During a meeting of rabbonim of the Badatz Eida Chareidis it was decided that a delegation of rabbonim will this week visit IDF Prison 6 to visit the ben torah imprisoned for being AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave) from the IDF.
The Eida’s entire beis din was present for the session discussing ongoing government efforts to draft bnei torah. A number of prominent askanim were present for a portion of the session and it was decided to give a chizuk to the talmid who is serving a two-week prison sentence.
Hundreds of bnei torah are expected to make their way to the military prison on Sunday, 5 Teves 5774 to be present when the badatz delegation arrives.
On Wednesday, 1 Teves, HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Auerbach Shlita arrived at the prison in a showing of support for the imprisoned talmid along with hundreds of avreichim who held signs and protested the planned draft.
On Thursday afternoon 2 Teves traffic in the area of Kikar Shabbos was backed up for hours as chareidim protested the arrest and incarceration of the talmid.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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18 Responses
It’s a sad day in the world when our own are being detained by our own for something that isn’t a crime.
It’s highest time for Tshuva. That’s the only reason why these things are happening like never before.
Anyone who holds as the Eidah Hareidis holds (which follows the teachings of the Satmarer Rebbe), holds that the State of Israel lacks legitimacy, meaning that a soldier who kills someone in their army is an agressor (the zionists like to say that if one is pursed, you aren’t required to withdraw and can kill the pursuer – however that doesn’t apply to the pursuer – the pursuer is required to cease his pursuit and withdraw). Thus anyone who holds the way the Eidah hareidis holds is clearly a conscientious objector under international standards. Thus under international law, they will be able to ask for assitance from international human rights organizations, and any anti-zionist hareidi holding only Israeli citizenship can ask for refugee status in most western countries.
This will get very interesting, with a serious opportunity being presented to the zionists to not merely shoot themselves in the foot, but to shoot themselves in the heart. Countries granting asylum to Jews fleeing persecution will be unlikely to support Israel in international fora.
While last night, Motzei Shabbat, HUNDREDS of Bnei Torah protested in front of the prison,
THOUSANDS of bnei torah are expected to make their way to the military prison on MONDAY, 6 Teves 5774 to be present when the Badatz delegation arrives together with TENS of other Rabbanim.
If you simply ignore the draft you can be arrested and incarcerated. Acting passive aggressive is the way to go. As well as displaying OCD symptoms in front of all IDF personnel.
Media stunt. Only act when the cameras are rolling.
SecularFrummy?
What an oxymoron.
Secularfrummie: Not a media stunt. They are quite anti-zionist even when no one is looking. They are trying to make it clear to the zionists what their position is, since the stakes are very high. They probably believe that if the zionists understand that they are dealing with people with religious objections to the media, they will back down and be content to treat Hareidim the same as they do Palestinians. Based on their media, the zionists believe that Hareidim accept the existence of the medinah as a fait accompli, rely on government funding, prefer a zionist rule over Muslim rule, and regard army service as worthwhile but learning as more important — this is based on pro-zionist hareidim such as Shas, Yahadut ha-Torah and teh “hardal” camp. Since the alternative involves serious threats of bloodshed it is important for the Eidah Hareidis to make it clear to the zionists that this is an existential issue for the zionists as well.
#5 Most of the time the media including YWN do not have the courage to report charedi protests against Zionists’ cruelty. Today, for instance, there was a protest in Bet Shemesh about the Yeshiva boys incarcerated in Yeshivat Mahram Rottenberg. Where are the media cameras rolling about this? Several weeks ago, a Yeshiva boy was locked up for a week or 10 days and then released with his peyot and beard cut off and there was no mention about that either. Most of these stories are not reported. Like the media, you’re just another one with a lack of Jewish pride.
#6 not an oxymoron but faithfully secular
Secularfrummy,
Probably not a media stunt. They seem to be pretty consistent in their stance on these issues.
I would like to understand this. I am far from a Zionist; I have become mostly non-religious and don’t care about either side too much. As the saying goes, I have no horse in this race. But you have an entire segment of society, quite a large segment actually, who refuses to even recognize the legitimacy of the government that makes their very survival in the country possible. 100-120 years ago there were almost no Jews in the country at all. An entire infrastructure of self-sufficiency and self-reliance was set up by the Zionists. All they ask for is that you follow the same laws as everyone else. You are free to live your life as you want to, but if you choose to live in this country you must obey the same laws as everyone else.
The Chilonim do not hate the Chareidim for religious reasons. If anything they hate religion BECAUSE religious people feel they are special in some way. They refuse to contribute to society (they can’t work since they are exempt from from army service for Torah study), they mostly do accept goverment grants and funding (except for Satmar; at least they are consistent)and they hate the people who make that funding possible, ie: the working, non-religious Israeli who went to the army and whose children are there now.
