doom > Sharing the burden may be a good midah in general, but every middah should be evaluated. Charity is also an important middah … The fundamental of being a frum Jew, is declaring that Hashem’s word is of highest importance in your value system
Thanks for posting a reasonable argument! Having someone else defend you, against his will, does not seem to me to fit into Jewish value system. Pages and pages of gemorah are spend on how to be considerate of other Yidden. Having them serve in the army instead of you seems worse than not helping his animal to unload…
> If your commander orders you to do something prohibited by the Torah, you must do it.
As you look at serving as an optional activity, this is surely a justification not to go. But if you look at a joint need for defense of the community that you have to participate – then, this is something that you have no control of while you are engaged in an activity. Steipler was trying to keep shabbos in Russian army .. and many others
> all of my friends went to the Army, and almost all came in frum, and came out OTD.
this is terrible, and if the numbers are so skewed as you say, even startling. There are a couple of questions to ask:
1) what was their education that did not prepare them to deal with real life. Yes, there is a great value in keeping community safe from problematic activities, but at the end, it is up to individuals to follow Torah. Is Hashem expects us to follow Torah only when fully furnished and subsidized? It is an insult to our ancestors and everything they went through.
2) if you understand responsibility, then you can work on making things happen. Same way the community shows power to protect itself and also find government funds to use, could use this power to make sure that some members of the community are trained to be part of charedi units and deal with tensions between army orders and observance.