Yeshiva bochur Yaakov Yisrael Paz, who was arrested for not reporting to an induction center, was released on Tuesday morning after serving 10 days in IDF Prison 6. Dozens of well wishers were on hand to meet him when he left prison, treating him as a hero. Paz will be taken to the home of HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Auerbach Shlita to make a l’chaim after adhering to the instructions of his rav.
Speaking with Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) Paz explained that “sitting in jail for HKBH and the continuation of the chain from Avraham Avinu and the Torah HaKadosha is nothing less than a Kiddush Hashem”.
Paz explained “I am a talmid of Maran Rav Auerbach and I will continue to adhere to his words”.
Galei Tzahal:
Is there a machlokes between Rabbi Auerbach and rabbis in Bnei Brak?
Paz:
I am 18. Who am I to even begin to question machlokes between gedolei yisrael? I have my rav and my job is to adhere to his words.
Galei Tzahal:
How was the day-to-day experience in jail?
Paz:
Actually, it was great for it was totally a Kiddush Hashem and with this constant awareness, it is fine.
Galei Tzahal:
Enough with the slogans! How was it to spend time in an IDF jail?
Paz:
You don’t get it! It isn’t slogans but my belief, our belief. We were 22 in my room and I earned the respect of all. They admired me for sticking with my beliefs. Actually the jail time was uplifting and inspiring. We davened every day and we had a minyan too.
You just do not understand, you will not break us. We are stronger than you and them. We have rabbonim and Torah on our side. We will not serve. We will not fold and we will continue adhering to the words of our gedolim, not the IDF.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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26 Responses
Baruch Hashem! He went to prison like Rabbeinu Gershom, the Maharam of Rothenburg and choshuve yidden throughout history defending the Torah HaKedosh. May his mesiras nefesh against the onslaght of shmad serve as a living example for all of us as we ready ourselves with our lives to oppose the anti-Torah forces.
This is great news, the people mostly hurt are the media
nothing to be proud of
The only winners here are the Arab rashaim. If he inspires all Israelis to follow this path, they will kill every Jew in Israel.
And the comparison of the Israeli authorities to the people who persecuted and murdered the Maharam of Rothenburg is a chilul HaShem.
I am a descendant of the Maharam meTothenburg, and I am taking umbrage at this comparison. To even mention 10 days V 7 years is a sign of lunacy.
#1- You mean the anti-Torah forces like me?
Still waiting for you to cite evidence of your vile charge against me. If you represent everything that is good about being a chareidi, then I thank HKB”H every day that I am not one of you. Baruch Hashem!
It appears the zionists have totally alienated even the more modern hareidim. These are hardly Satmar or Toldos Aharon kids.
The zionists assume that most hareidim were similar to the Hardal (the more religious of the Dati Leumi-who hold that zionism is a mitsvah), and once removed from their rebbe’s influence would gladly schecht any Arab they saw. Now, the zionists are discovering that the traditional Torah view, that zionism is contrary to Torah, is much more widespread. This could be the doom of the zionist state since the publicity being given to the hareidim will undermine Israel’s international standing.
If all of the Jews in Eretz Yisrael return to the hareidi path their ancestors left 150 years ago (at most), peace will be possible under terms that are acceptable to most hareidim (communal autonomy, freedom to be frum, freedom to learn) but unacceptable to most zionists (they won’t be able to lord over the goyim, in many areas where Jewish and Islamic law are similar the secular Jews, to put it mildly, they won’t have a gay time anymore, etc.).
Reb Charlie,
With all due respect, please refrain from imposing your perception of chillul HaShem on everyone else. I know you agree that fulfilling the rotzon HaShem can never be a chillul HaShem. I am also quite sure you agree that what is and what is not the rotzon HaShem is best determined by those who are day and night toiling to discover that rotzon. And certainly you realize how much more so that is true in areas we have never previously been challenged. The Holy Gemora describes those who act, even l’chumra, because they did not do enough to discover, uncover, clarify the proper/correct halachah, as a k’sil b’choshech teileich. How much more so would that describe one who does not toil to discover the true rotzon HaShem. We all see from your posts that you are an intelligent and caring individual. How much more good would we all be capable of doing if we would all follow the advice of the einei ha’eidah through whom HaShem speaks to us. Be blessed.
