That’s right. The time has returned for Rabbis to lead the way in battle. That’s the way it was in the past and that’s how it should be today. Who’s better for the job – some bleeding-heart leftist commander who has too much compassion on the enemy and puts his Jewish soldiers in danger? The Rabbis know the nature of the Amalekites of our time, and understand that their evil darkness must be erased from the Earth, in order for the light of God to shine, as King David vowed, “I will pursue my enemies and come upon them, and not turn back until they are destroyed.”

We met the Amalekites in the Torah reading on Shabbat. As the newborn Nation of Israel starts its journey across the desert, Amalek attacks us out of pure hatred alone, not wanting the light of Israel to brighten the world. Moshe orders his top Torah student, Joshua, to lead the Jews into battle. Not only is Joshua the Torah genius of his generation, a round-the-clock student of Torah in Moshe’s tent, he is infused with a spirit of bravery and strength to defend the honor of the Hashem and his chosen Nation, Israel. Moshe stands on a peak overlooking the battleground and raises his hands toward the sky to remind the Israeli “Hesder” warriors to trust in Hashem, but in the midst of the fight, his arms become heavy, and Aharon and Hur must support them and keep them aloft.

Why did his hands become heavy? In punishment, as Rashi explains: “Because he was slothful in the commandment (of waging war himself) and he appointed another in his stead, so his hands became heavy.”

That’s right, my friends! Moshe Rabenu, the greatest Torah scholar of all time, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, was punished for not leading the very first Israel Defense Force battalion to war against the enemies of God!

I have more news for you, my good friends. Among the commandments of the Torah, there is a commandment to go to war against the enemies of Israel and Hashem, to defend Jewish life, and to conquer the Land of Israel and keep it under Israeli sovereignty. Faced with a war of this nature, called “Milchemet Mitzvah,” everyone goes forth to battle, including a groom from under the wedding canopy. Not only are Torah students and Rabbis included in this mitzvah, it was the great Torah giants of past, Moshe, Joshua, King David, and Rabbi Akiva, who led the way, as examples to everyone else.

Today, the Israel Defense Force is engaged in a Milchemet Mitzvah, in both of its aspects – protecting Jewish life from enemies who seek our destruction, and maintaining Israeli sovereignty over Eretz Yisrael. True, during intervals in the fight, everyone who isn’t needed at the front, goes back to learning Torah day and night, but when the battle is raging, everyone enlists. There are no exemptions.

With the formation of a new government in Israel frantically underway, political parties calling for everyone to share equally in the military burden has become the key issue. The time has come to cast off the distorted understanding of Judaism which pictures Talmidei Chachamin as weak and scrawny figures, bent over their Talmudic tomes, engaged only in spiritual pursuits, detached from their bodies and the world around them. This was appropriate during the exile in foreign lands when we were at the mercy of the goyim, without any national structure of our own, without our own Holy Land to defend, and without any arms to fight against our enemies. Today, all that has changed. With the return to our Land, the Milchemet Mitzvah of the Torah has returned in full force. Everyone is obligated to share in the battle!

Yes, the Israeli army must be made glatt kosher to meet the needs of religious soldiers. Yes, if the army can do without them, then deferrals must be granted to allow top Torah students to continue uninterrupted with their learning for six or eight years before they are drafted, because that is in the supreme defense of the Nation too. The Hesder yeshivot have proven that Torah scholars can be strong in learning and strong in battle. The Rabbis of the religious Zionist community serve in the army; why shouldn’t Haredi Rabbis also be brave examples for their students, just like Moshe, and Joshua, and King David, and lead the way in eradicating the enemies of who rise up against Israel – for the sake and betterment of humanity – that the light of true compassion and justice can shine in the world, through the annihilation of the evildoers who seek to prevent the word of God from being established on Earth.

Rabbis! Lead the way!

Against the background of the expiration on August 1 of the Tal Law, which attempted to manage Haredi recruitment, the Moetzes Gdolei HaTorah (Assembly of Torah Sages), the supreme rabbinical policy-making council of several Haredi organizations in Israel convened Monday night in Bnei Brak at the home of leader of the Lithuanian sector, Rav Steinman, to solidify the policy of military conscription, Maariv reports.

Members of the assembly heard an explicit review of the political negotiations surrounding the issue from MKs Moshe Gafny and Uri Maklev.

In a press release following the meeting, the Assembly announced “The Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah is extremely disturbed and frightened and in immense distress over the wave of incitements sweeping the people of Israel against Haredim and especially against Torah learners on whose merit the world stands.”

