Not all hesder yeshiva students necessarily approve of the position adopted by the rosh yeshiva of the Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed. 150 people who attended hesder yeshivot and serve in the IDF reserves, condemned the rabbi’s position, distancing themselves with an education that seeks to justify soldiers disobeying orders. In the letter sent to the defense minister, the hesder reservists call on both Barak and R’ Melamed to exhibit flexibility towards reaching a solution.

They went as far as to cite that while they were strongly opposed to the eviction of Jews from their homes in Gush Katif, they would not “lend a hand” to a breakdown of the IDF. The letter stressed opposition to protests within the military. R’ Melamed has stated on numerous occasions that he too objects to such actions, adding if those students who hung the sign opposing evictions would have conferred with him, he would have advised against their actions.

Rabbi Melamed on the other hand is enjoying the support of his colleagues, including a senior rosh yeshiva, HaRav Elyakim Levanon Shlita of Elkana, who has come out giving total support to R’ Melamed. R’ Levanon told Israel Radio that the rabbi acted properly when he decided not to attend the meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, explaining he did not have to go “all the way to Minister Barak to learn Har Bracha was thrown out of hesder”. It appears that while not all hesder roshei yeshiva agree with his position, now that hesder has been forced into a corner by the defense minister, they are compelled to exhibit a unified front.

In a bit of a turn, Rabbi Melamed in his weekly column in the B’Sheva newspaper, a newspaper reaching over 200,000 homes around Israel, states that if all the hesder roshei yeshiva sign a letter against political protest in the IDF, he would join, a move that he and others hope may compel Defense Minister Ehud Barak to reverse his decision and permit Har Bracha’s reinstatement in the hesder network.

While signaling a willingness to compromise, the rabbi did state in his popular column that he will not accept directives from DM Barak, but would adhere to the decisions of the hesder leadership regarding the exact wording of the declaration. As was reported earlier by YWN-Israel, leaders of the hesder yeshivot are planning to convene in an urgent session on Sunday, in Beit Shapira, to discuss the crisis that resulted in Barak ousting the Har Bracha Yeshiva from the hesder family. The yeshiva’s annual budget from the Defense Ministry is NIS 800,000, the J. Post reports.

It appears Rav Melamed is leaning to signing a letter that will be drafted by hesder officials, not Barak, although prior to be ousted from the program, he refused to sign exactly such a letter written by HaRav Chaim Druckman Shlita, the chairman of the hesder system. To date, Barak has indicated his decision is final and he is not planning to change it any time in the future. Nevertheless, hesder leaders are working in the hope of turning events around.

Rav Druckman also met with DM Barak and Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, seeking to persuade them to reverse their decision, without success.

In a somewhat related note, the hero who saved the day during the Merkaz HaRav terrorist attack, the off-duty officer to ran from his home and entered the yeshiva alone, neutralizing the terrorist, was none other than Major David Shapira, a graduate of the Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)