land. You can twist the word of Hashem to suit any psychological dysfuction or garden variety indoctrination, and this is a clear cut case. I hope the Israeli government shows zero tolerance for such ugly and discriminatory behavior.
I don’t believe that he said this.
Why just have separate busses. why not separate cities. This would eliminate the chareidi problem in a generation or so.
YWN Editor: please fix title it is Rav Ades not Addis,)its like writing Rav Kanofsky)
I agree with 5. I don’t believe he said (all) this. And I’ve been to many of his speeches and asked him a bunch of questions.
There’s no indication about forcing this way on others. He is just saying what the ideal would be.
#3, I am proudly “frei” Jewish woman, and very well informed and educated about OUR religion. So take into account my “level” The rav is not right in any world – let alone a perfect one. And a true woman is empowered and able to make decisions for herself – whether she chooses to stay at home and raise children or anything else she decides to do. The heroins of the Torah would have never been pushed to the back of the bus – they would have been on the front lines fighting with the IDF. Many Haredim have twisted cultural practices into some sort of quasi-Jewish law. Pushing woman into submission in the name of “modesty” is just one example.
Just imagine the times before moshiach when about 4/5 of the posters won’t make it because they obviously can’t handle living emesdika Torah life.
they just dont respect us women its so mean! chillul hashem! it is really really disgusting!
aliza5, give us your source for ‘The heroins of the Torah …. would have been on the front lines fighting with the IDF.’ There hasn’t been even one case of Jewish women fighting along side with men in Tanach. You are full of nonsense and hatred for Charedim. I suspect you get your inspiration from ‘Das Kapital’ by Karl Marx.
Dovid3
Devorah and Yael, just to name 2 such women.
Your comment to Aliza5 is beyond the pale of decent discussion.
Devorah on YYN headlines: We Need Editors to Separate Those who can Sspell Correctly
Het Moose613
Hey to bust your bubble bus Yael was in her tent and not in the “friontlines” of battle at all when Sisra came a’knocking. In fact the verse in Shiras Devorah but “women being praised in their tents” alludes to her heroic deed.
As for Devorah, the story in Prophets actually makes quite clear that Devorah did not want to lead the men in battle as she felt it was unfitting and she only went at the insistince of Barak.
So you will just have to pick a different couple of Heroins.
Unless of course you refer to the Jewish Mothers who have sacrificed through the ages to raise their children and serve as an ezer knegdo, those women have been regarded as heroins throughout Jewish History in fact we are taught they are one of the primary reasons we were redeemed from Eygpt and they will be one of the primary reasons we are redeamed once again.
And when we are redeamed we can find out for certain whether G-ds will is that men and women sit together on buses or sit seperatley.
I for one have a sneeky suspicion we both know the ansewer.
Dovid, I am pretty sure the Torah or our sages approve of incindiery judgments. I am also quite familiar with the Haredi community, with a great respect for many of their traditions. What I do not respect is uneducated misogyny. There are plenty of Haredi women in my family who are college educated and take public transportation, respect the laws of their country as well as others who do not share the same belief system. I am fortunate to have quite a religious family who loves and respects me for who I am, not what the community’s interpretation of God’s word about who I should be. And I am 100% sure God could care less about where men and women sit on the bus.
aliza5…
While on the bus seating issue, I believe there is room for intelligent, shomrai mitzvot, yirai shamayim people to disagree (and there ARE gedolim who DO disagree), – I think it is not at all appropriate to say you are “100% sure God could care less about…”
Do you also think He could care less about if you drive on Shabbas, if you eat non-kosher food, if a married woman goes to the mikveh, etc.?
HaSh-m gave us a Torah because HE DOES care about how we do things, and he gave us chachamim, who make Torah study and Torah knowledge the purpose of their whole lives to instruct us about understanding the Torah.
Unless one has invested 10-18 hours every day for several decades studying the Torah, it is quite presumptious to think that we know better than our gedolim what HaSh-m expects of us, and how he wants us to live as Jews.
Separate buses this is going way to for! I hate this! Who do these people think they are to have the chuzpa to suggest it!