According to multiple reports, 600,000 or more chareidim took part in the Million Man Atzeres and were mispallel to HKBH against efforts to draft chareidim into the IDF.
As the event closed the announcement was made for all to hear, instructing draft eligible chareidim not to enter the IDF, not to be enticed into entering any military program that has been custom tailored for chareidim, and not to be intimidated by threats of punishment or imprisonment.
Mispallalim who were interviewed explained the government will not compel them to serve and they will not abandon the life to which they remain committed.
For those in attendance the message way a memorable one; having been part of the hundreds of thousands davening, reciting Tehillim and Kabolas Ohl Malchus Shomayim amid unprecedented achdus.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
Yeah, they are pretty clear about what they will NOT do. So what will they do?
And what if the rest of the population is equally clear about what they will NOT do?
Here’s what we need: compromise from both sides.
I’m with Happy Olah on this. Get along with your fellow Jews, even if they are a different flavor of Jew.
Interesting. A clear message to the governnment of Israel? I thought this was an atzeres tefiloh? Isn’t the message of an atzeres tefiloh for HKBH, not for mamleches bosor v’dom?
How clear a message, anyways? Lets not kid ourselves. The issue was pushed off the front pages by Obama’s broadside attack on Netanyahu. It got minimal coverage elsewhere. The city government and the police were accommodating, as they had to be. This was a message to the chareidi veldt, reminding them to listen to their manhigim. Period. Not an unimportant message, to be sure, but to the other 7.5 million Israelis it was a clear message of “Driving in or to Yerushalayim will be impossible on Sunday. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
And also interesting. I noted with some concern the huge mess of papers and litter and signage strewn all over the streets of Yerushalayim in the wake of this atzeres tefiloh. I also saw many chiloni employees of the city cleaning it up. Is this some kind of Yissochor Zevulun thing where only one party agrees to the arrangement but expects the other to follow through?
And lastly, as someone said yesterday, If a chiloni went to the beach instead of the induction center and he was caught by the authorities, they might incarcerate or penalize him. Not because he went to the beach, BUT BECAUSE HE DIDNT GO TO THE INDUCTION CENTER. Gezeirah Shova. If a chareidi went to the beis medresh instead of the induction center and he was caught by the authorities, they might incarcerate or penalize him. Not because he went to the beis medresh, BUT BECAUSE HE DIDNT GO TO THE INDUCTION CENTER.
The manhigim could have controlled this process by not making it a zero sum game from the beginning. There were options, including national service under their own auspices. Chabad made a deal. So could the manhigim of the chareidi world. they chose not to, and now must assert their control over their followers. Nothing wrong with that. But lets not have illusions that this is about “shmad”. For that to be the case, the chilonim would actually have to care about whether chareidim daven, learn, follow mitzvos. They don’t care enough to motivate themselves to shmad, and even the biggest secular ideologues havent in over 8 decades. If you want them to believe you when you say you are motivated by a desire to follow Torah, believe your fellow Jew when he says he is motivated by a desire that all share in the full responsibilities of citizenship. If you don’t, why should he believe you?
Yeah, they are pretty clear about what they will NOT do. So what will they do?
They will learn Torah.
And what if the rest of the population is equally clear about what they will NOT do?
Then we will remind them by telling them.
Here’s what we need: compromise from both sides.
The first part of the compromise must include drafting 10% of Chilonim into full-time Yeshiva study. Then we can talk further.
#1.
I agree.
Compromise from both sides.
As of now, any Israeli not in Yeshiva has to join the army.
Equaly I will say that any Israeli that doesn’t go to the army (1/3 of all non frum Israelis), has to go learn in a Yeshiva.
Lets start at that and then we can continue with other compromises.
yichusdik: my black hat off to you! You -at least- are a sane voice in the wilderness! I fear that the chiloni world will redouble its efforts now to enlist the chareidim -just look at Lapid’s reaction!- and that a religious war against the governnemt cannot be won by the chareidim-whatever their bluster !
yichusdik you made sure to mention the garbage left over which btw was paid for by the chareidim to be picked up after the atzeres but you forgot to mention 600,000 people and not one arrest not one altercation where can that be stated anywhere in the world except the chareidi world. what a kiddush shem shammayim not one altercation nothing rather pure tefillah and simcha oi avodas hashem. now that you forgeot to mentyion it i reminded you.
Yichusdik:
The only option is for the Zionists to leave the Chareidim alone and allow them all to work without first having to serve in any governmental army or other service framework, and then the Zionists would get more tax revenue, which should make everyone happy.
This would be similar to what is done in (other) civilized countries.
There can be no compromise with shmad, and Zionism is shmad.
It’s very simple…. allow work without prerequisite of IDF service. This would allow everyone to work legally and would increase tax revenue to the medina in order to “share” the burden.
Ahhh, socialism, a failed experiment again and again.
They said as much as can be said without forcing the zionists into a corner. Implicit is the threat that if the zionists don’t back down on conscription, they will have undone the agreements of the past century by which the establishment hareidim agreed to support the state, and they will force the hareidim to support a solution leading to a non-zionist state. In their efforts to “recruit” the a hareidim to become good members of Bayit Yehudi and Likud, Bennett and Netanyahu have gone much of the way into turning them into the “old” hareidim who looked to those such as the Satmarer and R. Chaim Yosef Sonnenfeld — meaning Bayit Yehudi and Likud have a very strong incentive to find an alternative to conscription. If the zionists offer the hareidim no choice but to oppose zionism, the result could easily be a single democratic state in all of Eretz Yisrael which would mean peace, no conscription, and no zionism.
I think the clear message is there can not be dictation of a majority onto a minority without consequences. Most importantly it was a remarkable event which brought together the entire dati spectrum even with the variety of opinions that has been floated as how to proceed. Going forward the government will have to address the question of WHERE before they issue arrest warrants for the WHO. In other words WHERE do you intend to draft these people too before you decide WHO you want to DRAFT is as important issue as any. “Drafting” Chabad shluchim to be Chabad Shluchim and counting that as National Service is most likely acceptable. Whereas drafting a Belz Chasid to a mixed (women, secular, other) IDF base is a non starter.