I met a friend of mine the other day. We had a conversation for about three minutes, yet the words that he told me during that tiny window of time, made the deepest of impressions.
Allow me to explain
……………
I live in Ramat Beit Shemesh and we are in the midst of a healing process. We went through a war and its not even over yet. But we’re trying to heal. While the entire world watched the city of Beit Shemesh battling for their mayoral elections, the city of Beit Shemesh suffered. We suffered the knowing glances that we felt from afar and we suffered as every citizen in Israel judged us. It was a tough time. Just ask your cousin who lives down the block.
Brother against brother, friend against friend, religious versus chiloni, dati versus chareidi.
The clock ticked us down to a very, very tense election day. The schools were filled with people intent on fulfilling their civic obligation from a very early hour. I cannot accurately describe the amount of police/security that was present at every voting station. Suffice it to say, it felt as if someone very important had come to town and was in need of serious protection.
In the end, after the flames died down and the dust cleared, the people went out to vote and a mayor was chosen. Again.
After an eternity of election fever, the relative quiet in the streets was somewhat unnerving. Where were the posters, and the cars driving through the streets playing campaign music? Life had reverted back to normal and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Contrary to the dire predictions made by many, Beit Shemesh has remained a beautiful place to live – even though a religious man stands at its helm.
Like I said, we were a city ripped apart and almost fatally crippled by hate, but Boruch Hashem, we are healing.
I now return to the beginning. It was Shabbos afternoon and I was walking home with my family. As we strolled down one particular road, I happened to spot an old friend of mine outside his house, kicking a ball back and forth with his kid. This friend, is in no way “charedi,” or typical for that matter. He lives life the way he believes and is unapologetic about his hashkafa choices. During the elections, he proudly sported a sign for the non-religious candidate, despite the fact that he was the only person on his street to do so.
Anyway… there we were walking up the street and there he was kicking the ball to his son.
I couldn’t help myself.
“Heshy,” I called out to him.
“What?”
“I just wanted to point out that Abutbul (the religious candidate) won the elections and here you are, still able to kick a ball back and forth on a Shabbos afternoon and nobody says a word.”
He smiled. “Good one,” he said.
“Thank you.”
Suddenly he became serious. “I want to tell you something.”
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know if you noticed, but during the second round of elections I didn’t hang up a “vote for Cohen sign.”
“Why was that,” I asked him.
He had a very serious look on his face now.
“The first time around, I looked at the elections from the perspective of “who will be a better mayor for the city.”
He paused.
“But the second time around, the election stopped being about Beit Shemesh and the entire country took sides. And when I say they took sides, I mean they united against the Chareidi Jews and the Torah. All of a sudden, it was a whole different war. They were fighting the Torah.
One thing I can tell you,” he concluded. “When it comes to people uniting to fight the Torah… when it comes to that, well, that’s the point of no compromise. There was nothing to talk about anymore. I had no choice but to join the religious side. People were fighting the Torah. What else could I do?”
I don’t think I’ll ever forget those words about being unwilling to compromise. Because as words go, they were pretty much the essence of the Jewish People.
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14 Responses
So the bottom line is that you don’t vote for the best candidate, just the frum one? Unfortunately, even in this country, people don’t always vote for candidates for the right reasons–namely competence to do the job–and that is why we have a president that we have.
FlatBusher, “that is why we have a president that we have”
do you prefer the two Bushes up front?
The bottom line flatbusher…….is you can see anything the way you want to. I am sorry you are so negative. Hashem should bless you to realize and see His infinite wisdom in acts such as this. Thank you to Rabbi Seltzer for sharing this article and all of your work.
“no compromise. There was nothing to talk about anymore. I had no choice but to join the religious side”
And we wonder why charedim are hated?
Has the new MAYOR of BS united the population to work together and model what “Toras Hashem” is? Or is it still “us” against “you”?
BTW N. SEltzer is an excellent author.
Read the article again… The article had nothing to do with who was “the best candidate” it was about if you live in Israel and you have the choice of electing someone who will guard the Torah and keep the city respectful of Torah or electing someone who will dafka do things against Torah, you elect the one who will protect.
Charlie Hall says
“And we wonder why charedim are hated”
Based on the specifics of the story, because they support the Torah. Which makes sense why you would hate the Torah. The Gemara speaks about this.
mommy11: Not sure what your point is. Thanks for the bracha, but my point was that voters often make their choices based on something on their competence or qualifications for the position they are running for. Sorry you missed it.
“But the second time around, the election stopped being about Beit Shemesh and the entire country took sides. And when I say they took sides, I mean they united against the Chareidi Jews and the Torah. All of a sudden, it was a whole different war. They were fighting the Torah.”
