Photo Credit: FLASH90
Rabbinic leaders meeting in Bnei Brak last week about the draft.

The fact that the Kenesset committee charged with coming up with new and fair draft legislation is headed Ayelet Shaked who belongs to the Bayit HaYehudi party which is effectively the new religious Zionist party means nothing to them. That this committee has come up with a rather mild proposal that seems to have gotten quite approval by many Charedi activists also seems to have been ignored. As is the declaration Bayit HaYehudi leader, Naftali Bennett declaration that no Charedi Yeshiva student will ever spend a day in jail for dodging ghee draft.

I believe he’s right. I do not see Israeli police entering a Beis HaMedrash like the one in the Mir and rounding up students studying Torah and putting them behind bars en masse. If for no other reason that there are not enough jails cells to handle even a small fraction of them, let alone the terrible sight of Jews being rounded up by police that would be reminiscent of the Holocaust! This is not happening and everybody knows it.

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This is the what these Charedi rabbinc leaders are condemning with such fierce rhetoric?! … and being joined in mass prayer by some religious Zionist rabbinic leaders?!

As I’ve said many times, I understand that these leaders are upset. They do not want any tampering with their way of life. But they cannot truly believe that this is a Chilul HaShem along the line they are saying. They can’t be that naïve. Can they?

No doubt they will bring out the masses today. They are within their democratic rights to do so. Hopefully it will take place without incident – which is their intent. And it will have an impact if for no other reason then to show how determined they are and how many resisters there will be.

But that does not excuse the kind of rhetoric they are using. In my humble opinion it is not right to exaggerate the facts no matter how much they believe in their cause. I would not participate in something like this even if I agreed with them in their principled opposition to drafting Charedim.

Thankfully there are some Religious Zionist leaders that feel the same way I do. I was starting to second guess myself on this issue because of such widespread sentiment in all segments of Orthodoxy favoring the Charedi view of things here. Fortunately I am not alone. And why I am inclined to agree with Rav Chaim Druckman. Here is what he said about this. From Matzav:

Religious Zionist leader Rabbi Chaim Druckman called on the Religious Zionist community last night to stay far away from today’s atzeres tefillah against the chareidi draft.

“I totally reject [the march],” Druckman said last night. “If this demonstration is being held to say that Israel is fighting against the rule of the Kingdom of Heaven, I am so shocked and outraged by it.

“There is no room to say it’s permitted to participate in something like this. [To] those calling for the demonstration using shocking language: where we are living? Are we living in some dark regime fighting against …a war on religion? Thank God we live in Israel – even if I have criticized the state.”

Amen!
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Harry Maryles runs the blog "Emes Ve-Emunah" which focuses on current events and issues that effect the Jewish world in general and Orthodoxy in particular. It discuses Hashkafa and news events of the day - from a Centrist perspctive and a philosphy of Torah U'Mada. He can be reached at [email protected].