To the same extent that he held it was an obligation to vote in elections, he issued a penetrating ruling that "the party of deserters" should be distanced.
First a word of historical background about the affair. The Po'alei Agudas Yisroel movement was, as its name suggests, originally an organization of chareidi workers. It had been established in Europe under the banner of the Agudas Yisroel World Movement as a counter force to the irreligious Zionist workers' groups. Through its youth movement, part of whose membership was composed of natives of Germany, the movement established a number of settlements in Israel, as needed.
Integration into the country's agricultural life led the movement's leaders to a series of steps that in effect constituted a gradual merger with Zionist organizations. The leaders started to gradually dissociate themselves from the Agudah's Torah leadership, with the process gathering momentum after the State was established.
In 5708 (1948), they planted their settlements on land belonging to the Keren Kayemet Leyisroel (Jewish National Fund), a step that had been debated years earlier with HaRav Elchonon Wassermann zt'l Hy'd, to whom PAI's leaders had replied with a marked lack of respect. Now they tried to attribute their actions to the "silence" (said to equal acquiescence) of the Chazon Ish.
Thereafter, at every issue that arose PAI justified themselves by the fact that they had the consent of gedolei Torah -- who always remained anonymous. So it was with the mixing of boys and girls in the Ezra youth movement; so it was with the negotiations over PAI's participation in Sherut Leumi (national service for girls). Every time there was a different "godol beTorah" who, they said, supported them. (It was concerning their concession to Sherut Leumi that Rav Kalman Kahana, one of the leaders of PAI, received an astounding letter from the Chazon Ish which stated, "a spirit of foolishness possessed you, that you commit suicide . . . " as well as other fearsome remarks.)
In 5711 (1951), elections were held for the mayor of Petach Tikva. The leaders of PAI supported an irreligious candidate, over his opponent who was religious. In a letter from the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, HaRav Yechezkel Sarna and HaRav Meir Karelitz zt'l forbade this.
HaRav Karelitz (the Chazon Ish's older brother) was then serving as the official rov of the PAI movement. When the politicians stubbornly refused to hearken to this letter, HaRav Karelitz resigned from all positions of rabbinical and any other kind of leadership.
The way things then stood was that on the one hand there was Agudas Yisroel, which remained faithful to the Torah leadership, while on the other was PAI, with its institutions, its settlements and its sources of revenue. All this time, the Agudah's Torah leaders had attempted to bring pressure from the rank and file of PAI members to bear upon the movement's leaders and the two movements still appeared on a joint list for the general elections.
The Rebellion
In the elections of 5720 (1960), the list received six Knesset seats, three of which were allocated to the PAI faction headed by B. Mintz.
Then it happened. The Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah ruled against joining a coalition with the leftist government. However, PAI ignored their ruling and joined. The secular press hailed the move as "PAI's independence day," -- independence that is, from the authority of the Torah leaders.
The response of the Torah community was that leaders, roshei yeshiva and Admorim, gathered to declare that PAI had detached themselves from Agudas Yisroel. The Tchebiner Rov, and the Rebbes of Ger, Vishnitz and Boyan, ruled that their followers must renounce their membership of PAI, even if their livelihoods would suffer as a consequence. Thereafter, Agudas Yisroel and PAI ran for the Knesset on separate lists.
In 5733 (1973), Rabbi Y. M. Levin z'l who served as chairman of the Agudah's central committee, passed away. He had always worked to preserve the movement's unity. After he had been replaced, new winds began to blow within Agudas Yisroel itself, calling for PAI's return to the Knesset list. In view of the approaching elections, a meeting of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah was convened (on very short notice and including rabbonim who had not hitherto sat on the Moetzes). The Steipler sent a letter to HaRav Shach, part of which read, "regarding the rumor that Agudas Yisroel is considering reuniting with the deserters, who call themselves PAI, who have made a public disgrace of themselves on more than one occasion, and whose ideology is the idol of Zionism, and of `my strength and the power of my hand', R'l, and who without a doubt would be prepared even now to go immediately against the Aguda and the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah if only they imagined that they would have some political or material gain by so doing -- in my humble opinion, it is clear that merging with them would be a dreadful chillul Hashem, for it would be interpreted as a de facto approval of all their scheming and [would show] that insolence against Torah and against the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah reaps handsome benefits. Please . . . do everything possible to prevent merging with them . . . it is clear, in my humble opinion, that if Agudas Yisroel does merge with them, that very many members will distance themselves, whose only connection with the Aguda at present lies in the fact that it is not together with `the other side.' "
At the meeting of the Moetzes, HaRav Shach arose and read out the Steipler's letter. One of the politicians who was among those invited, and who was in favor of the merger reacted by proposing "that we put it to a vote." Most of the members (including the new ones) supported the merger, with the result of which was called "the United Torah Front."
