Q&A: What is the Rabbi’s opinion of Rabbi Ofran’s view regarding drafting Haredim?
What is the Rabbi’s opinion of Rabbi Ofran’s view regarding drafting Haredim?
Question
"I am writing the following not for the Haredi public that does not enlist. I have no expectations of them whatsoever. Nor am I writing for the secular public, whom I’m not even sure these questions trouble at all, but rather for quite a few innocent and decent people in the Religious Zionist public, young and old, who have unwittingly adopted for themselves several ideas from the Haredi messaging sheet. The seepage of these views into the religious public that does enlist is an existential danger, nothing less. And that is why I am writing.
1. ‘We too believe that Torah study protects the Jewish people’ — well, no. I, for one, do not believe that at all. In truth this is fairly new Haredi nonsense that was born as an answer to claims about the disgraceful Haredi draft-dodging, as if they too bear some kind of burden. It is hard to find sources for this view in the early literature, aside from a few aggadic sayings taken out of context (when the Talmud says ‘Torah protects and saves,’ it means that one engaged in Torah is saved from transgressions, not from death).
We study Torah because it is our life and the length of our days, not because it is worthwhile and not because we get some benefit from it. Torah did not protect the Jewish people from any trouble in history, and that did not cause Jews to stop studying with devotion. This discourse of interests inside the study hall is a desecration of holiness and a disgrace to Torah. A spade to dig with.
2. ‘We too agree that there should be a handful of Torah scholars who receive an exemption from service’ — well, no! I completely do not agree with that. Enlistment in the IDF, especially in wartime, is a commandment. Just as it would never enter anyone’s mind that Torah scholars should be exempt from keeping the Sabbath, or from the laws of kashrut, so too it should never enter anyone’s mind that Torah scholars should be exempt from enlistment. In my eyes, learning Torah from a draft-dodger is equivalent to learning Torah from public Sabbath desecrators and people who eat hyraxes. True, there is room to permit counting them for a prayer quorum, since most Haredim in Israel truly are ‘captured infants.’ But it is precisely about them that the Sages said what they said about those who ‘engage in Torah and do not have fear of Heaven.’ They may have a beard, and they may know how to read Rashi script from books with red covers and gold lettering, but Torah this is not.
3. ‘Everyone understands that it is impossible to draft people by force’ — well, no! That is not at all clear to me. This problem will not be solved through dialogue, not by agreement and not by compromise. Change will come only through coercion, through harsh sanctions not only on the yeshivot, parties, and Haredi institutions, but mainly on the individual person, man or woman, who chooses to evade service. Haredi Israel’s “society of learners” is a new creature with no basis in history and no parallel in any Jewish community in the world. It was born in the wake of the extraordinary terms granted to it by the State of Israel, and it will disappear, speedily in our days, when those terms are canceled.
The Torah given to us at Sinai is a Torah of life — it is supposed to guide our lives, and the righteous who live by its light, ‘even in their death are called alive.’ The Torah of the new Israeli Haredi world is a ‘Torah of life’ of an entirely different sort — it preserves the lives of those who cling to it by demanding that others die in its name and in its place. A Torah stained with the blood of Jewish soldiers.
For them it has become a deadly poison."
Answer
1. This is an extreme formulation. I agree that Torah does not protect, but that follows from my own view that the Holy One, blessed be He, is not involved. Sources can be brought that say it does protect, though one can argue about their meaning. But that is not important, because even if it does protect, there is still an obligation to enlist. The Torah study of a person who enlists also protects, so this is not a discussion relevant to the question of enlistment. And certainly not to the question of drafting Haredim in general, including those who do not study.
2. I do agree with that, just as there are exemptions for artists and athletes, and just as soldiers are assigned to military bands and to the army canteen service. As for what he says about the Haredim, I entirely agree.
3. The problem will not be solved through dialogue. That is clear. But neither will it be solved through forceful coercion to enlist. Severe economic sanctions will certainly help.
His concluding remarks seem entirely correct to me. And not only with respect to enlistment. Haredism is a distorted and corrupt Judaism.
Discussion on Answer
Because this is ideological and collective criminality, and it is not right to deal with it using criminal-law tools. You can’t put tens of thousands of people in prison, and it also won’t help.
To Petah Tikva Resident,
And then what will they do? Put 30,000 people in prison for a year? Does that even sound practical to you? They’d have to build a new prison.
And don’t forget that every person you threw in prison, you’ve ‘lost’ as far as the state is concerned.
People always make this argument that you can’t throw 30,000 people in prison.
A. I don’t think it’s impractical, because if you want to, anything is possible. For example (not comparing!), if there were 30,000 terrorists, wouldn’t they imprison them?
B. As a mainstream Haredi, I can say that 90% would prefer to enlist rather than go to prison; all the talk of “we will die and not enlist” is hot air.
Not true. If being in prison became necessary for a marriage match, the young people in the sector would be delighted to go to prison. In any case, prison is similar to a yeshiva with discipline; it’s not the end of the world.
Regarding #3, why not simply apply the law to Haredim as well? If the law says one must enlist, and whoever does not enlist is a criminal whose sentence is prison or some other punishment, why replace that with economic sanctions? How is that different from any other criminal in the country?