The Deadline

The resolution allowing charedim to avoid the draft is expiring

It’s Judgment Day for the charedi draft issue. Cabinet Resolution 682 allowing the state not to draft Haredi men is about to expire. The government has not stood by its commitment to present the court substantive proposals for tackling the issue, and it has requested a 12-hour extension in order to do so. The court has not yet responded.

I think that I’ve covered most of the issues relating to this - the obligation for every community to participate in sharing the responsibility for national defense (and the economy), the lack of Torah basis for claiming that learning Torah is a substitute for military effort, the myth that charedim seriously believe otherwise, the harm that this causes everyone else. Here’s a few additional observations:

I. Is that REALLY the Reason?!

Time and again, we hear charedi voices claiming that it’s all about people hating charedim and wanting to erase Torah. Rav Dov Landau, in a letter urging yeshiva students not to collect money in non-charedi neighborhoods at a time of great tension regarding charedim, refers to “the hatred of those who hate religion and Talmidei Chachamim.” Charedi commentators on this blog say the same.

It’s just bizarre. Are all the dati-leumi roshei yeshiva and rabbanim and Torah-teaching mothers of soldiers who are calling for charedim to share the burden motivated by a hatred of religion? Is it really so difficult to understand that when most of the country is living at a time of funerals and hospitalizations and hundreds of thousands of men being away from their families and jobs and risking their lives, and the IDF declares that there is still a manpower shortage and people will have to spend additional months and years in the army beyond what they already contribute, that people want change from a community that absolves itself of sharing any such responsibility (and moreover demands to be paid for it)?!

How can they make such a bizarre claim? I think it must be that they can’t possibly allow themselves to acknowledge that there is any legitimate grievance, so this is all that they can come up with, even though it’s ridiculous and adds insult to injury. And it fits neatly with their worldview, which is all about a siege mentality.

II. What’s the Plan?

A friend of mine asked me as follows:

“Here’s the question I’m left with. For the people defending the charedi position, what’s their vision for how Am Yisrael should conduct itself? Meaning if they could snap their fingers and everyone fell into line, would all adult males be learning full-time in kollel? Would it be an all-female workforce? Have they worked out the economic viability of this ideal? Would there be an army? Police? Would there be Jews living in Judea-Samaria, and if so who would defend them? Would they live there without an army? For people who use the word Zionist as a pejorative, would there be a State of Israel? What would they have instead? And if the answer is of course we need X percent of men working, in the army, in order to survive physically and economically, of course we need a functioning state, then what is that percentage? And what does that say about their vision, their convictions? If they are relying on half the country living in opposition to their ideals in order for their ideals to be realized, isn’t that a sign that something is off about the ideal itself, and that the non-charedi population is disproportionately carrying these essential components that we could not survive without?”

My answer was that they don’t have a vision or plan or anything. If pressed to explain their plan or vision, they would avoid and evade and resort to platitudes about how we need Torah to survive. That’s the whole problem - they have a shtetl mentality, and they don’t know how to scale up for being a large and growing proportion of the country. They don’t even think about it. The whole idea of having a large-scale vision or plan is alien to their way of thinking. Plans, like laws, are for goyim.

III. Do Charedim appreciate the IDF?

While the biggest problem is charedi non-participation in the IDF, a second problem (and a factor in causing the first problem) is charedi lack of appreciation for the IDF.

I just do not appreciate you ALWAYS bashing on the Chareidim/ Orthodox… We are people with different views and opinions. Ultimately, ALL the people are either in the army or respect the people in the army while they learn. Not the biggest crisis. Ultimately, V'ahavta l"reacha komocha! In the regular orthodox communities and even by most chasidim, there is a very healthy respect for the Army and appreication. Not sure where you hang out or if you take the few people who disapprove of the army, EVERYONE I speak to davens and cares for the soldiers!

I told him that I disgreed on two counts. First of all, if Israel does not have enough soldiers and a strong enough economy, then it will be destroyed, so I think it's a pretty big crisis. Second, it is absolutely not the case that everyone respects the army.

A few days ago, he wrote back to me as follows (the ellipses are his, not mine):

“After having a few groups of yeshiva boy collectors in my house over Purim, I will agree that I may have been naive in my feelings about certain issues with regards to IDF, Hesder and regular yeshivas... I want to let you know that the Achdus that I thought existed about the IDF, Israel and Hesder yeshivas is not as good as I thought. I actually threw a group of boys out of my house for the disrespect that they were spewing over the IDF and Hesder yeshivas... I was wrong.... I feel that there is a bigger disconnect that I previously thought... It was very sad for me to hear some of the things coming from these "know it all" yeshiva guys.... me and my wife were floored ... and sad... but I felt I have to say to you that you were more correct than I was.”

While there’s always some sense of vindication when one is proved right, sometimes there is a greater feeling of sadness, because one wishes it would have been otherwise. But it’s not difficult to understand the cause of the unfortunate phenomenon he describes.

It’s just like with the charedi claim that the drive to enlist charedim is about hatred of Torah. When you avoid a basic and obvious national requirement of army service, you have to justify it in all kinds of bizarre ways, and there is also a drive to disparage the value of those who are in the army.

That’s why Rav Aharon Feldman said that he is opposed to “glorifying” IDF soldiers by writing to them or davvening for them, that’s why charedi shuls won’t say the prayer for the IDF, and that’s why ArtScroll will publish a book about the heroism of Hatzala medics but not about the heroism of IDF soldiers.