If We Can’t Change Them, What Can We Change?

Hi, this is David Alowski with our question and answer shorts. Yehuda Kravitz writes, "Thank you for clarifying the Karedi point of view on draft laws and the anti-religious crusade of Israel's political left. In the spirit of the brisker's observation regarding sephona which you have often quoted since we can't change them what should we be working on within our own communities in response to the current situation excellent question for those who are not familiar with this briskar which I have quoted many times as somebody was coming over to the brisk and complaining about the kilon and complaining about that and he says why are you talking about them. They're they're not relevant to this story. There's a boatload of idol worshippers and there's a storm that's going to sink the boat. And Yona Hanavi says, "Nah, none of this is because of you. It's only because of me. I'm I'm the the Jewish people are the ones who decide everything here. Throw me in the water and the storm will stop. Even though they're still idol worshippers and they're still evil, but God's not concerned to destroy you. He's coming after me." and they throw him in the water and sure enough the storm stops. Yeah. So the briskar says you see that when there's problems happening we look at ourselves at the firm community not outside of it to anybody else. So therefore the as I explained was for us it was to us to it wasn't a protest. It wasn't a rally it wasn't a political speech. It was just for us to dive into Hashem which means that the obligation is on us. So I want to share with you an idea I heard from Ra Mai pitim. He follows the pkim that say you're supposed to say on your some people do some people don't. He says he follows those pkim. So Yasmotei was in Shul and his minion was about to say Taknan and he said if this is such an emotional issue I'm going to make more of an effort to understand what Taknan is all about and what I'm saying especially on a day when it's controversial for me to say it. I was deeply moved by that idea. If we're saying that we're exempt from military service because we're learning Tyra, then what we need to be is our limitra. We have to be more serious about our learning and we have to put in the time and the effort and the meases to make sure that our Torah learning is what it's supposed to be and on the level it's supposed to be. That's what we can do for ourselves. I don't care if anybody's impressed by it. We're not doing it to impress anybody else. It's for ourselves. They're not going to impress these people. People hate. They've always hated. Doesn't matter what do this viral video of some guy on a train and some woman's yelling at him and says, "You draft dodger." He says, "I'm a lieutenant of the IDF." And he says, "Yeah, well, you're just sitting learning. You don't have a job." He goes, "I'm the CEO of a of a high-tech company." So, she says, "Well, you dress in black and white." He goes, "What's it your business how I dress? I I I have to dress the way you want me to, too." And afterward, she was interviewed by the by the press and she doubled down. Yay. She didn't care that everything she said was a lie. People just hate because it's that says as more than hate Jews hate Ben. You know, so the hatred of us is visceral. It go it's bone deep. It's built in. Like a says, "When I was an amma, I would say show me so I could bite him like a donkey." They said, "Rebi, you mean bite him like a dog." He says, "No, no, no. A donkey breaks bones." That's the hatred that exists. So, I'm not saying do it for them. That's why every time people say, "Do this so people will look at differently." It's a waste of time. They hate us and they'll always hate us. There's nothing you can do about it. You know, it's a waste of time. But it's for us. You're right. It's for us. We have to be limit for ourselves because we're fighting for the right to learn Torah and we should take our Torah learning more seriously. That's it. Until next time, I'm David Olowski with Question and Answer Shorts.