What a total load of hogwash. Yes, there were some supporters of Eli Cohen who were anti-Torah, but the vast majority of those in Beit Shemesh who supported him are far from it. “Old” Beit Shemesh is a largely Dati/Masorati town, with the old-time Moroccan residents generally quite respectful of the Torah and Rabbonim, even if they themselves are not as observant as we’d like. The reason for the strong negative feelings toward the current mayor is that he was incredibly disrespectful toward them – when push came to shove, he took the side of those who were trying to impose their standards on the pre-existing population through violence and intimidation.
I was against Abutbul because he was and is a bad mayor – it has nothing to do with his support or lack thereof for Torah. After all, part of support for Torah should include exhibiting behavior in line with “Deracheha Darkei Noam, v’Chol Nesivoseha Shalom”.
an Israeli Yid
anIsraeli #9: Well, democracy has spoken and you’ve been outvoted. You speak for a minority. The majority rejects your view and completely disagrees with what you expressed. Abutbul won three elections in a row.
So the Rabonim and Roshei Yeshiva who were opposing Abutbul were against Torah? I know many of them in Beit Shemesh. They are involved in Torah night and day. They are among the most lomdish and charismatic leaders I know. They had the courage to start mosdos in EY, and to this day work to keep them going in every way for the benefit of the kehila. They are marbitzei Torah and the talmidim of marbitzei Torah.
These people weren’t fighting the Torah. They fight for Torah every day of their lives.
I started writing this with anger in my heart, over the implicit denigration of those I have described above. But truly, I have no anger, only disappointment in this writer and a growing realization that little of the “war” in Israel is about Torah. It is about politics and power, budgets and subsidies, control and social conditioning.
What a sad state your children are in, HKBH, especially those who one would think would know best what you expect of them.
Most of you here missed the point:
Why was there a re-election?
Because there were claims of fraud in the first round. Or so the govt says. The insanity and undemocratic process in which the govt ruled to have re_elctions was a clear message to the chareidim. We are taking a clear side and giving eli cohen a undeserved second chance.
Many govt officials politians and others cleary so the discrimintarony bias that was taking place.
It was for That reason and that reason ONLY that there was such a distinct “side-taking” in the second time around, and as Rabbi Seltzer cleary stated, it was with or againts Torah; meaning with those who want to live the torah way unharrased or to be with those who will do their best to iradicate frumkeit and those who stand for it, by claiming that “there were many more forged chareidi votes”
The fact that a mayoral election was involved is almost irrelevant.
The Israeli yid(9) speaks the truth. I have lived in RBS for 12 years, and have watched as our town has become the epicenter of bad for the Torah observant world. Our greatest enemy comes from within. Men who dress like chareidi rabbonim who pervert and soil our Mesorah, who use the Torah as a spade to bury with, and as a bullhorn to incite with. Mr. Seltzers opinion(and that of his friend), despite the respect he has earned worldwide, is grounded on believing propaganda that has been spun by men only interested in preserving their office. There is never any introspection, any cheshbon hanefesh, any admission of missteps, course correction or honest reassessment of why and how we have failed to inspire several generations of Jews to come closer to their Father in Heaven. Rather, there is only scorn, angry defense, and “circle the wagons-the WAR AGAINST TORAH has begun!!!”. The behavior and policies of the current mayor and especially his construction minister are THE primary cause of the anger, fear and resentment against chareidim in EY today, full stop. If there is a war against against Torah, it is being fought by the men in black who incite their followers to vote for politicians who make the Torah into toilet paper, R”L, at the Hashems expense. Example: the koach party received one seat the first round. They were also the party who engaged in organized, systemic voter fraud.(even had they only succeeded in forging 2 votes, the point beyond dispute is that the fraud was party wide, and unique to that party). Instead of shunning them the second time round, as punishment for the nauseating chilul Hashem of world wide proportions that they caused, they doubled their votes! Without even cheating! Is this a Torah response to public wrongdoing? Torasmoshe#10-Should I respect people who vote for public fraud? That is not the Torah I have been taught by my Rebbeyim or family. May Hashem have mercy on these wrongdoers and encourage them to wake up before they pervert our religion beyond recognition.
Rav Nachman Seltzer is 100% correct. While at first they pretended it wasn’t a war against the Torah Community, once they demanded (and received) a new election ordered all pretenses were off and they made no further effort to hide the fact that they were waging a war against religion. Their utter contempt and outright hatred not only for those who dress and act like Jews but for the Torah itself was out in the open. They wanted not to defeat a religious Jew from holding elective office, but rather to defeat Judaism itself.