12 Responses

1. A sit-down cool !!
   a throwback to the 70’s

   “We shall overcome”

   I love it !!

2. Civil disobedience and (relatively) peaceful non-violence are a tremendous kiddush ha-Shem. The zionists would be well advised to leave hareidim alone. People learning Torah aren’t a threat to the medinah, but being perceived by the world as militaristic bullies is a threat. Why do the zionists feel that they want to be like the advocates of Jim Crow in the US (so discredited that their children and grandchildren denounce their ideology) or the British Empire (yes, once upon time dinkly little Britain was a great empire).

3. #1
   What do you mean?

4. These guys protesting are stealing from the tzibbur by blocking traffic. Let them get drafted and contribute positively to our country instead of being mevatel Torah. Rav Shach, zt”l, said that those bochurim who aren’t learning should enlist in the army. So if they really claim to be followers of Rav Shach, they should heed to his words.

5. I think something needs to be cleared up. So, ask a question. Why are only a handful of bochurim being arrested and incarcerated for being AWOL? Should be at least a few hundred or even more. The answer, surprising as it might seem is: the army is (deliberately!) not looking for the bochurim who are not responding to their “tzav rishon” (first draft notice). But, say a bochur is stopped for jaywalking, speeding, driving w/o a valid driver’s license, or goes to the DMV to renew an expired one, or say, getting arrested in the wake of the Ponovetz ruckus last week, the authorities — like cops the world over these days — check the fellow’s record for any criminal background or outstanding violations, etc. And guess what jumps right off the computer screen? The detained yeshiva bochur is AWOL. So the police arrest the bochur and generally lock him up for a week or so in Jail #6 (“Keleh Shesh”) a military jail where they put AWOLers. It is then and there that some demos take place “outside the jai,” as a show of solidarity with the arrested bochur. After 7-10 days, the bochur generally signs a piece of paper promising to show up for registration at the draft office. The vast majority do so, but in one notable case, a bochur failed to uphold his promise, and was promptly re-arrested. So, they subsequently do end up registering at the draft board, the way it’s been done for the past 66 years. So, turns out that those who get arrested are practically asking for it by daring the authorities to catch them. I mean someone who is trying to hide from the police should be careful not to jaywalk, run a red light, drive w/o a valid license and certainly not participate in any kind of unlawful activity (aka Ponovetz, etc.) so as to avoid possibe arrest. These are the boys who are getting arrested, not anyone else.

6. Why are these batlanim given the title “bnei yeshiva”?
   And since when does causing bitul zman to others on a mass scale qualify as a “tremendous kkiddush hashem”?!

7. In answer to: “Why are only a handful of bochurim being arrested and incarcerated” — one starts small and works your way up. Do you the first thing Hitler did in 1933 was to round up all the German Jews and start executing them. If the issue was “registering for an exemption” you would be right, but since the issue is to report for pre-induction paperwork, it doesn’t make much difference whether one refuses to serve in the army as long as it is settled policy that non-service is a crime.

   In answer to: “And since when does causing bitul zman to others on a mass scale qualify as a “tremendous kiddush hashem”?” Since they are standing up for the principle that learning Torah is more important than being a soldier, demonstrating their belief in and faith in Ha-Shem when they are being coerced to reject that faith and belieft, and are doing so non-violently in confronting a military establishment that is not known for non-violence (to put it mildly).

8. No they are holier than thou, they are allowed to cause people to lose money because of their behavior. What if there was an ambulance trying to get through and the patient died en route because of the blockage they caused?

9. blocking traffic for a short while it does get the message across , isn’t making friends with the held up drivers but so what–the gov’t regularly closes streets and causes havoc for such nonsense as motor races and gay parades.The next gov’t will hopefully wake up and leave the bnei Torah alone.There is certainly enough people in the army to do the real jobs that need to be done ,instead of ‘make work’ nonsense

10. Must clarify an important point for Americans who may not understand what is going on and may have an inaccurate impression. Yeshiva guys are not being arrested for not joining the Army, they CAN get exemptions if they file for them. They must file for an exemption like every one else in the country who has a reason for not wanting to do army service- religion, physical disability, etc. These current skirmishes are about Yeshiva guys not wanting to file for the exemptions. Everything in Israel has a tinge of politics to it, and recently Rav Auerbach said that the Yeshiva guys should not even go to file for the exemptions- which then make them AWOL. This position makes the Rav popular among certain segments, and there is competition going on between two camps of Rabbeim, Rav Shteinman and Rav Auerbach. It is hard to see such Bitul Torah by Yeshiva guys, especially since all they have to do is file and they could all be learning and not out in the streets. Tis may be difficult for Americans to understand- they would say, why don’t they just file the exemptions like we would do in the USA if required to avoid draft. But in Israel everything has many layers. That is why we are praying for the Geulah and need to act every day to bring the Geulah closer.

11. why are the roshei hayeshiva silent on this huge chillul hashem
    these boys belong in yeshiva
    and the men should be doing what they do best walking around with shopping bags in geulah
    or collecting in flatbush

12. These demonstrations (unbeknown to most of those out on the streets ) are invariably as a matter of course instigated by the GSS (Internal secret police)

    Primarily in order to impact the atmosphere of the coming elections