"Haters of Torah"

On accusations regarding motivations

The chareidi refusal to share in the immense burden being shouldered by the rest of Israel is not just appalling in it being selfish and dangerous, and in also often being accompanied by a total lack of gratitude or concern for the sacrifice that others make. It’s also disgraceful in its attitude that those who do want them to share the burden are not motivated by legitimate concerns and are instead driven by hatred of God and Torah.

For a striking example, see this post from a graduate of charedi yeshivos who is now a New York banker, in response to the court stopping funding for people who are learning in yeshivah instead of serving in the army:

Contrary to this person’s accusations, there are no "schemes" against Torah. There is a country of millions in which hundreds of thousands of men (including deeply religious men and hesder yeshiva students and rabbanim) are sacrificing their Torah studies, their jobs, their family life, sometimes their health, and sometimes their very lives (or their children’s lives) in order to keep everyone in Israel safe. And there is a sub-community of over a million people which refuses to share in this national burden, and instead drains the economy and weakens the country against its enemies.

But this person is taking his cue from the very top. The charedi rabbinic leadership consistently describes the effort to recruit charedim (and to cancel funding for yeshivos) as being part of a war against God and Torah, stemming from a hatred of God and Torah. It’s amazing that they can’t think of there being any other reason.

But what about the other way around? Should we assume that the charedi opposition to serving in the IDF is driven by legitimate concerns? There are some voices calling for people to respect the charedi perspective, in light of the threat that the army presents to their way of life.

It reminds me of how several years ago Rav Aharon Lopiansky wrote that “the robbing of our youths’ formative years as a ben Torah would be a price that we could not pay.” In response, Rabbi Yitzchak Adlerstein responded pithily, “Agreed. But how do we ask other, reluctant Israelis to pay a different price so that we don’t have to pay ours?”

In other words, however understandable your reasons are for not wanting your young men to serve in the army, you can’t ignore the ramifications for other people.

Here is the response of one woman (whose son fell in battle a few months ago) to someone who said that the charedi concerns over army service should be respected:

"The members of our son's division, all reservists, served from October 8th through the end of January and are now serving again. In addition to endangering themselves, they are once again endangering their livelihoods and placing stress on their families, including their young children and spouses. If there were more people serving in the army, less of the burden would fall on them… A population whose point of view does not include a concern about the burden being placed on the serving population is a population with a point of view which I cannot and do not need to respect - especially because we - and that population - could not live in security in this country for any period of time without a robust army."

And her husband added:

“It may be true that hareidim see being in the army as a spiritual threat, but I would argue that is because of the passive-aggressive (though more aggressive) attitude Gedolim have shown to army service. That was “ok” in normal times but is obviously unacceptable in our current situation. The gedolim should be crying to get their soldiers serving any way they can (not in the beit midrash) to join the effort. They should be coming with proactive ideas begging to help protect our nation, not be dragged kicking and screaming over 3000 "nonlearners."

“The truth is so obvious it hurts to even say it. The current situation is nothing short of the biggest possible chilul Hashem - not to chilonim - but to shomrei mitzvot. I will never forgive them for this (having nothing to do with our son).

“But more than anything else they should be worried over the souls of the learners in the beit midrash. Going to learn every day (and I am talking about the serious learners) while their brothers are losing life and limb around them - and they are just passively allowing it to happen without doing any part to help - is, I fear, doing irreparable damage to their souls. The only way they could justify it to themselves is to "other" their brothers away. It truly, truly boggles the mind... There are no two sides to this. I can only cry over the state of things."