Former Chief Rabbi of Israel and member of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef, spoke out again on Sunday against Chareidim serving in the IDF.

During a sichah to yeshivah bochurim, HaRav Yosef said: “Even a batlan (someone who wastes time) is forbidden to serve in the army. Do you hear me? Absorb this message. My uncles, the brothers of Maran [HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef, z’tl] learned in Yeshivat Porat Yosef and were talmidei yeshivos. They went to the army and were corrupted, they all became secular. Later, they did teshuvah.”

HaRav Yosef’s words caused an immediate media storm in Israel. The Shas party spokesperson tried to downplay the uproar by stating: “HaRav Yosef’s words were directed at the essential need to ensure appropriate frameworks for Chareidi youth who wish to enlist. There is no call for refusal in his words, chalilah.”

The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying: “The remarks of former Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef are unacceptable and worthy of condemnation. We will not accept any manifestations of refusal from any side.”

However, HaRav Yosef’s statements received support from an unexpected source. The “Wives of the Soldiers for the Kedushas HaMachaneh” movement responded to the uproar by corroborating HaRav Yosef’s concerns. Efrat Lupo, the founder of the movement, stated: “HaRav Yitzchak Yosef’s words express a genuine and significant concern and pain for Chareidi young men who chose to enlist in the IDF and lost their faith due to the lack of a framework suitable for their way of life. If a Chareidi young man loses his faith in the IDF – why would Chareidim want to enlist? The IDF must promote suitable frameworks to uphold a Torah lifestyle and thus open the ranks to thousands of Charedim wishing to enlist.”

Lupo added: “As wives of soldiers who have served in reserves for hundreds of days since the beginning of the war, while we have to sustain our homes practically and spiritually, we call on anyone who can contribute their part in the IDF to do so. However, we also often encounter cases where senior IDF officers choose to promote agendas and values that harm the spirit of the IDF and its kedushah as the army of the Jewish people. This is not why we sent our heroic husbands to face the cruel enemy for hundreds of days.”

“We call on senior IDF officers to cease promoting foreign agendas, to adhere to the values of Judaism, and to focus entirely on achieving absolute victory and destroying the enemy.”

About a month ago, Lupo revealed in a meeting of the Knesset’s Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women, that her husband, who serves in the Paratrooper reserves, was forced to sleep alongside female soldiers during a a battalion exercise in Lebanon.

Lupo recounted during the discussion that she had received numerous inquiries from the wives of soldiers about similar incidents in various combat zones.

The Gender Affairs Advisor (GENAD) to the IDF Chief of Staff, Ella Shado-Shechtman, who participated in the discussion, ignored Lupo’s testimony.

After the discussion, Lupo approached Shado-Shectman and requested to meet in order to address the situation and prevent cases of violation of orders related to this issue. Shado-Shectman referred Lupo to her secretary, but so far, Lupo has not received a response regarding scheduling a meeting.

Lupo told Chareidim10: “Shado-Shectman boasts about the increase in the number of female combat soldiers, but when asked to discuss the implications for the motivation of religious combat soldiers and their wives, she remains silent.”

“We asked her what is being done to preserve the spiritual world of the combat soldiers, including our husbands, and we are waiting for an answer. Shado Shectman’s choice to avoid a meeting with us about stopping this phenomenon and assisting the IDF in achieving victory, is a disrespect to the soldiers and us as the wives of the soldiers who support the home front for the sake of victory in war.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)