Rav Mordechai Blau, a known name in the Degel Hatorah community and chareidi education addressed the growing share the burden call as efforts are underway to establish a new coalition government.
Realizing that Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid did his IDF service serving in “BaMachane”, the military’s weekly magazine, Blau announced “My son will serve in the chareidi BaMachane, Yated Ne’eman.”
Speaking with Non Stop Radio host Gabi Gazit, Rabbi Blau said “Over a half million people announced they support the share the burden issue. For over 3,000 years we are bearing the burden of learning Torah and preserving the spark. Pharaoh also spoke of sharing the burden, for those who know a bit of Chumash.”
Blau admitted he is most surprised how voters abandoned concerns for other burning issues and focused on drafting Bnei Torah. “There is no longer a nuclear threat, no problems with our neighbors in Egypt and Syria, there are no rockets and there are no economic threats. What concerns those sitting in Zion is how to take the chareidim and to change them their essence.”
“And who is speaking about this, the one who is a veteran of a combat unit, a decorated soldier? Mr. Lapid served in BaMachane and the studio of Channel 2. My son will serve in Yated Ne’eman.”
RADIO:
Perhaps your son will serve in BaMachane?
BLAU:
He will serve in Yated with a hat and jacket. This is the State of Tel Aviv. There are no longer impoverished Jews or economic issues? שלא אחד בלבד עמד עלינו לכלותינו since we have been a nation…
Listen carefully to what I say. Listen to me, Motcha Blau, who is involved in chareidi chinuch and the Degel Hatorah campaign. There is good reason we earned over 50,000 additional votes. Understand. The situation will not arise in which a single bochur wishing to sit and learn will be taken instead to the IDF or Galei Tzahal (Army Radio).
RADIO:
Is the rabbi calling not to comply with a law that is likely to be legislated in the future?
BLAU:
I will escort my son with drums and a band to [military] Prison Six. Will be bring him his tefilin and his food…
END
Idan Miller, a leader in the Suckers’ Tent movement to promote the ‘share the burden’ responded to the interview.
“We have grown accustomed to the chareidi community during the past 64 years. It gets what it wants. That is why we are speaking here of a true struggle. We the secular community must understand that while it’s nice that there is a party with 19 mandates in Knesset, and this issue remains atop of its agenda, there will indeed be true struggle on this issue.”
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8 Responses
So they are daring the zionists to put thousands of people in prison! They goyim have a phrase for this: a “Greek tragedy” – from a genre on theatre in which the audience can clearly see the characters are all doomed, but the characters follot the script oblivious to the fact they are proceeding to their doom. The people in Eretz Yisrael have chosen a road that dooms the “zionist” project, for better or worse, and don’t realize it. The hilonim believe that conscription will lead to being able to absorb the hareidim into mainstream society as they and their ancestors were absorbed, and don’t realize that hareidi resistance will undermine the medinah to such an extent that its survival will be unlikely.
Its time that people like Rav Blau learn to deal with this very real and pressing issue in a mature and thoughtful way.
It is unrealistic to expect one entire segment of society to be excluded from Army service and to live off government largesse.
Creative solutions must be found. Silly one liners that obscure and miss the very real issue at hand get us nowhere.
The politics of brinksmanship. Yesh Atid better be careful or they will get what they claim to want, 50,000 Yeshiva bochurim taking over the army.
Blau, like many of the other rabbonim who rant on this issue say it is assur that “even a single bochur who wants to learn should go to the army”. Whats breathtaking is the scope of the nareshkeit offered as daas torah…throughout our history, only a small percentage of jews refused to incur the personal risk and burdens of helping defend other yidden when they were threatened and chose to hide in a beis medrash “learning”. It is entirely possible to find some middle ground where legitimate learners turning 18 or 19 years old would combine study and national service or take a year off to serve. while 10,000 to 20,000 chareidi bochurim might get drafted, there would still be hundreds of thousands of students in the yeshivot and kollels learning. Instead of seeking such a middle ground, Blau and other Chareidi leaders choose to exaggerate, distort and scream gevalt about an existential threat to yiddeshkeit, yeshivot and torah learning.
#2 before “creative solutions” are found, the IDF must make itself “Chareidi-friendly”. Yes, there are some”chareidim” who are no longer learning and are claiming that they are (and have “off-the-books jobs)…but before anyone tries to tap these people as potential draftees, the IDF must “create” an environment they can live with. Just consider a problem that was widely publicized not too long ago. Some frum soldiers were forced to attend an event where women soldiers were singing….and there is also the problem with the level of kashrus in the IDF. When these problems are solved to the satisfaction of the frum soldiers already in the IDF, then and only then can they consider drafting Chareidim who are no longer learning. That alone will provide a sizeable number (believe me, there are a lot). At that point, that would be enough of a compromise to allow true “current” Bnei Torah to continue learning undisturbed.
akuperma: chareidim who boldly predict that the state of israel will be wiped off the face of the earth as a result of chareidi resistance sound as ridiculous as muslims who believe that the state of israel will be wiped off the face of the earth as a result of arab resistance. As president obama said in Egypt in 2009, “We cannot impose peace. But privately, many Muslims recognize that Israel will not go away.” I think its time Chareidis came to this recognition as well. Israel will not go away. Once you have had a moment to digest this piece of information then maybe you can begin discussing ways Chareidis can become a part of the fabric of the society there and contribute to a country which in which they live which imposes certain obligations upon its citizens.
I have an idea. He can be in charge of BaMachane and turn it into another Yated. You think the IDF will change the chareidi essence? If they are drafted, the chareidim should try to change the IDF essence and turn everyone more religious!
Yated would welcome an intelligent, well-rounded young man especially if his Ivrit, grammar and writing skills are above level.