One phone call to Menachem Begin changed everything - and today the Torah sages are in an embarrassing silence
One phone call to Menachem Begin changed everything - and today the Torah sages are in an embarrassing silence. The election results placed the Haredi leadership before a new political reality, but three Councils of Torah Sages maintain silence. Specifically, Rabbi Landau, approaching the age of one hundred, marks a different direction and inspires hope for change.
One phone call to Menachem Begin changed everything - and today the Torah sages are in an embarrassing silence. The election results placed the Haredi leadership before a new political reality, but three Councils of Torah Sages maintain silence. Specifically, Rabbi Landau, approaching the age of one hundred, marks a different direction and inspires hope for change. The article, by Shlomo Shamir, opens with a description of a historic phone call in which the rabbi consulted no one and told Menachem Begin: "We, in Agudat Yisrael, are with you. We will join any coalition you form." The compensation he received was the cancellation of the limit of 400 yeshiva students exempt from military service, a compensation that became a factor of division, rift, and hatred. The writer notes that there are three Councils of Torah Sages in Israel, and asks if anyone has heard a word or response from them regarding the political reality. He adds that the Haredi-Hasidic voice weakened in the elections, but the rebbes and yeshiva heads do not intervene or express an opinion publicly. In contrast, Rabbi Dov Landau, at an age approaching one hundred, demonstrates leadership and public responsibility, embodying the saying of the Talmudic sages: "Torah scholars, the older they get, the more wisdom is added to them."