Rav Brudny's Accusation

Is the High Court ruling a secular attack on Torah?

Mishpacha magazine featured an article by Rav Elya Brudny, the most open-minded member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, titled “This Will Bring Out Our Best.” I wrote them a letter, and you should, too. The email is inbox@mishpacha.com.

To the Editor:

Thank you for publishing Rav Elya Brudny’s article regarding the High Court ruling. It’s always illuminating to find out in more detail how the members of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisrael feel about various issues, beyond the brief statements in Kol Koreis.

There was a curious statistic mentioned in the article. Rav Brudny writes that “1.29 million frum Jews,” whom he later defines as shomrei Torah u’mitzvos, are living in Israel. In fact, the number of shomrei Torah u’mitzvos is well over two and a half million. The number 1.29 million, released by the Haredi Policy Research Institute, refers only to Haredi Jews.

Among the other million-plus frum Jews, there are innumerable rabbanim and roshei yeshivah, kollels, and hundreds of yeshivot, including over 80 hesder yeshivot. They are thoroughly committed to Torah and mitzvos, including such important mitzvos as Lo sa’amod al dam reyecha. For some reason, American Jews seem not to know very much about the existence of the non-charedi frum community. This gives them a very skewed understanding of what’s going on in Israel.

Even more significantly, while Rav Brudny claims that the High Court ruling is biased against “emunah in the Yud-Gimmel Ikarim and in the sanctity of Torah and the absolute truth of Torah,” all these rabbanim and roshei yeshiva and avreichim and yeshiva students and other frum Jews are absolutely committed to these things. And all of them essentially agree with the High Court ruling! Furthermore, these are right-wing yeshiva figures, in contrast to Avi Blum’s claim that this is an anti-yeshiva crusade of the Left.

The reason why they agree with the court ruling is that, contra to Rav Brudny’s claim, the ruling is not remotely an attack on limud Torah. (And the court did not even demand the draft of all 63,000 charedi yeshiva students receiving an exemption.) They simply observed that being enrolled in yeshiva does not provide a blanket exemption for an entire community from difficult defense responsibilities that need to be shared among the entire nation. (Which is similar to how learning Torah does not excuse one from obligations such as davenning and assisting one’s spouse when they need help.) And those who avoid sharing such national responsibilities should certainly not be paid and thereby encouraged to do so (while they simultaneously weaken the economy). And in light of the increasing manpower needs of the IDF, it is wrong (and dangerous) to increase demands upon everyone else while an entire large and growing sector of society receives a blanket exemption.

I do not know if Rav Brudny is aware of this, but for much of the past year, hundreds of thousands of men have had to leave their yeshivos, their families, their jobs, their businesses (some of which have collapsed as a result), and risk their health and their very lives on behalf of the Jewish People. Does this seem right, while hundreds of thousands of charedim collectively avoid such responsibility - many of whom are not even actually learning in yeshiva? Why is the Torah of a charedi yeshiva student worth more than that of a dati yeshiva student? Why should husbands and fathers of small children in their 30s and 40s be leaving their families and jobs and risking their lives for months on end, when there are tens of thousands of young single men available?

Rav Brudny claims that “Limud Torah is the shemirah of Klal Yisrael” and that “shomrei Torah u’mitzvos (by which he apparently mean charedim alone) are the ultimate protectors of Klal Yisrael.” If this extraordinary claim is indeed the alleged reason and justification for the charedi insistence upon mass exemption from army service (and for the record, many do not believe that this is actually the reason), then surely the Gedolim should elaborate upon its parameters. If it is geographically focused, then shouldn’t chareidi yeshivos relocate to areas that need the maximum protection? If it provides crucial protection, then how can there be such a thing as simultaneous bein hazmanim for everyone? And how did Israel survive for the first few decades, when there was no phenomenon of mass IDF exemption for tens of thousands of yeshiva students, who didn’t exist? And if it’s all about limud Torah, then why are charedi leaders so opposed to identifying and drafting even those who are not learning?

Meanwhile, there are plenty of sources that Torah protects from sickness and disease, and in no case do charedim believe that this is significant enough to release them from doing the exact same hishtadlus that everyone else does. And how does such a concept become a practical ruling, in light of the Gemara in Kesuvos 77b making it clear that such a thing only exists with truly exceptional Tanna’im? And what about the Maharsha in Sotah 21a who says that Torah protects from suffering, but not from death?

And all this is aside from the fact that tens of thousands of charedim could be drafted and there would still be vastly more full-time Torah learning than at any time in recent history. There’s no law preventing people from learning in yeshiva before and after army service, just as all the hesder yeshiva students do.

Rav Brudny says that the High Court ruling publicly derides and devalues the Torah and creates an immeasurable chillul Hashem. But the innumerable Torah-respecting Jews who take Moshe Rabbeinu’s rebuke “Shall your brothers come to war, while you dwell here?” seriously, along with such concepts as Lo saamod al dam reyecha, milchemes mitzvah, nosei b’ol im hatzibbur, and achdus, have a different perspective. For them, the chillul Hashem is found with those who do not take these parts of the Torah seriously - and who even demand to be paid for refusing to share the national burden! That is the immeasurable chillul Hashem, along with it being selfish cruelty to everyone else in the country, and a threat to the very survival of the nation.

It’s a far cry from 1948, when Agudas Yisrael itself called on every charedi man between the age of 17 and 25 to join the army.