Page 46 - HaMizrachi #6 TuBishvat 5779

Rabbi Chaim Navon

Blind to Reality

Photo: Oren Barkai

otel bathrooms have enlarged a whole. In recent years I hear more more dramatic. Jews in Israel today
mirrors, which make every and more about the terrible rifts and are similar to students at the Merkaz
H little spot look like a crater, unprecedented gaps in Israeli society. HaRav Yeshiva, who will get into a
every freckle a major rash. For some Yet I don’t see this in reality. Today I lengthy discussion with a stranger on
reason, we tend to look at those who see Israelis becoming more and more the fundamental differences between
are close to us through a similar like each other, all lining up on one themselves and students at the Har
mirror, and their minor defects look continuum. HaMor Yeshiva, when actually they are
like mountains to us. as alike as two sideburns.
For example, when we complain about
A carpenter once told me that people our children’s religious continuum, More and more Haredim are studying
sit for hours with a color palette and we must also remember the other at universities or serving in the IDF.
debate exactly which shade of light side: the secular community is also It is clear they are closer and more
cream they want their closets to be. spread out along the same line. Last similar to us than their parents were.
“If I ended up making their closet any year, the Festigal [a children’s show But that is exactly why they cause
other light shade, there is no chance held on Chanukah] was not held much more discontent. The Haredim
they would notice.” Similarly, we use on Shabbat for the first time ever, in Mea She’arim are out of sight and
the color palette to measure people. because singer Omer Adam refused out of mind. But the Haredim in the
When we meet someone who is very to perform on Shabbat. This year too. college libraries are an eyesore. That
much like ourselves, we are quick to The Ha’aretz daily publishes regular is why the enlightened fanatics fight
pull out the palette: no way we’re alike. complaints about more and more without remorse against those who
I’m cream and he’s off-white. restaurants removing pork from their want to maintain their Haredi identity
menu. I saw a large pile of Chanukiot in the army and academia, with gender
As I teach in several girls’ colleges, at the entrance to a Yochananoff separation for example. The closer
my students in college A often ask me supermarket, and it wasn’t only the one gets, so the differences are more
how they are different from the girls religious who were buying them. annoying.
in college B. I usually say there are And if you say “well, they’re only
minor differences, but they should lighting candles for their children,” I Who sees the truth? Our enemies. In
consider the following: if we were to say “Excellent. So these children are the most atrocious Hamas propaganda
cut the cake of humanity into 1,000 growing up in a Jewish home. And one clips, IDF soldiers have the body of a
slices – the girls from both colleges day they too will light a Chanukiah soldier, the uniform of a soldier, the
would fit into the same slice. And even and build a Sukkah for their own gun of a soldier – but a Haredi head,
if we were to cut the same cake into children.” curly sideburns, a black hat and a
10,000, 100,000, or even 1,000,000 beard. Our enemies see from afar what
slices – they would still be in the same When we talk about each other, we we find difficult to see from close up:
slice. The differences are miniscule in become hostile, but when we stand how similar we really are.
comparison to the commonalities. next to each other, we have never (This article first appeared in Makor Rishon in
been more alike. Maybe we should Hebrew.)
This tendency to emphasize not say “but,” rather “because.”
differences between similar people Exactly because we are getting closer Rabbi Chaim Navon is a renowned
is often true about Israeli society as to each other, the differences seem author and educator

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