Sensitive to criticism, Israel’s Finance Minister Yair Lapid took an opportunity, during at a press conference on Wednesday, to appeal directly to the ultra-Orthodox over the heads of their leadership, which has accused Lapid of seeking to destroy the Haredi way of life.
“What is actually happening is not what they are telling you,” the Yesh Atid leader said. “What is really happening is not an attack on the world of Torah. What is really happening is not an attempt to topple the foundations of your world. Not one of us wishes, heaven forfend, to force hiloniyut (secularism) on you or to impose our version of Israeli identity. This state was established so that Jews could be Jews, and live as Jews, without having to fear anyone.”
“What is really happening is that it is impossible to continue like this. When the exemptions and subsidies for Torah learners were established in 1948, they encompassed 400 yeshiva students from the entire Israeli population. Today, the Haredi community numbers 800,000 people. Every third child in the country learns in a Haredi school. 10% of every army recruitment class consists of Haredim who will not enlist. And when these are the numbers, we cannot continue this way. Such a large population cannot stand on the sidelines and tell itself that the state is not its problem.”
Lapid emphasized the shared fate of Haredim and non-Haredim. “If Iran develops a nuclear bomb, this is also happening to you,” he said. “If tomorrow, God forbid, a third intifada should break out, and there are waves of terror as there were in the past, this is also happening to you, and you know as well as I do that the terrorists do not distinguish between us.”
“This is also happening to you, and we need you.”
Watch video with English subtitles, via Tablet magazine:
(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)
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12 Responses
A common strategy is to launch a foreign war to divert people’s attention from obnoxious or failed domestic policies. Many accused Bush of this. Assad in Syria is trying to this, as are the Iranians.
If one is concerned about Iran detroying Israel, learning Torah is as rational as an air strike – especially since an air strike would invite retaliation and even if Iran lacks nuclear weapons, they can aquire them from other Islamic countries (i.e. Pakistan). The only security is peace, and that’s something the secular pre-western rulers of Israel have proven to be incapable of.
Of course, if Lapid goes through with his plan to have mass arrests of hareidim and to force the closure of yeshivos by “penalties” taken from funds raised abroad – then groups such as Netueri Karta will be vindicated, and will become the major political force in the frum community (replacing Shas and Degel haTorah and Agudah) — and they can easily negotiate with the Muslims since they can make the sorts of concessions that Arabs demand (giving up sovereignty, rather than negotiating a partition of land).
Limud Torah is what will save us from Iran’s nukes. Not soldiers with guns.
Since 80% of Israelis do not have any Limud Torah, we need a mandatory Yeshive-draft of chilonim. At least 20% of chilonim should be required to learn Torah full-time instead of joining the IDF.
THIS will save us!
Lapid, I call on you and all your voters to join us in the bies hamedrash, if you do, the iranians will never get a bomb and even if they do, it will never affect us
The poor misguided guy doesn’t understand that by closing the Gemoros he is actually and actively bringing the danger nearer
what the finance minister Yair lapid does not realize nor understand that over the course of our history,Klal Yisroel always existed without the exclusive help of the military. The only real weapon we have to protect us even against Iran is our zechusin of Limud hatorahand the chesed be do for every type of jew in Klall Yisroel.
On of the greatest lessons we learn from the current weather related events, be t a Tsunami, earthquake, tornadoes, is that teh rebono Shelolom doesnotneed a nuclear bomb to destroy his opponents.
Just by tweaking the weather he has the power to destroy a city and nation a person at his whim. When itme comes, The rebono Shel Olom willprotect usas he has done in all the wars
If Yair lapid would truly understand this he would not speak so freely.Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin all understood the power of the zechus of the Cheredim, This is how we share the burden.
as we all know the Bal Hagad says in his the hagada, Vehe Shamda Lavesenu. Obviously yair lapid does not believe it.
We all need toj ust do what we have learnt from our esteemed Rabayim and continue on in Limud Hatorah and Chesed and not speaking ill about other Jews.
And another 800,000 soldiers will stop Iran from achieving a nuke? Or from dropping it ch”v?
This is a real genius….
If Lapid wants mandetory army service for Chareidim I propose mandetory learning torah & mitzva observance for the secular. They believe in the army we believe in H-shem its a fair compromise (and it will never happen just like the mandetory army service will never happen)
im guessing lapid doesnt know the famous passuk
eileh brechev veileh basoosim vaanachnu bsheim hashem nazkir….
slick fella
there is alot more to this than army..
israel does NOT need the chariedim for army- they need the Chariedi population integrated into israel life…another words working and paying taxes… I dont believe anyone..even the leftiest people out there have a problem with learning torah..they just dont want to pay for it…
the same way in NY people resent communities that are on welfare and affirmative action type policies…everyone needs to work and contribute… its not fair for a segment of the population to be a financial burden—even if they feel..even if they are doing the right thing.. just like in USA there are tons of shiurium in early am an evening and then people go work….here its a 4 letter word
Apparently Lapid doesn’t know math.
He maintains that the entire chareidi community numbers 800,000 people.
That means that approximately half are women, so that brings the number of enlistable people to 400,000.
Now, of that 400,000, not all are between the ages of 18 and 21, or even 25.
So how many people are we talking about, that would make THE difference between whether or not Iran drops a bomb?
Anyone who understands anything about Iran knows that whoever will be involved when and if the IDF strikes, it will be a minimum amount of very highly trained people who are a minority within a minority within the IDF. There is no such thing as a “ground war” when you’re talking about going nuclear.
He is right on one thing – that the chareidim have a very big role to play in however the situation with Iran unfolds. And that is to gather more and more zechuyos in learning.
So, please, Yair, give us a break.
Firstly, I am not at all a fan of Lapid. Now to my opinion….- enough about the statements indicating that “Torah is all we need” “Torah will save us”. I do not believe that at all. I will explain. Those in yeshivas that do learn and do take their studies seriously 24/7 will save us. Those that are not serious learners will not save us. Secondly, we need a strong army. I do not believe in OUTRIGHT miracles. We need a messenger. The messenger is a strong army. The fuel for the army is serious learners completing their job in yeshiva. An army alone will not save us. Torah alone will not save us.