Today, Israel awakens to a new reality, one without a Tal Law and for the chareidi tzibur, this is significant even while most are truly unaware of the situation as avreichim are busy with their bein hazmanim realities.
As of today, the IDF will begin sending draft notices to eligible inductees since there is no longer a law that permits them to defer military service. Recipients will be summoned for the interview process, medical exams, psychological profiling as is the case with non-chareidim called for military service.
Experts predict it will take about a month to really evaluate just which direction the Defense Ministry is taking but it is clear that the law compels the military to send draft notices to eligible inductees as is the case with other sectors of the nation.
The Movement for Quality Government has already filed a petition seeking to have the court compel the IDF to send draft notices to the chareidim in line with the law.
The IDF is in the process of determining how many chareidim it needs and based on this evaluation, the eligible inductees will be called up to begin the screening process towards entering the military.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak has already signaled the Defense Ministry will act in compliance with the nation’s draft law http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=135948 which simply states for avreichim, those who are 18 and older, draft notices may be in the mail.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
In the long run, the draft will be good for our psycological mood. The Oilom won’t be so frustrated about going around bored the whole day, looking for a reason to protest.
I have a simple question and I am asking this sincerely.
Let’s assume every single chareidi from the ages 18 to 21 were inducted into the IDF. (Not every single young man will be, but for arguments sake, let’s say they will).
Over the past few months people have been saying how this terrible gezeira will lead to the end of the medina, being that the learning done by these young men offers more protection than the IDF ever could.
My question is, are the yeshivos filled ONLY with men that age? What about every other age group? Will their learning all of a sudden offer no protection for Israel? If I were in any age group not being drafted, I would be offended to find out that my learning no longer counted for anything.
There are many possible outcomes.
The hilonim think they will “break” the Hareidi community and turn all the Hareidim into “modern” orthodox. That is highly unlikely UNLESS both the army, and as a result Israeli society, transform themselves into something Orthodox Jews can participate in without hesitation (look for things like no sports or entertainment on Shabbos, restricting gay rights, conservative dress and behavior among all sectors of Israel, etc.). This is just not going to happen. This is the “Dati Leumi” dream (their dream of zionism) and it won’t happen.
There is a possibility the hilonim will try to close down hareidi yeshivos and mass arrests of hareidim for not serving in the army. This will trigger civil disobedience, possible violent reaction and will discredit Israel worldwide, and probably lead to end of the state. In some ways this is the Neturei Karta dream, but the hilonim are not suicidal enough to bring this about.
Thus the most likely result is that they will decide that the serious serious yeshiva students are “unsuitable” for military service (giving them a low profile), cut off all funding for non-veterans learning in yeshivos, and try to accomodate frum Baal ha-Batim in segregated units. If the number of hareidim in the army gets too high, this will create serious pressure to allow hareidim to become senior officers, serve in all units, and fully participate in all businesses (leading to the firse scenario – Israel becomes frum enough to accomodate hareidim). Alternatively, they end up with a large number of unhappy second class citizens in the army leading to serious unrest, since well armed second class citizens can be very disruptive.
To #3 We don’t need vieled threats against other Jews, I hated fasting this past Sunday lets try to do something to something so I don’t have to next summer. This has been re-hashed in a million articles on this and other websites. Who knows how it will play out. Probably some compromise where there is more strict oversight so only a few serious learners are given an exemption. The more accommodating the Charedi can be to the rest of the community the more they will be to them (simple human behavior). I think in last weeks parsha the Torah mentioned that each tribe sent a 1000 and a 1000. My Rabbi explained that meant each tribe sent a 1000 soldiers and a 1000 learners. Each soldier paired with a learner. They knew each other, one fought for the other, one learned and davened for the other as a team. If the Charedi proposed that idea I think many people would find it acceptable (and welcome it). Think about it. A Super furm Charedi guy teamed up with a soldier, they each know and care for each other, each appreciate what the other is doing. THe Meir Yeshiva cancelled break during the Yom Kippor, same idea.
My question is, are the yeshivos filled ONLY with men that age?
Pretty much. After that age men are married, and either working or learning in a kollel. But if you prevent a bochur from going to yeshivah at 18, he won’t be in kollel at 25 either.