Q&A: 2 Bridegrooms from Their Chambers
2 Bridegrooms from Their Chambers
Question
Israel’s pilots suddenly emerged and struck our enemies
This had to be a complete surprise.
To the best of my knowledge, among the pilots there were 2 bridegrooms who got married that same evening.
1 was a secular kibbutz member, and the whole kibbutz knows he is a pilot.
And the 2nd was a young man from a hesder yeshiva who enlisted, gave up the hesder framework, and became a pilot, and all his friends from where he lives and from the yeshiva know that he is a pilot.
So postponing the weddings would have set rumors flying that they were attacking Iran that night.
The weddings were not postponed and took place as usual.
Only at the end of the wedding, instead of going to the new home, the bridegrooms went to the plane to bomb the enemy.
My question:
Assuming that the Air Force has more than 2 pilots who completed the relevant training and preparations and could back up these bridegrooms,
was it permissible to literally take a bridegroom from his chamber? After all, there is a substitute.
Or is this a rule that permits it even if there is a substitute?
Answer
I assume not everyone trained for this, and perhaps the organic unit was needed. I do not know the considerations there, but it is reasonable that there were considerations. People are not just taken away from their wedding for no reason. And from a halakhic standpoint as well, it would not be correct to do so when there is an alternative.
So then we already have three bridegrooms who paid a personal price, the first being Avner