Once again, a case of a lack of consideration for the a religious IDF soldier, who in this case was compelled to decide between davening or having his Shabbos meal. The soldier in question is a lone soldier who lives in Jerusalem’s Beit HaChaiyal.
The soldier in recent weeks asked to daven with a minyan on Friday night. He was compelled to decide if he wishes to attend minyan or eat a Shabbos meal because the personnel in the dining hall refused to accommodate him with a meal after shul, which was after the allocated dinner time.
With Shabbos beginning late this time of year, the soldier was not able to get back from minyan until 20:45. He was told that the kitchen operates from 20:00 to 20:45 so if he davens in shul, he will not be able to eat his Friday night seudas Shabbos. He asked if they would accommodate him since it is only a matter of a few additional minutes but his request was declined.
The soldier turned to the Srugim dati leumi website, which in turn took the matter to the IDF Spokesman, who contacted an organization which assists lone soldiers. The organization, which operates the dining room in the Beit HaChaiyal expressed a willingness to accommodate his request. Officials however added they probed the matter and were unaware of any request from the lone soldier to extend kitchen hours to permit him to attend minyan.
The hours of the kitchen have been extended to 21:15 to permit soldiers to attend minyan and still enjoy a meal in the Beit HaChaiyal upon their return.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
This article confirms that there’s good reason that Gedoley Yisrael are against religious Jews joining the military.
No Arye. (1) Beit HaChaiyal is a non-profit, and may not have had the infrastructure to provide meals when this chayal asked. Maybe the waiters clean up and go home at 8:45pm? If you were the manager would you ask your workers, who have been working (some volunteering!) all day to stay late so one person could daven with a minyan? Candle-lighting was at 7:11pm last week in Yerushalayim. There was no way this chayal could make it back by 8:45pm?! It sounds to me like the place is open at a reasonable time and this one person, for whatever reason, couldn’t make it then — maybe we wanted to daven davka in a particular minyan he liked. The fact that this place does not move around their operations for one person to daven at a particular minyan does not say anything negative about the great things this organization does.
(2) From this reporting it sounds like Beit Hachayal, when contacted, made ACTUAL changes to its posted hours to accommodate these davening needs. The title seems accurate given what the article says.
(3) If this was a big problem, I’m sure the Gedoley Yisroel could in a moment set up their own “Beit HaChaiyal”-type places for frum soldiers with minyanim, shabbos meals, etc. I’m sure they have reasons for being against religious Jews joining the military, but this is not one of them.
First of all, your article is misleading. In the end, the kitchen staff extended their hours for future Shabbos nights to accommodate late davening.
Secondly, our New York yeshiva also closed its kitchen early in the summer. Instead of forcing the kitchen staff to extend their hours to a very late time, the rabbanim organized an early minyan so that we could accommodate the kitchen staff.
A little consideration goes a long way for shalom bayis.