What are his friends doing out of the beis medrash?
i see here 2 sides
one side is proud of this bochur who resisted forced social engineering and trying to force him against his will to be conscripted to this cantonising by the government.
the other side is proud and happy to “domesticate” and “empower” “rehabilitate” the stubborn “east-jew” from just sitting over their dusty books “they shame the rest of us” jews..
since when did a modern english speaking site have soo many people influenced by post-soviet “israeli” way of thinking u cannot force everyone to march in your May parade. to fight the fascists everywhere at the expense of military manpower surplus that is not necessary!
hello its not 1949 were not going with t-72’s into korea
we now have drones and missile targeting wake up people! grow some self respect and liberty. not everyone is supposed to be a revolutionary or counter-revolutionary or komsomolnik or octobrist!
leave everyone the Heck Alone! leave the army alone!
The comparison of this heilige bochor to the Maharam m’Rothenburg and to Rabbeinu Gershom is very apt.
Vashti: Giving this bochor kovod is Kovod HaTorah. The same as going into the streets to greet the visiting Godol HaDor and dancing him into the Yeshiva. And the same as a Hachnosos Sefer Torah.
This bachur, the hero, appears to be a very bright boy with lots of yirat Shamayim. We should all take our hats off for him.
If these are the boys they’re trying to seduce into the army, the IDF lost – totally! and should capitulate right away if they don’t want to be humiliated even more. This is the war between David and Goliat the armored soldier. If you learned history, you know who won. History here repeats itself.
If the IDF draft these boys into the army, the opposite of the IDF real intention will actually happen. A large majority of the secular IDF soldiers will become baale tshuvah. Is this what the IDF is looking for?
#3 Nothing to be proud of? You’re probably proud of the Yaldei Teheran, Yaldei Morocco, Yaldei Teman who were “civilized”.
#4 and to secularize religious boys is a kiddush Hashem, on the highest level, huh? The Germans killed the Jews while the Zionists killed neshomot.
#11 and #12 well responded
There is a very very serious problems with all these cute headlines, blogs and protests. And that is, it’s slowly beginning to creep into people’s minds that that soldiers are BAD.
I, as a Chareidi Commander in a special combat unit sincerely believe that the army is not for everyone.
I also understand and greatly admire anyone sitting and learning in Yeshivos. It is so special and awesome.
However there is a terrible problem. People are slowly losing respect for our Holy brothers and sisters risking their lives day after day, not eating, not sleeping, for almost no salary, willing to die a million times a second FOR US.
I understand the deep frustration of the draft law, and I Daven that it doesn’t happen.
However being against the draft law, and ‘The System’, and Government decisions has nothing to do with hating Holy soldiers walking the streets. More and more as I walk the streets in uniform, do I get cursed and spat upon. How terrible. How heartbreaking.
Don’t join the Army. Please continue Shteiging! But please hug and kiss every soldier in Eretz Yisroel who is being Moser Nefesh for YOU every second!!
With Hope
Put yourself in the shoes of an Israeli mother whose son was killed while serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). On television, you watch close to half a million Ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrate last Sunday against a bill that would force some of them to serve in the IDF, which is mandatory in Israel. The Charedi demonstrators want their special exemption from army service to continue, because they believe that studying Torah is more important.
If you’re that mother who suffered a tragic loss, how does watching that demonstration make you feel about Torah study? Would you want to ask: Why should my boy die defending his country while other boys are safe and protected because they study Torah?
In other words, why should studying Torah be a pretext to avoid fulfilling one’s obligation to the state?
