Last week I talked about a series of “undercover” meetings in which I was privileged to participate together with other spokesmen for the chareidi community in fraught but fruitful dialogues with representatives of some of the more anti-religious elements in Israeli society. Our eyes were opened at those meetings when we discovered that for our opponents the most burning question was “Where will we fit in when you people take over? What are your plans for us?” In view of the demographic trend that clearly forecasts a chareidi majority within a few decades these secular Jews were full of dread for their future. They envisioned a theocratic regime like that of Iran or Saudi Arabia headed by ayatollah-like figures who would have sinners dragged out and put to death by stoning. They would be watched by a black-garbed religious police force and woe to anyone who should stray from strict morality or break the Shabbos laws. It sounds incredible but they were speaking for large portions of the Israeli population who actually see this scenario as a tangible threat. This they fear is the fate in store for them if the chareidim should ever come to outnumber them and this fear has actually been expressed in various official forums where it was broadly hinted that some way of curbing chareidi population growth must be found chas v’shalom. Either that or we’ll be asked to pack up get out of the country and move to Brooklyn en masse. Attempts to allay these fears by reassurance doesn’t usually work. The secularists are convinced that we’re trying to trick them into lowering their guard to put them to sleep so that our takeover will be that much easier. This very issue was addressed in my book HaChareidim: Mi Anachnu b’Emet? (Chareidim: Who Are We Really?) -- written at the request of a number of colleagues on the religious left and published by Keter a secular publishing house. Allow me to quote a passage: “Try and explain to [a secular Israeli] especially if he isn’t interested in listening that we have no desire to impose a halachic regime here in the State of Israel. Even if this impossible vision should ever become a reality and the government should fall into chareidi hands there are simply no such intentions and certainly no ability to implement such a policy. “Try and explain to him that even the Sanhedrin the high court that judged transgressors in the time of the Second Temple (and will be reestablished when the Mashiach comes) was called a “murderous Sanhedrin ” to use the Talmud’s expression if they meted out a death sentence as often as once in seventy years. Try and explain to him that the kind of judicial investigation mandated by halachah and the criteria for conviction make it practically impossible to execute a transgressor. “Try and explain that because of all the above the Torah is considered an educational system instead of a penal code and that the punishments prescribed by the Torah for various sins are mainly for the sake of illustrating to the believer the severity of his sin even though it is nearly impossible for a beis din to sentence him. And in the rare case that all the conditions for sentencing are met and a Shabbos desecrator or adulterer is actually executed the ignominious label of ‘murderous Sanhedrin’” is slapped upon the court. The beis din should have gone to any length within the limits of the law to avoid executing the transgressor. Is this what you call Iran?” I will interject with a story. I once lectured on this subject before a group of students from the Technion in Haifa explaining step by step how the Sanhedrin dealt with an accused murderer. We went through the halachos examining how at every stage the Sanhedrin looked for every possible point in the defendant’s favor. I told them how if it happened that despite all their efforts the Sanhedrin remained with no alternative but to hand down a death sentence the beis din would send messengers out to the people crying “Please do an act of kindness and find a merit for the prisoner who is being led to his execution right now.” All it took was one person who would announce “I know something in his favor ” to stop the execution. If after deliberating on the new testimony the court granted clemency to the prisoner and released him he could no longer be retried for the crime. Even if someone dayan or layman brought further evidence against him at a later time it would be ignored. An acquittal was final but a not conviction! The students’ response to all this amazed me. “Why didn’t anybody ever tell us this before?” they wanted to know. Can you imagine? They were all going around thinking that if the chareidim should ever gain the upper hand they were headed for the gallows since they knew they were guilty of serious transgressions by the Torah’s criteria. Permit me to continue with one more passage from the book: “A certain high-ranking personality from the Israeli left (he was a famous Cabinet minister) presented to a great rabbi and Torah authority the troubling question of what would become of the chilonim in a state ruled by halachah. The rabbi’s answer was based on a statement in Maseches Shabbos (15): Forty years before the destruction of the Temple the Sanhedrin went into exile and began to meet in a store. The general spiritual level in Jerusalem had deteriorated badly and there were many transgressors who had fallen into the most serious sins sins for which they were liable to the death penalty according to the law (provided that their guilt was clearly established in beis din of course). The Sanhedrin’s authority to judge such cases was drawn from the place in which they sat the Lishkas HaGazis which was adjacent to the Holy Temple. Licentiousness had become so common that rather than be forced to execute transgressors the Sanhedrin preferred to stop judging capital cases. The only solution the court could find was to divest itself of the authority to judge these crimes by leaving the Lishkas HaGazis and moving into a shop somewhere in the city. If this was what the Sanhedrin chose to do in the time of the Holy Temple then clearly in our generation when we have no Temple no Sanhedrin and no authority to judge capital cases the Torah does not allow us to impose its laws by force. The Sanhedrin will be restored when the Mashiach comes. Therefore you have nothing to fear since you secularists don’t believe in the coming of Mashiach anyway.” If more people in the secular community were aware of these facts there would surely be less hysteria and hate despite all our disagreements. Food for Thought In every generation new ways of fighting must be used against the yetzer hara because he knows all our old ways already and he has adapted to them (The Shpoler Zeide)