Following the expiration of the exemption from army service for charedim, the attorney-general announced that charedi yeshivos cannot get free money for their students who are refusing to draft. And this is having an effect! The charedi community has finally understood that they can’t just sit and learn Torah, and they have to leave yeshiva to fight.
According to the Kikar Shabbos website, charedim have finally acknowledged that contrary to their claims that learning Torah is the best protection from all harm, it’s not actually remotely as effective as they professed to believe. It doesn’t stop the enemies that seek the destruction of the Jewish People. They accept that hishtadlus is needed, that they need to do it instead of just learning Torah, and they have decided to leaving yeshiva en masse in order to ensure genuine protection.
Amazingly, some of the people in this camp have rejected the right of any yeshiva student to choose to stay in yeshiva rather than to go fight. They have internalized the moral reasoning of Moshe Rabbeinu’s argument of “Shall your brothers go to war, while you remain here?” and they have stated that nobody should exempt themselves from this war and leave it to others to fight - everyone needs to take responsibility and take action.
No, this is not another April Fool’s Day joke. Everything I wrote above is 100% true.
Unfortunately, the enemy that they are leaving yeshiva to fight is not Hamas or Hezbollah, but the attorney-general.
This may be silly question but I would appreciate an answer.
As I understand it the charedim claim that their learning protects the people of Israel. From wither is there proof of this ? Using precedents to the contrary:
- Joshua, Saul, David all fought physical battles. None of them claimed that their Torah protected the people.
- Rabbi Akiva apparently supported Bar Kochba in his rebellion against the Romans. No one claimed that that their Torah protected the people so negating a requirement to fight the Romans as far as I can see.
-Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakai negotiated with Vespasian to try and save what he could from the beseiged Jerusalem. He did not claim that his Torah would protect the people from churban hayis.
Given the Torah of Rashi, Tosfos etc for generations where was the Torah protection against the crusades, Chemielinski, the Holocaust etc etc.
If the claim is new is it because it is only now justifed in that the current learning results in a greater spiritual level than previously and therefore, unlike the above forebears, no army is necessary -then why did 7 October happen. Also where is the proof of that ?
And if an Army is required given that the Torah apparently does not provide complete protection (or we would not be where we are) then everyone has to contribute. As an analogy - even a poor man is required to give tzedaka.
It is all very puzzling.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails
there are usually two choices, either admit error or double down
Bsorot tovot