Rabbi Elyashiv’s Mesirah: It Didn’t Even Pay
Rabbi Elyashiv enabled the Gush Katif expulsion of ten thousand Jews from their homes in the land of Israel. This was Mesirah. What was his stated excuse? And how did his excuse fare in reality?
The Chareidi political representatives do (almost) exactly what they are told by the leadership of their parties. This is what they are there for, and it couldn’t be any other way. So when we criticize them for all the evil they do, let us be honest about whom we are accusing; the “Gedolim”.
The coalition of non-Jewish Ariel Sharon, of accursed memory, could not have survived without the Chareidi members of Knesset. What convinced Rabbi Elyashiv to have them join? Two things:
- “Expelling” Shinui from the coalition.
- The “Libah” curriculum would not be forced upon the Chareidi education system.
And so, the coalition government was enabled. Rabbi Elyashiv then had Ravitz of Degel vote for the crucial “reparations law” farce. Having ensured the infamous deed, Rabbi Elyashiv’s messengers then went through the motions of voting against the expulsion itself, safe in the assurance they would be outnumbered, of course.
Needless to say, the rabbi never bothered to first hear the side of the Jews he was condemning, just as he never waited to hear from Rabbi Nosson Kaminetzky and others, whose lives he destroyed without a thought. There was, indeed, a delegation which came to beg for their lives, but they came of their own accord, and were paid no attention.
What happened since?
- Instead of Shinui, they got Ya’ir Lapid (also later defeated, but for a terrible price, and it’s not over yet by far).
- Instead of Libah, they got tenfold government educational interventions.
