A Kallus View of Army Service

Rabbi Shraga Kallus

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. My heart leans heavily towards the latter. But I couldn’t help laughing at the opening comment in a lecture by Rabbi Shraga Kallus. He said he had an open mind. I don’t think I have ever heard anything as hilarious as that from a Charedi spokesman. He delivered a lecture on the ‘Torah Anytime’ website about IDF service for Charedim.  To say that his views are extreme would be an understatement - but not surprising. What makes this so concerning though is the following bio at that website:

(Rabbi Kallus) heads the prestigious kollelim of Machon Hora'ah l'Rabbanim and the “Second-Seder Kollel,” which counts over 150 avreichim focused on halachah l’maaseh. He is the Rav of Kehillas Imrei Phi, and a Rebbi in Yeshivas Torah Ore, Yeshivas Aderes HaTorah and Yeshivas Beis Yisroel. He gives shiurim in seminaries as well, including Binas Beis Yaakov and Chedvas Beis Yaakov.

HaRav Kallus is a renowned and sought-after speaker who has been invited to speak at the Agudah and Mir Yarchei Kallah in Yerushalayim. Rav Kallus has given over 14,000 shiurim over the past twelve years... 

Wow. That’s quite a resume.  And yet what he preaches at this lecture seems to be among the most extreme versions of Orthodox Judaism I have ever heard. 

Rabbi Kallus is obviously an American as his East Coast accent indicates. And yet by the same token even though he probably thought he was speaking English, he was really speaking ‘Yeshivish’. Which is English heavily sprinkled with Hebrew and Aramaic terms used by Yeshiva students when they study Gemarah. If one is unfamiliar with this ‘language’ one will have a hard time understanding what he is saying. It will sound like gibberish to the average English speaker.

I believe that the more deeply one is immersed in the Yeshiva world to the exclusion of any contact with  the outside world, the more one will end up speaking like this all the time. Believing that English is being perfectly spoken.

I don’t know what Rabbi Kallus’s educational background is with respect to a curriculum that included English. But whatever it may have been, his English language skills have been completely obliterated. And he probably doesn’t even realize it.

This is a troubling development in the exponentially growing Yeshiva world. It is going to be increasingly difficult to find eloquent spokesman for the Yeshiva world if this pattern of speaking English continues to accelerate. 

Be that as it may that isn’t as troubling as what Rabbi Kallus’s messages seemed to be. I say ‘seemed’ because he was quite circuitous in trying to express it. That - combined with his Yeshivsh language made it difficult to understand what his point was.  

With that disclaimer in hand - my sense of what his message was makes me wonder if we are part of the same religion. His lecture was about a question asked by a religious father whose son was an IDF soldier killed in Gaza. And why Charedim are spared any such consequences because they refuse to be inducted into the IDF. While Rabbi Kallus admitted that the loss of that father’s son was tragic, he doubled down on why Charedim should not serve in an army whose goal he says is to protect people whose way of life is anathematic to authentic Judaism. 

If I understood him correctly he considers fighting and dying for a country like that to be practically sacrilegious. How dare anyone ask a holy Yeshiva student to die for a cause like that? Those revelers at the Nova festival were not religious at all. If anything they were anti religious. Is this what a Frum Jew should fight in the IDF for?! No way!

If anyone listens to this lecture and comes away with a different message, I will be happy to stand corrected. But I think I got the gist of what he was trying to say.

This is the kind of influence he is peddling in the over 14,000 Shiurim has given so far. Whose influence will be spread a lot further after they are published in book form.  

Rabbi Kallus didn’t make up this Hashkafa out of thin air. It is identical to what has been preached recently by the two most respected Charedi leaders in Israel. Who I’m sure are joined by their fellow leaders just a notch below them in prestige. This was demonstrated once again in an article at YWN: 

The IDF signed agreements with yeshivah bochurim behind the backs of their Roshei Yeshivos and Rabbanim... that they would enlist in the IDF within 20 months of ending their limudim in yeshivah gedola in exchange for the removal of personal sanctions… The Rosh Yeshivah promptly expelled the bochurim, not wanting to legitimize enlistment in the IDF.

That in and of itself doesn’t upset me so much. Secretly breaking the rules of your school deserves sanction. Even if those rules violate the law. If the school considers a law unjust and you enroll in it, then you must follow their rules and are subject to their sanctions if you break them.

What upsets me is why there is such a rule in the first place:

In September, the Gedolei Yisrael published a letter instructing bochurim of all yeshivos not to respond to draft orders – (reassuring) bochurim… that if any of them are harassed by the police or IDF, the entire yeshivah world will unite and fight for them.

The letter states: “Since the army’s harassment of bnei yeshivos worsened and they launched a war against the Olam HaTorah, no bnei yeshivos should show up at draft centers at all.” 

It is so sad that complying with a law whose intent is to ease the burden on those who have already sacrificed so much is being treated like a declaration of war against the Olam HaTorah. How can any religious father who lost a child in war bear to hear that his son fought and died for a army that declared a war on Torah?! How can any religious father bear to hear the kind of explanation given by Rabbi Kallus about why religious Jews should not risk their lives fighting in the IDF? 

This is what passes for authentic Judaism?!

To be absolutely clear, I have NEVER opposed the concept of Torah L’Shma - Learning Torah for its own sake. On the contrary. For those so inclined and the ability to do so long term, they should do it and God bless them. 

But to say or imply that their world of Torah  is the only world of Torah – to the exclusion of all other observant Jews is so obviously false, that I cannot believe they believe it themselves. To say that those who are dying for their country are doing so for a ‘Treif country’ and shouldn’t consider it a Mitzvah to protect Jews that deliberately violate the Torah is not only irrational but the height of Chutzpah. 

I’ve asked these questions before, but it is worth asking them again in this context. Do they not realize that the over one hundred thousand Charedi Yeshiva students in their orbit are being protected by the IDF too? Do they not realize how many Frum Jews there are in the IDF fighting for them? Do they not realize that the IDF has units that can accommodate Charedi sensitivities... and will continue to add units like that to accommodate any increased Charedi enlistment? Do they really believe their  ‘Olam HaTorah is the only Olam HaTorah that matters? Do they really not believe that the thousands of religious Jews fighting in the IDF are also an Olam HaTorah? Especially those in Hesder Yeshivos? 

I am 100% certain they know there are other religious communities that value Torah study. But they apparently dismiss them as not real Bnei Torah.  I guess they feel that a real ben Torah isolates himself from these religious Jews same as they do from secular Jews. And should surely not die for them fighting in a war on behalf of an anti Torah country. They may even consider that a Chilul HaShem!