Israeli Memorial Day Observed
The IDF's face and function have changed drastically over the years. The IDF has gone from helping to establish Jewish (or potentially Jewish) sovereignty over Eretz Yisra'el and defending the Jewish People from annihilation countless times with the guidance of the Holy One, Blessed be he, to a body which now may knock on your door to throw you out of your home, destroy that home and the synagogue next door, hand Jewish lands over to goyim (non-Jews), and do so possibly even on Shabbath, calls for a close examination of the proper reasons for joining such an organization.
Some of you may think that this post denigrates the memories of fallen IDF soldiers.
God forbid!
This post does quite the opposite. In fact, it honors them by differentiating between the IDF in which they served and the IDF of today. This post does not come to criticize their individual soldiers, but rather their IDF leaders, including past and present Ministers of Defense and Chiefs of Staff, as well as the so-called "rabbis," who have instructed their soldier/talmidim to participate in heinous acts against their own people, and against their own God-given land, such as the ones listed above.
This post attempts to discover if their truly are any reasons left to enlist in what was one the most impressive armed forces in the world.
Here are Esser Agaroth's reasons. What are yours? Please leave your comments below.
10. To get your machismo certification, including photos in uniform with a gun to post on your girlfriend's facebook page, then realize this is no joke, grow up, and plan to make permanent home in Israel,...with or without the girlfriend.
9. To get free transportation, while wearing your uniform.
8. To do the IDF's intensive, high school matriculation program (bagrut), because now that you're 18, you're finally ready to buckle down, and do it.
7. To get free vocational training and on the job experience, in auto or airplane mechanics, electronics, EMT/ER/paramedic, or truck driving, for free, and get on the job experience.
6. To get survivalist training in a special unit, learning about how to find water, identifying which plants are edible, building shelters, etc.
5. To get weapons and hand to hand combat training, in order to be able to defend yourself, and your family, and your town more effectively.
4. To set an example for other soldiers, and to be available when they come to ask you questions about Judaism, such as about prayer, tefillin, kashruth, and digging latrine outside of the camp, and . Just what Yossi Beilin and Shulamit Aloni ordered,...NOT!
3. To influence, and encourage other soldiers not to participate in throwing Jews out of their homes, and handing over pieces of our Homeland to goyim,and to introduce them to rabbis you can show them why the Torah forbids this.
2. To make a big deal about refusing orders, when commanded to violate the Torah. This may include throwing Jews out of their homes, violating Shabbath for the heck of it, listening to women sing and watching them dance, or taking orders from a goy.
1. To take pride in sitting in jail, having refused orders to violate the Torah (Rabbi Avraham Shapira ztz"l), and to fulfill one of the requirements for becoming a rabbi, to sit in jail for the sake of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael (Rabbi Me'ir Kahane hy"d).
You should notice that "To fulfill the misswah of guarding the borders of Eretz Yisrael" is absent from this list. Although this misswah can be contributed to by joining the IDF, it is not the only way to fulfill this misswah.
You can volunteer to do guard duty in your town.
You can join community patrols, perhaps.
You can join volunteer organizations, such as Israel's Best Friend Canine Search & Rescue Unit.
The Mamlakhtim (religious, undying State loyalists) seem to think that joining the IDF is the only way to fulfill this misswah.
They are mistaken, of course.
So, what was YOUR reason for serving? And where did you serve?
ReplyDeleteAs a student of Rav Avraham Elkana Shapiro, whom you cited, I can tell you pretty plainly he wouldn't have agreed with your suggestion of alternatives to army service. He would have said you skipping a mitzvah d'oraita in several ways. I think that Rav Meir David Kahane, who I knew and strongly influenced me, might have said something similar.
And why don't you allow anonymous comments, since you post anonymously?
יום העצמאות שמח
So, what was YOUR reason for serving? And where did you serve?
ReplyDeleteI didn't. I was too old, but would have. In 2002, I looked into enlisting through the lishka in Haifa which has programs for older enlistees. However, I would not have been able to afford to, so it didn't go anywhere. My reasons were 1 through 6, plus defending the borders of Israel.
As a student of Rav Avraham Elkana Shapiro, whom you cited, I can tell you pretty plainly he wouldn't have agreed with your suggestion of alternatives to army service. He would have said you skipping a mitzvah d'oraita in several ways.
OK. Funny. I wonder what he would have said about the many students who do not serve, and who learn in a break off yeshiva from Merkaz. ;-)
I think that Rav Meir David Kahane, who I knew and strongly influenced me, might have said something similar.
Rav Kahane's hashqafah changed before he died. Not sure when you knew him, his Torah now comes to me from the first principal of his yeshiva, as well as those who were closest to Rav Binyamin hy"d. You could be right, but you can see that I didn't connect Rav Kahane with these alternatives.
And why don't you allow anonymous comments, since you post anonymously?
Anyone can find out who I am with a search or two on the Net. I only recently took my personal name off of this blog, to keep the focus on its name, and not on mine.
יום העצמאות שמח
גם לך.