Living in Bet Shemesh. A beautiful town, without the sea, but with fantastic people. A real gathering of the exiles, communities full of chessed and parks for the kiddies.
But you know there is a BUT coming. The BUT is the fanatics who are trying their best to change the way we think and see things.
When I fist came to Israel, I used to hang out with the really heavy duty chassidic families in areas like Ezrat Torah in Jerusalem. Where women shave their heads and eat in the kitchen. Where boys and girls in one family cannot communicate even if they wanted to, because they do not share a language. The boys speak only Yiddish, and the girls - only Hebrew. One of the grandmas there showed me her wedding album, and oh gosh. In the 30s, chassidic women wore skirts above the knee, and no socks! Her friends were photographed in short and light white and colourful dresses, with hair showing, free dress style, open sandals, and looking very much like my mom did in her USSR life in the same 30s. The men had white suits, no beard, and no peot showing. Chassidim! What changed?!
When I came to live in Israel in 1995, there was one (one!!) separate bus in the whole country. And charedi people themselves found it weird and pointed at it, saying, oh, the crazies. Shall I remind you what it looks like now? Shall I remind you of all the cases of men hitting women (!) for refusing to sit where told? Bus tires sliced, bins burned.
11 years ago, when we moved to Bet Shemesh, the local advertising papers would publish pictures of girls under the age of 5 or so, but not older. No women. But at least girls! Since then, the faces of those girls have been blurred. Then, eventually, there were no girls at all. The latest rules dictate that no women's names are to appear in the media.
The full list of new rules appears here: http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.co.il/2015/02/the-crazies-of-bet-shemesh-set-new.html
Here are some of them:
* no images of sheitels or hair
* no images of men modeling anything. images of male children must be clearly haredi.
* no advertising judo, self-defense, etc classes
* no advertising driving lessons for women or yeshiva bochurim
* no advertising mixed events or performers who perform before mixed crowds.
* no advertising evenings of music or chazzanut even if it is for a male-only crowd and for a mitzva
* no renting rooms for rent, unless it is in a haredi area
* no advertising restaurants or other entertainment spots that are not in haredi areas
* cannot use the words "tzimmer", "pregnant", "nursing", names of women, ...
* no using words and concepts of the army, police or academy...
What's happening to my people? It's clearly a process. Where is it taking us?
The latest is that the very word "woman" has become dirty. There are pictures circulating on the social media - the Bet Shemesh women's wellness centre had the word "woman" obliterated. This made me think of the lecture I've heard once from a dear teacher at Neve, Rebbetzen Heller. And her words stayed with me. She said, when people consider a thing dirty, they'll keep on inventing new euphemisms for it, while the old euphemisms will keep on becoming derogatory. Examples - any term related to the human reproductive system and excretion. Sadly, the same happened with the terms white people used for the black people - because of racist minds, ever new and exciting terms keep on coming up - "black" instead of the N word, etc. "Breast cancer" is the "women's disease". So the word "woman" is the new derogatory. I dare my dear readers to look out for the new emerging euphemisms, invented to replace the "dirty" concept of "women". Because they'll come.
I
find this tendency absolutely terrifying. For a number of reasons -
1.
Where does this stop? And does it? Why don't the authorities remove the
children from homes where girls are forced to walk around in black tents
and turn to the wall when a male enters? Is that any less abuse than,
let's say, drug use? Or children who are beaten by their parents and get
forcibly removed. In secular homes, children are taken away for a lot a
lot less. The State is betraying those children.
2. The split between the charedi society and everybody
else - even the moderate charedim. In some 50 years we won't be one
nation - there will be the tzanua ones and the ones who didn't measure
up. Call it the new Christianity or whatever - it's coming.
3. As the process goes on, there will be more and more violence
against women and those who are in any way different. Extremist and narrow thinking cannot abide by any difference.
4. The psychological aspect - this is not bordering on
neurosis, it's way more. Thousands of children are receiving an
education designed to damage them psychologically. The sex-phobia, the
huge pink elephant nobody wants to talk about. Living in shame and fear of one's body. When will they start
removing lamp posts, because they look like the male member - I'm telling you, it's coming, too. Any object could be used for the purpose of fornication - because in their minds, all people think about is that. Regards from grandpa
Freud. And our children will share the world with theirs. How?
I'm sorry to say, but for me, as a person who happens to know history really well, this situation is screaming louder than the sirens we had in the summer. It's bringing up heavy associations - with the Inquisition, for example. This world view is more Christian than Christianity is today. With the Soviet style oppression of those who are different. With all the tragedies caused by racism. This is straight out of Orwell. And Freud. We claim to be the Chosen People, with God-given Torah and a just, Divine-ordained conduct of society. But the two just don't stitch together. If you believe one, the other is absurd, and visa versa. We cannot be both Divine -inspired and chosen, and try to obliterate the women. We can't have a society where only men are equal/chosen/accepted/ in existence. We do not do "credo quia absurdum" - we have always been known for our logic. SO what's going on?
My postulate is that this tznius process is an extreme reaction to the Holocaust. Some people (Rabbis?) believe that we can prevent a recurrence of it by being invisible. By being more holy than humans, by becoming a body-less society, angels. If we are perfect, or rather, we don't exist in this sinful world, there will be no Holocaust anymore. Their hatred for the State comes of the same root - the active, fighting and voting Jews are exposing themselves to Divine retribution, just like the "maskilim" did in the 30s, and if wrath gets poured, it will be poured on everybody. It's not a coincidence that the stories of the righteous escaping the Nazis by direct Divine intervention are bestsellers in the Charedi society. It is not a coincidence that they prohibit men from working - body-less men engaged in Torah only will sweeten the judgement. It's not a coincidence that women are expected to dwell in the Tent - that's how a woman becomes a body-less angel. Invisible and safe. The charedi society is disengaging not only from the secular Jews, it's parting with the physical world as such. As much as possible.
Solutions? I have none. Perhaps this process has gone too far to stop or reverse it. But the only ones who can - the Rabbis - are actually propelling our people forward. They're removing them from the world in order to save them. I don't know what can break the solid glass wall of their fear.
As the society becomes more and more stringent, more and more people part with it. They should have some kind of a support framework. And perhaps, it's time the State interfered to create that support. Many people have nowhere to go. Perhaps time for the State to cooperate with the Rabbis. Time some things became illegal, and came with heavy fines. Because the shekel is something anyone understands. Time to open education centers, libraries, matnasim in the Charedi areas - places where kids can find out about the world. Some kind of youth support groups - under the guidance of the Rabbis who do see beyond their noses.Education and extremism cannot go together. And we can petition the State on the eve of the elections - for the sake of the future generations, for all of those. The women's party is the best and most hopeful sign of possible change. It's time for charedim to come back to the world. Time for their children to stop living in terror. God has placed us here to live and enjoy what we can.