Of course you can always go with the “it’s Limud Torah that keeps this country safe, not koichi v’otzem yodi”. Irrelevant to the non-religious. They don’t believe what the religious believe. All they see are leeches. Since most people here seem to be pretty conservative, think about how you view the minority segment of society who gropes at every possible benefit they can, not working, taking your hard-earned money in taxes to pay for all these programs. You hate them. You scream about the liberal government that allows these people to remain unemployed and collect(I agree). Force them to work, right? How many times have we all written and read that on this site??
The refusal of the religious to come to some middle ground is wrong, bad, causes so much hate and friction, and is quite frankly disgusting. If you want to live in Israel, stop with the ridiculous fundamentalism. The country didn’t exist before the Zionists and wouldn’t if they left. No one is saying you can’t be religious, just be a functioning member of society that makes your Torah Study possible!
There’s my rant for the day.
STILL waiting for Akuperma to start learning some Torah….
If they are spending so much time outside of the beis medrash, why are they not in the army?? So you’re telling me it’s ok for my daughter to be in the army to defend their right to protest against going into the army? Crazy world . . .
12 no its not okay for your daughter to eb in the army it is absolutely assur the chazon ish said it is yeharog veal yaavor
How sad it id that these Rabbonim can’t find the time to also visit and give chizuk to those soldiers in the front lines who are risking their lives in defense of their fellow Jews. How sad it is that hundreds of ‘Bnei Torah” can be engaged in taking time away from learning in order to show their support to these AWOL deseters, but if hundreds of “Bnei Torah “ came out to show their support to Chareid soldiers serving in the IDF then that would be Bitul Torah. The Israeli government should give these deserters two years in prison not two weeks.
Dear Akuperma, perhaps it’s time for you to change your name to Akukruma. In many of those wonderful international countries outside the Zionist state you so despise, AWOL soldiers are shot.
It’s time for the Chareidim to step up and take responsibility for the country thAt hashem has given us. If they, reag believe thAt there is no need for a jewish state, Army but insist on living in ErEtz Yisroel, they should move to yehuda, Shomron, aza or lebanon- all of which are in erez yisroel but outside of the grip of The so-called “hated zionists”. Try building a yeshiva there.
11. Herzl and Ben Gurion and Jabotinsky and Begin and Lapid ARE NOT TORAH. They were a gigantic mistake similar to Shabatai Zvi or Moses Mendellson (both of whom thought they were frum, and whose supporters arrogantly persecuted the hareidim for telling them the truth). The way represented by the hareidim is not merely the way of our ancestors, it is the way of the future. You zionists are a wrong turn onto a dead end that will end up horribly.
for_real:
Your comment are so full of misinformation and, farnkly, propaganda as to be UNreal.
While you are correct that there were almost now Jews in the land 120 years ago, those that were there were ALL chareidim. Those chareidim objected then and continue to object to this day to whom they see as secular/nationalist interlopers and the state structure they imposed on them. The chareidi leadership even protested to the UN against the creation of a Jewish state. The exemption from military service that you seem to deplore was part of deal struck. It was so important to the Zionist leadership that they be the sole voice of Jewry before the world that they struck a deal exempting chareidim from mandatory service in exchange for their silence before the UN. The chareidim have kept their end of that bargain; the Zionists have reneged.
Additionally (as you are undoubtedly unaware), some 40% of secular Jews are automatically exempted from the draft as well. While some of these are legitimate, such as a disability of some kind, many are for studying law or even being an “outstanding” athlete, musician or dancer and the like. Despite your argument that they do not contribute to society, I would argue that the charedim certainly contribute as much as a basketball or soccer player in that they preserve our people’s heritage.
It’s also worth noting that those from well-connected families are able to ensure their sons never see a shot fired in anger, arranging for them nice cushy jobs “in the rear with the gear.” Yair Lapid, a key leader in the effort to draft chareidim, spent his military career as a reporter for Israeli Army Radio. I’m sure that the fact that he was the son politician Tommy Lapid had nothing to do with this favorable treatment
You are right about one thing: chilunim don’t hate chareidim for religious reasons. No, they hate them for ZIONIST reasons. Zionism put forth the idea that nationalism was the true identity of the Jewish people and that the religion (which Ben Gurion called our nation’s “curse”) was an obstacle to this new identity. Secular zionist hatred for the religious started long before the state was established and lies in ideology, not economics nor military status, despite your rather hateful (and inaccurate) implication that chareidim are leeches.
In the end, the chasm that separates the two sides is of seismic proportions: neither side sees the other as genuinely Jewish. One side sees Jews as just another nation among the community of nations and pursues the values of those nations that it deems worthy. The other side sees Jews as a people of G-d, distinct from the other nations and pursues those values handed down to us at Sinai and codified over the centuries by our sages.
Hateful rhetoric such as you have employed does not make that chasm any narrower.
I don’t get the protests. It’s bittul Torah. And if you say that sometimes you need to protest to do hishtadlus, then join the army. That’s hishtadlus too. If you say that Torah is the best weapon, then don’t protest, learn Torah.