With recent new military appointments, 6 of the 8 top commanders of the Golani Brigade beginning in the summer will be officers who wear kippot, another confirmation that the dati leumi combatants are indeed the backbone of the nation’s fighting forces.
The highest ranking ‘Golanchik’ sporting a kippa will be none other than the brigades’ commander, Colonel Ofir Buchris, a former talmid of the Ateret Kohanim Yeshiva, who will be assuming the command of Golani forces from Colonel Avi Peled. His assistant, Lt.-Colonel Dudi Uberman is also shomer shabbat, as is Lt.-Colonel Eyal Ashraf, who will be assuming command of the brigade’s training base. He too is a former talmid of Ateret Kohanim.
The new commander of Golani’s 12th Regiment will be Lt.-Colonel Udi Ben-Chamu, a graduate of Bnei David Yeshiva in Yishuv Eli, who happens to be a son-in-law of the rosh yeshiva, HaRav Eli Sadan.
Other appointments involving shomer shabbat officers include the commander of the 51st Regiment, Lt.-Colonel Shai Kalfer, a graduate of Yeshivat Shavei Chevron; and the current commander of the 13th Regiment Lt.-Colonel Avinoam Stolovitz, a graduate of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav.
The outgoing commander of the elite Egoz unit in Golani, Lt.-Colonel David Zini also wears a kippa, but his replacement does not.
Elsewhere in combat infantry forces, the incoming commander of the Shaked reconnaissance unit in the Givati Brigade wears a kippa, as well as the brigade’s training base commander and another brigade reconnaissance unit. In the Kfir Brigade, there are at least four senior commanders who are shomer shabbat.
Interestingly, a the hesder system comes under fire, the shomer shabbat officers are continuing to work their way up the ranks, the direct result of the Bnei David Yeshiva, the first ‘mechina yeshiva’ in the country, which began about a quarter of a century ago.
At the time, Rabbi Sadan explained that his mission is one that will take a generation, changing the face of the military to one that boasts shomer shabbat officers, and today, the fruits of his labor and other mechinot is definitely evident throughout the IDF.
Many feel that the panic concerning the conflict surrounding the Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva is this very realization, that the dati soldier and officer is becoming irreplaceable, and as such, this may impact the face of the future IDF, which may be less willing to adhere to directives that conflict with halacha.
As Rabbi Chaim Druckman Shlita, the head of the hesder network points out, the key here is to avoid such conflict by not issuing orders that contradict halacha.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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One Response
“Many feel that the panic concerning the conflict surrounding the Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva is this very realization, that the dati soldier and officer is becoming irreplaceable”
–This IS definitely part of the cause of the panic among the Baraks, Livnis, etc., but it is part of the larger “problem”…
-Most olim are religious.
-Most yordim are secular.
-The teshuva movement in Israel is bringing thousands and thousands of chilonim back to shmirat ha’mitzvot.
-The birth rate of the religious community in Israel is approximately THREE times that of the secular population.
As a result of all this, the chilonim are fighting for their secular lives. They correctly foresee an Israel heading towards greater caring about Jewish tradition and mitzvah observance.
Secular Zionism is already pretty much dead, and secular Israelis, already without a political philosophy to be their raison d’etre, don’t know how to cope with, or fit into an increasingly Jewish country.
Ikvetsa d’Mashicha…