RESPONSE: Yeshiva and the Army – The Perfect Shidduch?A Soldier’s Response

by Yosef Seidman – IDF paratrooper and Chossid of the Rebbe

Why are so many Chabad bochrim struggling in, and potentially at risk of leaving Yeshiva? A complex question with an assuredly complex answer. I don’t claim to possess it. What I do know is that it is not the Israeli army. Most bochrim who step away from Yeshiva do so before entertaining enlistment. צה״ל (IDF) hardly tops the list of potential impetuses to make this choice. So why is it the focus of a recent article by the enigmatic Rabbi Y.L? (see original below)

The great writer Robert A. Heinlein once said “obscurity is the refuge of incompetence.” It is a shame that Rabbi Y. L wasted an excellent opportunity to discuss the modern challenges bochrim struggle with. He has instead chosen the sensationalist path, and myopically projected the multifaceted issues of the modern American Chabad Yeshiva system onto a small group of Chabad soldiers in the IDF.

To preface: Regarding service in the IDF there is a meaningful distinction between the Chabad communities inside and outside of Israel. For the purposes of this article, I will mainly address the global Chabad overseas, not in Israel.

Y. L posits, “An increasing number of bochurim choose to enlist in the IDF rather than continue their learning in yeshiva.” The fact that one leaves yeshiva to join the Israeli army, especially during an historic time for the Jewish State does not negate the desire to remain in or return to Yeshiva. I personally have friends in the IDF who finished the Chabad Yeshiva system before enlisting as well as those who intend to return after serving. Additionally, in many instances the problems that drive a bochur to leave Yeshiva start long before the genesis of any plan to draft to the Israeli army.

Rabbi Y.L has begotten a fake paradigm into existence, in which the army serves to drive young men out of the classrooms and into the barracks. (Ironically, I’m writing this in an IDF barrack.) He writes, ”the decision of some bochurim to leave Zal (note: Yeshiva for ages 18-20) for military service reflects a significant shift.” The shift is the progressive normalization in the Chabad community of drafting to the IDF – a development which should be celebrated. The reality of bochrim failing to succeed in yeshiva far predates the current surge in popularity of Israeli army service.

He continues, “Normalizing this path for bochurim risks weakening the very institutions that have sustained our community for decades.” The fact is that the Yeshiva system has been broken for a while now – on this Y. L and I find common ground. But the army is neither causing the malady nor providing a cure. The predicament that the Yeshiva system finds itself in has its roots in a period when joining the IDF as a young American Chabad bochur was light years away from being a mainstream option.

Timing is a factor that our anonymous Rabbi almost completely glosses over. There is a war on – in case no one noticed. Anyone who would suggest the IDF is brimming at the lid with combat soldiers is kidding themselves. Many of the young men and women who chose to put their lives on hold to serve the Jewish people will tell you they did so specifically in this time of instability in order to provide needed support.

The Rebbe said ” על־פי דין תורתנו הקדושה, כאשר מדובר בהצלת נפש מישראל, יש חובה לחזק את צבא ההגנה לישראל בכל האמצעים האפשריים .” – “According to the law of our holy Torah, when it comes to saving the life of a Jew, there is an obligation to strengthen the Israel Defense Forces by all possible means.” This by no means implies that all bochrim should drop their learning and draft to the Israeli army. It does however bring into focus the existential value of serving in .צה״ל For all of the imperfections in the IDF, as well as the very real risks to one’s Judaism, protecting the Jewish people is in fact a mitzvah. The age for going to war in Jewish law is eighteen, although the IDF is not a halachic army led by a Jewish king – it’s the next best thing and all we’ve got.