“The precious yeshiva boys are learning day and night, and these people are trying to ruin their standing with threats to disturb their learning,” the release concluded.

In a personal message to Prime Minister Netanyahu, the assembly made “a special plea to the heads of the government not to change anything in the rules concerning Torah learners here in the Land of Israel.”

The Rabbis also decided in regard to yeshiva boys whose cases are not yet settled with the military authorities that “The Moatza instructs the Rosh Yeshivas to instruct their students who are called up not to sign any document whatsoever which could commit them in any way to enroll in military service.”

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the Israeli Defense Forces to draft Haredi men as it does other Jewish Israelis.

The order came as the Tal Law, which allowed many Haredi men to defer army service, expired on Wednesday. Israel’s Supreme Court overturned the law in February. Israeli law mandates that Jewish Israelis enter the army at age 18. Some Israelis legally defer army service for a year or more to study and prepare for the army.

Israeli Arabs are not required to serve in the army.

Since the Tal Law was overturned, the debate over Israel’s mandatory conscription has been at the center of the country’s political discourse. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu established a unity government in May with the center-left Kadima, the Knesset’s largest party, to draft new legislation on mandatory service that would address haredi and Arab youth, but Kadima quit the coalition in July after failing to reach an agreement with Netanyahu.

As the deadline for the renewal of the Tal Law approaches and tens of thousands of people rallied to demand that all citizens of Israel perform national service, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of the Likud Knesset faction to discuss ways to include Hareidim in national and military service.  With his party in agreement, the prime minister is on his way to drafting new legislation.

The discussion comes less than a week after the prime minister suddenly disbanded the Plesner committee, a body he established due to the impending time lapse of the Tal Law to advise him on integrating Hareidi Jews into army and national service programs which are mandatory for the rest of Israeli society.

On Saturday night, 35,000 – 50,000 people joined a “Camp Suckers” demonstration to protest what they perceive to be as an unequal application of Israel’s mandatory draft.  Due to the Tal law, which was passed in July 2002, Hareidi Jews can opt out of army service if they are enrolled in yeshiva.  Participants included former Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin, former army chief Gabi Ashkenazi, former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, and political hopeful and commentator Yair Lapid. Coalition member and Kadima head Shaul Mofaz arrived, but was booed and asked to leave.

The Supreme Court deemed the Tal law unconstitutional in February, causing an uproar in the Hareidi community, including an early morning “sack and ashes” protest against being forced to join the army.  At the June 25 rally, Eda Haredit leader Rabbi Tuvia called mandatory Hareidi enlistment the  government’s efforts to “destroy the Torah world.”

At the Sunday morning meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu utilized the recommendations of the defunct Plesner committee to brief Likud MKs.  Soon after the briefing, the group agreed to promote the committee’s findings.  The prime minister will meet with Mofaz to establish a legislation drafting team to replace the Tal Law.  Initial reports indicate that MKs are ready to back the prime minister as long as conscription laws will include drafting into national service of Arabs with Israeli citizenship.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak disagreed with the notion of addressing Arab service at this time. “The main issue is ultra-Orthodox service,” said Barak. “We will have to create a law to deal with Arab inclusion in national service at a later date.”

Regardless, the new law will aim to slowly increase the numbers of conscripts, and provide a lot of incentives and benefits to participants.  It will also enable a certain number of Torah “prodigies” – about 1,500 across the country – to remain exempt and continue Torah study in place of serving in the IDF.

“We are doing this 64 years after the issue was originally mishandled. This is a historic change,” said Netanyahu at the meeting.

The Plesner report calls for enforcement mechanisms to be put into place to prevent draft dodging, including sanctions against yeshivas which keep students from enlisting.

Law makers have until August 1 to put a new law into action.

A government coalition effort to craft a revised version of the Tal Law, whereby a sizeable number of draft eligible haredi yeshiva students would be forced to choose between joining the Israel Defense Forces or partake in Sherut Leumi (alternative national service), could become a political quagmire for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as Kadima Party leader Shaul Mofaz is threatening to bolt the unity government over a lack of progress toward finding a solution.

Earlier this week Netanyahu dissolved the Plesner Committee, which was charged with recommending an alternative to the Tal Law, after several key committee members from Yahadut HaTorah, Shas and Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home), who represent opposing positions on the issue, refused to partake in committee meetings and summarily resigned.

