The Cowardice and Hypocrisy of Some Haredim in One Sentence

That sentence was, 50 Thousand Haredim March So Only Other Jews Die in War.

It was written by Yori Yanover who used to work for the Jewish Press, a New York based publication that caters to the Ultra-Orthodox (Haredim) community.

They canned him, and deleted the page, though it is still available in the Google cache.

This is similar to what goes on with the dole money allotted to Haredim so that they don't have to work.

They are using Torah to derive personal benefit, and this is forbidden in normative Judaism, as it is said in Pirkei Avot 4:6, "Do not make the Torah into a crown with which to aggrandize yourself, and don't use it as a spade with which to dig into them."

Basically it means two things:

• The study of Torah is not about self-aggrandizement or puffing up one's own ego.
• The study of Torah is not about deriving personal financial benefit. (Which also implies that draft dodging is out as well)

Those Haredim who are protesting are batting 0 for 2 on this.

H/t Mitch Gilbert (the first link) who has republished the article.

You can also find a copy at Failed Messiah.

H/t to my brother, aka "The Bear Who Swims," for cluing me into this story.