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| Prayer rally in Jerusalem a few weeks ago. Photo credit: Jerusalem Post |
Charedim will never be thrown in jail en masse for resisting
the draft. This fact of life is already being played out at the earliest stages
of the new draft law in Israel. The widespread opposition by Charedi rabbinic
leaders to the new recruitment centers where their students will receive
automatic deferments and exemptions has caused the government back off from their
requirement to do so. The older procedure for doing so will still be
maintained.
One may ask, why is the Charedi rabbinic leadership so
opposed to the new recruitment centers? An exemption is after all - an
exemption… isn’t it?
Well not exactly. From
the Jerusalem Post:
The haredi daily newspaper Yated Ne’emanpublished a report on Friday saying that haredi youth and yeshiva students who receive induction notices, or who go to obtain their deferrals or exemptions, would be required to attend the new haredi induction centers, where they would receive information about the IDF and the benefits of enlistment.
And that is what is upsetting to the Charedi leadership:
The haredi leadership was extremely concerned that some of the yeshiva students would be tempted to enlist after being exposed to the information provided at the new centers.
Charedi leaders have threatened to tell their students to boycott
these centers. And any Charedi doing so would be in violation of the law and
subject to arrest. That was enough for the government. They have backed
down. Deferrals and exemptions will now
be given the old fasiohend way, without any explanation of the benefits of joining
the army.
Some may say that this is just kicking the can down the
road. That eventually draft resisters will be arrested when in three years
exemptions will no longer be automatic and only the elite will be exempt. But I
don’t see that happening. As I said many times the last thing the Israeli
government wants is images in the media of masses students being dragged out of
the study hall at gunpoint, placed under arrest, and thrown in prison. Aside
from that terrible image, the kind of resistance that the government in Israel
would get would be unprecedented in both numbers and intensity.
Why are Charedi leaders so opposed to their students finding
any merit in army service? Because they fear that too many of their students
wouldopt for the army and leave Beis HaMedrash. That would severely change the
paradigm they have worked so hard to create and perpetuate over the past 60
years. A paradigm of full time Torah study for everyone at the expense their
material welfare. No job training. No secular education. No training of any
kind. Just training in the skills of Gemarah study. So that certain study skills
that are learned by everyone else, are missing from their repertoire. While
they have mastered the skills of Gemarah study - they have no clue how to study
for other disciplines.
This is what the Charedi leadership wants to keep in place.
They know very well that there will be no mass arrests, not now and not 3 years
from now. What they fear is a voluntary attrition when it becomes evident that
what the government really wants is for those who choose to do so, to have options
that will benefit them and their families. That fear and is made obvious by
their threat to boycott the new recruitment centers precisely for those reasons.
How sad it is that they are looking a gift horse in the
mouth and don’t see what is in front of them. They have the opportunity to ease
the pain of poverty among their people by simply letting them choose, and instead
they threaten a boycott.
Is keeping all their students in the dark about about the
army the only way they can keep them in line? Because that’s what it seems
like. The only way they can keep all Charedim in the Beis Hamedrash it seems is
by denying them access to the truth. They fear some of their students may enlist
after hearing the benefits.
This development undermines their entire argument that the government
is forcing them to leave the Beis HaMedrash. And that the government’s goal is to jail
students for studying Torah. Not a single Charedi student would beforced to
leave the Beis Hamdrash now. Not a single student will be arrested for desiring
to continue learning as before. No one would have been arrested unless they
failed to report to the new recruitment centers
from which they would have recieved their deferments and eventual
exemptions (if they so choose).
The only thing they were required to do, is listen to the
options the army made available to them. And that was enough to threaten a
boycott. Why? Because God forbid their entire paradigm would change from one of
every single Charedi student in Israel spending as long as possible in the Beis
HaMedrash to one where only the most talented and motivated would do so.
I do not understand this attitude at all. I know how
important Torah study is to them. I’ve been there. I have gone to Charedi Yeshivas.
I have heard the Drashos and Shmuessen – the rabbinic arguments, Mussar and pep
talks. Many times. Talmud Torah Keneged Kullom. Torah study supersedes all else. Torah Umnaso.
The highest achievement any Jew can achieve is when Torah study becomes his the
length of their days.
Nevertheless - the extent they are going to preserve a
financially unsustainable system still boggles the mind. I do not believe that
God intends every single Jew on the planet to spend the rest of his days on
earth in the Beis Hamdrash to lead a life of poverty for himself and his family.
A poverty that has become all too common. But this is the paradigm that Charedi
leaders want to preserve and protect.
God willing - despite the rabbinic opposition to these new
recruitment centers - there will be a grass roots movement among Charedim to
check things out anyway. If enough of them do it… and some of them opt for army
service that honors their religious sensibilities - maybe the paradigm will
change. And the Charedi world will evolve into a far more productive one both
materially and spiritually.
The truly capable and motivated will continue to study and
be supported. The rest will do what God intended for them to do. They will find
their niche and serve God better that way by utilizing their God given talents
and abilities in areas more suited to them. That will reduce the poverty tremendously.
The Charedi world will thrive. If only this new draft law with all its positive
features is given the chance.
