What interests me, Rabbi, is that despite your sharp criticism, in the end these Haredim are the glowing ember of Torah observance. I have family and friends who are religious, and there is no comparison between their level of caring about keeping Jewish law and ours. If only our wives were as modest as their wives, and if only we cared about the Sabbath the way they do! Have you ever seen a Religious Zionist with a generator because he cares about Sabbath desecration? Have you ever seen packed intersession yeshivot burning with the fire of Torah the way they have? Walk into the yeshivot in Bnei Brak—fire! And אצלינו, at best it’s like the municipal library in Ramat Gan! Day by day I understand that this whole public I belong to, the Religious Zionist public, is founded on “for they have forsaken Your Torah” and abandoned the path of the great Torah scholars—and here is the result. This is not the place to elaborate. So I would be embarrassed to speak against them.

A very strange argument. According to your logic, it is impossible to criticize a person or group that also has virtues. I’ll let you in on a secret: despite all my faults, I also have a few virtues. So please don’t post criticisms of my words here. And if the virtues themselves are a result of the faults, then my words are all the more correct—but this is not the place to elaborate.

Oh dear, is that how you understood what I said? If anything, please be precise. What follows from my words is not that “you can’t criticize a group that has virtues,” but rather that it is ridiculous to level demagogic, sweeping criticism that disqualifies the entire Haredi way of life while we Religious Zionists do not even come close to their honesty and loyalty to Torah! So there’s no problem—criticize, that’s excellent—but as long as it is specific, it is acceptable. Sweeping criticism of the whole Haredi way of life—about that it is said: correct yourself first.
And in general, all your expressions about the great sages of Israel are, for some reason, rather ridiculous. You invented a new parameter for the term “great sage of Israel” according to your own very narrow method, influenced by outside books, and you stripped greatness away from all the great sages of Israel throughout the generations, who for some strange reason were much closer to the black-hat crowd in Bnei Brak—yes, yes, zealots like that, with a fiery approach to modesty and every breach in matters of holiness—and not like our corrupt public, where there is almost no young man without a girlfriend, and if he doesn’t have one it’s either because he didn’t find one or because he just doesn’t want to. Where will you see a protest poster in Gush Etzion or in any other religious area against the dangers of technology?! Our level of caring and zealotry is almost on a par with the Reform movement.
And if you ask why, after all this, I’m not Haredi? The answer is that I’m in the process, and I’m really on the way.

Oh dear, that’s how I understood your words. Even though that is exactly what you wrote, both before and now. The “oh dear” doesn’t change that.

It may be that the “oh dear” does not change it, but a substantive reading certainly does. You do not have to respond to my words, but since you chose to be precise, this is what I mean: there is no problem, and it is even healthy, to offer specific criticism; but to speak in a sweeping way that disqualifies the whole Haredi path while you belong to a group that is incomparably far from the caring and willingness of the Haredi public to live according to the Torah—this seems to me ridiculous, and a case of “correct yourself first.” In any case, I have no interest in a discussion. I just, as someone allergic to ridiculous phenomena, placed my claim here.

You reminded me of the joke, from the Haredi world: Why does the spiritual supervisor walk around the study hall during learning hours? So everyone can see what comes out of someone who doesn’t study.

Terribly mature.

So that you shouldn’t miss out, I moved Idan’s question over as a continuation of the intellectual discussion that took place here:

Well, I read a bit of the stream of your remarks in general, and in particular toward the Haredi public, and I responded as I did to one of the questions that was asked. But it seems to me that these things may be of benefit to dear Jews, not a few of whom are being led astray here by your plainly non-Torah views, and so permit me:
As stated, I am a survivor of the Religious Zionist public, today a Haredi black-hat type. And as a person with an acute allergy to nonsense, I see fit to protest against you. Well then, criticizing the Haredi public on certain points may be legitimate and even correct, since there are social elements in Haredi society whose source is not necessarily in Torah or rabbinic leadership but in circumstances, society, communal character, and the like. Such criticism is certainly reasonable, and Haredim know how to criticize themselves on points like these fairly honestly.
But you, dear Jew—where do you get the authority, in such arrogance, to speak in such a demagogic and totalizing flow against the entire Haredi “way of life,” when they are the last glowing ember in the Jewish people who are prepared to live, even at the price of self-sacrifice, poverty, and sacrifice, according to the Torah without compromise!
Where will you find a Religious Zionist with a generator on the Sabbath because he cares about the honor of Heaven that the electric company desecrates?______Where will you find protest posters in Elon Moreh or in Ramat Gan or even at the entrance to Yeshivat Mercaz about “the dangers of technology”?_______When was the last time Religious Zionists felt pain over Sabbath desecration in demonstrations in Jerusalem?_____How do you explain that you can hardly find a religious girl who knows what the word “denier” means—the thickness of stockings? Because who there even wears stockings in the public you belong to?____When was the last time the heads of the hesder yeshivot held an emergency gathering among the daughters of Israel to strengthen modesty???_____Where will you find tens of thousands of mothers willing to be squeezed financially quite a lot, as long as the husband learns in kollel, out of faith that this is their mission and מתוך proud Jewish resilience??_____Why do almost all the “rabbis” (it seems to me this cheapens the title “rabbi”) from the hesder yeshivot know for certain that their students will deteriorate spiritually in the army, and nevertheless gird themselves with the authority of the Sanhedrin in sending them with no discretion at all!!_______Why will you never see a Religious Zionist Jew sitting without glasses on a bus in Jerusalem?______Why do all my Religious Zionist friends unanimously admit that they have stumbled, and more than once, on pornography sites! And no one says a word!!!____Why is a soldier in Duvdevan with a pistol far more impressive to every religious person than a Torah scholar studying in kollel??_____The page would be too short for the endless comparisons of the immeasurable gap in Torah concern between the “religious-seculars,” to whom you proudly belong, and the Haredim, who are exactly as their name says—those who tremble to fulfill His blessed will!
Where do you get the audacity and arrogance? And most surprising of all, you present everything in a scientific, rational cloak, in the name of reason and intellectual honesty… how ridiculous that is… No matter what you say, people with a developed sense of honesty and with critical vision recognize the failure of your words.
Did you invent Judaism?! After all, throughout the generations the Jewish people have gone by the light of the great Torah scholars of each generation—whether in Orach Chayim, Yoreh De’ah, or in the realm of outlook! And then there is born the legendary talking head, the man of enlightened reason who knows all, who comes and redefines the term “great in Torah” or “great sage of Israel” subject to his narrow analysis because of the obvious influence of all the outside books from which you draw your mode of thought!
Are you greater than the Chazon Ish? Than Rabbi Moshe Feinstein’s responsa? Than Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky? Than Rabbi Shach? Is your perspective straighter than Rabbi Wosner’s? Than the Steipler’s??? And so on.
God has graced you with talents; use them honestly. Continue bringing the far-off close, setting atheists and heretics of various kinds ablaze, as is your holy way. But think a bit before approaching this shallow work in which you engage—the defamation of the Torah world and contempt for the great Torah scholars and for those who care about fulfilling His will many times more than you do!
And before all those who intend to rise up against me—think a little honestly: is it your Judaism that is crying out, or are the shards of nationalism within you what drive your reaction? All the best forever, and with the blessing that the earth be filled with knowledge of the Lord!

I understand that the level of the remarks comes from engagement with the profound issue of denier thickness and the other wonders mentioned in his words, so I do not blame the writer.

And again, the height of maturity in all its glory.