Maj. Gen. David Zini, who led the establishment of the Chareidi Chashmonim Brigade, spoke at a recent conference, responding to criticism from Chareidim about the army’s failure to meet its commitments.
Zini confirmed that the IDF did not meet the commitments it made to Chareidim. “We earned the criticism fairly,” he said.
He emphasized: “Every track in the IDF that I checked, and I don’t want to say that I checked them all but I checked the vast majority of them, we did not fully meet what we committed to the Charedim. A Chareidi who comes and says: ‘The IDF did not meet its commitments along the way’ – we earned this statement fairly.”
“Educators or leaders in the Chareidi community will say: ‘You are talking, but in practice you are not living up to your commitments’ – there is truth to that.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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13 Responses
This is so easily solved if IDF would be willing to be mevater to ALL religious aspects prescribed by Gedolei Yisrael. There would be then no real excuse for anyone not learning full time to enlist if they could come out stronger in emuna/yoddishkeit. This whole digging in heels Gaava has poison the whole atmosphere.
Wow you mean the Army isn’t providing a safe religious atmosphere? That’s a new one I haven’t heard before. For all those people who couldn’t care less if a nashama goes down the drain, even one is too many. You can play with your life but don’t play with others world to come
Of course not. The official stated goal of the IDF, all along, has been to be a “melting pot”, to shmad all enlistees into irreligious Zionists.
It’s not like they tried too hard to hide this.
It might help if the Gedolim expressed appreciation of the mesiras nefesh of the soldiers and stopped insisting the it is ONLY our learning that defends Klall Ysiroel.
jpa:
The express purpose of the Zionist army is to convert Jews from their faith of Judaism to, instead, Zionists and their faith of Zionism.
marc:
That would only hurt, not help, and also be untrue.
First, the Zionists’ primary goal in getting the chareidim into the Zionist army is to shmad them and convert them to Zionists. That’s the entire point.
As well, the Torah is what actually protects and saves, as Chazal said long ago.
Armies, no matter how great, are worth zero without G-d enabling them.
The savages’ 10/7 attack against the Zionists is a good example: despite the Zionists’ vaunted army, intelligence and all their other kochi viOtzem yadi about which the Zionists endless boast and in which they religiously believe, the savages managed to breach the Zionists’ billion!!!! dollar wall in over a 100 places and not only launch attacks and murder and assault hundreds of Israelis, but even have looters taking TVs from Israel back into Gaza.
Were it not for the Torah learning there, 10/7 would have been orders of magnitude worse, chas viShalom.
That shows how only Torah is effective, as Chazal stated clearly. By comparison, the rest is just a game.
marc,
I find your comment bizarre – I literally did a double take. They do, consistently, all the time. Why ever do you think they don’t? Do you really think that anybody thinks / says that we do not need an army? Nobody ever said that learning Torah is the sole Hishtadlus needed. only that it is the Ikar Shemirah.
Marc, you seem to think these two things are the same. They are not at all the same, they are very different. The Gedolim DO ALWAYS express appreciation of the soldiers’ mesirus nefesh. But it is not mesirus nefesh that defends us. They tell us that it is only the Torah learners whose zechus protects us, because that is the truth.
There is a video of the Lubavitcher Rebbe addressing a group of soldiers, and making exactly that point. That the soldiers should not feel bad that they are not the ones who protect the people, and they should not feel jealous of the talmidei chachomim who are the ones doing that, because they have a great advantage over the talmidei chachomim, a great mitzvah that the talmidei chachomim don’t have, which is the mitzvah of literal mesirus nefesh, not in a metaphorical sense but quite literally. And that mitzvah makes them also great, so each group should respect the other. But the bottom line is that the protection comes from Limud Hatorah, not from mesirus nefesh.
Serving in Tzahal is a huge mitzvah, and anyone who is not suited for full-time learning, and is of the appropriate age and fitness to join Tzahal should do so. But those who are capable of learning have a higher duty, and if they abandon it in order to play soldier they are like a Levi whose job is to sing but decides to man a gate instead, or vice versa, and the gemara tells us the penalty for that.
Hey Marci, haven’t you heard of October 7th? For 6 full hours the army did not exist!! Had Hashem not held back information from Hezbolla of what was occuring in the south, we would not be here to discuss this.
Never the less, the Gedolim do appreciate the Histadlus that the soldiers make, but Am Yisroel works differently – see Gideon the Judge, the Macabiim, etc.
I’d actually want to see his full comments, not selected quotes. There’s a big difference between “we did not fully meet our commitments” but we’re working towards that, and “we did not fully meet our commitments” and this is as good as it’s going to get – what was he actually saying?
As I’ve stated in other places – there is absolutely room for improvement, and the IDF should do everything it can to make sure that frameworks designed for Chareidi sensibilities are fit for purpose. From what I’ve seen and heard, the army is working in overall good faith to meet these requirements, with the occasional slip-up that is near-inevitable when trying to change a large organization; the question is if they’re on the right track or not.
an Israeli Yid
While could be true that the Gedolim express appreciation of the soldiers, it’s not the perception on the street, and you know why. If they praise and thank the soldiers, it legitamizes them and risks elevating them in they eyes of the chareidi olam. I’d like to see (if anyone is willing to take up the challenge) since 10/7, statements of Gedolim expressing appreciation of the soldiers.
anyisraeliyid – he isn’t talking about an “occasional slip up” like oops I didn’t realize the food was not kosher… just this one time… The zionists have not kept there part of the commitments they made. They have been promising for over 10 years to have a 100% chareidi compliant track. It didn’t just start yesterday with some minor complications in getting it started. Every track that they started has major issues.
Pesach is coming up and its all about egadeta lebincha. chareidim put a very strong emphasis on teaching their kids and bringing them up on the ways of the torah.
The Israeli Gov is either totally incompetent to make a chareidi safe track or they are purposely not keeping their promises. either way, there is no way in the world a chareidi person will send there precious sons to this anti jewish army, and hope for the best…
@my2cents – are you speaking from personal experience, or at least after having spoken to people who have such personal experience? I ask as I’m actually quite familiar with both Chareidi and Hesder tracks in the army – and have seen the benefits of having an organized group, like the Igud Yeshivot Hesder, actually involved to both educate and to elevate issues that do come up. My thought is that if there was real investment by the Chareidi community in having a similar organization in place, it would definitely help – but it’s also necessary for there to be a critical mass of Chareidim to really give such an organization the power it needs to be effective. Staying out and complaining won’t solve the issue – getting involved will.
As an aside – you imply above that Chareidim only are interested in “Vehigadta l’Bincha”. That’s actually a pretty insulting implication – why would you think that other Jews, especially those who are Shomer Torah uMitzvos, would care any less about passing the Mesorah on to their children? The attitude you show is unfortunately all too typical in Chareidi society – i.e., “we alone are the REAL keepers of Yiddishkeit – all others are fake and the next thing to Goyim”. Perhaps that’s not what you meant to imply – but that’s sure how it sounded.
an Israeli Yid