The rabbi told an Arutz-7 correspondent that he avoids talking with the press about current events, and therefore wishes to remain unidentified.
"I tried, together with others, to change this decision," he said, "but I did not succeed. I can understand the pain that the religious-Zionist public is undergoing - a feeling of abandonment of sorts. But if we look at it from a different angle, it should be understood that for many months, the hareidi public felt the same when the NRP was in a government that continuously cut funding from its very lifeline - yeshivot, Talmudei Torah, seminars for girls, and the like. The hareidim asked themselves, 'How can the NRP sit in a government like this?'
"Of late, there has been a nice measure of closeness between the two sectors, hareidi and religious-Zionist. It's not enough, but it's been very positive. Perhaps it's because of a perception by the 'knitted kippah' group [the religious-Zionists] that the State has betrayed them over the past few years - shamefully treating, ever since Oslo, its 'choice sons' in Yesha and its most idealistic group... I hope that the increasingly-good relations between our two groups will not be marred by this decision, though I fear it will...
"But we cannot ignore the fact that there are basic philosophical differences between our two groups. As hareidim, we were not raised with the same 'true love' of the Land - we don't really feel it and sense it the way you do. On the other hand, our flag is the 'oilam HaToirah' - the world of Torah institutions... Each of our publics has not been sensitive to the needs of the other."
"In terms of what to tell young religious-Zionist youngsters who feel abandoned by the Torah giants of the hareidi sector and who may have a 'crisis of faith' of sorts: It must be emphasized that the decision to join the government was made out of a recognition of the importance of this supreme value of Torah education. It must be made clear that everyone can make mistakes. The main thing, though, is to be very careful not to imply that it was just a question of money and the like; this would be a terrible lie. The only issue was concern for the world of Torah and how to repair the terrible blow it has faced of late."
"I tried, together with others, to change this decision," he said, "but I did not succeed. I can understand the pain that the religious-Zionist public is undergoing - a feeling of abandonment of sorts. But if we look at it from a different angle, it should be understood that for many months, the hareidi public felt the same when the NRP was in a government that continuously cut funding from its very lifeline - yeshivot, Talmudei Torah, seminars for girls, and the like. The hareidim asked themselves, 'How can the NRP sit in a government like this?'
"Of late, there has been a nice measure of closeness between the two sectors, hareidi and religious-Zionist. It's not enough, but it's been very positive. Perhaps it's because of a perception by the 'knitted kippah' group [the religious-Zionists] that the State has betrayed them over the past few years - shamefully treating, ever since Oslo, its 'choice sons' in Yesha and its most idealistic group... I hope that the increasingly-good relations between our two groups will not be marred by this decision, though I fear it will...
"But we cannot ignore the fact that there are basic philosophical differences between our two groups. As hareidim, we were not raised with the same 'true love' of the Land - we don't really feel it and sense it the way you do. On the other hand, our flag is the 'oilam HaToirah' - the world of Torah institutions... Each of our publics has not been sensitive to the needs of the other."
"In terms of what to tell young religious-Zionist youngsters who feel abandoned by the Torah giants of the hareidi sector and who may have a 'crisis of faith' of sorts: It must be emphasized that the decision to join the government was made out of a recognition of the importance of this supreme value of Torah education. It must be made clear that everyone can make mistakes. The main thing, though, is to be very careful not to imply that it was just a question of money and the like; this would be a terrible lie. The only issue was concern for the world of Torah and how to repair the terrible blow it has faced of late."