As efforts to draft chareidim into the IDF continue, commanders in the Golani Brigade were instructed to shave. They were told that failure to comply would be viewed as insubordination for failing to comply with a direct order. It was explained to them that this would lead to a judicial proceeding against them that would most likely result in a demotion. They soldiers complied and shaved their beards.
One of the soldiers involved was on base the Shabbos following the incident, calling that Shabbos “the worst in my entire life”. He explains how he sat in shul the entire day thinking of how he was going to explain his actions when he arrives home clean shaven. JDN reports that particular soldier is known to be an outstanding soldier, and he, the soldier questions why the army in the Jewish country compels combatants to shave against their will. His excellence earned him entry into the NCO (Non Commissioned Officers) course.
Now the soldier is embarrassed as he is clean shaven as he prepared to take command of new inductees. The soldier concludes “I am sorry for what I did”.
Another soldier is quoted saying “I still do not understand the order. What is behind such an order? It is nonsense to say this sets a personal example which is what my commanders say. This is clear that there cannot be chareidi commanders in the IDF since they will not accept a commander who is bearded”.
The IDF Spokesman responds: In line with IDF regulations, a soldier is permitted to have a beard providing he has a medical officer or an officer of the rank of lt.-colonel or higher and this includes permitting this on the grounds of one’s religious lifestyle. Each case is judged on an individual basis. In cases where the application has been shown to be based on religious lifestyle and not convenience, applications have been approved.
No comment was released by IDF Chief Rabbi Brigadier-General Rafi Peretz, who by the way is clean shaven too.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
24 Responses
Although there may be more to this story, non-the-less, I’d like to hear what our D”L brethren (who don’t feel that the army tries to coerce religious Jews to give up their religious principles) will say now.
And this is a surprise because…?
This was an illegal order. From experience, the regulations say that if you come to the army with a beard for religious reasons, you are allowed to keep your beard, except in cases when there is a danger for chemical weapons attacks, since the beard interferes with the seal. This would also be mandatory to shave according to Halakha, since it is Pikuach Nefesh.
The soldiers should have disobeyed the order and press charges against the commander. Unless they were clean shaven when the joined the army, which means that they needed a letter from an Army Rabbi.
This is what I call religious accommodation they’re not trying to coeece people against religion. Of course not it’s just about sharing the burden and if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you
now you know why they want the chareidim be4 going to the workplace to enter the idf davka. so they can rip away their yahadus and make them hebres not yiddin. vezu ein tzorich lefnim
If Israel were a Jewish state, army regulations would reflect halacha, and such issues wouldn’t arise, and officers who were disinclined to be supportive of halacha would be told to find a different line of work. However Medinat Yisrael is not a Jewish state, it’s a zionist state, and a national goal has always been to get Jews away from halacha and into being “normal” as in “act like normal goyim.” Sometimes they agree to tolerate (put up with what you dislike) frum people, particularly if politically coerced. Religious accomodation requires good faith, and that is unlikely in a country whose founding principle was to “free” the Jewish people from the yoke of Torah.
A consequence of the army policy is that Shomer Mitsvos soldiers who go into the army, especially outside of special “frum” units, tend to leave the army either as substantially less religious (they decide that being a good soldier and a good zionist is more important than being a good Jew), or they leave bitter and anti-zionist. The leaders of Israel in adopting the new conscription law are hopeful most hareidim will end up leaving as less than hareidi (and as supporters of their parties), but many who encounter the army will be move to the other extreme.
What would have happened if Joshua decided to “study” all day instead of fighting the Amalakites or attacking Jericho?
What would have happened if Mattathias ben Johanan decided it would have been better for him and his sons to study rather than fight the Greeks?
Or do we skip these teachings? Is the Haredi position really that they can not serve for 2 years and study Torah simultaneously?
The shaving requirment is a safety issue. As a retired American soldier, I will tell you that with a beard, your protective chemical mask will not seal properly leaving you vulnerable to chemical weapons, as we saw recently used in Syria, this is a real threat. The Golani Brigade is stationed right by the Syrian border, I suspect this is why that order was given.
What would have happened in Yehoshua or the Hashmoneans had neglected Torah, eating dubious hecsherim, not properly observed Shabbos, chased the girls (and a lot more than that happens in the IDF according to the secular press) — they would have been wiped out. We have as much control over the goyim as we do over the weather. What we control is Torah and Mitsvos.
Developing a gas mask that works with a beard is no problem, as many countries with beards have fought wars involving toxic gas.
To asg…. i am so glad that u have the ability to b dan lkaf zechus wud b nice if u applied to people who keep the torah versus those who intentionally violate it
Ps “joshua” listened. To hashem
There clearly is more to this story than is reported. There are a zillion soldiers with beards, so this story makes little sense as presented but then, the Israel desk of YWN is notorious in its bias- just check out the heading of this article : “religious persecution” which,of course, is not true, even if the story is true. There may be a thousand good reasons why this is logicsl. Lastly, the Golani brigade is a voluntary one, and these soldiers are called “commanders” They have the option of not joining it.
Sounds like there is more to this story. Army regulations permit beards and payos. If the commander ordered the soldier to shave his beard then he was acting against army regulations.
About a year ago, a story broke that soldiers were forced to cut their payos. It turned out the story was a hoax.
#7: Study your tanach, then learn some Gemara. Yehoshua was breated by the Angel of Hashem for not studying Torah.
