Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, mora d’asra of Yishuv Har Bracha speaks out contradicting the position of Tekuma faction rabbonim, headed by Rabbi Dov Lior Shlita.
The rav stands firmly behind Bayit Yehudi efforts to draft chareidim into the IDF. “It must be understood that chareidim sharing the burden is an integral part of the existence of Am Yisrael” the rav is quoted as saying in his weekly column appearing in the BaSheva newspaper affiliated with the dati leumi tzibur.
The rabbi explains that “the State of Israel is surrounded by many enemies and we cannot make do with a professional army but we need an army of the people that is premised on a draft and mandatory service that enlarges our standing army as well as the future reserve duty force.”
Rabbi Melamed feels that the reality in which “most of a Jewish sector does not take part in military service creates a national catastrophic chasm. We can see following the election that the party that raised the banner of drafting chareidim grows from election to election. Therefore with all the love and the deep connection I feel with the chareidi tzibur there is no possibility of assisting. It may be possible to delay the decision but the national need and mounting public pressure have to be addressed seriously.”
The rabbi also has harsh words for those who attack dati leumi rabbonim. “Those to feel our rabbonim are amei aretz are themselves amei aretz, positing one may bend all the words and readings of Chazal in line with their limited understanding and to void mitzvos and dinim.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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15 Responses
The impotant question is to what extent with Religious Zionists support, or be outraged, over what amounts to an attempt to close down the non-zionist yeshivos. My guess is that tying government funding to army service will raise no objections, but attempting to block overseas fund raising or penal sanctions against non-zionist yeshivos and their students will alienate a large part of even the Religious Zionists which would undermine Bennett’s role. I suspect also that many of the more nationalist in the Dati Leumi camp will get concerned if the result of persecuting the Hareidi gives rise to a possible Hareidi-Socialist-Arab coalition
it’s totally amazing to see the midgets competing with the giants. Rav Elyashiv is not great enough for them – they feel they are “Barei Plugta”…
“…what amounts to an attempt to close down the non-zionist yeshivos.” Polemic nonsense
#1-
1. No one is concerned about a Charedi-Arab coalition.
2. The D”L community has been calling for this for years.
3. There is no ‘attempt to close down the non-Zionist yeshivos’.
What’s the difference what this guy thinks. The Chareidim will never give in no matter what laws the zionist pass.
As with any other Rav who has a Shittah and sticks to it, Rav Melamed is doing the same.
Do we not do the same ourselves? So now, unfortunately – the upper hand is not ours and yeshiva boys are in trouble!
I told my shul recently that one who wants to harm the Bnei HaYeshiva should stop saying Kaddish Al Yisrael. There is an issur of Midvar Sheker Tirchak.
Bogen’s comment illustrates the chasm between the two sides; “what this GUY thinks”? This is derech eretz? this is how yo address a talmid chochom? no wonder the public despises the anti-zionists
#5 Changes are happening faster than can imagine within the Charedi world, no matter what the ‘rabbis’ or ‘guys’ think.
“possible Hareidi-Socialist-Arab coalition” – SHAS votes will plummet and the UTJ will see closer to 4 seats if such a move is contemplated.
#5 – We may disagree, but respectfully. Rav Melamed is a talmid chacham and a leading rav in his ‘olam’, even if its not ‘our’ olam, and shouldn’t be referred to as “this guy”.
There is no ‘attempt to close down the non-Zionist yeshivos’.
Read what Lapid and Bennett are saying. Yeshiva students their yeshivos will be penalized. To be meaningful, the sanctions have to be more than cutting off government funding, since the more anti-zionist a yeshiva is, the less it relies on government funds. If sanctions are to be meaningful, they have to be involve fines to be paid with money raised privately (meaning overseas). The Lapid/Bennett camp have said they expect some yeshiovos that are going to support resistance to conscription might be forced to closed due to sanctions. Unless the sanctions are penal, the result will have no impact on the anti-zionist yeshivos who will be vocally advocating resistance to conscription and appear to be “getting with it”.
Likud is clearly concerned about the “danger” of the Chareidim and Labor forming an alliance (something discussed by leaders from both hareidi parties, and reflected in Labor not jumping on the “share the burden” bandwagon), with the frum parties providing the “proverbial” figleaf to allow the Arab parties to either join the government or to support the government without joining.
#5- This isn’t about ‘giving in’ this is about helping Charedim, many of whom wish to serve, to get to do so.
Even today, several thousand charedim serve in the IDF – but they generally do so surreptitiously, changing out of uniform before returning home, to protect their families from retaliation. Thousands of others wish to serve, but fear to do so. The proposed plan will, it is hoped, have the effect of freeing those who wish to serve and allowing them to do so. Eventually, it is believed, most mainstream charedim will serve – out of choice.
As for the Eida/Satmar/NK, no one expects them to ‘give in’ and serve. They dream of the destruction of the State of Israel (with all that that entails). Let them sit and stew in their sinat yisrael.
#11: Those who fear to serve will not lose that fear if the zionists pass a new law mandating service. The rabbonim will ostracize any Chareidi who chooses to serve, just as they do know. And correctly so. So the fellows will have to choose between being a Chareidi or being a Zionist. And no more will choose to become a Zionist soldier than do now.
#12 — The thousands of hareidim who serve, many openly, and even many Hardal types, will be seriously compromised. Until now, only the Satmar/NK/Eidah Hareidis group were against army service – the rest just held that serving in the army was an acceptable career options for those who weren’t up to learning full time If a significant portion of the non-Satmar/NK/Eidah hareidis groups are forced to adopt exteme anti-army positions (since the zionists are telling them to chose between learning Torah or serving in the army, guaranteeing a confrontation), many of those now serving in the army will be forced to reconsider. In stead of an IDF uniform indicating one who has given up full time learning to become a Baal ha-HaBayis (respectable), it will be the unifomr of one who is collaborating with those who oppose learning Torah (unacceptable). This can be avoided if the zionists back down on the demand for mass conscription of yeshiva students at age 18 (starting with a small quote, and rising over several years), and instead content themselves with limiting government support for yeshivos to those who served in the army while avoiding penal sanctions (fines, penalties, etc.) for those not serving in the army.
A further complication is that the Lapid/Bennett program also includes cutting welfare state benefits, and while they stereotype the recipients as being hareidim (the way Americans sometimes claimed that African Americans were the prime recipients and abusers of welfare benefits), in reality a broad range of Israelis will be affected — many of whom are working class Sefardim who support Likud and Shas. The latest polls suggest the next election will be Lapid vs. LIkud, with the Hareidim and Socialists as 2nd tier blocks of equal strength, and the other secular non-socialists disappearing (i.e. no more Livni or Kadimah). In that scenario, a likely outcome would be Likud forming a goverment with the Hareidim and the Socialist — since Likud will not want to alienate their populist Herutniks, and the Socialists will see opposition to Lapid’s right-wing economics as a strong issue.
BTW the photo is of Rav Zalman Melamed shli”ta the father of Rav Eliezer Melamed.
Moderators,
Do you permit comments that describe a prominent charedi rabbi by a derogatory term such as has been done in this thread to a prominent dati leumi rabbi?