Rabbi Yosef Farhi Answers: Who is Haredi?

Let me ask you something that might stir discomfort within you: If acceptance were guaranteed, if you fit seamlessly into society's expectations, would you still choose what's right? Most people act according to what earns approval. When that approval vanishes, so does their conviction. And if society approves the wrong path, inappropriate content, compromising places, destructive behaviors, would you still hold firm? This is the true test separating the noble from the ordinary.

Would you steal or gamble when no one's watching? Would you betray trust in your relationships because you won't be caught? These questions cut to the heart of who we really are.

The term "Haredi" emerged from Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch before World War II, when European Jews began assimilating in waves. The rabbis recognized they couldn't remain insular, they needed to define authenticity, distinguishing institutions that truly practiced Judaism from those merely claiming the label. For too long, people sheltered under this identity, asking "Am I Haredi? Am I religious enough?" But that blanket no longer suffices. God is testing us now.

Are you living this way because it's socially expected, or because it's who you truly are? The sages teach that in the end of days, as Yosef rebuked his brothers, Hashem will judge each person lefi ma'shehu, according to who they truly are. Every soul will receive instruction tailored to their essence. We must understand what this means: a person will be tested lefi ma'ashehu. Will their actions hold when social acceptance is stripped away? When cameras are off and witnesses absent, what would you do in solitude?

Benjamin's portion holds the Temple because he alone didn't bow to Esau,he remained in his mother's womb while his brothers compromised. Yet Yehudah also earned a portion, the Temple standing precisely between them. Why? Because Yehudah took responsibility for bringing Benjamin home. Though Reuven also offered responsibility, his motive was different: he sought his father's approval, wanting to fulfill his role as the responsible firstborn. Yehudah had no such expectation. He simply did what was right.

This same quality gave Yehudah nobility and royalty in his lineage. When confronted about Tamar, he could have remained silent, letting her burn with their unborn children. No one would have known. But he admitted the truth, doing right when discovery was optional made him great.

Yosef embodied this too. With Potiphar's wife, in absolute privacy, he could have sinned undetected. He had no earthly accountability. But he refused because it was wrong. This made him a king.

Yehudah is compared to a lion, an animal unbothered by others' opinions, eating when hungry, sleeping when tired, living by its own nature. Yehudah lived this way too. When Yosef declared to Potiphar's wife, "How can I sin against God?" - this mindset, this singular concern for divine displeasure above all else, defines nobility. This is the consciousness of royalty, the essence of kingship.

Every human action springs from one of three motives: trying to look good, trying to feel good, or trying to be good. Nothing else drives us. So ask yourself: why do you do what you do? Is it because it's genuinely right?

There's a chasm between being moral and being socially conditioned. Right now, in our current world, God tests the Haredi community to reveal who truly embodies Torah scholarship in Israel, who authentically lives as a daughter of Torah values. God examines us lefi ma'ashehu, according to our true selves, stripped of pretense. Who are you in your private relationship with God?