It’s a legitimate question, and any of my Charedi friends who pretend otherwise are living in denial.
[The Charedi draft debate: Dr. Irving Lebovics responds /
Knesset passes Charedi draft law / Community response]
Whenever Charedim tell me that studying Torah provides a sort of “spiritual protection” for the state, here’s how I reply (only half in jest): “OK, you give the state spiritual protection, and in return the state will give you spiritual dollars.”
They hate when I say that, because they know that spiritual dollars won’t pay their rent or buy groceries for Shabbat.
Somehow, when it comes to money, Charedim become very secular. To protect the millions they get from the state, they lose all vestige of insularity. In Knesset committees and other secular venues, they will gladly sit next to women in miniskirts and play bare-knuckle politics if it means more money for their yeshivas.
They’re no fools. They know the value of hard, cold, secular cash.
Well, the average Israeli is no fool, either.
Israelis know well the value of serving in the IDF and defending the state. Just as “spiritual dollars” can’t buy groceries, they know that a book of Talmud can’t kill a terrorist.
It’s not enough to point out that, at the creation of the State of Israel, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion himself decided to exempt a few hundred Charedim from serving in the army. When something is wrong or unjust, it doesn’t matter who started it.
What matters is that it gets fixed.
Ironically, the “fix” that Charedim were demonstrating against on Sunday is as hard-nosed as a wet noodle. The new Knesset law grants tens of thousands of Charedim an exemption from service immediately (all those 22 and older) and, in the future, many thousands more. Future quotas of how many must serve are so small that they’ve become the object of ridicule.
“Even the [C]haredim are laughing,” Meretz MK Ilan Gilon wrote on Facebook on Sunday. “It’s no coincidence that hundreds of thousands took to the street to pray. They’re expressing thanks, because this is what they hoped for. This bill will allow a mass of [enlistment] exemptions in the next decade and surely will not increase the percentage of [C]haredim in the IDF.”
Absolutely soldiers who r moser nefesh deserve pur gratitude but it is also important to b honest that the problem that chareidim have is that they shouldnt be forced into ot number 2 not by people who r yruing to destroy it
Kupperman you are true to your calling no matter how absurd it is. I look forward to your marching into Gaza( unescourted of course) and breaking bread with our cousins.
akuperma: Well said.
Charedi SOLDIER, you are NUMBER 1.
Your words should be taken with honesty and heeded.
“If all of the Jews in Eretz Yisrael return to the hareidi path their ancestors left 150 years ago (at most), peace will be possible under terms that are acceptable to most hareidim”
A REWRITING of history at its best. This may or may not be acceptable to most hareidim YET completely UNACCEPTABLE to the ARAB LEAGUE. Infidels the Jews are no matter what uniform, outfit or Torah observer they are. The Arabs will cleanse the land of Palestine of every Jew (which includes Charedim).
Shlomo Eliezer
No, the chareidim can get physical dollars (otherwise, sofrim, mohalim, and shadchanim would never get paid, but we know that paying them is halacha).
It’s not about the numbers. This is a gezeiras shmad, and the laws of engagement are very different.
The Torah provides no exemption for yeshiva bochorom or kollel yungeleit. None whatsoever. Spitting on a holy Chareidi soldier is something I don’t even want to talk about. It makes me retch.
It’s only a tiny noisy percentage of frum worldwide who are anti-draft. The majority are pro, dedicated makir Tovah rational Jews. To see a Chareidi soldier in person is true “Yiddish Nachas.”
How were all these Bochurim away from the bet medrash? Is there not an issue of bitul torah or is it just a question of personal priorities?
to #21 not everything the chareidim dont agree with is gzeiras shmad. you know if they would show up to the army induction centers with the 7000 – 8000 of their number who become eligible for the army every year then the army would have to change to accommodate them. they already have very significant numbers that cant be ignored
putting the word holy next to idf soldier is laughable such ppl havent seen kedushah in their lives.