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Days of awe By Yair Sheleg Tags: Mercaz Harav, Palestinians Some of those murdered last week at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva were seen in earlier photos with long earlocks, usually indicative of affiliation with ultra- Orthodoxy rather than the national- religious stream. The pictures were accompanied by testimonies about how they studied Torah around the clock. Rabbi Eitan Eisman, a member of the yeshiva's administration, appeared on TV on the night of the murder, wearing a wide-brimmed hat of the kind identified with the ultra-Orthodox. This is not how religious Zionism, or even Mercaz Harav, used to look: In the past, its students looked like young Israelis in every respect and though its rabbis wore suits, they wore knitted skullcaps. However, in a conversation with Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss, head of the high-school seminary at Mercaz Harav, where five of the eight young men killed were students (the other three were students at the adult yeshiva), it emerges that the victims did not in fact reflect the general student body of the yeshiva, but rather the matmidim (particularly diligent ones) among them. They were still sitting in the library and studying late in the evening, a short while before a party was to be held to mark the new Hebrew month of Adar Bet; everything was organized already. "All five were our most serious boys," Weiss says, adding, "There are also people here who have more difficulties learning, and we accept them, too." Does such a murder, and particularly of matmidim, arouse questions of faith? Not necessarily, the rabbi explains: "Of course, it is still too early to examine the big questions, but in any case a crisis of faith, in the sense of a dramatic change in attitude, is something I hardly envisage. There is an introspection, there are questions of reward and punishment, and it would not be natural if there weren't such questions. I tell them that the fundamental answer to the problem of death in this world is the elevation of life, but on the individual level - why was this particular person murdered? There is no answer to that, nor is there any point in asking questions like that. This is just frustration that does not yield any fruit." Advertisement A conversation with a group of 12th-graders at the yeshiva shows a clear, basic difference between them and the world of their secular peers: They are very goal-oriented, be it with respect to learning Torah, social action or the fight for West Bank outposts (some of them participated in the resistance two years ago to the evacuation of Amona). Says Ori Cohen: "As a leading public, we have a sense of responsibility that is incumbent on us, [a sense] that the future of the nation rests on our shoulders. Sometimes this is a burden, but in any case this feeling never lets up." When they take time off from studying, they engage in very conservative, almost anachronistic types of recreation, like a basketball game or organizing a Purim play at the yeshiva. On the one hand, they express profound scorn for the emptiness that, in their opinion, characterizes the secular world, but on the other hand it is clear that they are exposed to that same secular conceptual world. It is important to them that "the seculars" recognize them and respect their world. Cohen tells of the family of one of the murder victims, Yochai Lifshitz, which mulled over the possibility of giving interviews to the media: "They decided that they would, because it was important to them that people know that there are also young people who aren't interested only in the Champions League or in [singer] Ninet's shaved head." Secular encounters Ultimately, though, their world is also, in a way, influenced by the "Channel 2 culture": One of the last recreational activities at the yeshiva was a trivia quiz about yeshiva life, called "1 vs. 50," modeled after the TV game show "1 vs. 100." In actuality, the lives of these young men have been nearly devoid of encounters with the secular world: Most grew up in settlements in the territories or in Jerusalem (according to a recent survey, relates Elhanan Uriel, only 12 percent come from the large cities in the center of the country). To bridge the gap, if partially, the yeshiva staff organized two encounters with secular youth, members of the "labor movement" - high- schoolers from the kibbutzim Kabri and Givat Brenner. Did the yeshiva students think there was something to learn from the kibbutzniks? Cohen: "I believe that there is - like in the army, wonderful stories of heroism also emerge about secular guys. But all in all, I see the relationship between us to be like parent and child. When parents see that the child is doing something silly they try to straighten him out, not out of arrogance, but rather out of a sense of mutual responsibility." But some at least see the solution to their disconnect from society at large in that, unlike their parents, who went to live in religious settlements in the territories, they will build their futures in Torah- oriented communities that will be based in the large cities. Contrary to the claim in Haaretz this week by one of the counselors at the yeshiva, the interviewees do not suggest that the public mourning for their friends is less profound than what it would have been for any other eight youngsters. Says Weiss: "It used to be that all of Israel was one family, and the neighborhood wasn't split up into religious and secular." The students reflect a similar position: "There is definitely identification," says Uriel. "When our guys went to develop pictures of the murder victims, the stores did it for them for free. But it is clear that when people don't know the victims, and don't even know the type of people who were murdered, they feel the grief less." In its day, Mercaz Harav elevated the concept of identification with the state to a religious value and would invite the prime minister or chief of staff to its Independence Day party. In recent years they have not invited state representatives to their celebrations, and in this spirit even at the funeral a week ago, the only officials who were present were a few Knesset members from the National Union party and Shas. The students acknowledge the distancing, but blame the government for