Keren Olam HaTorah is the organization headed by The Gedolim™ which raises money to support 120,000 men to learn rather than work and share the responsibility of military service. They just announced that they will be distributing a special one-time bonus of 500 shekels:

They add parenthetically that this 500 shekels will be for a daily seder (session), and so someone who learns a full day of two sedarim will receive 1000 shekels. Why not just say that they will give a thousand shekels to each person, which sounds much more impresssive? It must mean that most or many people are only learning for a half a day. But what are they doing for the other half a day? Looking after the kids while the wife works?

Meanwhile, the description that they give for for this handout is remarkable. They take pains to stress that it is not charity, but rather an appreciative payment for services rendered:

“And this is to announce: these are not charity funds, but rather we see this as paying remuneration for protection. For there is no protection like that of Torah, and you, who are upholding the fortress of Torah, are protecting us. And thus you justly and rightfully deserve these funds, and it is a merit for us to present this reward for your service…”

Alas, remarkably and tragically, these Torah giants, and the Torah scholars they raise money to support, have apparently never studied the very Torah sources on the rationale that they give for their lifestyle. There is no traditional source whic h states that men learning Torah in place of military service protects others from being killed in war. Not a single one!

Instead, there are several statements making different (and vastly milder) claims that are being clearly distorted. I’ve analyzed most of them in this forum, and R. Moshe Klausner’s book on the topic is now available from Amazon and from bookstores in Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh (and will soon be available in Hebrew).

But there is one statement in this accouncement from Keren Olam HaTorah that I agree with. אין אלו מעות צדקה. This is not charity. Charity is helping the involuntarily poor, with the goal of enabling them to eventually become self-sufficient. And this handout is certainly not a remuneration to people for protecting us from missiles and bullets - that would go to the people in uniform who actually do that. There’s nearly a hundred yeshivos not on Keren Olam HaTorah’s recipient list, both dati-leumi and charedi, with people who do that.

Paying tens of thousands of people to avoid their Torah-mandated civic and familial obligations, and encouraging a lifestyle of dependency, is not charity, not rightful remuneration, and not a mitzvah. It’s folly, harmful, and sinful.

A Bonus for Soldiers