The Religious Risks of IDF Service

Are they a valid reason for charedim not to serve?

One commonly cited alleged justification for why charedim don’t serve in the IDF, even if they are not learning in yeshiva, is because of the religious risks that it presents. There is talk about a very high percentage of dati soldiers who end up becoming secular after their army service, as well as a Leftist-Supreme Court-IDF agenda to oppose accommodations to religion and secularize soldiers. Accordingly, it’s just too spiritually dangerous.

There are four responses to be made to this: first, it’s not actually true; second, where there’s a will, there’s a way; third, even if it would be true, it makes no difference; and fourth, if you are nevertheless taking this way out, you have a debt to pay.

Let’s explore these in detail.

1) It’s Not Actually True

When you hear shocking statistics about the number of religious soldiers who leave religion during their army service, it’s important to understand how these numbers are being generated. They are the result of including soldiers from relatively weak religious homes who only have a high school religious education and then go to the regular army track in which they are surrounded by secular Israelis. Of course, with such a pool of people, there are many who leave religion. (Though there is also a phenomenon of religious soldiers who influence secular soldiers to become closer to Judaism - why don’t charedim take that into consideration? Wouldn’t a large influx of religious soldiers have that effect?)

But if you were to count soldiers from strong religious backgrounds who go through the hesder system - which involves starting in yeshiva, then doing army service together with their yeshiva friends, followed by more yeshiva - you would see an absolutely minimal drop-out rate from religion. In fact, the drop-out rate in such circles is probably lower than the drop-out rate among charedim in yeshiva! And many grow - not just as men, but as religious Jews - from their service on behalf of Klal Yisrael. There are also hesder graduates that proceed to kollel and become Torah scholars and rabbinic leaders.

And now, there are even several charedi hesder options available, too. The idea that the IDF doesn’t want to accommodate charedi sensitivities is simply false. Thus, it’s just not true that if charedim join the army it would threaten their religion.

(Unless you define their religion as “doing what the charedi Gedolim say.” Which is a point that we will return to.)

2) Where There’s A Will, There’s a Way

Movies are a serious threat to the charedi way of life. Back when airlines had giant screens for entire plane sections rather than individual screens, this posed a problem for charedim. So they came up with a solution: they got the airline to agree that if they could fill an entire section of the plane, there would be no movie in that section.

There are endless efforts and initiatives made by charedi rabbinic leaders, MKs and askanim to accommodate charedi interests. Separate beaches. Filtered internet systems. Kosher phones. Otzar Beis Din. Heter iska.

If the charedi rabbinic and political leadership was serious about national responsibilities, they would look for a way to make army service suitable for them. They would make charedi hesder yeshivos with regular Torah studies and a secluded environment, exactly as unusual rarities such as Rav Dovid Leibel are creating.

But they’re not even trying. And they ferociously fight against people such as Rav Dovid Leibel who do create solutions. Because they don’t want a solution.

Charedim want to be able to claim that the army is too spiritually dangerous for them to be able to join (and that’s why they exaggerate the dangers). They’re not worried about losing people to religion; they are worried about losing them to the charedi framework of rabbinic and political loyalty. And the bottom line is that they simply don’t care to make any effort to join in national defense, since they don’t identify as part of the nation and don’t care about national responsibility.

3) So What?

Let’s say that even a charedi hesder system still presents spiritual risks. Or let’s discuss a scenario in which there is no charedi hesder option and there is indeed significant spiritual danger. In such a scenario, does this provide a justification not to join the army?

The answer is that while it makes it understandable why the person would be reluctant to join, it’s not a justification to avoid it. The Torah itself recognizes significant spiritual risks involved in being in an army, including looting forbidden spoils and even marrying out. But these are not presented as reasons not to join the army - instead, they are presented as challenges that Jewish soldiers must strive to overcome.

And what about the physical risks? Hundreds of soldiers have been killed. (And don’t claim that it’s preferable for a soldier to be killed than to become secular. Few charedim actually seriously believe this.) This is aside from the thousands who have been injured or who suffer from trauma. Yes, serving in the army involves serious risks - for all sectors of society. If everyone claimed a right of exemption because of the risks, we wouldn’t have an army!

You can’t refuse to take risks while insisting that others take risks. In response to Rav Aharon Lopiansky writing that “the robbing of our youths’ formative years as a ben Torah would be a price that we could not pay,” 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?”

4) And If Nevertheless…

Suppose that despite all this, a person nevertheless uses this justification to take advantage of their ability to avoid army service. This means that, as per Rabbi Adlerstein’s point, they are in debt for not accepting their share of the defense burden. And this is a debt that they need to figure out a way to at least partially pay. Maybe they should adopt Netziv’s directive for Torah scholars who are not serving in combat - he says that they should pay extra tax and do a form of national service. (And I’m pretty sure that if there were financial costs involved in avoiding army service rather than financial benefits, a lot more charedim would be open to drafting.)

If they don’t even acknowledge the debt, then it’s clear that it’s not about spiritual risk; it’s about selfishness.