This week, the ultra-Orthodox public said goodbye to another of the greatest rabbis, the fourth funeral in just over a decade: Lithuanian leader Maran Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, who just two months ago celebrated 100 (why "celebrated" and not "celebrated"? Because it feels wrong - Spast Nisht - to say about a Lithuanian leader "celebrated" a birthday. He can "celebrate" the completion of the study of a tractate in the Talmud).
But parting from Rabbi Edelstein is even more than saying goodbye to Maran. This is a farewell to one of the great symbols of the rebirth of ultra-Orthodox Judaism from the ashes of the Holocaust in the Land of Israel, one of the living symbols of shaping Israeli ultra-Orthodox society as a society that revolves around the world of yeshivas, as a "society of learners." The pleas for Rabbi Edelstein's well-being on the eve of his death appeared under the large letters, with the quote, "And the Holy Spirit do not take away from him." Not for nothing.
He was born in Russia in 1923 and immigrated to Israel as a child in 1934. In the winter of 1944, he arrives at the Panevezys Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, which is erected like a legendary romantic dream on the highest hill in the city, and whose huge letters testify to its intended historical role: "And on Mount Zion there will be a refugee." In other words, to save the remnants of the Jewish people's refugees after the Holocaust. This is the famous "Yeshiva Hill" from which the funeral departed this week.
From Panevezys grew the entire Haredi Torah world after the Holocaust, tens upon tens of thousands of students. It all starts from there. It is the miracle of salvation for ultra-Orthodox Judaism. The first class in Panevezys had six students – only six – of whom tens of thousands grew. Two of them were Gershon Edelstein and his brother Yaakov, who later became the most important rabbis. Since the founding of Panevezys in the 40s, Rabbi Edelstein has not left the mother of yeshivas for 80 years. In fact, he is the only person in the world who has accompanied Panevezys from the day it was founded until this very week. He has been studying and teaching at the yeshiva for 80 years, and even before Rabbi Shach passed away in 2001, he was perceived as Rosh Yeshiva. Head of the elite yeshiva of the ultra-Orthodox public. Or the Lithuanian, to be precise.
Why the accuracy? So that we understand the basic division of the haredi public. A division rooted in Eastern Europe in the 18th century, between Hasidim and Lithuanians ("opponents"), and so to this day in Haredi politics. The ultra-Orthodox umbrella faction, Torah Judaism, is divided into two parties: the first - the Hasidic Agudat Israel, whose representatives you are familiar with are MKs Frosh, Goldknopf, Eichler and others; The second is the flag of the Lithuanian Torah, whose familiar representatives are Gafni and Makalev, and perhaps also Yaakov Asher. Rabbi Edelstein is the leader of the flag of the Lithuanian Torah.
Long-lasting leaders
The Great Maranites, leaders of the ultra-Orthodox world, are Lithuanians. Rabbi Edelstein is the fifth in a miraculous chain: Maran Rabbi Shach, who died in 2001 at the age of 102; Maran Rabbi Elyashiv, who died in 2012 at the age of 102; Maran Rabbi Shteinman, who passed away in 2017 at the age of 103; Maran Rabbi Kanievsky, who passed away in 2022 at the age of 94; and Maran, Rabbi Edelstein, who passed away this week at the age of one hundred, after only a year and two months in Maran's metaphorical chair.
We are familiar with two main models of Marnim: first, the "Maran Rosh Yeshiva", the one whose prestige is built on his position at the head of the intellectual institution. Such were Maran Rabbi Shach, Maran Rabbi Shteinman and Maran Rabbi Edelstein. Secondly, "Maran the arbiter of the generation," the one whose prestige is built on his role as the senior ruler of the generation.
Such was Maran Rabbi Elyashiv, and in the Sephardic public Maran Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Rabbi Kanievsky expressed an unusual event of a "mystic Maran" - a Maran whose main charisma stems from the public's perception of him as the "tzaddik of the generation" (although Rabbi Kanievsky, the "tzaddik of the generation", could have been considered both the greatest Torah of the generation and the arbiter of the generation).
It seems that many Haredim understood that this week they parted not only from Maran Rabbi Edelstein, but from the genius and unique system of government "rule of the Maranites." Many of those who, until this week, refused to accept the disintegration of the Maranite regime sadly admitted: "An era is over."
The method of "rule of the Maranites" is the ingenious ultra-Orthodox answer to the disintegration of the structure of the Jewish community in modern times. In fact, the ultra-Orthodox have created for themselves a miraculous, voluntary centralized government. Haredi society as a whole obeys Maran in practice on big issues. The ultra-Orthodox public is educated on the ideal of obedience to the opinion of the great rabbis whose opinion is "Daat Torah" - another key concept, which means that the rabbis' instructions are Da'at Torah even on non-halachic questions, that is, even on the question of who should vote in elections.
