Israel Delays Haredi Draft Law Until 2023
The Knesset approved late Monday an amendment to the conscription bill that will defer the military service requirement for Haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews) for several more years.
From Israel Hayom:
The amendment delays the enforcement of the conscription bill, which requires ultra-Orthodox enlistment to the Israel Defense Forces, from 2017 to 2023, extending the transition period that is currently in effect.
Until now, Haredim were generally exempt from mandatory military service, sparking outrage among many sectors of Israeli society over the burden not being proportionally distributed.
The amendment, which was approved in its second and third reading late Monday, also strikes down the part of the original law that enforces a mandatory draft of all haredi men under 24 if the ultra-Orthodox enlistment quotas are not met each year. Those who do not enlist were to have been punished with criminal penalties under the original bill, a clause that was removed in this round. The bill now leaves consequences for unmet quotas and draft dodging in the haredi community to be decided by the defense minister.
I don't understand
I don’t understand how one can live in Israel and NOT join the army. It’s unconscionable. Are other Israeli lives worth less than yours?! It boggles my mind.
Ezra
Of course others’ lives aren’t worth less; G-d forbid to say so. But they protect Israel with their army service, while the Torah scholars protect it with their learning. See Sotah 10a and Bava Basra 7b.
ARI
There is a program called the hesdar program that the religious youth partake in, it combines both the army service and learning i do not see why that cannot be implemented with the ultra orthodox. its a shame and it degrades those who give up their lives protecting the land of Israel. it goes to show how much the ultra orthodox jews are hypocritical.
Milhouse
Because a yeshivah bochur’s place is learning Torah full time, and that learning, not the army, is what really protects the country, as the posuk says, “If Hashem doesn’t guard a city, the watchman watches for nothing”. The soldiers do an important job too, but their success depends on the learners.
However, in the Rebbe said the soldiers should not feel themselves to be less important than the learners, just because they are not the ones really protecting the country; they have an advantage over the learners, because they practise literal mesirus nefesh and the learners don’t.
yankiv
the IDF zechus originates from the Torah learned by all these scholars, as you saw the IDF was powerless to stop katushas from Hezbollah and other primitive rockets from Gaza.