Op-Ed: It’s Not About the Draft!
It was early 1948 and Jewish united forces in the British Mandate of Palestine mobilized against enemy armies trying to wash them from the region. The Jewish community worldwide took note. Among them was a young Rabbinical Student in Brooklyn, NY, Tzvi Hirsh Gansbourg. He had arrived in the States less than a year earlier – from the British Mandate of Palestine — to study alongside his Rabbi, the then leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Rabbi Yosef Y. Schneerson.
With his nation in a battle reminiscent of centuries past, fighting for survival in their ancestral, G-d given homeland, Gansbourg wished to take position alongside his family – both spiritual and genealogical. He penned a letter to the then Lubavitcher Rebbe. “Is my brother’s blood cheaper than mine?” wrote Gansbourg in his letter stating his desire to return and head to the front-lines. The Rebbe responded.
“Every troop has his post. For some it’s on the front-lines. For others, it’s with his mind and soul in the holy texts. A soldier doesn’t simply abandon his post.”
Gansbourg stayed in the Yeshivah. Gansbourg was my grandfather. He was also Haredi. Members of his immediate family fought then and in several wars since. Relatives of ours still serve.
I attended the demonstration in Jerusalem alongside hundreds of thousands of my brothers and sisters. While I strongly disagree with them in many ways (see, “Don’t call me Haredi”), they are still my brothers and sisters. I don’t agree with many things my actual five brothers and one sister do! The basis of the rally was to express disapproval of the new draft laws.
For the record; I (strongly) support the IDF. I (strongly) support the draft. I (strongly) support sharing the burden. I (strongly) support giving back.
I also (very strongly) support the Torah.
I believe in the Torah’s absolute divinity. I hold the Torah as true, as factual, as a book of life for our nation. Just as the Jewish people have carried the Torah through hardship and challenge, the Torah has carried the Jewish nation to victory and survival. Both are true. Both are embed at the core of our existence.
On the same note, I wish to hold accountable those who ‘hide behind the Torah,’ using it as an excuse to dodge responsibilities and avoid their duties as citizens of the State of Israel. Worse, I do not – EVER – support a Jewish person – especially one claiming to celebrate his religion in an observant fashion – protesting the IDF that gives them the luxury to live here, safely, every day.
Yes, I agree, if a student fails to attend the Yeshiva, or is a disturbance when he does, he should follow the others into the forces of the IDF. He’ll get training, he’ll get money. He’ll be grounded. But, he who is actually a student of the Torah, he who will in fact devote his time to deep biblical concept and discovery, the advanced Torah scholars, should be allowed to do so in the Jewish State.
I should point out, when I was of age, I did not personally have either of these challenges, as I was not in Israeli or Israeli. I recognize that. I shall not judge until I am in the shoes of someone who was/is – on either side. But now that I have the privilege of living here, I have gotten to know the fine men and women of this land, of which many who serve/ed and those who did/do not, are my good friends.
Also, should I live here long term, I’d like to believe I’ll be raising my kids knowing that the IDF is a preferred option. However, should they choose to become students of advanced Torah study, I’ll take it as well!
I attended the protest to defend the Torah which I hold dear. The Torah belongs to each and every one of us, as Jews. The Torah is meant to unite the Jewish nation. The Torah stands for life and for peace.
In the Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin, page 49a, a story is related about Joab in wartimes.
Rabbi Abba states there that “If not for David’s study of Torah, Joab would not have succeeded in war; and but for Joab’s efforts in the battlefield, David could not have devoted himself to the study of the Torah.”
This is both a timely message and timeless lesson. The Jewish people have relied on study of Torah AND physical defense since the days of old. The concept is nothing new!
Further, the arrangement allowing the Haredi population to choose Torah study over enlistment, as it was until a number of years ago, is known in Hebrew as “Torato Omunato.” That literally means “Torah Study is his trade” and expresses this very sentiment! (That is not to say, of course, by any means, that abuse of this approach to avoid conscription is justified.)
More than half a million Jewish people from dozens of different backgrounds, ideologies and beliefs (believe it or not, there are dozens of Haredi types!) came together for many different reasons. I attended – after discussing with several people, Rabbis included – for the sake of Torah. While many came out in protest against the draft, to me it was a prayer vigil in defense of holding the state to its Jewish values.
