Edah Haredit

The tendencies more the antisionists and most fundamentalist of the camp Haredi (Jewish ultra orthodoxe) are gathered within the Edah Haredit , or Edah HaCharedis , or HaEdah HaCharedis (Hebrew: העדההחרדית), “community of Craignants-God”, a rather flexible federation of autonomous fundamentalist groups, equipped in Israel with its own rabbinical courts.

It is not affiliated in Edah HaHaredit sépharade, less known.

History

The Edah Haredit plunges its roots in old the Yichouv of Palestine. One designates by this term the religious Jews which lived in Palestine before the beginnings of the establishment Zionist, in the years 1880. Their principal centers were the 4 Holy Cities of Safed, Tibériade, Jerusalem and Hebron.

These communities, of origin Séfarade or Ashkénaze, fully adhered to the historical ideology orthodoxe Judaïsme, according to which the Jewish State of antiquity was destroyed by the divine will in punishment of the sins of the People. According to this approach, only the Messie can restore the Jewish state, at the hour decided by God.

The arrival of the Zionists caused a strong opposition for two reasons. On the one hand, any human attempt to recreate a Jewish state before the arrival of the Messiah is an attack against the divine will. In addition, the laic lifestyle of the pioneers Zionists (new the Yichouv ) was in total opposition with the religious lifestyle of old the Yichouv .

So almost all the orthodoxe communities of the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century opposed the incipient Zionism, the communities of Palestine were among firmest in their opposition.

A religious party, the Agoudat Israel, was created Eastern Europe in 1912, by a coalition of groups concerned with the orthodoxe Judaïsme. Each one of these groups had (and has always) its own options, and a broad ideological autonomy. That is due to the structure even of the orthodoxe Judaism, which does not have centralized direction. Each important rabbi thus has his faithful. It is particularly true at the Hassidim , very burst on an almost feudal model. The Agoudat is the spokesperson of this coalition of influential rabbis, and to in no case it is not the emanation of its militants or cannot impose an opinion on the groups which compose it. The creation of the Agoudat aimed at organizing the religious Jews in the nonJewish States of Eastern Europe, like forces political pressure. The idea force was to refuse (more or less largely according to obediences) modernity, to preserve a traditional lifestyle rather largely centered on the community, and as isolated as possible from the nonreligious environment. It was also a question of fighting against the “modernistic ones” within the Judaism: reformed, Zionists, liberal, socialist, etc

Since 1912, a branch of the Agoudat was established within old the Palestinian Yichouv , but it “really started to function only after the First World War. As from 1919, its center was the orthodoxe ultra community of Jerusalem”. It is often of 1919 qu ' is dated creation from the Edah , even if at the time, it seemed very related to the Agoudat Israel . As from 1919, the political conflict between the Agoudat of Palestine and Yichouv Zionist became acute. Old Yichouv thus refused any relationship with the new large-rabbinate of Palestine set up by the institutions Zionists and the British capacity in Palestine agent. A network of rabbinical courts specific was negotiated with the British, under the direction of the rabbi Joseph Haïm Sonnenfeld (1849-1932), often considered as the spiritual father of the Edah . One of the local leaders of the Agoudat , Jacob Israel de Haan (1881-1924) went until recommending alliance with the Palestinian Arabs against the Zionists. He was assassinated by the Haganah incipient in 1924.

As from the Thirties, the situation of the Agoudat in Palestine changed with arrived the of many ones Rabbin S of Eastern Europe fleeing the rise of the Antisémitisme in the various countries of this area. Their arrival in Palestine agent did not imply a rallying with the Zionist political project. But they were conscious of the risks run by their faithful in Europe, and wished to find a solution to them. The Jewish Agency for the Palestine, institution Zionist, distributed the visas of immigration granted by the British. These new immigrants thus agreed to establish contacts with the movement Zionist. “In February 1935 unloads in Palestine a delegation of the world Agoudat Israel . She gives the order to her Palestinian branch to reinforce practical collaboration with the Zionists. The large one assembled Agoudat , held in September 1937 with Marienbad reaffirms its antisionism of principle but, in practice, it decides to reinforce coordination with the parties Zionists”.

For holding of the traditional line of the party in Palestine, these evolutions meant the stop of the fight against the Zionists “heretics”. It was the rupture. A certain number of rabbis, and the communities which they directed left the Agoudat in 1938. The majority was resulting from old the Yichouv , even if certain ultra immigrants orthodoxe more recent followed them. The secessionist ones then made to Edah Haredit a group completely independent of the Agoudat of Palestine.

Organization

The Edah Haredit is not a centralized organization. Just like Agoudat, but on a more marked level, it is a very flexible federation of largely autonomous groups. Each one of these groups is centered on its leading Rabbi (chief of Yeshiva for the Mitnagdim , or Admor for the Hassidim ), according to the principle of Emounat Khakhamim , “the faith in the wise ones”, which requires that each pious Jew follow “wise”, poured in the Torah .

