Haredim Don’t Pray for Israel?!
Shalom, In our community in NW London (Edgware) there are several synagogues which refuse to recite prayers and blessings for the State of Israel, the IDF soldiers and our brutally kidnapped people. Some synagogues also refuse to recite Tehilim for our brave soldiers during the week between mincha and maariv. According to my understanding these synagogue rabbis transgress the following mitzvot: 1/ – refusing to pray for his friend and 2. love of fellow Jews. Please confirm if you agree or not with my assessment and if you have other comments on this matter, thanks.
Answer:
Those people are terribly mistaken, and probably did not consult with their rabbis, for it shows a terrible lack of Ahavat Yisrael. You can point out to them that R. Osher Weiss (definitely not a Zionist, and a universally acclaimed and accepted Gadol HaDor, and acknowledged by all as much greater than any rabbi in England or all of Europe), has called to all Jews all over the world to daven and say Tehilim for the welfare of all fellow Jews in Israel, the kidnapped and the IDF (MinchasAsher, newsletter). Especially this year where our international achdut has BH been strengthened so much, those few who don’t participate are the one’s who miss out in this unique feeling & opportunity, and great mitzvah.
I would just add that the Rambam (Hil. Teshuva 3, 11) rebukes very strongly those who don’t participate and feel the pain when Am Yisrael is in trouble, that even if they are very pious and fulfill all of the mitzvot- they have no share in the World to Come. Rav Y.B. Soloveichik (Community, Covenant and Commitment [Hebrew], 2011, 68 & 244, based upon that Rambam) mentions that this includes those who don’t help out as much as possible when Israel is at war, at the very minimum (!) in their davening and Tehilim which don’t “cost” them anything!
Similarly, another one of the greatest rabbis of the previous generation Rav Yosef Eliahu Henkin (Tshuvot Ibra, II, pp. 215-216) wrote that he had originally opposed the Zionist movement and the founding of the secular State of Israel. But when the Arabs came to attack Israel and push us into the sea, every single Jew must side with Israel to do whatever is in his power (at least praying) to help. “For millions of Jewish lives depend upon their success [of Israel and the IDF]. As our sages before us taught, ‘Can I leave my children to fall in the hands of the goyim?!’ ” (ibid I, p. 116, based on Lekach Tov, Vayichi 48, 22). He went so far as to call those (hopefully few) of Neturei Karta and Satmar who side with the Arabs against Israel: “mosrim and rodfim” (Tshuvot Ibra, II, above) who should be treated as traitors, for they endanger Jews, and their halachic status is very severe.
One last important general point regarding this mistake: R. Elya Meir Bloch, famed founding rosh yeshiva of Telz in Cleveland warned the Haredi leadership already in 1954/תשי“ד, that if they continue to deny reality and oppose (!) the obvious mitzvot (!) of studying Tanach, speaking Hebrew and making Aliya to Eretz Yisrael, just because the Zionists also support these great deeds, many young people will realize the hypocrisy and falsehood of such proclamations and will subsequently leave the Haredi community with disgust (letter written by R. Bloch, dated May 16, 1954, quoted by Rabbi JJ Shachter, “Facing the Truths of History”, Torah U’Madda Journal, vol. 8 (1998-1999):, p. 224).
Similarly, I have no doubt that the vast majority of Haredim in London know very well that good Jews daven and say Tehilim when our brothers & sisters anywhere are in danger, whether religious or not and especially in the Holy Land, and are already acting accordingly. If a misinformed member of their local community leadership thinks to proclaim otherwise, just in order to “distance themselves from the non-religious”, they are simply admitting their ignorance not only of halacha (that we must pray for all Jews, even the non-religious) but they are absurdly misinformed of common knowledge (for most of the combat soldiers fighting and risking their lives for the Holy Nation in the Holy Land, are actually religious- and fighting for the Holy Torah, as well!). Such gabbaim are in fact causing a grave Chilul Hashem by mistakenly making the Torah look ridiculous and immoral, and even “shooting themselves in the foot”, for Baruch Hashem, almost all healthy religious Jews, have immense Ahavat Yisrael, and really know what’s right and what’s simply wrong! B’Ahavat Yisrael, Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)