The following partially-translated article appeared in one of Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious newspapers, “Yated Ne’eman” (name roughly translated into “Faithful Tent-Peg”) on May 2000. It was written by Rabbi Chaim Shaul Karelitz, one of the most prominent leaders of the Jewish ultra-Orthodoxy at the time, and largely reflected the Jewish ultra-Orthodox attitude towards the state of Israel.

The title literally read something like ‘Setting Things True’ which could be better translated into ‘Not Beating around the Bush’.

Here goes. Have fun:

“… Even in our attitude towards the state and its institutions, out of the habit of dealing with politics, the Supreme Court, or anti-religion people of all kinds – we forget some important things, which need to be reminded of, so there will be no blurring or confusion in opinion and view.

1. People talk much about the Knesset – the Israeli parliament, about the amount of religious representatives there, about the laws it legislates against the religion of Israel, about the need to legislate laws against the Supreme Court’s decisions, and so on and so forth. But we must remember one fundamental thing: The whole concept of the Knesset is against the Torah. The very essence of people declaring they are “the legislators” is against the Torah from Heaven. And it does not matter whether there is a majority for the right or for the left, and what laws they form there. Even if they vote in the Knesset for keeping the religious Mitzvahs (rules) – it is against the Torah. Because we have the Torah from Heaven, given to all of Israel and to the sages of the Torah for interpretation, and all laws made up by humans from their own minds, by majority voting this way or another – is against the Torah.

Even if we ourselves vote for the Knesset and send representatives there, indeed I heard from my late father who called them “lobbyists”, as it used to be during all the years of the Jewish Diaspora, that the people of Israel had “lobbyists” who were involved in the local regimes, to prevent harsh edicts against all of Israel. So are the representatives in the Knesset, they are our “lobbyists” to prevent any harm to Jewish sacred things, and to the religious public keeping of the Torah, as a whole. It does not imply any recognition of the existence of this institution, whose name “The Legislature” says all of it is against the Torah of God.

2. We have harsh criticism against the legal system, for decisions it takes against the Torah and its keepers, up to the point that recently they raised their hands also against the place of the Jewish temple – a place where the divine presence never left since its destruction, and they ordered its blasphemy. However we must remember that the criticism against the legal system as a whole and the Supreme Court in particular, is not because of these decisions. The fight is against the system, which everyone who is participating in it “raises his hand against the Torah of Moses” as phrased by the Rambam (Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon, also known as Moses Maimonides).

The very essence of Jewish judges sentencing people according to foreign laws of the Ottomans or the English, and not by our holy Torah – this is what forces us to resist them with all our might. Even if they come up with decision in favor of the religious public, the resistance will still continue, because all of their decisions are derived not from a pure source – the Torah of God – but from laws made up by the nations of the world.

3. We object a Minister of Education from the left parties, due to all kind of decisions as to what the children of Israel should learn in national education institutes. However we must remember that those institutes, regardless of this Minister of Education or another, educate the children of Israel with destructive education. The entire system of education raises a generation of ignorants who know nothing of Jewish sacred things, and it also puts in them hatred for anything sacred. It does not matter if they teach there one more book or less, because all the concept of education there is against the Torah … and in this respect we should remember it does not matter who is the minister on charge of the “Ministry of Education” …”