The violent clashes in Bnei Brak overnight Thursday cannot be disconnected from the growing conflict over whether yeshiva students will return to their in-person Torah studies, with or without authorization to do so.
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There is increasing pressure on the community from all directions, and the fact that the police and the Haredim are on a collision course only adds fuel to the fire.
The Haredim have found themselves in a major dilemma over the past year. On the one hand, there is a dangerous pandemic, and the vast majority of the sector is adhering to the guidelines. On the other hand, the Haredi public doesn't use Zoom, doesn't have internet access, and isn't able to study with the help of online classes. Keeping kids at home means that seven, eight, or even 10 (and sometimes more) souls are crammed into tiny rooms with nothing to do, conditions that lead to "spiritual deterioration." To this, we must add their belief that Torah study saves the world, and so students must necessarily be allowed to return to their studies as quickly as possible.
Someone with deep knowledge of the Haredi sector's response to the COVID pandemic told me this week that "a Haredi person knows one thing, which they have been taught from a young age: Children studying is what saves the people of Israel from any pandemic or bad situation. When they see the schools closed, from their standpoint, that's what is causing the pandemic. Good luck fighting that belief."
Early on in Israel's third lockdown, the government exerted significant pressure on Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the most prominent Lithuanian rabbis in Israel. For days, Kanievsky avoided explicitly announcing that Torah studies would cease, but ultimately acquiesced to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's request and issued the declaration. After that, all of the sector's other rabbis, both Lithuanian and Hassidic, fell in line with the ruling.
Yet even then, it was clear the move was on borrowed time. With the decision to close the schools came an outpouring of requests from principals to allow them to open. Kanievsky allowed some of the schools to reopen, if only for those who had recovered from COVID-19; others he forbade from opening outright. Yet Kanievsky and his advisers were able to read the mood of the people: The public was sick of the lockdowns and interested in reopening the places of study.
To this, we must add the powder keg that is about to explode within Haredi society. The violent events that took place in Bnei Brak did not ease the sense of many members of this sector that they are being collectively punished for the acts of extremists. The time for dialogue is over, many in the community believe, and now is the time for action. If they don't take us into account, we won't take them into account either, they say.
The rabbis understand this mindset full well. Did the police act against the extremists or not? That no longer matters. From their perspective, the police used unconventional means to attack a Haredi bastion in Bnei Brak, and a bold response is needed to show them who's boss. Don't attack the police, the grand rabbi of the Vizhnitz Hassidic community has ordered his followers, but don't take them into account either. If anyone asks, these are my orders. I'm in command, and I've decided that we have reached the point of no return.
It's hard to predict what will happen in the coming days. Close associates of Kanievsky have made clear they are interested in opening the educational institutions, regardless of whether the government approves. Right now, though, they seem to be waiting for an agreed-upon framework, due to pressure on them to conform to the lockdown guidelines.
By contrast, some of the Hassidic communities have refused to wait any longer and have made the conscious decision to do as they see fit. The approach of the Lithuanian Haredi sector in this instance is wildly different from that of the Hassidim. While the Lithuanians have two central leaders, each one operates as a separate body, sometimes to the point where it is inconsistent with the conduct of the general public. Each rabbi draws his own conclusions in relation to his own followers, and some of those followers have simply had enough.
It may be that, as has been the case in previous waves and lockdowns, the religious leaders will ultimately reach an understanding with the government. In the past, Netanyahu spoke with the various rabbis and succeeded in convincing them to close the schools and even the synagogues over the holidays, a far more difficult decision than the one they currently face. Yet unlike in the past, the sense throughout the sector is that we the country is on the brink of exiting the pandemic, and the vaccine will put an end to the lockdowns. This could lead the rabbis to authorize a return to Torah studies with the understanding that intra-sectoral politics are more important than another week of lockdown.
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