Members of Kadima, Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu and Bayit Yehudi are adamant about creating a legally binding draft law that would roll back the number of draft exemptions in the haredi yeshiva world to levels agreed upon by successive Israeli governments (which included the haredi parties) over 20 years ago. For the moment, political and rabbinic leaders within the Shas and Yahadut HaTorah factions have steadfastly refused the Plesner Committee’s various recommendations despite the fact that a sizeable number of Shas Party voters have served in the IDF. Yahadut HaTorah hard-liners have also rejected many aspects of the Sherut Leumi program.

Mofaz has refused to meet with Netanyahu to resolve the dispute, criticizing the Israeli leader for torpedoing efforts to forge a new national draft law to replace the Tal Law. That law expires on August 1.

Netanyahu is now faced with the task of trying to prevent Kadima, Shas, Yahadut HaTorah and Bayit Yehudi from bringing down the government before July 25, the scheduled end of the summer Knesset session.

According to several Israeli media reports, the IDF’s Manpower Division has already informed Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the army could not absorb large numbers of haredi recruits, while Sherut Leumi would be more than willing to accommodate yeshiva graduates. These haredi recruits could provide needed help to the alternative service’s year-round support staff shortages.

With looming government budget cuts and other austerity measures destined to negatively affect the economic fortunes of draft-exempt haredi students who receive government stipends, Netanyahu government members are perplexed by the hard-line positions of both Shas and Yahadut HaTorah. Those serving in Sherut Leumi receive monthly stipends and, in some instances involving two-year commitments to serve in government, living quarters at no cost and free transportation expenses.

In an effort to maintain government unity, particularly with Kadima, Netanyahu said, “Let us take the reins and bring about a solution. I am committed to a more equitable division of the burden. In January, even before the High Court of Justice ruling [requiring a new draft law], I declared that I would work towards greater equality in sharing the burden, gradually, among the ultra-orthodox and Arab publics, without setting public against public. This has been, and remains, my position.

“We charged the Plesner Committee with formulating an agreed-upon proposal for the government and the coalition in keeping with the High Court of Justice ruling. To my regret, the Plesner Committee did not succeed in reaching agreed-upon outlines due to the withdrawal of several of its members, and it cannot formulate a recommendation that would achieve a Knesset majority. For all intents and purposes, the committee has disbanded. The disbanding of the committee does not obviate our responsibility to deal with the issue of equality in bearing the burden.”

Netanyahu outlined his ideas to try to resolve the problem. He pledged to “invite the heads of the coalition parties to try to formulate a proposal that would receive a Knesset majority. Pursuant to my talks with Shaul Mofaz, I believe that with a joint effort we can achieve the desired result. If by August 1 there is no agreed-upon majority, the Tal Law will be abrogated and Security Service Law [universal draft] will come into effect, applicable to all Israeli citizens.

“I prefer an agreed-upon and gradual solution,” the prime minister continued. “But if we cannot reach such a solution by August 1, the IDF will draft according to its needs, and I believe that it will do so while taking into consideration the various publics so as to prevent a rift in the nation. Since the Security Service Law does not deal with the participation of the Arab and ultra-Orthodox publics in civilian service, we will also work to provide arrangements on this issue.”

Two Haredi men ride a camel on the Mount of Olives.

The Knesset committee tasked with crafting an alternative to the Tal Law for haredi service in Israel is reportedly almost done drafting its proposal.

According to the plan, Haredi men would perform two years of national or military service (in contrast to the three years mandated for male soldiers in the IDF), and the state would offer Haredim a variety of recruitment options to choose from, like additional “Nahal Haredi” units and special tracks within the Police force and the Prison Services.

In February, Israel’s Supreme Court voted the Tal Law discriminatory and unconstitutional in a vote of six to three. The law, which provides exemptions for young men studying in yeshiva full-time, has been the subject of much criticism and controversy.

Advocates of maintaining the status quo, argue that those studying Torah provide a spiritual protection to the State of Israel. They also believe that Jewish Law requires exemptions for yeshiva students.

But what does Jewish Law really require?

The Mishnah (Sotah 8:7) states: “…In a Milchemet Mitzvah, all go out [to war], even a groom from his room and a bride from her wedding canopy.” While many explain that women are exempt from combat, they are to assist by “providing food and fixing roads” (Tiferet Yisrael, ad loc.), for example. By including bride and groom, based on Yoel 2:16, the Mishnah emphasizes that all are required to participate in the war effort, without exception.

Rambam defines a Milchemet Mitzvah as, “war [against] the Seven Nations, war [against] Amalek, and assisting Israel from the hand of the enemy who comes up against them” (Hil. Melachim 5:1). This last definition informs our discussion. With a nuclear threat from Iran looming, enemy States on our borders, and the constant threat of terrorism within, anyone who is intellectually honest must admit that we find ourselves today embroiled in a Milchemet Mitzvah, a national security situation that demands the help of all.

