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Ultra-Orthodox Feel Secular Israelis Deaf to Dialogue
Zalman Deren spends his days studying the Torah in a small synagogue near the Western Wall in Jerusalem. He’s young and able-bodied, with a wife and three children to feed, but has no job because that would distract him from his vocation.
A short walk away, at Israel’s largest Torah school, Mir Yeshiva, noise levels in the spacious study halls reach a low roar as hundreds of men of all ages decipher and debate the holy texts for hours. Most of them are also married with children and do not earn a living.
Israel has an estimated 60,000 full-time scripture scholars like this, who live in poverty and study to follow what they say is their faith’s highest calling. In return, Israel pays them modest stipends and exempts them from compulsory military service for all Jewish citizens.
This 64-year-old pact between the state and the ultra-Orthodox is headed for a major overhaul, however.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed at the weekend to reforms capping the number of students around 1,500 by 2016 and penalizing draft dodgers.
Full details of the plans, which should come into force by August 1, still have to be agreed within Netanyahu’s broad coalition. But any tightening of the rules will have wide support in Israeli society.
An opinion poll last year showed 93 percent of the non-ultra-Orthodox population favored requiring these men to serve in the army or in alternative civilian service.
About 20,000 people marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday night demanding “equal sharing of the national burden.”
In the yeshivas dotted around Jerusalem, students and rabbis feel misunderstood and reject accusations they are milking the welfare state or shirking their duty.
“The ultimate Jewish activity is studying Torah – it is the word of God,” insisted one grey-bearded rabbi who teaches at Mir Yeshiva.
“In doing so, we are fulfilling the highest commandment and we deserve the greatest reward.”
“This is not a choice,” said the rabbi, who asked not to be named to avoid publicity. “In the Talmud, it is explicitly written that God wants us to study his word.”
One of his students, a father of five who has studied at Mir for 18 years, thought the gulf between Israel’s secular majority and the Haredim – the Hebrew term for ultra-Orthodox that means “those who tremble before God” – was unbridgeable.
“You can’t explain the color green to a blind man,” the student, who also did not want to give his name, told Reuters during a recent visit to the school.
Continue Reading at Reuters.com
shmuli
yes, hashem wants us to study; however, work to support your study. if you marry you should have a job to support your family…if you are married, have children, don’t work————-can study on a prison farm
friend
zalman has 2 kids!
former idf fighter
im sure these yeshiva students can join the hesder program,just as plenty of others have done there they can combine their studies with the army service,Israel may need “scholars” but they also need fighters and as the torah says every man has the duty to defend himself and his family and during the times of david,shaul etc. the soldiers during that time were learned scholars.the time has come for all to share the burden of the country who meany rightous ppl have given up their lives in order for others to live and survive. the secular world just wants the same benefits for thier children. its time for people to start giving back to the country that has given them so much!! its time to wake up and share the burden. why is your blood much more precious then one serving his/her country?
SJ..
its neither one group or the other. there are emotionally deaf people in every group/category. those who are not, are the ones who lead us, may HaShem help that they see the truth.
NK
I always find it remarkable how these supposedly learned men are oblivious to Pirkei Avos’ “Torah im derech eretz” teaching…
the Israeli army MUST...
bs”d
In order for the IDF to be an appropriate place for a frum Yid, actually for any Yid:
The Israeli army needs to get rid of the girls in the army (this often causes non-tznius situations, to say the least….), beef up the kashrus standards and make sure that ALL decisions that are made in the army, are based on the Torah, and not on secular ideas or world peer pressure. For example, if the army was run by those who are guided only by Torah, Gush Katif and teh like wouldn’t happen….
May Hashem continue watching over each and every soldier and every YID.
May we have Moshiach NOW-and then the only physical ‘guards’ we will need, will be the honor guard in the Beis Hamikdash
machalnik
hey number 6, don’t fool yourself for a second thinking that even if the IDF did all your silly ideas the chareidim would enlist. And as someone who had served in the army, i can tell you that many of those females especially the ones who go to combat give much more to the jewish people then someone who sits in 770 and fights all day, and you are not even half of what they are.
When i went to the lishkat gius the girl who processed me had a disability in one arm and could have gotten out of serving, but yet she chose to do something for her country, even if it is sitting at a computer her entire service.
Jewish dude
Frumme yidden are allowed to study Torah Talmud year round. The problem is the Arabs who never work in Israel. They also don’t serve in the army. We should start with taking their welfare before we take it from fellow Jews. Who love Torah Talmud and Israel.
to#6
yes, lets do that, totally realistic…in fact, lets have daily chitas times too…
to #6
You sir, are an ignoramus! why don’t you take your diabolical thinking elsewhere
Milhouse
Gevald! How is it that on a Lubavitcher site the Rebbe’s view counts for nothing. Everyone knows that the Rebbe was totally against drafting yeshivah bochurim. Their job is to learn Torah and nothing else, and this proposal to rip them from the gemoros is wicked and must be resisted.
Once someone is unable to keep learning full time, because he can’t support his family, then he should get a job, but in Israel you can’t get a job if you haven’t first been to the army. This is unfair; full-time Torah learning is an essential component of the defense system, every bit as important as various sections of the IDF, and a person’s service in that field should get the same recognition. “If not for Dovid’s learning Yoav would not have had his victories, and if not for Yoav’s victories Dovid would not have been able to learn.”
Also, it is absolutely FORBIDDEN to draft talmidei chachomim. The Gemoroh is very clear on this. And the Rambam says that Shevet Levi does not go to war, and that anyone can join Shevet Levi in this regard.