it. Uriel: "The disengagement came from 'their' side. They decided to disengage from us." Cohen elaborates: "Why don't we invite the heads of government any more? Because when they are chasing after every outpost that moves, or after Amona, it's a betrayal of our trust. After all, there isn't any public that devotes itself to the state more than our public - certainly more than the ultra-Orthodox, but also more than the secular - and this public is always getting slapped in the face, so it's clear that we will not turn the other cheek." Despite the anger and insult they feel, these students stress that Education Minister Yuli Tamir was received this week at the yeshiva with respect, and only a few people from the outside cursed her and made all the fuss. Cohen: "I certainly do not agree with her opinions, but she is definitely not the murderer. She is minister of education in the State of Israel, and oy vavoy if she hadn't visited an educational institution after a thing like that happened." And Prime Minister Ehud Olmert? "This is more complex. I am certain that we would have received him nicely, too, but he himself should not have come, out of shame." Adds Uriel: "After Amona and after Olmert said that the Second Lebanon War would help the 'convergence' [withdrawal to Israel's pre-'67 borders], this is a kind of scorn that I am not prepared to accept. Therefore, I would ask him politely not to come." Asked if they feel that the general public, and not just the government, is also alienated from them, they say that if there is such a feeling, it is because of the media. "In recent years, there has been a connection between the media and the government - the whole story about the various etrogim," Rabbi Weiss says (referring to the citrons used during the Sukkot holiday, which are handled with great care, as some say the supposedly left-wing press treated the Sharon government and subsequently Olmert's with kid gloves). "It is very hard for the general Israeli public to penetrate this connection, so the media definitely do influence public opinion." Cohen: "If there is alienation, I blame the media more than the public. The media have 'dripped' this alienation toward us on the public." But even if at Mercaz Harav they are angry at both the government and the media, they still feel loyalty toward the state. The students all express a desire to be conscripted into the army, particularly into combat units. That includes Cohen, a resident of Nitzan, formerly of Neveh Dekalim, in Gaza's Gush Katif, who relates that the caravilla (large mobile home) in which his family lives leaked all winter. When asked directly about it, the interviewees do not blame the left for the murder of their classmates. For a yeshiva boy, Uriel has quite a surprising analogy concerning this matter: "It's like a woman who comes home late from her lover, and her husband murders her. She isn't to be blamed for the murder, but rather the husband. You can't absolve the murderer of responsibility." Uri Ariel: "When [President Shimon] Peres brings weapons to Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas], then afterward a terrorist carries out an attack with a blue [Israeli] identity card and with a weapon he was given - you can't be surprised." Itamar Dimentman: "An Arab who gets a blue identity card - it isn't as though at first he was a 'good Arab' and now he has become a 'bad Arab.' It means that from the outset he shouldn't have received an identity card." Cohen: "The fact that they didn't dismantle the mourners tent [at the murderer's home], that they keep quiet about the way [MK Ahmed] Tibi talks, or the electricity and the fuel they are providing to the Gaza Strip - there's an attempt all the time here to placate the Arabs. True, if you compare them point by point they are worse off, but the problem lies in the fact of the comparison. The recognition is lacking that this is our country, not theirs." On Wednesday, TV Channel 1 reported that a rabbi at the adult yeshiva of Mercaz Harav had provided a halakhic justification for revenge actions for the massacre. Weiss, however, says he has not heard discussion of revenge among the students. "I spoke with them, and I told them that it upsets me to hear that such ideas are circulating, and I made it clear that we are completely opposed to the idea. They said that no one had been talking in that vein. To our way of thinking, vengeance belongs to God, not to human beings. Such behavior is forbidden in and of itself, and it also would be of no use." These are young people who have an extremist right-wing political position. They are also prepared to fight for it, as they proved at Amona and will no doubt demonstrate again in the future. Nevertheless, there is a feeling that the political fervor among some of them is less powerful than that of their parents, who established the settlement enterprise in the territories 20 to 30 years ago. These younger ones will fight for their homes with all their might, but for some of them, at least, what really interests them is studying the Torah, as well as their personal spiritual development. Rabbi Weiss, who confirms this analysis, adds: "The entire society has undergone a trajectory of transition from a focus on national goals to personal development. The focus on the study of Torah is [the students'] version of this process, but we are trying to stop this process and to remind them that our Torah is an all-encompassing Torah, not for individuals, and the great tikkunim we want to make in the world cannot be done by individuals." Descriptions of Mercaz Harav - along the lines of its being "the flagship of religious Zionism" - were apt in the 1970s and '80s, when indeed this yeshiva did shape religious Zionism. But today, when religious Zionism is split into many streams and offshoots, and after even this yeshiva itself experienced a dramatic split about a decade ago - there is neither one single key personality, nor one single central institution that shapes the spirit of all of religious Zionism. Not even Mercaz Harav. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Good Avraham Hunting An ex-security guard solves a problem that has baffled mathematicians for decades. A better place Some 2,400 African refugees have entered Israel via Egypt since January.

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