The head of the Bnei David pre-army IDF preparatory yeshiva, Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, commented this evening (Wednesday) in an interview on the uproar surrounding the attempt by left-wing demonstrators to attack him last night in Tel Aviv. In his words, he told about the feelings during the violent event, and how the religious public can respond to the event.
Was there a moment of fear?
"There was no fear there, there was a police force there who did an excellent job. The police were afraid, I was in a circle, and they were guarding me. The feeling that accompanied me was one of pity. Pity for the ignorance about Judaism that led them to imaginary fears, the imagination works with tremendous power, and for that I regretted it."
The rabbi was in favor of dialogue. After the attack yesterday, is there anyone to talk to on the other side?
"On the contrary, we need to talk even more. And there are many people who want to check rationally based on data and a worldview. I am invited to many discourse circles throughout the country, serious people who are not ready for us to talk about love and brotherhood - but want to whitewash the dispute, and put it on the table. I suggested that we take pictures of the meetings and broadcast them, amazing things happen there. Issues of worldviews and basic assumptions are whitewashed, but people did not want to reveal."
How do you deal with this violence?
"Truth has more power than any violent element. They see a tremendous process in the people of Israel, people are getting closer to Judaism, and those who do not know Judaism panic. Judaism is love, equality, honesty, justice."
In Yesh Atid they released a page of messages with all the rabbi's quotes about women, Arabs, and LGBT people. How do we answer them?
"The progressive approach puts these three groups as groups that the straight male Jews oppress. This is a concept that has no grip on reality, but it managed to catch on. A situation has arisen here that is a complete lie, that Judaism by its very identity discriminates against Arabs, the Arabs here receive the most rights that the Arabs have in all countries in the world".
"The claim that women will be less, there is no such thing in Judaism. And the statement as if we have something against the Lahatbis, we have a big argument with them, we claim that it is possible to help them with psychological treatments and they claim that it is not possible. The very claim that it is possible to establish a faithful home in Israel even for people with the opposite tendencies Is she hurting someone? I think differently than you and that's fine."
But the rabbi called them derogatory names.
"Since I said deviance, 7-8 years have passed. Since then they continue to persecute me 24/7, not because of the word it is but because of the essence. The Jewish worldview scares them because they have not heard of Judaism which believes in freedom, in free choice, Judaism is good news for man, in particular, for the family and the world."
So how do you deal with this wave?
"Rabbi Zvi Yehuda used to teach us to multiply faith and love in the two thousandths, and I add another letter of courage. Faith in God, in the Torah in the resurrection of Israel, love for every person in the world, and courage to voice Judaism at the public level. Our country is Jewish. Rationality wins imagination, facts win imagination, and say them in the public space without fear. Over time, the truth wins, I'm not worried."
"The polarization exists, our graduates from my husband's prep school who work in hi-tech companies in Tel Aviv and in the center tell me that it is unpleasant to enter the workplace, not actions but looks, a different attitude, and they have been working with these people for decades and suddenly began to fear them. The end of the imagination to smash against the rocks of reality."
"The psychologists I work with hide in the closet"
Rabbi Levinstein later referred to his work and said "I meet hundreds of teenagers who turn to me because they want to establish a faithful home and marry a woman. There are psychologists who help them because many times it is based on trauma, if only I could present all these young men and women who got married and houses, and they have sweet children and love between them - but they don't dare to tell about it."
According to him, "The psychologists I work with hide in the closet, pass their phones from mouth to mouth, they don't appear anywhere, it's crazy! Tel Aviv, the liberal, free city, silences everyone who can help."
"The religious community should stop apologizing"
In summarizing his remarks, Rabbi Levinstein claimed that "at the public level, the religious and secular public should stop apologizing to the left, stand tall and be proud of Judaism and stop being afraid of the attacks, and then a real process of respect for all those who believe in a Jewish state will begin, that there should be respect and respectful discourse.
After all, until today there were two unequal, some think they are more, and another part feel they are less. There was no egalitarian dialogue and there can be no consensus.
When the public, which has not been able to make its voice heard in the public domain since the establishment of the state until now, finally makes its voice heard on the networks, in the media, and in the Knesset, the other side will have no choice but to understand That we are one people and we are all equal."
