Why Haredi exemption is unsustainable now more than ever

If you’re a young Israeli man, chances are that you’ve probably been fighting in the Israel-Hamas war for the last year, more accurately defined, these days, as the Israel-Hezbollah war. It means that if you’re a husband and a dad, you might have gone long stretches without seeing your family for months. It also means that you are very fatigued, troubled by what you’ve seen and in desperate need of a well-deserved break.

For that reprieve not to come by way of new Haredi recruits, who would serve because they realize the perilous times in which we live and are willing to sacrifice their Torah studies to protect the homeland, is not only unconscionable but anti-Jewish. 

Already supposedly settled, when “the High Court ruled unanimously on June 25 that Haredim must be drafted and barred the government from funding religious schools (yeshivot) whose students do not enlist,” Shas Chairman MK Arye Deri is still making every effort to prevent the actual conscription of these men.

In his attempt to “extend the exemption for yeshiva students from IDF service,” Deri is appealing to the “faithful,” who he believes would sympathize with why a “Ben Torah” (Son of the Torah) “whose soul yearns for Torah study, can do so without restriction.”

Perhaps the best argument against that tug-of-the-heart plea, would be the words penned in the High Court’s ruling which stated, “In the midst of a grueling war, the burden of inequality is harsher than ever and demands a solution.”

While a “yearning soul to study Torah” may, indeed, characterize a number of these students, despite the fact that many are there simply because it’s expected of them, and not out of personal conviction, it’s fair to say that there are many aspirational yearnings and dreams which have been set aside by the young men who know that it is their duty to uphold their country and fight for its survival, at a time when too many surrounding enemies are dedicated to its extinction. Is their soul less important or valid?

And what would happen to those students and their venerable institutions were our country to fall? Would they be able to continue to freely study, “unrestricted” while also being funded if the Jewish state no longer exists? It is this kind of unmitigated hubris and callous assumption which fuels their arrogance in refusing to loyally and faithfully serve their country, knowing that the elderly, children and others, who cannot defend themselves, will still have a home.

But, according to the former felon, Arye Deri, we are supposed to extend preferential treatment to these 60,000 strong, able-bodied men who, if they would see their country as more than a convenient learning facility, would do the greatest mitzvah (good deed) of all – relieve the tired and weary brave men, who have gone above and beyond the call of duty, sacrificing family, friends, career, their own studies and lots more, in order to do the right thing and ensure our safety.

If Arye Deri doesn’t understand this, then he has no business representing the government – something which is a bit of a moot point anyway since he already served prison time in 1999 for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, not to mention “having received a suspended sentence for his tax fraud convictions in 2022,” causing him to have been “nixed as Shas head.”

Heaven knows why anything he says is taken seriously or why he is seen as an asset to still serve in the government, as a close ally to the prime minister. But Deri seems to fancy himself as a moral spiritual giant, accusing anyone who attempts to “force yeshiva students to enlist as ‘miserable’ and not understanding the power of Torah study.”

But from where many of us sit, the Torah also speaks about the need to fight, as seen in Deuteronomy 20:3, “He, (the kohen) shall say to them, Hear, O Israel, you are nearing war this day against your enemies; do not let your hearts be soft, do not fear, tremble or be terrified before them. (4) For Hashem your God is going with you to fight for you with your enemies to save you.” 

In fact, according to Torahmusings.com, it is the job of the kohen (the high priest) to “encourage and exhort the people as to how to think about the upcoming battle.” Clearly, this passage speaks about stepping up to fight with no fear, knowing that you’re not going into battle alone, but that God will actually be right alongside of you, guaranteeing the victory. 

If that is a given, why would anyone refuse to serve in the military, in direct contradiction to the instruction put forth in the Torah which they purport to revere? It makes no sense unless politically- motivated, agenda-driven players are behind the move to elevate the status of ultra-Orthodox, young men who they believe are a cut above everyone else, granting them a military exemption which only they require. 

But no one should be fooled. A Jewish homeland, committed to adhering to Jewish laws and principles, prescribed in the Torah (the first five books of Moses), cannot override what has been commanded by divine inspiration in favor of an elite, exclusive religious/political club which has written its own rules. Because anyone who tries to make the case for not defending our country is essentially turning their back on their people, their laws and their holy book – the Torah! If that’s not anti-Jewish, what is?

At a time when 67 of our IDF soldiers were injured, including the death of four of them, a Haredi exemption from serving in the military is no longer a viable or sustainable option. These young men must come to a place of personal reckoning where they are, first and foremost, forced to decide if they will obey God’s word or that of their leaders who have chosen to disregard their own scriptures as it pertains to the subject of war. 

Once they make that choice, then, perhaps, they will be able to do the right and moral thing by finally realizing that nothing could be more Jewish and closer to the heart of God than to trust Him enough to go to battle for the sake of the land which He gave to them!