The Edah HaCharedit and the Struggle for Tradition

B"H

There was hardly any police to be seen at last weeks' demonstration of the Edah HaCharedit. The reason must have been the intermediate days of the Pessach holiday.
In advance the anti – Zionist umbrella organization "Edah HaCharedit" had announced a huge demonstration for the Tuesday of Chol HaMoed Pessach and all the Edah Rabbis showed up on time. The location of the demonstration was the "Kikar Shabbat" in Ge'ulah. The streets around were closed and the only thing disturbing was another demonstration taking place a few hundred meters far away at Jaffa Road. There, about ten secular guys demonstrated for their so - called right of eating Chametz (wheat, rye, barley, etc. products) during Pessach. The Haredim in Ge'ulah, on the other hand, didn't even know about that kind of demonstration, and if they had, they wouldn't have cared anyway.

Everyone is entitled to have his own opinion on the subject of "selling Chametz during Pessach". Unfortunately, a new Israeli law allows doing so. Nevertheless, each of us should ask himself: "How far can I personally go and get assimilated into the non – Jewish world ? Where exactly is my limit where I say – Until here and not any further ? Where does my Judaism and Jewish identity start ?"

And am I at all able to decided about my own life ? Who or what am I ?
And what, if I am just a puppet – on – the – string who has no free will at all and is just a little tiny piece in the whole of G – d's creation ? Already the Ishbitzer Rebbe, Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, had a doubt if there is something like a free will at all. It is probably better and especially more convenient not to know the true answer to this.

The Edah HaCharedit is an anti – Zionist umbrella organization with its headquarter in Strauss Street – in the Jerusalem Ge'ulah neighbourhood. To be more precise, the Edah HaCharedit includes different haredi groups or directions. The members are chassidic groups such as Satmar, Dushinsky, Toldot Aharon, Avraham Yitzchak (sometimes has a special status, as Rebbe Shmuel Yaakov Kahn is more open minded), Spinka or parts of Breslov. Another important member are the "Mishkenot HaRoim" who are more an organization with a certain goal than a chassidic group. A further extremely important member is the original litvishe Soloveitchik – movement "Brisk". However, many people always make the same mistake and count the "Neturei Karta" into the Edah HaCharedit. The Neturei Karta is NOT a member of the Edah and has its own regulations and directions. And, by the way, the Neturei Karta consists of many directions and to claim that the Neturei Karta is one organization, is also not true.

The Israeli haredi world consists of two big powerful organizations; the first one is the "Edah HaCharedit" and the second is the "Agudat Israel". The Edah doesn't make any compromises with Zionism and the Agudah, on the other hand, has its own Knesset party, the "Yahadut HaTorah". The Edah HaCharedit looks down on the Agudat Israel, as it sees in them so – called religious Jews who co – operate with the Zionist enemy. There are litvishe Haredim in the Agudah as well as Chassidut Gur (Gerer Chassidim), Chassidut Vishnitz and Chassiut Belz.
The Polish Chassidut Gur has always been a member of the Agudat Israel, Chassidut Belz, on the other hand, used to be a member in the Edah until approx. 1982. Then the present Rebbe Yissachar Dov Rokeach decided to leave and join the Agudah instead. This caused a kind of war between certain Edah members such as Satmar and Toldot Aharon and Belzer Chassidim. Until today, Belz and Satmar or Toldot Aharon are not too friendly with each other although younger Belzer Chassidim are not that hostile anymore. At least not the ones I spoke to.

The Agudat Israel as a whole seems to have less problems than the Edah HaCharedit. At least financially.
The two chassidic groups Belz and Gur are extremely rich and have an immense political impact on Israel. The Edah, on the other hand, only gets its money from Satmar and some private donors. Mostly from the US.
The Edah HaCharedit was founded in 1919. One of the founders was the famous Rabbi Chaim Yosef Sonnenfeld who was, at the same time, the head of the Edah. The main reason for the foundation was the rejection of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook as Chief Rabbi of the Zionist Chief Rabbinate.

Whoever wants to see the Edah HaCharedit in Action, has to go to Mea Shearim or Bnei Brak (near Tel Aviv) and either read the "Fakshivilim – News Posters" on the walls or talk personally to Edah Chassidim.
Unfortunately, another rumour is always being spread: All Mea Shearim inhabitants are anti – Zionist and totally extreme fundamentalists. This rumour is obviously spread by people who have no idea of what they are talking about.

First of all, not everyone in Mea Shearim is anti – Zionist or an Edah member. Just the opposite, because there sometimes are conflicts between Edah members and the ones who are not. The best example are the Toldot Avraham Yitzchak. Although they are Edah members, as I mentioned before, Rebbe Shmuel Yaakov Kahn, likes to go his own ways. At least sometimes. And this is the reason, why he is criticized by other Edah members. But even Karlin – Stolin has sometimes been criticized by fundamentalist groups.

And whoever considers Mea Shearim as "too extreme" hasn't been to Bnei Brak (near Tel Aviv) yet. Or have you ever seen a Christian missionary walking around in Bnei Brak. Although mostly litvish, Bnei Brak does have many Chassidim such as Vishnitz, Satmar, Zhvil, Sadigora, Skver, Shomrei Emunim, Spinka, Koznitz and many other. And, not to forget, the Neturei Karta has its own synagogue.

