The Elefant In The Room
Ignoring the Key Issue on the Draft Crisis
Previously, I’ve previously written about “the elephant in the room” and I was being literal. This time, I’m writing both literally and metaphorically, depending on the spelling. (I cannot resist wordplay.)
Several people sent me the video of the Agudah Yerushalayim Yarchei Kallah, specifically the section about army service, featuring R. Yosef Elefant of the Mir Yeshiva. I’ll be honest, I could not bring myself to watch it. But then someone sent me a transcript, and I took a look.
There is, of course, a lot that can be said about it, and there will be other people doing so. I just want to focus on one thing. Before I do so, I will point out that R. Elefant, in his presentation, claimed that nobody, including himself, is actually allowed to have an opinion on this. Only the Charedi Gedolim™ are allowed to have opinions, because it’s “the ultimate Klal Yisroel issue… it’s about the clash of right and wrong and good and evil” (which, ironically, I think we all agree on), and only the Charedi Gedolim™ have pure Daas Torah views.
But he himself was nevertheless very open about his opinions! As is everyone else in the charedi world. And I’m going to also be open with mine. I happen to be of the school of thought, taught to me by an old-school charedi Rav, that everyone is entitled to have an opinion. (And I’m also of the school of thought, based on actual Jewish tradition, that wisdom involves a combination of innate characteristics, personal qualities, and is enhanced with diverse forms of knowledge, as opposed to the modern charedi innovation that it’s solely a result of zero diversity of knowledge.)
Of all R. Elefant’s nonsense and distortions and insincere claims, there is one particular line which stood out. It occurred in the middle of his central claim, that the entire controversy is about a Secular Zionist War Against Torah. In passing, he said as follows:
“This has nothing to do with a shortage of soldiers. It could be there is, it could be there isn’t, I have no idea.”
Are you kidding me???!!!
The shortage of soldiers is absolutely the central issue! Sure, there are some secularists who seize at any opportunity to create conflict with charedim. But for the majority of the country, the issue is the very real issue of the IDF manpower shortage!
(And the evidence is obvious. Before the current situation, many people, including myself, believed that as wrong and unfair as the charedi avoidance of army service is, it is nevertheless more important to get them into the workforce rather than drain the economy. Now, everything has changed, since Oct 7 revealed that the notion of a small, smart army was a mistake.)
How can he possibly downplay this?! This is the cause of hundreds of thousands of reservists having to go back to reserve duty again and again, at tremendous cost. This is why our sons will have to do a minimum of two and half months reserve duty every year until they are 45. This is why there is a huge Jewish majority against the Draft Exemption Law. Not because we want to make a war on Torah!
Perhaps even more revealing than R. Elefant downplaying the significance of the manpower shortage is his lack of knowledge as to whether it even exists! How can he not realize that the endless call-ups (which he references and professes sympathy for) with all their resultant suffering are precisely because of this reason?!
And even more outrageous is that not only does he downplay it, not only is he ignorant of it, but he didn’t even care to take the very simple step of finding out the facts about this crucial point before giving a presentation on the topic!
Of course, we know the reason why he downplays it, why he professes ignorance, why he doesn’t even care to find out. It’s because the very real and very consequential IDF manpower shortage totally demolishes everything that he has to say. When there is a tremendous cost that needs to be paid by the nation, you don’t get to opt out and thereby increase the burden tremendously for everyone else merely because it’s challenging for your particular religious approach (and kal v’chomer not to demand payment for this!).
This is not the wise leadership of Daas Torah. This is stupidity born of wilful ignorance and societal selfishness.