In recent years, we have witnessed a worrying trend of public persecution by left-wingers of tefillin-laying stands. Sometimes it's in Tel Aviv, sometimes near the Weizmann Institute, sometimes in Ramat Gan, and every so often it returns in a regular ritual.
A widespread and deliberate phenomenon
Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents or exceptional cases, but a widespread and deliberate phenomenon. Extremist secular activists verbally and sometimes even physically attack the stall operators, shout slogans against religion and try to intimidate young people who try to put on tefillin. What was previously perceived in the public sphere as a matter of
Obviously, it is gradually becoming an ideological battlefield.
And the hypocrisy is blatant. It is precisely those elements who preach acceptance of the other, pluralism, and individual rights that are leading an aggressive campaign against tefillin stands. Those who demand that everyone be given the freedom to do as they please, suddenly are unable to see a young boy stop for a moment to put on tefillin. Those who cry out in the name of liberalism and the freedom for each person to choose their own path, suddenly and only suddenly, that it comes to the tradition of Israel, have suddenly forgotten about the religious freedom of each person.
Alienation from Jewish tradition
The attacks on tefillin stands do not stand alone, but are part of a broader trend of alienation from Jewish tradition. Radical elements are trying to erase every religious symbol from the public sphere and turn traditional Jewish identity into something that must be hidden. This is a dangerous process that could lead to a growing disconnect between the public and its roots, and to the blurring of the values on which Jewish existence has stood throughout the generations.
Throughout history, Jews have risked their lives to wear tefillin. We all remember the stories about Jews who died in the damned Holocaust, giving up their lives just to wear tefillin and continue the tradition of Israel, while here in the Jewish state, Jews no less and no more, will abuse other Jews who want a little tradition? Tell me, have we gone crazy?
Today it's the stalls, tomorrow it's the dome
The truth must be told. The war on tefillin stands is not just a struggle of the religious public, but of everyone who believes in true human rights. Today it's the stands, tomorrow it's the kippah, Shabbat or kashrut. Everyone who believes in our right to uphold the tradition of Israel must stand up against this incitement and stand firm against the harm to the tradition of Israel. Only recently were studies published that show that following the Seventh of October, more and more Jewish Israelis are becoming stronger in their faith and closer to religion.
Cheap propaganda and demagogy
In the end, there is nowhere to run. After everything we have been through since the beginning of the war, more and more Jews understand that in order to protect themselves, they need to hold on to faith, to the belief that there is someone who runs the world and that we have the responsibility to increase goodness. So maybe that is what they are afraid of? That Israel will become a religious state?
Let me tell you: it won't happen.
The attempt to present tefillin stands as a nuisance or religious coercion is cheap propaganda and demagogy designed to re-engineer public consciousness and create alienation towards Judaism. We must stand guard and ensure that those who want to maintain their Jewish identity can do so proudly – yes, even on the street. Otherwise, what are we left with here?
What is so urgent about stalls soliciting the laying of tefillin in a secular urban space? Where does it say in any scripture in the history of Judaism that it is customary to lay down tefillin in the middle of a weekday (a time when people are working), in the middle of a dirty, crowded street? Don't you see the cynical and shallow use of religious symbols just to glorify religion?
What do the tefillin-laying stands on the streets of Tel Aviv provide? Who do they serve?
Important article, well done.
Just this week, Channel 14 reported on a doctor from Rambam who attacked boys near a tefillin-laying station and was placed under house arrest.
The alienation as you describe it did not arise in a vacuum, it is the fruit of media effort. For example, try to find a mention of the above case on other channels in Israel.
The trend is very worrying. They are creating a one-sided, anti-government narrative bordering on anti-Semitic, including a huge public in evading and receiving services as if there were no citizens ignoring the public's contribution to religious Zionism (speaking of military service, what army would Israel have without it?) and which usually receives only negative mentions, such as that it is a matter of a few teenage brats in some settlement. Suddenly, it is given priority and persecuting its elected officials as if they are illegitimate, while some members of the Knesset on the left and the joint Knesset express themselves in a shocking manner. This is hardly mentioned and certainly not highlighted.
But there is also a little optimistic news: here you are also allowed to write.
On a site that for years has been almost too hyped up about left-wing protests and almost too freely allows mainly left-wing opinion writers to criticize Netanyahu and the ultra-Orthodox over and over again, this is not obvious.
Even if it's a one-time thing.
And you summed it up nicely, right? This won't be a religious state, but if it weren't for religion, it's doubtful we would have a state.
Happy Passover.
Correction of an error: A doctor from Rambam is suspected of attacking boys near a tefillin stand. Every person is innocent until proven guilty and convicted, of course.
The left's hatred of the Jewish religion has allowed the Haredim to take over all religious institutions. For example, take the Bigdoll Synagogue in Hadar, built by the Hadar Committee for the secular Hadar public. The public did not pray there, and today the Haredi courts are arguing to the point of bloodshed over whose spoils this is. So who is to blame for the Haredim taking over it?
The right's hatred for the left is a little greater than what you wrote, and the right is destroying the country and you have claims against the left - wake up.
Politics and frivolity ruined everything.
There is no room for a new path because a spirit of foolishness, delusion, and madness has taken over the institutions.
Regarding the ritual tradition – there is nothing in the Torah that resembles what the Chazal did with the religious tradition. Even the language (which is of Mizrahi-Arabic origin and has its roots in the Arabic language) and the letters do not resemble the language of the Bible. The shape of the letters – the font (!)
Focus on uniting around refugee culture – both Palestinians are refugees and half of the country, if not two-thirds. This is the common denominator.
Therefore, I do not vote or participate in political discourse.
There is a crisis that requires a recalculation of the path.
The problems are not hopelessly complicated (they can be solved quickly) but the fact that they didn't even try to talk about them (except for a few here and there – without offering a solution) is. So they worked on you again?
And when I wrote institutions, I mainly meant the media (and journalism, obviously)