Question

Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira, head of the Ramat Gan yeshiva, claims that behind the scenes a struggle is being waged within Religious Zionism against the laws of niddah.

"Today there is a campaign to uproot the seven clean days within the ellipse of Religious Zionism," Rabbi Shapira charged at a launch event for the book The Hyphen and the Ellipse, written by Rabbi Professor Yehuda Brandes, president of Herzog College.

Rabbi Shapira said this in the context of the rates of dropping out of religion that exist within the Religious Zionist public. In his view, the contempt for foundational halakhic principles mirrors the departure of young men and women from a life of religion and faith. "I smell planning and timing, but I don't know how to say for sure. In my eyes this is uprooting the Torah. True, it is the Oral Torah, but the halakhic decisors say that uprooting the Oral Torah is uprooting everything. This campaign is getting many platforms, and in practice it is making waves in homes that unfortunately are also becoming more numerous."

In the panel, which also included Rabbi Yaakov Medan, head of Yeshivat Har Etzion, and former principal of the Himmelfarb High School, Rabbi Yirmi Stavisky, Rabbi Shapira did not name the people or organizations that he believes are behind the phenomenon. Recently, articles and interviews were published on the Kipa website claiming that the seven clean days should be abolished, and stating that this is an extreme stringency. In response, articles expressing the opposite position were published by women rabbis and halakhic advisors from the Puah Institute.

According to Rabbi Shapira, the dropout rates in Religious Zionism are vastly higher than those in the Haredi sector, and the reason is the lack of boundaries in Jewish law. "I think the Haredi world knows how to set boundaries that we do not know how to set. We have very sharp disagreements with them, but we have a lot to learn from the Haredi world. What are we accommodating? I don't remember Rabbi Kook speaking so much about the word 'inclusion.' It's a later translation of what he did, and I'm not sure that's what he meant."

On the other hand, he emphasized the dispute that exists with the Haredi beit midrash: "The Haredim do not sufficiently recognize the great and awesome act of God. I cannot connect with that; I see it with my own eyes. Maybe I would not have seen it on my own, but after my rabbis and all the writings of Rabbi Kook showed it to me—it's like if someone were to tell me in the daytime that it is now night; what can I do? Even if fewer of his children drop out, it is still day."

Rabbi Shapira also presented troubling figures, according to which most teenagers in the so-called liberal sector leave religion. "What are the dropout percentages in each of the communities, according to what we have? Among Hasidim 2%, among Lithuanians 3%, among Sephardim 8.5%, among Hardalim 21%, in the center of Religious Zionism 31%, and in liberal Religious Zionism 51%.

"I think something is happening to us, and we need to consider what the boundaries of inclusion are in cases like the campaign to abolish the seven clean days. I ask: is there a connection between the numbers and this occurrence? When we want everything to be godly, does that mean that everything goes according to the Torah, and is the ability to set boundaries not important—so that we can pass on to the next generation the burning torch from the revelation at Mount Sinai of 'If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them,' and that they will want to take it in hand and pass it on to the generation after them?"

Apparently this goes together with the beginning of the redemption…