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A year ago, in October 2025, I wrote an article about these protests called “A Million Man Chillul Hashem”:
I shared that my elderly father was recovering from a stroke at a healthcare facility, and this widely touted “prayer gathering”, as they cynically called it, made it impossible for anyone to visit my father, who often would not eat, drink, or take his medicine unless someone close to him was present. This was not a bastardization of pikuach nefesh that has become typical in our times; it was actual pikuach nefesh.
Yesterday was a similar scenario, only more urgent. My father’s health is fragile, and if no one could visit him yesterday afternoon, it was very possible that he would wind up not eating or drinking anything for about 24-hours, and would have to get by on intravenous fluids.
Yesterday’s protest directly prevented people from visiting my father. I was not scheduled to be there yesterday afternoon, and filling the void meant that I would probably get stranded in the eye of the storm until the hooligans finished standing up for Torah.
I explored various possibilities to be able to tend to my father and also teach last night’s class. These included bringing my laptop and teaching the class inside a shul on wifi, then getting home extremely late, or renting a hotel room for the night. Cancelling the class was not an option. I postponed it for an hour to have a bit of a buffer, went to my father, and left it up to Hashem.
In the end I had tremendous siyata dishmaya, giving my father everything he needed with unlikely efficiency, then just caught the last bus out of dodge before all traffic was diverted, even though this bus left nearly an hour after the protest was scheduled to start, and my initial thought was not even to bother going that way. I made it home extremely fast.
Did the holy champions of Torah care that blocking the streets and highways caused severe distress and harm to many thousands of innocent people, and even endangered the lives of sick, elderly, and homebound people? Of course not. If you bring this to their attention they will self-righteously argue that their protests over imprisoned yeshiva students are pikuach nefesh, Da’as Torah this and all the Gedolim that, and, basically, no one else and nothing else matters.
Did they ever learn Bava Kamma? I don’t mean studying three pages in a zman and torturing them to death with pilpul, but actually learning Bava Kamma, and internalizing it? Do they understand what a serious responsibility it is to be a mazik.
If they studied Bava Kamma, or even just learned some basic mussar, they would understand that preventing thousands of innocent people from traveling is being mazik the rabim, and people who do this are reshaim — even if the cause behind their protest is legitimate.
They howl about police beating them mercilessly, and send videos around showing that the police are cruel and charedi protestors are victims. Like this:
Just like the Zionist regime depends on “antisemitism” to exist and profit, Charedi society depends on hatred and victimization to perpetuate itself. It’s part and parcel of their identity, and a key component of their business model.
They are correct that the Gestapo often treat them worse than Arab and leftist protestors. But that’s not the point. They are still reshaim.
If they learned Bava Kamma they would know that if someone is blocking you from entering your home, you can physically remove him if necessary. If someone is blocking a street and refuses to move, you can get out of your car and physically remove him. If hundreds of hooligans are being mazik the rabim, they should be removed as soon as possible, by whatever means necessary.
They are not victims. They are abusers.
Even though the regime hates Charedim and treats them worse than they treat others who block streets, these frum reshaim who got beaten by police still got off easy. If Torah was the law of the land, Beis Din would give them makas mardus and make them pay for any damage they caused. If they couldn’t afford it, they would be sold into slavery to work off their debt.
Go ask your Rosh Yeshiva and tell me if I’m wrong.
This is true even though I sympathize with the reason behind the protests. No one should be forced into an army against their religious convictions or their conscience, no one should be forced to fight a war they do not believe in, and no one should be sanctioned or punished for it. If a regime cannot sell its people on the worthiness of a military campaign, then they have no moral right to proceed with it.
Charedim have every right to protest the abuses against yeshiva students — but not this way. No one has the right to be mazik the rabim this way — not religious people, not secular people, not Jews, not Arabs, not Holocaust survivors, not people opposing Covid shots and medical tyranny. No one.
They have no right to harm lots of innocent people for “the greater good”.
The truth is that the vast majority of Charedim do not really support these protests, though the propagandists won’t tell you that. Most of them are regular people with families, lives, and even jobs (it’s true!), and they are not at these protests.
Look at the videos and you’ll see almost everyone there is very young. Brainwashed fools. Fringe yeshiva students enjoying a day off and some thrills. Losers and lowlifes wearing a “religious” uniform. […]
These are the people who have the time, energy, and interest in blocking traffic and behaving like idiots. These are the people who will answer the call to do so — not adults with real lives and responsibilities.
And this brings us to something even deeper beneath the surface that the media won’t touch.
It’s very likely that some of these protestors are being paid. This is not unusual, these days it’s the norm. There’s a whole industry of paid protestors, paid agitators, paid provocateurs, and the deep state is all over it.
Who really gains from these protests?
Do the Charedim gain? Their propagandists will tell you that. “See, we protested that yeshiva student who was arrested, and he was released from prison a few days later!”
But do they really gain? If so, knowing what to expect, the regime would stop arresting yeshiva students.
On the contrary, they know exactly what to expect, and they continue playing the game. Because they want the protests to happen. Then their media can get to work and turn the general public even more against Charedim, and demand more forced conscription, more punishment, more cracking of their heads.
Especially with an election coming up. What a perfect time to arrest more yeshiva students, create more protests, and make that the number one issue on everyone’s mind (not October 7 or any number of other things).
Isn’t it interesting how the protests always seem so carefully managed? Always in the same place, always organized (though of course getting just a little out of hand for the cameras and the propagandists).
Always just a few people getting beaten and arrested. Never the ringleaders, of course, just like with Gush Katif the controlled opposition leading the protests weren’t the ones being beaten.
Everyone knows their part and plays it.
Almost as if it’s following a script.
Almost as if it’s controlled.
Because if a protest were organic, it wouldn’t always happen in the same parts of Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, following the same formula, with exactly the same outcomes we have come to expect. It would be far less predictable — exactly what no regime wants.
If the Charedi color war team wasn’t run by Erev Rav too, they would take a far smarter approach that is totally in line with the Torah. They would go door to door, reaching out to the general public, and connecting with them on matters of mutual concern and interest.
They would join forces with disaffected IDF soldiers, with regular people from the Dati Leumi and secular world who are fed up with being abused by the regime and sent into endless wars for nothing. Charedim are far from alone in opposing endless, pointless, forced IDF servitude — so why are these communities turned against each other instead of working together?
If a protest were being run according to the Torah, it wouldn’t be mazik the rabim.
If a protest were being orchestrated by Erev Rav, controlled opposition, and useful idiots it would.
So the Charedi color war team can claim victory. They get someone released from prison and can play the victim card.
The anti-Charedi color war team can claim victory. They can hoot and howl that these yeshiva students are good-for-nothings who should be forced into the army.
Most of all, the regime can claim victory. Because they got everything they wanted, and all the brainwashed fools on both sides took the bait.
As they always do.