Obedience to Maran is part of the charm of Haredi society, and you can sometimes see even former Haredim, to one degree or another, showing up at the polling station, putting on the note "C" and being filled with singular pride and loyalty to the warm home in which they grew up and the command to obey Maran, "even if he shoots at you on the right which is the left and the left which is the right." Therefore, on the big questions, Haredi society largely accepted the instructions of the Maran – and this Maran is Lithuanian. This is how Lithuanian hegemony was built over ultra-Orthodox society. In the heyday, not only the Hasidim of Agudat Yisrael received the leadership of the Lithuanian Maran to an enormous extent, but also the Sephardim from Shas.
What is the significance of the dissolution of the Maranite regime? The Haredim no longer have one Maran to whom everyone obeys. If in the past it was possible to close the issue of the draft law with one ultra-Orthodox leader, the Lithuanian Maran, the process of disintegration has made it so that if Netanyahu wants to lead an agreement on the issue, he has to do so both in front of the flag of the Lithuanian Torah and the Hasidic Agudat Israel.
And it doesn't end there. The Hasidic Agudat Yisrael itself is not centralized, but each MK represents a different Hasidic and a different Rebbe, so you have to close with Frosh and Goldknopf and Eichler and make sure that each and every one of them is with you. This phenomenon already makes it difficult for the ultra-Orthodox to conduct themselves politically.
The 2019 election campaign, which opened the streak of the last five elections, began with the dissolution of the rule of the sole Maran. On the table was an excellent recruitment law for the ultra-Orthodox. The Lithuanian Maran agreed, but his opinion was not accepted, and the Hasidic Rebbe blew up the business.
Do not innovate - prevent innovations
"So what did Rabbi Edelstein innovate?" they asked me this week in the Channel 13 studio. This is categorically incorrect question, and it does not understand the historical role of the Lithuanian Maran. His job is not to innovate—his job is to preserve. Not to bring innovations - but to prevent innovations. "New forbidden from the Torah" is one of the main tenets of ultra-Orthodoxy.
On days like these, hearts are open, and many spoke of the action of Rabbi Edelstein, the moderate and calming leader, in favor of the integration of the ultra-Orthodox into Israeliness. But Rabbi Edelstein did not work to increase integration, but to prevent it. Although he stood out during the coronavirus period for his responsible and rational policy that refuses to confront the state, that does not mean that he has forgotten the central role of the Maran – to be the gatekeeper of the walls of separatism in ultra-Orthodox society.
This is perhaps the greatest tension in the leadership of the Maranites, between the desire to take care of Klal Yisrael and the desire to protect the ultra-Orthodox public, the pure little jug of oil. Modernity and secularization were perceived as a danger to the very existence of religion, and therefore the Haredi view holds separation from them. Not out of a lack of concern for the people of Israel – on the contrary, out of a sense of responsibility for the survival of the people of Israel and out of love for Israel.
The heroic ultra-Orthodox response to the dangers of modernity and secularization is that it is a danger to the very existence of the Jewish religion, and therefore they shut themselves off in order to save the people of Israel and ensure its continued existence. Therefore, Rabbi Edelstein was also a Torah ideologue from poverty, and demonstrated this poverty in his modest lifestyle. I once saw in one of his books the far-reaching assertion: "Whoever has more money is not happier – he is less happy." It is a process of romanticizing ultra-Orthodox poverty, and choosing to devote one's life to Torah study – even at the cost of a life of material poverty but happiness.
So Rabbi Edelstein did not work for integration, but to prevent integration. No less than three times during his short period of leadership, he stood as a gatekeeper in order to prevent historic changes in Haredi relations with the state and their integration into it.
The ultra-Orthodox have been part of the coalition only since the '77 revolution, but without serving as ministers. After the establishment of Shas, only she was a partner in the government, including ministerial positions. In order to maintain symbolic separatism, the ultra-Orthodox at most "agreed" to serve as deputy minister without a minister above him.
In recent years, the Hasidic Agudat Israel has begun to take on ministerial positions. In this government, both Frosh and Goldknopf serve in government ministries, but Rabbi Edelstein prevented his Knesset members from doing so. Even when the Rebbe of Belz tried to introduce core studies in exchange for high budgets to his educational institutions, Rabbi Edelstein blocked the move. Even when Goldknopf was just contemplating joining the political-security cabinet, Rabbi Edelstein stood up to prevent the move.
The tension in Haredi relations with Israelis reaches a peak in their attitude toward IDF soldiers. In Haredi history, there is one text without which it is impossible to study this subject, and this boundlessly loving text is signed by none other than Rabbi Edelstein. It deals with loving comparisons of IDF soldiers to the mythological heroes from the Talmud, the revered brothers Pappus and Lulianus, known as the "Martyrs of Lod," whom the Sages say sacrificed themselves and sacrificed their lives to save other Jews.
"Secular people in the army give their lives for saving others," Rabbi Edelstein said at the time. "They give their lives out of will, love of the people. What is it - not those killed in Lod?"
Rabbi Edelstein, the greatest of the ultra-Orthodox generation, then went on to say of the secular soldiers risking their lives in the IDF: "If the secular person has more ranks than I do, he is willing to give his life more than I do... So he's bigger than me."
Dr. Avishai Ben-Haim is a commentator for Channel 13 News
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