Cancelled: Agudah Prayer Rally Against Charedi Conscription

by @azigra

The Jerusalem Post reported that, "Agudath Israel spokesman Rabbi Avi Shafran confirmed YWN’s report of the event’s cancellation  but said it was due to “security concerns in the wake of the terrible terror attack earlier this week in Boston.""

Over on N. Slifkin's R.J. blog he wrote about the Agudah's rational for cancelling what would have been a large gathering of Jews "to daven for rachmei Shamayim in the face of this impending gezeira" (-CD Zwiebel).  

Slifkin argues:

"Surely, Agudath Israel, you can't be serious! Why can't their Torah protect them?
...............let's make a comparison. The Boston attack.....was the first such attack in over ten years. The odds of another terror attack taking place......are absolutely minimal.  And yet a concentrated gathering of the top Gedolim in America, accompanied by the avreichim and bochrim of the kollelim and yeshivos, devoutly immersed in tefillah, nevertheless still isn't good enough to merit Divine protection. But they are insisting that their Torah is good enough to merit protection against the ongoing, very real, vastly more serious threat of not just one or two terrorists, but many thousands of terrorists inside Israel and entire armies outside of Israel?!"

What Slifkin fails to understand, perhaps, is that the Lithuanian Torah view is that Jews will only survive and succeed in this world through its observance and study of the Torah. The Chevron Yeshiva is essentially a behind the lines office for the IDF, they are contributing to Israel's safety by ensuring IDF operations succeed by studying and observing. Their view is that if Torah study were to cease, the IDF would no longer succeed in its protection of the State. 

Slfkin's argument makes sense logically, but this debate is occurring on a different plane. He hasn't one upped the Charedim. 

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