Kol Chai military correspondent Kobi Fink on Sunday afternoon, 23 Cheshvan, questions why when IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz addresses new inductees about to serve three years in the Golani Brigade that the issue of kol isha is of paramount importance. Fink explains that with issues such as rockets from the south, threats from Iran and other borders, the IDF chief felt compelled to discuss the words of Rav Elyakim Levanon Shlita, regarding kol isha.
Gantz told soldiers that while he did not hear the entire interview with Rav Levanon conducted on Kol Chai Radio last week, he was troubled with the portion he heard.
Rav Levanon stated in the interview that many rabbonim feel this issue is one of hereg v’al ya’avor’ and if the IDF continues pushing the matter as it has been, “the IDF will no longer be the army of the people, with all the pain that is associated with such a statement”.
The rav questioned the agenda and wisdom of the IDF, with the Chief of Personnel Branch Major-General Barvibai announcing last week that soldiers may not leave a compulsory ceremony because of kol isha, adding in his opinion, the entire IDF rabbinate should have quit, resigned over the policy decision since such a policy is not in line with a Shomer Shabbos lifestyle and the IDF’s rabbonim cannot be part of such a reality.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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10 Responses
Because it is really an obsession with a wide variety of forms of behaviors that are considered normal under the hilonimi ruling class in Israel, which regards those who do not share in such behaviors as being deviants who are unfit to participate in respectable society.
Among hareidim, these behaviors are regarded as deviant and perverse. The insistence of our participating in their lewd culture as a condition of fully participating in the social, political and economic life of Israeli (i.e. zionist) society is why we have a problem, and why Israel is tearing itself apart.
In the US similar problems exist. However American laws and traditions dealing with sexual harassment and religious freedom mitigate the problem, which is why one finds frum people doing all sorts of Jews that they can’t in Israel (and by frum, I mean people with beard and pe’os, women whose dress clearly mark them as ultra-orthodox).
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, this would never happen in the States. They scream when the religious don’t join and they scream when they do.
but remember how great it is that many”orthodox Females” have bh entered the military. HOW WONDERFUL. wHEN WILL WE LEARN from history(dor haflaga perhaps) that you dont spit at hashem and then daven for his assistance
Will the lives of the IDF soldiers be ruined for life if the female soldiers DON’T sing? Will it affect their military performance?
Why do they need the female soldiers to sing?
4. They need them to sing because it goes along with the m’dinas song of being an “am chofshi b’artzaynu. ” They want to be chofshi min ha’mitzvos!
#4
Unfortunately yes.. just like in sports they have cheerleaders etc. A piece of dirt needs more dirt to sustain itself…
The issue isn’t singing. That could be resolved by frum soldiers being issued earplugs.
The issue is the nature of society, and in particular, will Orthodox Jews who reject the conventions of a secular and sexually liberal society be allowed to participate in that society, or whether they will be excluded. Right now, the policy is that if a frum Jew wantgs to participate in zionist society, he must reduce his yiddishkeit to a level that is well below any standard that could pass for orthodox. The kol isha is a sympton, not the disease.
i agree with #2 chaimss. The govt should not be making religious decisions. If people have a sincerely held religious belief they should not be forced to violate it. period.
I agree with akuperma. Make no mistake, as our Prez likes to lecture us, that if a beduin or druze soldier’s religious needs are at stake, the same IDF will run to fulfill them. Only when it comes to their own chareidi soldiers, then trashing them is the norm.
I think the female soldiers should have a chance to sing just as the male soldiers do. However, let them be all-female events. And if there is a problem of equality, let the male soldiers’ sing-a-longs also be all-male events. The women should not be obligated to have to sit and listen to the men sing.