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Q&A: Not Partners in Zionism

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This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

Not Partners in Zionism

Question

I have a serious question, and I’d be glad if the Rabbi would answer me. I’m not trying to troll. If a Haredi person comes and argues that he does not intend to enlist in the IDF because Zionism created all the problems here, and before it everyone lived peacefully in the Land of Israel, and that the Zionists should eat the porridge they cooked themselves— is that a legitimate claim?

Answer

This question has already come up here more than once. I believe you that you don’t mean to troll, but I really don’t see a truly serious question here.

  1. A factual mistake. The problem with the Arabs existed even before Zionism, and also in other Arab countries. There was abuse before that as well (see, for example, the Seven Steps at the Cave of the Patriarchs, and more). They did not start persecuting Jews because of Zionism.
  2. Most Haredim who are here came to the Land as part of Zionism. The old yishuv is a negligible minority, and most of them also do not live in its areas anyway (old Jerusalem). So they are part of the problem that Zionism allegedly created too, even by their own view, if that really is the problem. They came to the state; they did not come to settle in the old yishuv in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem.
  3. If the Haredim refrained from using state services, fine. But to use the services and not fulfill their obligations is theft. Almost all of them use those services. Anyone who is a citizen of a state must fulfill his duties and not just take his rights. Those are the rules of the game, even if you’re some big genius who knows better than everyone else who caused the problems and who should solve them.
  4. A secular person could say that the Haredi caused the problems because he does not enlist, and therefore he will not defend him and will leave him to die. Would that be acceptable to you? If everyone acts according to his own theories and doesn’t fulfill his obligations because he has theories, we won’t get very far. A functioning society works by the government determining the duties and rights, not by each citizen deciding according to one far-fetched theory or another which duties he will fulfill and which he won’t.
  5. Halakhically and morally, there is mutual responsibility among Jews. If Jews are in trouble, everyone must come to help, even if the others brought the problems on themselves. “Do not stand idly by your neighbor's blood,” and the law of pursuer and pursued. Do the Haredim agree that when it comes to problems they brought on themselves, nobody should help them? There are plenty of such problems. All the more so when at the moment everyone is in trouble, not just the Zionists. So the Zionists are supposed to protect the Haredim because they caused these problems?
  6. Bottom line: notice that this argument is really stupid. It does not hold water morally, halakhically, or factually. So now you should ask yourself how intelligent people, who say brilliant things in Talmudic learning, can speak such nonsense in the realms of morality, facts, Jewish law, and logic. Doesn’t that indicate bias and brainwashing? Isn’t this just looking for excuses that don’t hold water in order to maintain the absurd Haredi position? And the fact that everyone keeps repeating this nonsense again and again only shows that they’re feeding you baloney and you’re gobbling it down with enthusiasm like complete fools. Even cognitive dissonance usually has reasonable limits. It amazes me that someone doesn’t answer this question for himself and needs me to answer it for him.

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