The Edah is in fact especially an organization of rabbinical courts, defining by its jurisprudence the rules of life of the adherent communities, but without never returning in their inner working.

This very flexible organization can lead to divergences, see internal dissidences or confrontations. Thus the Hassidim of Belz it left the Edah with the beginning of the year 1980.

The most strict Haredim and more the antisionists, namely the small organization of the Neturei Karta (“guards of the city”), are not formally members of the Edah , even if reports/ratios exist (the kasher food of the Edah is thus accepted by the Neturei Karta ).
The conference negationnist organized by the Iranian government (December 2006) however caused sharp divergences between the Edah and some Neturei . A group of 7 members of a minority faction of the Neturei Karta (that of the Ugly rabbi Hirsch) indeed decided to take part by Antisionisme in this conference, involving the judgment of the direction of the Edah , traditionally directed by the Satmar direction. A Cherem (excommunication) was even considered, without passage to the act. The direction Neturei Karta followed the Edah . The fracture thus passes more within the Neturei which enters those and the Edah .

The groups haredim pertaining to the Edah

These groups are especially hassidim , although not exclusively. Situation in 2007:

the Community of the Hassidim of Satmar.
the Community of the Hassidim of Dushinsky.
the Community of the Hassidim of Toldos Aharon.
the Community of the Hassidim of Toldos Avrohom Yitzchok.
the Community of the Hassidim of Spink.
Yeshiva of Brisk, community of Jerusalem.
the Community of the Hassidim of Sanz-Tshokave.
the Community of the Perushim , a faction not hassidim (known as “Lithuanian”, or Mitnagdim ) of ultra-orthodoxe Lithuanian and Hungarian, including a group going down from the former students of the Gaon de Vilna.
the faction of the community of the hassidim of Breslov directed by Rabbi Yaakov Meir Shechter.
the Community of the Hassidim of Mishkenos HoRoim.

Specificity of the Edah Haredit compared to the others Haredim

There are no fundamental theoretical divergences between the groups concerning the Edah Haredit and the others Haredim . All are of agreement on essence. They do not accept the Sionisme, like much of aspects of Western “modernity”. They thus preach the rejection of the Télévision and its “indecent” images, the rejection of the Démocratie (contrary with Emounat Khakhamim , “faith in the wise ones”, which implies the direction of each Jew by a rabbi referent), moral relativism, Homosexualité, equality man-woman, of the evolutionism. They insist on the need for living with the variation of the modern world, within reserved districts (often called Ghetto), under the strict direction of their rabbis, only authority of legitimate power in their eyes.

The difference between the Edah and the others haredim is especially at the level of the firmness of the rejection. Whereas the Agoudat Israel and its dissidences (Shass and DegelHatorah) take part in the Israeli elections, the members of the Edah Haredit invite in a systematic way to refuse to vote for the “impious State”.

Whereas the world haredi developed the education and the work of the women (in some limiting), the female educational network of the communities of the Edah remained on a very primitive level voluntarily, and the work of the women is refused there like “indecent”.

From a general point of view, the communities of the Edah are much more strict in their application of the principles common to all the haredim .

Geography

One finds the members of the Edah haredit mainly with Jerusalem (in particular in their bastion of Mea Sharim ), with antennas with in the State of New York, with the the United States, but also in much of Western communities haredim : Canada, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Great Britain. Like the origin of their leaders shows it, the current Edah is not solely centered on the descendants of old the Yichouv of Palestine. It the communities most strictly federates also haredis of the Diaspora.

Leaders of Edah Haredit

Chief rabbis (גאב " ד) of Edah Haredit

1919-1932: Rabbi Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld (1849-1932)
Chief rabbi Yoseph Tzvi, of the hassidic dynasty of Dushinsky (1865-1949)
Rabbi Zelig Reuven Bengis (1864-1953)
Chief rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, chief of the hassidic dynasty of Satmar (1887-1979)
1979-1989: Rabbi Yitzchok Yaakov Weiss (1901-1989), author of Minchas Yitzchak , in the past of Manchester, England)
1989-1996: Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Freund (1904-1996), author of Ateres Yehoshua , member of the hassidic community of Satmar
1996-2002: Chief rabbi Yisrael Moshe, of the hassidic dynasty of Dushinsky (1921-2003)
since 2002: Rabbi Yitzchak Tuvia Weiss (in the past Dayan of Antwerp, Belgium)

Presidents (נשיא) of Edah Haredit

Chief rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, chief of the hassidic dynasty of Satmar (1887-1979)
Chief rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, chief of the hassidic dynasty of Satmar (1914-2006)
Rabbi Dovid Soloveitchik, Rosh Yeshiva (chief of the Yeshiva) of Brisk, is the current president of the Edah Haredit .

Bonds

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