Rescuing Rambam from Revisionism

Did Maimonides really idealize the charedi kollel non-army lifestyle?

Introduction

Charedi polemicists often claim that Rambam legitimizes and even idealizes the charedi lifestyle, both with regard to the financial support of the kollel system and the community-wide exemption from army service. Although this topic is of the gravest national importance, it is not presented with a comprehensive scholarly analysis; even when prominent Talmudists present this argument, they do so in a polemical and superficial manner. A careful analysis shows that Rambam, unsurprisingly, legitimizes no such thing and is in fact strongly opposed to it.

The claim comes from Rambam’s statement at the very end of Hilchos Shemittah Ve'Yovel. It follows a halachah where Rambam states that the tribe of Levi did not receive a share of the Land of Israel to develop, nor engage in warfare like other tribes:

And why did Levi not merit a portion in the Land of Israel and its spoils with their brethren? Because they were separated to work for God, to serve Him and to teach His ways of uprightness and just righteousness to the multitudes, as it says, “Teach your judgments to Yaakov, and your teachings to Israel.” Therefore, they were separated from the ways of the world – they do not arrange warfare in the manner of the rest of Israel, and they do not inherit land, or acquire for themselves via their own power. Instead, they are the army of God, as it says, “God has blessed His army.” And He, blessed be He, acquires for them, as it says, “I am your portion and your inheritance.” (Hilchos Shemittah V’Yovel 13:12)

Rambam follows this and concludes the seventh book of the Mishneh Torah by stating as follows:

Not only the Tribe of Levi, but each and every individual human being, whose spirit moves him and whose knowledge gives him understanding to set himself apart in order to stand before the Lord, to serve Him, to worship Him, and to know Him, who walks upright as God created him to do, and releases himself from the yoke of the many considerations which trouble people - such an individual is as consecrated as the Holy of Holies, and his portion and inheritance shall be in the Lord forever and ever. The Lord will grant him adequate sustenance in this world, just as He granted to the priests and to the Levites. Thus did David, peace upon him, say, "O Lord, the portion of my inheritance and of my cup, You maintain my lot."

This is cited to argue that according to Rambam, anyone who is in yeshivah does not need to serve in the army and should be financially supported by the rest of the Jewish People, just as the tribe of Levi did not fight and was supported by the rest of Israel. They are the holiest of the holy!

However, Rambam did not, and could not, mean anything of the sort.

Rambam on Taking Money for Torah

Let us first address Rambam’s view on taking money for engaging in Torah. He very explicitly and strongly condemns it:

One who makes up his mind to involve himself with Torah and not to work, and to support himself from charity, has profaned God’s Name and brought the Torah into contempt, extinguished the light of religion, brought evil upon himself, and has taken away his life from the World-to-Come... (Hilchos Talmud Torah 3:10)

Rambam was somewhat of an aberration from normative tradition in his views on these matters. Other Rishonim and Acharonim often permitted taking money for teaching Torah, though almost never for just studying Torah. But it is clear that Rambam viewed a lifestyle of being supported in studying Torah via charitable donations and public taxation - the modern kollel system - as being utterly, utterly wrong. (This is even though the state of Torah study in his part of the world was generally rather poor, especially compared to today.)

Accordingly, it is impossible to explain Rambam at the end of Hilchos Shemittah Ve'Yovel as licensing the modern charedi kollel phenomenon. What, then, is Rambam talking about?

First of all, he is not making a halachic statement here at all. As is common with the closing paragraphs of the different sections of the Mishneh Torah, Rambam here is presenting mussar rather than halachah. He is not contradicting, or even qualifying, the halachos regarding taking money for Torah that he discussed in Hilchos Talmud Torah. Instead, he is praising an ideal - which certainly does not include taking money for Torah, as he has already made clear. As Rav Chaim Kanievsky states in Derech Emunah: “Our master’s intent is not that he should receive money from others, for in the laws of Talmud Torah 3:10 he rails against this; rather, his intent is that he engages in a small degree of effort, and the Holy One will bless the results of his work and enable him to be sustained with all his requirements.” This echoes Chasam Sofer, Kesav Sofer and Rav Aharon Kotler, who explain the Levite archetype (as opposed to the Yissacher archetype) as referring to a Torah scholar who does not receive money from others. People in kollel who receive a kollel stipend are not the honorary Levites being described here.

But what is the comparison with the tribe of Levi? First of all, note that Rambam viewed the role of Levites as being teachers of the nation, not avreichim in kollel. Second, any comparison to the Levites is not a complete comparison. It does not, for example, mean that Torah scholars would not be entitled to an ancestral portion of land. Rather, it is a comparison vis-a-vis devoting one's life to God. It is a comparison vis-a-vis ethical goals and ideals, not halachic exemptions.

Third, insofar as Rambam does equate Torah teachers with Levites with regard to material sustenance, he makes the meaning of this clear elsewhere:

Anyone who makes economic use of the honor of the Torah takes his life from this world... However, the Torah permits scholars to give their money to others to invest in profitable businesses (on their behalf)... and to receive priority in buying and selling merchandise in the marketplace. These are benefits that God granted them, just as He granted the offering to the Kohanim and the tithes to the Levite... for merchants occasionally do such things for each other as a courtesy, even if there is no Torah scholarship to warrant it. A Torah scholar should certainly be treated at least as well as a respectable ignoramus. (Commentary to the Mishnah, Avos 4:7)

In Rambam's view, Torah scholars, like Kohanim and Leviim, receive benefits, but the benefits are of a different nature. They involve the investment of funds, and assistance in business, rather than financial grants. (This is similar to the Yissacher-Zevulun relationship, which, according to Chazal, was nothing at all like it is popularized today; rather, it involved Zevulun marketing the produce that Yissacher farmed.)

