Why Some Orthodox Jews in Israel are Violent
Why don’t Orthodox Jews in America act violently against women who are not dressed modestly, while some in Israel do? There are to my knowledge almost no such outbursts in the USA, whereas in Israel we read about them quite often, such as this week http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/12/27/3090916/israelis-rally-around-naama-women In fact the attitude of even right wing, insular, Orthodox Jews in America, who might reject secular studies, the state of Israel and public rolls for women, act with much love toward non-Orthodox Jews, trying perhaps to bring them closer to Jewish observance; at which they often are successful.
It is not that Orthodox Jews in Israel are more observant of Halacha (Jewish law) than those in the United States. In fact to my knowledge not only does the Shulchan Aruch (Judaism’s authoritative code of Jewish Law) not stipulate violence against people immodestly dressed, it does not even require modest dress for women. What it does require is for men to take care what they look at. The burden of modesty seems, according to the Jewish Code of Jewish law, to fall entirely upon men.
Additionally such violence seems to fly in the face of many other Jewish values. In Genesis Abraham stands talking to God. Suddenly, spying three nomads walking in the desert he leaves God’s presence to welcome them. Abraham did not know they were angles, he thought they were men, pagans like everyone else at that time. The Talmud says we must learn from this act that: “Greater is the welcoming of guests than receiving the Divine presence.” Thus, it seems we learn from Abraham that when our relationship with God and our (even potential) relationship with humans in possible need are in conflict and we can not attend to both, our responsibility to other people, even idol worshipers, must come first.
On a practical level such violence does not work to end immodesty either. If one’s aim is for women to dress more modestly, a more effective approach would be to bring them close to Jewish observance, which only happens though love, not hate or violence; -so why all the violence if it is not religiously justifiable and not practically helpful?
The answer, I think, is that in Israel religion and politics are comingled, and politics is primarily about power. Religion should be about the spirit, about one’s relationship with the Divine, and about the ethical. But in a place where religion and power are interdependent, though politics may be tinted by the spirit, religion is certainly colored by power.
In general those who feel powerful do not have to perpetrate violence, but those who feel powerless do. Violence protects feelings of powerlessness that lurk just under the surface, just as haughtiness is perpetrated by individuals to counteract strong feelings of insecurity. Religion is a perfect guise for such violence since it paints violence as indignant and vindicated, righteous and productive. Just what the psychoanalyst ordered.
Why do the right wing Orthodox (Charedi) in Israel feel powerless? I think it has to do with their self imposed position in the greater society. They do not serve in the army, something that in the state of Israel is considered the badge of honor, and as of a recent rabbinical edict, they are not permitted to study secular subjects even if it will assist them in finding a job. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/151133#.Tv0hKVYkKSo
Many live below the poverty line, http://www.haaretz.com/themarker/more-than-half-of-israel-s-ultra-orthodox-living-in-poverty-1.323309 subsisting on government handouts in order to study for many years and thus avoid army service, considered spiritually dangerous by Charedi (anti-Zionist, strongly insular) Orthodox communities. Without serving in the army in Israel and without secular academic education, theirs is a poor sub-culture seen as backward by Israel’s general society, and even by their religious-Zionist Orthodox co-religionists. So who can blame them for being angry? Unless Jews begin to wake up to the tearing issues that seethe below the surface of Israeli society and find a way to help, we shall all ultimately suffer, those who perpetrate the violence and those who suffer in its wake.