Further, as a community’s population grows at a fast rate, the diversity of behavior in that community will expand with it at pace, for better or worse. This has certainly been true in the broader Chabad community over the past several decades. Brandeis Professor of American Jewish History Jonathan Sarna wrote in 2015 that “the fastest-growing Jewish religious movement in the world is Chabad”. Exponential population increase has been seen in the Chabad community in America starting with a scattered several dozen families arriving as refugees from Eastern Europe in the forties. Today that number reaches upwards of 17,000 core families according to Marcin Wodziński’s Historical Atlas of Hasidism – published in 2018. The yeshiva system in its present form simply isn’t for everyone. Some bochurim leave the Yeshiva system early and some tough it out; still more thrive and never consider leaving at all. The Rebbe was a practical man who met every Jew he encountered where he or she stood spiritually. In order for the Chabad community to thrive in its continual growth – this philosophy must find itself at the epicenter of the movement. The tremendous expansion of our community is a blessing, as well a responsibility, to broaden the horizons of the ‘system’ so that more bochrim can succeed. The value of sitting and learning in Yeshiva is incalculable, however it needs to be contextualized with the understanding that bochrim are real people not homogenous religious paragons.

In demanding that the community ask if we are “providing our bochurim with the support, inspiration, and clarity they need?” and further “ Are our yeshivos addressing their emotional, spiritual, and practical challenges? And are we, as a community, reinforcing the value of Torah learning with the same conviction the Rebbe demanded?” Y. L is asking questions whose import cannot be overstated. Let us not however resort to scapegoats and yellow journalism, and, rather, own up to the cracks in the system.

YL asserts, “The strength and continuity of Yiddishkeit and Chassidus in particular has rested on the dedication of Bochurim who immersed themselves in Torah learning during their teenage years.” In reality, whiling the day away learning nothing, getting blackout drunk at every opportunity, and being left feeling empty and useless are not what the Rebbe had in mind for the students enrolled in his institutions. Young men in that position should afford themselves the opportunity and have the bravery to find a path within Yiddishkeit that works for them. If that means enlisting and serving as a shliach of the Rebbe in the IDF I see not a failure but a maverick who has charted his own course.

It is time to dispose of the false dichotomy between the IDF and Yeshiva. Y. L maintains that “this is not a question of denying the value of mesirus nefesh or responsibility toward Klal Yisroel.” That is exactly what he is doing. He questions if the yeshiva system is broken, granted.

However, instead of the painful and detailed work needed to understand why that is and how to fix it, he’d rather engage in an act of obfuscation. The IDF is eye-catching and setting it as the focus of your article is a sure path to clicks. It is not however an intellectually honest approach to the topic at hand. Leave us soldiers to do the work set out before us, and direct your efforts to the real and urgent issues facing the Chabad Yeshiva system.

As joining the IDF becomes increasingly normalized, I hope that more young men will see it as a viable path. To any bochrim considering leaving Yeshiva early to draft, I highly suggest waiting until after Zal as a general rule.

The subject of our modern educational system is one of personal importance to me as a product of Chabad institutions. With confidence I can say that I greatly benefited from going to Mesivta (I did not continue to Zal). Although imperfect, my yeshiva was a wonderful place with incredible teachers who were totally dedicated to their mission as mechanchim (educators) of the Rebbe. Personally, going to Zal was not the right choice for me instead college was the fitting path. In fact, I temporarily left college to go to the IDF. In context of the population increase of the Chabad community it is simply not reasonable to imply that any bochur who does not complete the entire Yeshiva educational track has in some way been failed by the system or failed himself.

Yosef Seidman
IDF paratrooper
Chossid of the Rebbe

Works Cited

Rabbi Y. L. “Op-Ed: New Troubling Trend of Bochurim Joining the Army.” Crownheights.Info, 25
Dec. 2025,
crownheights.info/chabad-news/932202/op-ed-new-troubling-trend-of-bochurim-joining-the-army
/.

Sarna, Jonathan D. “The Jewish Future, Part 5.” Commentary Magazine, 2025,
www.commentary.org/articles/symposium-2/symposium-part-5/. Accessed 31 Dec. 2025.

Wodziński, Marcin. Historical Atlas of Hasidism: The First Global Estimate of Hasidic Families
and Their Distribution. Princeton University Press, 2018.