What about Rambam himself? There is a widespread belief that he was entirely dedicated to his studies, supported by his brother, until his brother died at sea and Rambam was forced to provide for both his own and his brothers’ families, whereupon he began to work as a doctor. But this is not the case. Rambam learned medicine while his family was still living in Morocco. Upon moving to Egypt, Rambam soon rose to prominence as a physician. He also traded in gemstones, and his brother assisted with his investments, enabling him to devote much time to his studies. At no point was he simply receiving handouts from his brother. His brother was investing Rambam's own merchandise and earnings, just as Rambam permits Torah scholars to have done on their behalf.

Thus, Rambam’s comparison of select pious people to Levites does not mean that he is contradicting or qualifying his rulings elsewhere that Torah scholars may not receive payment. And the same is true with regard to military service.

Rambam on the Laws of Warfare

Rambam discusses the laws of warfare and its exemptions in chapter 7 of the section appropriately titled Hilchos Melachim u'Milchamos. He writes about the exceptions for a new groom and so on, for a milchemes reshus, an optional war. Then he notes that such exemptions do not apply in a milchemes mitzvah, with which everyone must go out to fight. He makes no mention whatsoever of any exemption for Torah scholars. It is simply absurd to posit that he held of such an exemption but did not mention it here. (Likewise, Rambam discusses the various privileges of Torah scholars in the Laws of Talmud Torah, and he makes no mention of any exemption from military service.)

In Hilchos Shemittah V’Yovel, Rambam is not contradicting, or even qualifying, the halachos regarding going to the army that he discusses in Hilchos Melachim u'Milchamos. Instead, he is praising an ideal of devoting one's life to God. It is a comparison vis-a-vis mussar goals and ideals, not halachic exemptions.

(Incidentally, Rambam in Hilchos Shemittah Ve'Yovel is not even only talking about Jews; he speaks about "anyone in the world." And he does not specify anything about Torah or even use the word. He is referring to anyone, Jew or non-Jew, seeking an ascetic lifestyle of the pursuit of spiritual perfection.)

Incidentally, even with regard to the Tribe of Levi itself, it does not seem that they were exempt from fighting in a milchemes mitzvah. When Moshe called upon the people to fight against those who had created the Golden Calf, it was the Levites which came forward (Exodus 32:26). And Moshe told them to take their swords! What did they have swords for, if not for battle? Furthermore, the Talmud (Kiddushin 21b) discusses the applicability of the laws of yefat to’ar to kohanim – indicating that they were in battle. When Rambam speaks of the Levites not preparing for war in the manner of the other tribes, he appears to be referring to either voluntary national wars, and/or to tribe-specific wars for conquering their own portions of land. Rambam links the discussion of the Levites’ exemption to the fact that Levites did not have land. Accordingly, numerous authorities, from Rav Kook (Shabbat Ha’Aretz 13:12) to Rav Moshe Sternbuch (Teshuvos V’Hanhagos Orach Chaim 1:131), state that even Levites are obligated to fight in a war of milchemet mitzvah, national defense. All the more so would people who are not actual Levites.

Finally, even if one were to posit that Levites were exempt from defensive wars, and even if one were to understand Rambam as giving a qualification of his laws of war and giving an exemption to “honorary” Levites, who exactly would qualify as an honorary Levite? Rambam is certainly not talking about a blanket status for an entire sector of the population! As Rav Aharon Lichtenstein notes:

...Even if we grant that the Rambam's statement does imply a categorical dispensation in purely halachic terms, it remains of little practical significance. We have yet to examine just to whom it applies. A levi [sic] is defined genealogically. Those who are equated with him, however, literally or symbolically, are defined by spiritual qualities; and for these the Rambam sets a very high standard indeed. He present an idealized portrait of a selfless, atemporal, almost ethereal person - one whose spirit and intelligence have led him to divest himself of all worldly concerns and who has devoted himself "to stand before God, to serve Him, to worship Him, to know God; and he walks aright as the Lord has made him and he has cast off from his neck the yoke of the many considerations which men have sought." To how large a segment of the Torah community - or, a fortiori, of any community - does this lofty typology apply? To two percent? Five Percent? Can anyone... confront a mirror and tell himself that he ought not to go to the army because he is kodesh kodashim, sanctum sanctorum, in the Rambam's terms?

Of the 150,000 charedi yeshiva and kollel students, many of them are certainly not single-mindedly devoted to spirituality, and all of them rely on politicking and government funding and asking for donations. These are not the rarified individuals described by Rambam, who describes people divorced from worldly considerations and who are provided for by God.

Conclusion

In summary: Very few, if any, of the 150,000 charedim enrolled in yeshivah would qualify as the extraordinary individuals that Rambam conceptually compares to Levites and who rely upon God alone to provide for them. And even with such rare individuals, there is certainly no halachic rating of them actually being Levites vis-a-vis any halachic exemption from army service. And the most straightforward understanding of Rambam (and of the Torah) is that there is no exemption for Levites from wars of national defense anyway.

There may be recent and contemporary rabbinic authorities in favor of public funding for Torah students, or mass deferral of them from IDF service, for reasons that we have discussed elsewhere. But Rambam certainly cannot be enlisted as support for this. This is clear to any honest reader of Rambam who is not driven by an agenda to justify the charedi way of life.

Rambam would have harsh words for such people; in the laws of war (7:15) he states that anyone who does not fight with all their strength is guilty of weakening national resolve, and bears responsibility for whatever losses the nation experiences. But, Rambam concludes, someone who does fight with all their strength, and with the goal of sanctifying Hashem’s Name, achieves blessing both in this world and the World-to-Come. If only all the nation would merit this.