Q&A: Hesder Enlistment
Hesder Enlistment
Question
Hello Rabbi.
First of all, many thanks for all the Rabbi’s work—I’ve really learned a tremendous amount from you!
I’m a first-year student, and recently, among other things in light of the issue of drafting the Haredim, I’ve been thinking about the propriety of the “hesder” track that I’m in as part of the yeshiva.
As I understand it, the main claim is that there are two values here—Torah study and security. Both are important, and each comes at the expense of the other, so they found some kind of balance between them.
Another claim, built on top of the first, says that the learning in the yeshivot instills an idealistic spirit in the students, which contributes both spirit and motivation in the army and also to society more generally afterward. And indeed, you can see that the army thinks very highly of hesder yeshiva students and benefits from their spirit and maturity.
My first question is: why does the fact that both values are important and come at the expense of one another partially exempt someone from service? (Economics is also important, and yet we don’t find exemptions for people studying for a master’s degree or something like that.)
And even if we assume that society is willing to accept this arrangement because it contributes, for example, to soldiers’ morale (something that might well have been true even without this arrangement, since we’re talking about an idealistic public overall, and they probably would have gone to yeshivot even if they had to serve 3 years), is it not the case today—when there is a shortage of soldiers, and people with families and businesses have already been serving in reserve duty for a very long time—that it would be right for us, young men without too many outside obligations, to do this work? Isn’t that what we would want to happen when we ourselves have families? Isn’t that what society wants to happen today as well, except that it lacks the political power or doesn’t want to pick a fight with a public that is considered “effective,” and doesn’t want to harm its dedication to the army and the state? Is it proper that today, in a war expected to continue in the near future, we should not enlist for 3 years?
Answer
I don’t think there’s much point in dealing with these questions. These are nuances. There is also a difference between a soldier working at the canteen, one in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, one in the infantry, one in an elite reconnaissance unit, and so on. There are also days in the army that are used more effectively and less effectively. In the army and the state, tasks are divided up, and there are considerations of motivation and giving people the opportunity to operate in a framework that suits them, while still doing meaningful service. One should remember that the number of years of mandatory service is not dramatic in the broader picture. There are also dozens of years of reserve duty. So as far as I’m concerned, even a “Merkaz” hesder arrangement of a year and a half could be considered.
The considerations you wrote are definitely significant. It is also worthwhile for the army and the state to have hesder yeshivot. It produces a higher percentage of combat soldiers, motivation, and so on. And the learning is meaningful and beneficial too, of course, as long as it is done in reasonable proportion.
Discussion on Answer
Unlike the differences between a canteen soldier and an elite-unit combat soldier, which are incidental and depend on general civilian characteristics, and whose sorting process is done by the army without regard to religious belief or ethnic origin and the like, the hesder track contains an injustice in its very essence, since it is offered only to people who belong to a certain kind of religious community.
True, but despite the difference between a combat soldier, an intelligence officer, and a broadcaster on Army Radio, what they all have in common is that they do the maximum they are capable of and serve where they are most useful (as long as they don’t intentionally fake a profile…). By contrast, a hesder student is capable of enlisting for another year and a half like everyone else, and doesn’t do so. Even if, in general, this hesder arrangement pays off for the army, does that exempt a private individual who knows that waiting until third year won’t increase his motivation?
In addition, today, because of the war, the IDF is using up the soldiers—including the hesder students—to the fullest, whether by extending service or through reserve duty. That is, the IDF is saying it needs all its soldiers, even after the regular release date, and if I were to enlist now (first year) in hesder, quite clearly the IDF would keep me in service. In other words, the army is saying that right now it cannot work with the hesder track; it needs everyone now, for as long as possible. If so, if all those who are fit are being drafted regardless of release date, what justification is there for waiting two years and only then enlisting? (Especially if we take into account the war that is likely to break out with Lebanon.)
Thank you, Rabbi
To Writer,
The hesder track is based on the Nahal track, which is also geared toward a designated group (graduates of the pioneering youth movements) and is not open to everyone. These tracks are fairly small numerically, and it’s possible to live with them.
Not that I support the existence of the Nahal track, but what you wrote is incorrect: the Nahal track is open to everyone (a service year and mission chapter are available to everyone without differences of religious belief or race or sex), but the hesder track is in practice open only to Religious Zionist men (the state is not allowed to discriminate between institutions on the basis of religious belief and sex, for example, so for that purpose the Hesder Yeshivot Association serves as the selector, since the rabbis who are members of it are a guild that protects itself very, very well).
That’s really not true. In order to get into the Nahal track, you have to belong to a Nahal core group before enlistment. In practice, Nahal core groups are no less of a closed clique than hesder yeshivot. And the Nahal track also involves very shortened service.
With Heaven’s help, 18 Tammuz 5784
The “hesder” track brings the IDF highly motivated fighters, available for emergency call-up even during the unpaid-service period, and who persist in reserve duty for many years.
And in my humble opinion, the army would gain if they made for all combat soldiers a combination of a year and a half in the army together with three years of study (Torah or academic) funded by the state. That would greatly increase motivation to serve in a combat unit. And the soldier also wouldn’t come out of his lengthy military service under emotional strain that makes him need to travel abroad in order to “let loose.”
Why is “week on, week off” considered full service for cooks—which is really “a year and a half net” of full military service—but not for combat soldiers?
Desk-job soldiers who sit in an office from 8 to 4 will do three years and be available for studies in the afternoon, while combat soldiers who “turn night into day”—they deserve for a year and a half to count for them as full service!
Best regards, Fish"l
With Heaven’s help, 19 Tammuz (65 years since the passing of Rabbi Isaac Herzog) 5784
“Hesder” was built on the model of Nahal, when in those days the working settlement movement was a supreme value, and therefore it was worthwhile for the state and the army to shorten the period of military service in order to establish new settlements. In those days, the kibbutz youth were the leaders of the Zionist spirit and the first to volunteer for elite military missions.
Today, to a large extent, Religious Zionism has become the leading force in reinforcing the Zionist spirit in the army. A hesder yeshiva student in military service today resembles the kibbutz youth of that time in raising the motivation and spirit of the whole army, in the sense of “Great is study, for it leads to action,” and he breathes and intensifies the spirit of heroism in his comrades as well.
Best regards, Fish"l
By the way, in any case, since the beginning of the current war the army has been using and relying on yeshiva students in hesder who are in unpaid service as a fighting force even during the period when they’re supposed to be in yeshiva.
In addition, just these days some of the hesder students who were supposed to return from active service to yeshiva during Elul were informed that their service is being extended by 4 months (at least for now).
So the army is very quickly saving us the dilemma of what’s proper or not..