Q&A: What Should I Do?
What Should I Do?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I study in a kollel, and apparently tomorrow we’re going back to learning.
My question is: what should I do?
Last week I helped a bit by taking food to people in the south, and also by taking people from there to the center of the country.
I ran out of money for gas.
The question is whether, in the current situation, from a moral and halakhic standpoint, I’m supposed to go enlist in the IDF, or help with all kinds of civilian aid efforts that also help the soldiers, or go study?
I don’t think Torah study protects us (it doesn’t seem that way to me), but I do think it is very important.
Answer
Do your role. There is no point in enlisting if you are not a soldier and were not called up.
Discussion on Answer
You wrote that you have no way to help. Meaningful help takes precedence over study.
A. Jewish law is clear and simple! Torah study comes first, unless you have a commandment that cannot be done by others.
B. I understand that the question (that Torah study does not protect) stems from the assumption, following the Rabbi’s view, that there is no authority in matters of outlook, but what can you do—the prophet writes this explicitly. See the angel’s complaint against Joshua: the complete people of Israel slackened off from Torah study during war.
Rabbi, it דווקא seems there is a way for Haredim to become soldiers:
https://mobile.srugim.co.il/article/851810
I don’t have money for travel. That’s what I wrote.
But there are all kinds of situation rooms helping soldiers and families, and you can volunteer there. And now the Rabbi has shown that it’s possible to become a soldier too.
The question is: what is the proper thing to do?
I’ve already been studying for a year for an exam on the laws of the Sabbath, and the plan in principle was to continue.
And now I don’t know what to do.
As I wrote, right now assistance is the top priority. If there is a channel of aid where your contribution would be meaningful, do that. But note that your help is not always meaningful, and then there is no justification for neglecting Torah study. People feel that they have to do something, so they volunteer and donate, but it is not always a matter of meaningful volunteering and contribution.
Thank you very much.
Papagio,
The angel came at night, when they were not fighting, with the complaint that they were not studying when they were not fighting.
Doesn’t helping with the urgent needs take precedence?