To each of us, the display of righteousness is expressed differently, even among people on the same side of the argument. As the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Shneerson, of blessed memory, states (video below) “people will not want to understand it.” That is natural. That is understandable. Hatred however is not.
While I certainly understand that many people disagree with me, even among my closest friends and colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I urge people to study into it a little deeper. The soldier is needed. The ‘lamdan’ (scholar) is needed just as well
My point is not in protest of the draft, nor is it in support of the draft. It is in support of the Jewish Nation. It is in support of Eretz Yisroel, the land of Israel. It is in defense of the Torah. It is with love for all Jewish people.
Think about this: those who wish to follow the Torah and adhere to its teachings should not find themselves in a position of unfamiliarity in the Jewish State.
This is especially true at a time when we are trying to get the rest of the world to recognize it as the Jewish state.
Citizen Berel
You need to stick to what you know. Be humble, and spout not foolishness.
They are as much interested in Yidden serving in the army as Tsar Nicholas was when he signed his Statute on Conscription Duty. This is outright war against Judaism.
Frum Jews constitute an uncomfortably large part of the electorate, and they are perceived as problem to be dealt with.
You can join the IDF but you cannot join the IDF and remain frum. You will forced to compromise in every facet of Jewish life, from Kashrus to Shabbos to separation of the sexes for no operational necessity. Indeed, you will be forced to compromise as and end in itself.
Shocking naivete. We used to have eyes of the community, now we have op-ed superstars.
Just Sayin
Why can’t you join the IDF and be frum? There are quite a few Chassidishe yougerleit in our community that continue to prove otherwise every day. It’s hard to respect your opinion when you spout foolishness about things you do not know.
Comment Superstar
Citizen Berel,
In light of your own tsunami of anonymous comments, prominently posted on this and various other forums, I must conclude your either blindly self righteous or plainly ignorant.
Your slamming of an intelligent argument by cynically calling out those who eloquently express their opinions (using their real names) online, makes the rest of your argument unworthy of a response.
This type of attitude is certainly not a frum one, and I agree perhaps this attitude IS threatened by the humility and discipline of our boys and girls in the IDF. Perhaps you, more than anyone, would benefit from learning a thing or two about humility, and “sticking to what you know”.
the Gansburg Brothers
R’ Itchke Gansburg did fight for the country in 1948 while your grandfather learned Torah and Chassidus… and they were best brothers! They are buried next to each other and should be meilitz yosher Litova vilivrochah!
everything that needs to be said...
…was just said. Yasher Koach!!!
Citizen Berel
I accept the rebuke I received above for disrespecting the signed author of this op-ed.
Mr. Margolin, I am sincerely sorry for commenting on your article without showing you appropriate respect. However dangerous I believe your viewpoint to be, my ‘op-ed superstar’ condescension was completely out of line.
I will be more careful about this in the future.
Comment Superstar
So being the gentleman you are, I’d like to dig a little further into your argument:
1. You unequivocally state: You can join the IDF but you cannot join the IDF and remain frum — I’m sure you realize that is an ad-hominem attack against every single person in the IDF who considers themselves frum. I’ll refrain from judging your true intentions, since you do seem slightly more articulate than the average comment superstar on this website, but at face-value, such blanket statements don’t do you any good in helping to convey your reasonableness nor does it make a good case of your intellectual honesty.
2. What DO you mean by frum?
3. Perhaps the reason some folks DO (legitimately) feel their religious practice is under attack in the IDF, is precisely because the Charedi leadership does almost everything in its power NOT to cooperate, thus leaving much of the decision making, in the hands who care less about it in the first place?
4. Lastly, maybe, just maybe, the main reason for the rampant poverty in Charedi circles in Israel (as opposed to the US) is a direct result of the draft-dodging culture your argument naturally induces: in order to avoid conscription (and eventually being stoned by your own community) one must remain in the Yeshiva at all costs, even when they really don’t want to be there, for if one were to venture out, they would lose their p’tur… hence an endless cycle of poverty and Chillul Hashem that we all know is killing us.
Think about it — Torah study safeguards us against our enemies, but Sina’as Chinum (even on the part of some of the holiest Jews in our history) delivers us directly into their hands!