And do Bayit Yehudi/Mizarchi/NRP understand and respect the position of the Charadi?
Like I quoted Rav Schach zt”l -“There are two fronts in wartime -one on the front and one in the Bais Medrash.”
Do they understand and respect the position of the Charadi?
I think NOT! “
That may be so, but it is not correct for either side to disrespect the other. It leads to sinas chinam, and stubborn inability to compromise in a reasonable manner that benefits all.
I totally agree with everything Golfer said, and more – I absolutely believe that every neis that has occurred in E”Y in our times (especially during the Gulf Wars), is a direct result of the many, many people learning Torah there. Our physical safety in E”Y is dependent on the spiritual safety that our yeshivos are providing. No question in my mind about that.
That said, I assure HaKatan that if any ehrliche frum yid in my family or anyone else’s has ever had to compromise his frumkeit in any manner in the IDF or any other army, it was b’shaas had’chak and while saving lives. My father Z”L lived on tuna fish, raw fruit and vegetables for his entire army stint, never had a hot meal. For anyone to refer to serving in the army as shmad, is offensive to me. I have no doubt that there is a level of arayos going on in the army, but those same people would sadly be living that way were they NOT in the army. It is a pandemic, not just in E”Y, and not just in the IDF.
Would anyone have paskened that no Jew should serve in the army when they were conquering E”Y 40 years after Yetzias Mitzrayim? How about all the wars that took place IN the Midbor? There were Jews who committed heinous aveiros in those days also, and they were punished for that. These are Milchamos Mitzvah in our day and time. Israel would not need an army, were it not for the fact that our sonim will just not let up. So who should be expected to lay his life on the line every time? ONLY the non-chareidi? Only the frei? Why – are they less Jewish or more expendable?
I do not believe that the Yeshivah boys (who are emesdig in their learning) should necessarily have to BE in the army, but there are all types of service they can give their country (concurrent with limud Torah), which would not be so terrible for them to do, when others are doing the actual fighting to preserve their lives and rights. Likewise, the secular Israeli world needs to be sensitized to the fact that Hashem fiers the world, and in the zechus of all the Torah being learned, has given the IDF many a miraculous victory that cannot be explained in any other way. If you come from a secular mindset, that is not so easy to recognize. Perhaps if they felt their voice was being heard and that they were not being disdained for their “shmad and arayos” (and that is a bit of L”H, while we are at it, to make such an assumption about everyone in the IDF), and perhaps if there were more frum people serving IN the army, their example would rub off a little on the others in a positive manner.
When two Jews wander in the desert and only one has a bottle of water, Halacha dictates that the one should not share his water, because then both will die, and one life is not more important than the other. It does not say anything about two Jews, one frum, and one frei, wandering the desert, and the frei one has the bottle of water. One life is not more important than the other.(Please don’t quote the drowning story with the rebbie and the father, and the son is supposed to save his rebbie first – it is apples and oranges to this inyan).
This is a very sad and serious machlah among Klal Yisroel, that is causing so much sinas chinam, and I hope it can be resolved successfully, and soon, before the world is witness to a bigger Chillul Hashem.