#1-Are there rogue officers who do things like this? Absolutely. And they should be booted out of the army, just as my brother had a CAREER officer court martialed for violating IDF regulations that state that one may not bring milchig items into a fleishig mess tent (in the field. On bases there are separate mess tents! I wonder why they need that??).
For whom does the IDF need the 200 Sifrei Torah donated by YI over the past twenty years? Why does my brother give a GEMARA SHIUR at an air force base? Why does the IDF turn to the Tzomet institute for technological things that will minimize chillul Shabbos as much as possible?
All this for an army that is hell-bent on shmad??? It’s sad that you and others parrot what you read on sites like this rather than interview IDF soldiers themselves. Get back to me when you have spoken to at least 50 frum guys and let me know your findings.
As I have written a hundred times, I have dozens of nephews and cousins who were in the IDF (mostly Hesder) and NOT ONE was ever forced to compromise his frumkeit. EVERY one of them are shomrei Torah u’mitzvos, B”H.
Oh. And #1- What happened with my “outrage” about Rav Druckman comments?
akuperma: “If Israel were a Jewish state, army regulations would reflect halacha, and such issues wouldn’t arise.”
So the fix is to make the army regulations reflect halacha. Don’t complain – fix it. And why isn’t there some haredi engineer trying to make gas masks that work with beards?
Yanky55: Your frum military family is something to be proud of.
This might not have occurred to the Zionists here, but if the IDF really did care about the Judaism of its soldiers, it would have transferred those soldiers to another unit that did not require shaving rather than forcibly shaving their beards.
Zionism and the IDF are shmad.
#16- Thank You! I certainly am….
#1- Just saw your apology about my supposed outrage. Apology accepted. Thank you.
I agree with yanky55. my son also went thru the hesder program – just completed his 5 year commitment and has continued learning in yeshiva. the people who have generally become non frum had already given up their religiousity before even joining the army – that is high school age when people go thru their rebellious phase of life. And its not just D”L but I would suspect that off the derech is most prevalent across the board during this period. the army doesnt look to shmad anyone – in fact I recall that my son once was called up to do miluim before pesach to kasher an army base before pesach. this is not the actions of an army that is bent on destroying yiddishkeit
#20- Problem is, most posters here are not interested in hearing the truth. Kol Hakavod to your son! True hero!!
asg6679 – Quote, “What would have happened if Joshua… What would have happened if Mattathias… Or do we skip these teachings?”
A – Is there a reason you forgot to mention that when Sancheriv came to attack with 185,000 soldiers Chizkiyahu HaMelech decided the correct response was to go to sleep? Is it because that would contradict your argument? (I’m not saying that this is what we are required to do, but rather, if you want to prove your point from Tanach you have failed.)
Quote – “Is the Haredi position really that they can not serve for 2 years and study Torah simultaneously?”
A – The answer to your question is a unanimous YES! And guess who also held that those learning Torah are Patur from army service… HaRav Avraham Yitzchak Kook, zt”l !!!
…and guess who held that Hesder was Bidievad and that full time learning was L’chatchilah… HaRav Tzvi Yehudah Kook zt”l!!!! If you don’t believe me look it up!
Quote – “The shaving requirement is a safety issue.”
A – Didn’t you read the article? Quote from article, “It is nonsense to say this sets a personal example which is what my commanders say.” According to the article it does not seem that the commander’s intention was for “safety issues” like you suggest.
Perhaps we should just call a spade a spade!
#14 Yanky55 – Quote, “Are there rogue officers who do things like this? Absolutely.”
That’s exactly my point. Were there ANY officers in Dovid HaMelech’s army that tried to shmad up their subordinates to violate any aspects of the Torah whether Dioraita or D’Rabbanan?! The fact that this officer felt he could get away with it and even more so the fact that the soldiers feared the possible legitimacy of his threats being carried out show that there is definitely an atmosphere in the army that is hostile to Torah observance.
Quote – “Get back to me when you have spoken to at least 50 frum guys and let me know your findings.”
A – all I can tell you is here are some quotes from soldiers I have had personal contact over the years.
“…don’t go into the army! The pritzutz is horrible!…” – told to me by a chiloni soldier when I wasn’t even chareidi. He went on to describe in details how bad it is and what goes on.
“…the standards of Kashrus in the army is terrible!” – told to me by a Rav HaMachsher for the army.
“…the Army stole Shabbos from me…” – told to me by a close friend who went into the army to follow his father’s foot steps. He went on to explain how Shabbos was stolen from him being that I did not understand. BTW – this friend (who is a wonderful person with a heart of gold) is now Chiloni and I’m not even sure if his wife is Jewish. Of all the stories I have heard over the years about the army this one hurts the most. This friend strengthen me when I was young and now I have lost him.
“…and so we asked if the whole “camp” (don’t remember what word he used) could have off an hour before role call in celebration of Rosh Chodesh.” – told to me by a Rabbi who’s religious unit had to figure out how to be able to daven everything on Rosh Chodesh as they would otherwise be coming late to role call. (The point being is that if the Army TRULY was accommodating for Torah observers this would already have been incorporated into the schedule and they wouldn’t have had to figure out what to do. Yes, that commander was accommodating. However, if he chose not to there would have been little they could do. Even if there would have been legal grounds for them to stand by, the animosity would’ve still been there.)
Correction – I did not proofread my last comment which is why I realized that I did not write the last quote clearly.
The quote, “…and so we asked if the whole “camp” (don’t remember what word he used) could have off an hour before role call in celebration of Rosh Chodesh.” was a question posed to their commanding officer.