Speaking to Kol Chai Radio on Tuesday night, the eve of 3 Kislev 5774, Air Force Lt.-Colonel (retired) Rabbi Moshe Ravaad commented on the current situation in the IDF, the push to advance women, resulting in an atmosphere that is ill suited for a chareidi soldier.
Ravaad quit his post as the chief rav of the Israel Air Force in January 2012 when it became clear to him the promises made to chareidim joining the Shachar program were no longer being kept. Ravaad was among the rabbonim that spearheaded the project, which the air force admits was an overwhelming success. However, he read the writing on the walls and he realized the good days were in the past. Now, he states “I hate to say it but I was right”, admitting he would have preferred to err in this case but he did not.
Ravaad used the radio interview to explain the IDF has an interest in accommodating special needs when it suits an agenda. He feels this was the case when the first women entered the air force’s pilot training, adding at the time, he was the rav of that base, a position he held in the pilot school training facility for 14 years. He explained the air force quickly became aware of the limitations, the fact that the women were not able to maintain the same standard as the men. Hence, the regulations were changed to set a lower bar for the women, explaining that while men had to complete a certain exercise in 15 minutes, the women received additional time. Ravaad added “when it comes to the chareidim this willingness to accommodate does not exist.”
Ravaad explained that in truth, the induction of chareidim is a headache for IDF, one it prefers to do without but it is being forced upon the military by the political community. “Today, Shachar is not the same as once upon a time and these are the reasons I quit. It was clear to me that a chareidi no longer has a place in the military”, stating that the entire matter of the chareidi draft comes from the political community, not within the IDF, with the latter realizing just what a headache it will become.
“If they think the tzibur will leave yeshiva and kollel over money the government simply does not understand the chareidi tzibur” Ravaad stated in connection to recent renewed discussion of monetary sanctions for non-compliance. He was referring to the recent session of the Shaked Committee, which discussed monetary sanctions against avreichim who do not comply with the chareidi draft law in the future.
“Our tzibur will remain in kollel and yeshiva. This is the reality. To my great sorrow, they do not understand the determination of the tzibur to remain bnei torah and that they will not abandon their yeshiva or lifestyle for money” Rav Ravaad concluded.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
ירבו כמותך בישראל
IDF decided ‘women rights’ before ‘Charedi rights’.
Yet within Chareidi communities one finds women who are employed, and sometimes filling leadership positions. So why not in the IDF?
The reason is that the women in the IDF are from a culture in which they engage in all sorts of behaviors that are totally unacceptable to frum Yidden (and therefore unmentionable on YWN – wink!). If in fact the only women in the army were hareidi volunteers (and if you ban conscription of women, and allow female soldiers the option of resigning without penalty – just like on a regular job) it would be possible to have hareidiot in the military – assuming the military adopts a hareidi style culture of in the other (unementionable on YWN-wink!) areas. It would be only the same issues as women working outside the home, and many frum women have (and have had in the past) careers as something other than full time homemakers or teachers in girls schools.
But that’s not going to happen. In fact, as long as the military allows women to be coerced into the aforementioned unmentionables, a halachic argument can be made that even if the army is defending the country against its enemies (as the zionists believe), and even if there was maximum good faith accomodation of halacha — a frum male still wouldn’t be allowed to serve in the IDF since he would be an accessory (analagous to the piano player in a בית בושה) to doing an averah.
The zionist rabbanim who are trying to set up a place for hareidim in the IDF are blinded by their love of zionism and are missing that the problems in the army go well beyond which posek to follow on kashrus or Shabbos.
Too bad politicians didn’t communicate with the idf on this
Can someone please post this article in the Facebooks of Bennett, Lapid, Bibi, Piron, Shaked and other reshaim who out to destroy Judaism.
Yet within Chareidi communities one finds women who are employed, and sometimes filling leadership positions. So why not in the IDF?
The rumbles in cities of Tzefat, Yerushalayim, Petach Tikvah and Elad where Charedi women were running (or stopped from running..wink!)for leadership positions in the political arena will attest that the above statement is nonsense. Presently, there are two lawsuits against SHAS and to eliminate funding from the party till women are able to join leadership roles (or till water freezes in hell- wink!).
Shulchan Aruch and Rambam both pasken l’halacha that a woman’s place is at home and NOT in the public arena.
bklynmom and chachom:
1. Women always have held prominent roles in the community. I’ve observed frum women running business, mosodos, etc. One hears them speaking at conferences.
2. Neturei Karta (not exactly “reform”) even had a female head at one time
3.The place of men is in the Beis Medrash, so how come you find men being Bitul Torah by being in the public arena (not to mention that the “public arena” seems to go against what Pirkei Avos says about dealing with the government). Perhaps you should understand the idea of men learning full time and women running the household as being a goal and perhaps a social norm, but not an absolute halacha binding on all persons at all times.
4. The social reality is that running a frum household is a lot harder than learning all day, so a lot of men have time on their hands for hobbies.
5. None of this detracts from the point that the immoral behavior of the zionist women (just check on your unfiltered internet if you want plenty of infamous examples), is the problem. If the only females in the IDF were good Beis Yaakov girls, there wouldn’t be an issue.