Those who advocate exemptions for students studying Torah full-time also find support in the Rambam’s Mishneh Torah. Rambam writes at the end of Hilchot Shemitta v’Yovel, that the Tribe of Levi is exempt from going to war as they are the ‘Army of Hashem,’ so to speak. They are to fulfill their role as spiritual leaders of the Jewish People. They do not inherit a portion of he Land and their material needs are provided for. Rambam then continues and writes:

And not only the Tribe of Levi, but also each and every individual whose spirit moves him and whose knowledge gives him understanding to set himself apart in order to stand before the Lord, to serve Him, to worship Him and to know Him, and releases his neck from the yoke of the many considerations that men are wont to pursue – such an individual is consecrated as the Holy of Holies, and his portion and inheritance shall be in the Lord forever and ever. The Lord will grant him in this world whatsoever is sufficient for him, as He has granted the Kohanim and Levi’im (Hil. Shemitta v’Yovel 13:13).

With this addendum, Rambam allows for anyone “whose spirit moves him” to devote himself solely to Torah study, free from the burden of army service and divorced of all material concerns.

But this passage is problematic. Later commentaries struggle to find a Talmudic source for Rambam’s ruling. Some suggest that this passage is based on Nedarim 32a, where our patriarch Avraham is criticized for drafting Torah scholars in the War of the Four Kings against the Five. Others point to Sotah 10a, which describes how King Asa was punished for mobilizing talmidei chachamim.

Rambam himself rules that even a bride and groom must assist in the war effort (Hil. Melachim 7:4). If bride and groom are not exempted, how can a yeshivah student, “whose spirit moves him,” escape the draft? And by suggesting that Torah scholars can look to their brethren for financial support, Rambam also appears to contradict what he writes in his commentary to Avot 4:5 and in Hilchot Talmud Torah 3:10-11, where he decries the practice of relying upon others and emphasizes the importance of balancing Torah study with a livelihood.

What is clear is that Rambam’s ruling here is not the rule, but the exception. His allowance is made for the elite, the select few individuals that are able to devote themselves wholly to avodat Hashem. Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein asks,

To how large a segment of the Torah community – or, a fortiori, of any community – does this lofty typology apply? To two percent? Five percent? Can anyone who negotiates the terms of salary, perhaps even naden or kest or both, confront a mirror and tell himself that he ought not go to the army because he is kodesh kodashim, sanctum sanctorum in the Rambam’s terms? (“The Ideology of Hesder,” Tradition, Fall 1981).

Exempting entire sectors of the Jewish Community from army service and from pursuing a parnassah, is not what the Rambam intended.

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to form a coalition government with Kadima and cancel planned early elections has inspired endless speculation as to his motives. Some maintain he was seeking a unity government in order to bolster his position with regard to Iran. Others point to his desire to be better able to deal with certain domestic issues such as election reform and changes to the Tal Law.

The prime minister himself made mention of Israel’s dealings with the Palestinians, and that’s what drew our immediate attention – though the Tal Law obviously represents an enormously important concern in the long run.

When he announced his new coalition in a joint press conference with Kadima head Shaul Mofaz, Mr. Netanyahu spoke of the resumption of talks with the Palestinians as one of his four top priorities for the new government and said both he and Mr. Mofaz had agreed to work to renew the peace process.

In a letter to PA President Mahmoud Abbas following the new coalition agreement, the prime minister said the new government has created a new opportunity to move the peace process forward, adding that he wished to restart negotiations as soon as possible.

As a number of commentators have pointed out, Mr. Netanyahu had repeatedly told President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton that he could not advance the peace process due to the composition of his coalition. Indeed, according to Haaretz and other sources, Secretary Clinton spoke with the prime minister following the announcement of the new government and told him that with Kadima now part of the coalition, she was waiting to see how he would move the diplomatic process forward.

One has to wonder what the prime minister has in mind. In a recent New York Times op-ed article, three prominent Israeli leftists blamed the lack of progress in the peace process on “a lack of trust” between the parties. Their solution is palpably absurd: Israel needs to take unilateral steps “to advance the reality of two states based on the 1967 borders, with land swaps – regardless of whether Palestinian leaders have agreed to accept it.”

But given that even those far from the right-wing camp acknowledge that the chances for a bilateral agreement are virtually non-existent, what exactly does Prime Minister Netanyahu think he should have done before that he thinks he can do now?