An Open Letter To The Community I was Raised In: The Time Has Come A guest post by Yeedle Yid

Yes my dear chareidy friend. The time has come for us - the chareidy community - to wake up and realize that we are being kept hostage under the iron grip of a few people that we wouldn't think twice to kill them. These people dictate our community to dance according to their rhythm and the vast majority of us are firmly enslaved under the vicious rule of a handful of extremists.

No, don't take me wrong. I'm not talking about our "Gedolim" Chas VeShalom. I'm talking about the people our gedolim are afraid of, the ones who cause our gedolim to be afraid og changing.

No. I'm not your neighborhood blasphemer, who ridicules all gedolim and is on his way "off the dererch". No. That's totally not me. I'm a regular "chasidishe yingerman" who lives in America's Jerusalem aka Williamsburgh, Brooklyn NY, who eats chulent dutifully every weekend, and wears that nice tall rabbit-fur hat. But, thanks God, under that rabbit-fur hat, I was granted a brain that possess reasonable amounts of logic, and in order to utilize what God gave me, I used that brain to think about Life and what it's all about, and came to the 'shocking' realization that we, meaning the chareidy community at large, are wasting our lives.

Yes. I know that the gedolim are smarter, brighter, more knowledgeable (you fill in the rest) than we are, and if they decided that sending all our boys to yeshiva and not to collage is the way to go, than it is without doubt the best thing you can do for your children. But give it a moment of thought. Are we really being led on the right path? Is our system really surpassing all other? Is the decision by our gedolim not to learn secular studies in yeshivos, a decision made after clearly thinking over the matter and considering both options equally, or is it just a blind continuation of what used to be, with the brilliant argument that "if that's what our ancestors of yesteryear considered as the right way, it surely still applies to us"?

I'm not trying to say that our gedolim of the previous generation were wrong. Quite the opposite. In my opinion, this is what the Orthodox Jewry needed right after WWII to be able to survive.If the yeshiva system wouldn't have been instigated right from the start, orthodoxy would've faded into oblivion. The attempts of Rav Kook, to merge two worlds has partially failed as is evident by the large amount of Datlashim (A whooping 1/4 according to one source).So it's understsnable why others, like the Chazon Ish and Briske Rav in Israel and Satmar Rav in the U.S., insisted on sticking to pure torah study in yeshivos, and were against Orthodox Jews joining the army ranks.

But, my friends, the time has come. We are immunised enough, and we are ready to face the world. Nothing would happen if we start getting normal education for our kids. Nothing will happen if those who do not belong in kolel go out to work. The level of observance won't change. If anything, it will only be enhanced. We will start producing our own doctors, lawyers, everything that every normal community is producing.

Nothing will happen, my dear chareidy colleagues, if we would start filling up the ranks of Nachal Chareidy instead of loitering in yeshiva hallways wasting our time and life. nothing will happen if we start working instead of travelling to the U.S. for schnorring purposes.

Now, my dear chareidy friend, I know that you're going to impulsively reject what I told you, because that's how you - and I - were raised. We are constantly getting the message that we have to believe everything and everyone, otherwise we are going straight to hell. But please allow yourself to 'cheat' just this once, because this is a matter of whether you are going to waste your life or not. Truth being said, the odds are that YOUR life has already been wasted by your parents. But you can still save your children.

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