When I arrived at the demonstration, all the surrounding streets had already been closed off. A truck was set up as a stage and in the back of the truck, plenty of white plastic chairs were placed. Soon the Edah Rabbis arrived and were seated in the back of the truck.
As usual, men were placed in the front and women in the back। Actually there were hardly any women. 15 or maybe even less. However, I could hear everything but sometimes had difficulties to see from the distance. And this is the reason why I couldn't figure out all the Rabbis making a speech. I know that Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch and Rabbi Rosenberger (Chassidut Satmar) spoke. And, by the way, the Edah didn't call the demonstration "Demonstration" but "Gathering – Atzeret". The Toldot Aharon Chassidim were the absolute majority. No doubt about that. And it was a Toldot Aharon Chassid starting off by reading Tehillim (Psalms). The later speeches were all in Yiddish and only one Rabbi spoke in Hebrew. However, sometimes certain announcements were made in Hebrew.

All Rabbis giving a speech agreed upon one point:
60 years of the Zionist State – what has the State really gained ?
A secular and partly anti – religious State seeing his task in being a modern Jewish State.
Can there be a Torah in the modern world or does represent Torah the modern world as well ?
But as we all know or should know, the Torah goes with time, as it is valid and binds us Jews eternally.

According to the Edah HaCharedit, the Zionist secular education system has completely failed. What kind of a youth do we have today due to the secular system ? A youth whose main goal is to be westernized and modern. Where are the former Torah values today ? Where are we at all today ? Years ago, no one would have got the idea of changing the law and allowing Chametz during Pessach. Not in Israel and especially not in Jerusalem. Where are the ideals of the Jewish People ? G – d Himself has declared us as His "Chosen People". Is everything forgotten ? The secular education system is to be held responsible for the disaster. An education system founded by politicians who have no idea about Judaism and neither show respect for the Torah. What do you expect ?

And I have to say that here I couldn't agree more with the Edah HaCharedit.

But also other conflicts were mentioned and it would have been much more positive, if the members or Chassidim of the Agudat Israel had shown up. I only saw three or four curious Belzer Chassidim and two Chassidei Gur were quickly passing through. Unfortunately, the Gerer Rebbe is sometimes too passive. There are times when something is at stake and the Edah as well as the Agudah should forget about their disputes. At least for a limited time. And there are times when even the members of the Agudah should protest and say out loud their opinion instead of keeping quiet and please the Knesset and its politicians.

The secular press arrived even before the demonstration really started. Cameras were shipped in and reporters were waiting for some action. After the demonstration started, the journalists became more and more a pain. Anyway, how can the Israeli press be so stupid by sending journalists who don't know any Yiddish ? The result was, of course, that the journalists couldn't figure out what was going on and had to ask some Chassidim for translations. However, the Toldot Aharon Chassid on the stage called the haredi public not to answer the questions of the secular media. The journalists didn't give up and ran to some young American litvishe Yeshiva students. The only problem was that the Litvishe also didn't have a clue of what was going on and eventually the Edah sent out some guards in order to watch that no one is breaking the rule of talking to the secular journalists.

I started asking myself how an ordinary secular or traditional Israeli would face the whole situation in front of his TV. What he sees is some old rabbis with a long beard talking about Mitzwot, Zionism and maybe a G – dly destruction of Jerusalem because the Jews sell Chametz on Pessach. What does the Israeli or let's assume a teenager think ? What impression cause the Edah Rabbis in Tel Aviv or Eilat ? Are they able to get them onto their side or at least, make themselves clear ? Or don't people think that there are these old fundamentalists in Mea Shearim not having a clue about what is going on in the world ?

This is another point where each of us should start asking himself and reconsider the real purpose of the demonstration. The whole thing is not about identifying oneself with Mea Shearim or moving in there tomorrow. The issue is about our own Jewish ideals and Torah concepts. Are the Edah Rabbis so wrong by reminding us of our purpose in life ? Aren't they just saying out loud a tremendous society problem in our times ? And could it be that we don't want to hear it because they are our conscience which we very much like to turn off ?

I think that the Edah HaCharedit definitely has an image problem and there is a lot to improve. Only remaining separate from the outside world is not a good solution. Even the Toldot Aharon saw themselves confronted with this problem (at the time of the Jerusalem gay parade two years ago) and chose Rabbi Popenheim to represent them before the media.

Although I very much agree with the Edah Rabbis, they should have also listed some more positive aspects of society. Of course, selling Chametz on Pessach is a terrible thing to do, but aren't there thousands of Jews who do not at all agree to this ? Shouldn't we concentrate more on the good than only on the bad and all kinds of punishments ?

Another prayer took place at the end of the demonstration. A prayer from the Yom Kippur service. Afterwards the demonstration ended peacefully and everybody went his own way. Unfortunately, the press , searching so desperately for scandals, had left a long time before and didn't see the peaceful ending.

Links to similar subjects:

Big Brother is watching you

Contradiction Neturei Karta

The Talmudic reason for Anti - Zionism