HaRav Shach announced immediately that he was resigning his membership in the Moetzes. HaRav Shlomo Berman, who was a member of the presidium of Agudas Yisroel, also resigned in protest at the way things had been arranged. During the pre- election campaigning the signatures of these and of other gedolei Torah did not appear in support of Agudas Yisroel. However, since there was no alternative chareidi list, no actual opposition was voiced.
Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz, who was faithful to the instructions of the gedolei Torah and who was the first candidate on the Aguda list, was instructed not to resign, but to refrain from making speeches in Yerushalayim and Bnei Brak in support of the Aguda list. (He was permitted to speak on the Agudah's behalf in outlying communities, for if the chareidi Jews who lived there did not vote for Agudas Yisroel, their connection with the chareidi organization could be lost.)
An avreich who asked about voting was told, "This time there's no order to vote, and when you're not ordered to, you don't vote."
In that election, the combined list won five seats, which represented the loss of a seat, since before the two parties had always won six.
The Trend Reversed
In 5737 (1977), the Gerrer Rebbe, the Beis Yisroel, instructed the party workers to run on a separate list from PAI, in order to unite the chareidim once again and to obtain HaRav Shach's consent to return to the Moetzes. HaRav Shach did so and issued an appeal to vote in the elections. The Steipler added his own letter of warm support, which he closed with the following lines, "And this has already been publicized and articulated well by . . . the gaon and tzaddik, from the remnants of the Knesses Hagedola, the truly mighty Torah scholars, his honor . . . HaRav Eliezer Menachem Shach."
In that election Agudas Yisroel maintained its strength while PAI won only one seat.
The trouble erupted again just a year later, when municipal elections were held in Bnei Brak. A joint list was prepared and it was headed by a PAI candidate. The fact that just a year had passed since PAI had been ejected from Agudas Yisroel and already a way had been found for them to sneak back inside, and in Bnei Brak too, evoked a strong response from the gedolei Torah. The Steipler and ylct'a, HaRav Shach, bade HaRav Chaim Shaul Karelitz to issue a notice conveying their instructions not to vote for the Aguda list.
Some argued that this directive was only intended for bnei Torah themselves, but that their families and those who were not bnei Torah could vote, and this led to an interesting episode. After tefillah in the Lederman beis haknesses, HaRav Chaim Kanievsky went over to the notice board and added, in his own hand, the following words to HaRav Karelitz's note: Both talmidei chachomim and amei ho'oretz, they themselves and their wives, their sons and their daughters.
Before the 5741 (1981) elections, Aguda activists approached the Steipler for a letter of support but he dismissed them and did not grant their request. Rav E. Tabaschnik, who used to frequent the Steipler's home, heard from him at that time that he was displeased at the situation inside Agudas Yisroel and that he did not intend to sign for them at all.
However just a few days later, a letter signed by the Steipler appeared, calling upon voters to vote for the Aguda, albeit phrased in somewhat reserved terms.
Rav Tabaschnik took himself off to the Steipler's home to find out what had brought about the change of heart. When he entered the Steipler said to him, "I told you that I wasn't going to write but I heard that HaRav Shach was upset by that, so I agreed to write."
Three days later, it was publicized that the [separate] PAI list had been strengthened from within Agudas Yisroel and the Steipler hurried to write a second letter that added, "I now add that in view of this, every vote for a different list literally constitutes demolition and destruction for Jewry, and whoever votes for a different list is among those who leads the public to sin, R'l."
In those elections PAI disappeared from the political map, receiving fewer than the minimum number of votes required for one seat and the movement has only declined since.
