Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday, 8 Adar, demanded the resignation of Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, who together with Rabbi Eli Sadan heads the Bnei David IDF prepatory yeshiva.
Levinstein spoke out against today’s IDF policy, the placement of women in combat units. The rabbi spoke out harshly, stating women belong in Sheirut Leumi and not the military.
Lieberman begins his letter, “As one who has great respect and admiration for rabbonim, I was very disappointed with the blunt and dismissive style of one viewed as a respected rabbi…in my humble opinion, this testifies on the one hand to the desire to provoke and agitate and on the other, the loss of discretion – I do not know which is the worse of the two”.
He then speaks of those women who serve and those who sacrificed their lives. Lieberman acknowledges the contribution made to the IDF by Bnei David, but feels “your values cannot serve as the basis for educating the yeshiva’s talmidim”.
Lieberman explains “Since this is a recurring pattern, it is clear you stand behind these statements”, referring to last summer when Rabbi Levinstein spoke out against the IDF and the toeiva community.
Lieberman calls on Rabbi Levinstein to resign his post, one he has held together with Rabbi Sadan for close to 30 years, since its establishment. The senior minister explains that failure to do so would result in him using his authority to halt Defense Ministry recognition of Bnei David as a prepatory yeshiva.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
Better Lieberman resign his post!WAKE UP DATI LEUMI!The IDF is becoming even more anti-religious and anti-Torah!Refuse to serve or demand to only serve in Nachal Haredi.
Lieberman should be in any position. As much as we don’t always 100% agree with what the rabbonim say, the last time I checked Israel is still a democracy
And now you know what happens when you try to mix Judaism and Zionism… It’s like trying to mix water and oil.
Only one set of values can come first: Either it’s the Torahs values, or the values of secular nationalism.
You can take the brute out of Russia but you can’t take Russia out of the brute.
Rabbi Levenstein is a voice that is stating TRUTH & RIGHTEOUSNESS, that is why it is so annoying to people!
The authentic Gedolei Hador of a generation ago were heavily maligned by much of the Dati Leumi community for promoting “isolationism” among the Chareidi public with respect to army service and in particular, regarding drafting girls into the IDF. With the passage of time, it’s becoming more obvious that the Gedolim’s far-reaching perspective should have been followed by all observant Jews. The consternation of the DL rabbis who somehow thought they were calling the shots is understandable. They are now realizing that in reality, the secularists have always been the ones in charge.