The Vaadas HaRabbonim of Yated Ne'eman made the
following statement: When the Committee on yeshiva students
was appointed, its tasks were said to include the so-called
"Paragraph 4" which includes various proposals for alternate
army service for chareidim. As is well-known, all maranan
verabonon oppose this and the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah also
officially decided against the inclusion of this clause, and
said that it is certainly forbidden for representatives of
the chareidi and bnei Torah community to participate
in a committee whose statement of purpose includes any clause
of this sort. It is inconceivable that they would cooperate
in plans whose purpose is to take out bnei Torah, chas
vesholom, to any course of army service whatsoever.
The editorial board of Yated Ne'eman prepared a
suitable reaction to the above, protesting the inclusion of
the clause in the statement of purpose of the committee which
was established. Maran Rabbenu Hagaon HaRav Yosef Sholom
Eliashiv shlita even went to the trouble of reviewing
our protest.
Since this protest contained wording which was incorrectly
interpreted as an affront to the representatives who were to
participate in the committee, we were asked by responsible
parties that publication of the protest be postponed, until
they had the opportunity to bring their comments to the
attention of Maran shlita.
We acknowledge that this was an error on our part, and
wish to clarify that never did we entertain the thought of
not publishing that which was approved for publication by
maranan verabonon in its precise form, and we
sincerely apologize for our error. We will make every effort
to prevent the recurrence of such mishaps.
The following is the entire, original text of that
article, which was published in the front page of the
Thursday 14 Elul edition of the Hebrew Yated
Ne'eman.
After a delay of more than a month-and-a-half, Prime Minister
and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak appointed a public
committee to formulate recommendations on the issue of
deferrals and draft exemptions of yeshiva students.
The committee will be headed by former Supreme Court Justice
Tzvi Tal. Members will include HaRav Osher Tannenbaum,
chairman of Vaad Hayeshivos; Rabbi Mordechai Karelitz, mayor
of Bnei Brak; Attorney Yaakov Weinrot; Secretary of the
Government General (res.) Moshe Nativ; Chaim Yisraeli,
Assistant Director of the Ministry of Defense; former mayor
of Hadera and former commander of the Border Police, Yisrael
Sadan; Attorney Rachel Stovietzki, assistant legal advisor of
the Defense Ministry; and Attorney Yitzchok Shoffman,
assistant Attorney General.
The writ of appointment states that committee members are
asked to consider the fact that, "the exemptions or deferrals
in question are to apply to yeshiva students without any
numeric limitations, since there is no intention to prevent
bnei yeshivos from continuing with their studies, all
this according to the law."
The announcement issued by the Prime Minister's Office last
Monday stated that Barak has also charged the committee with
"proposing appropriate legislation with legal authority to
allow the Minster of Defense to exercise his judgment in the
various aspects of the problem, including the granting of
deferrals or exemptions as appropriate in each particular
case, to yeshiva students who study full time and remain in
their studies. This in light of the fact that the time limit
set by the High Court for the termination of the existing
arrangement, which was in effect for the last fifty years, is
December 1999."
The announcement of the Prime Minister's Office adds that,
"the committee has been concomitantly asked to examine and to
recommend the development of frameworks and courses for the
integration of part of the chareidi community into the army,
including the Nachal Hachareidi and relevant training
programs, and to examine the possibility of lowering the
existing maximal draft age, in order to enable those
chareidim who wish to work to be able to do so."
UTJ was astounded by the inclusion of these latter topics in
the tasks of the committee. UTJ has nothing to do with these
matters and does not deal at all with such matters, as was
made absolutely clear during the course of the coalition
negotiations and at the signing of the coalition agreements.
According to the directives of gedolei Yisroel, the
only area which must be dealt with -- and this as a result of
the ruling of the Supreme Court -- is that of the formal
legalization of the deferrals of the military service of the
bnei yeshiva and of kollel members who study
full time. Therefore the inclusion of deliberations on the
matter of "frameworks and courses" in the committee's work,
in which chareidi representatives are participating, has
absolutely no point since, as is known, the chareidi
representatives are involved only in guaranteeing the studies
of the lomdei Torah, and they do not deal in any of
the affairs of the army and the like.
It is clear then, that the chareidi representatives on the
committee have absolutely no interest nor connection to such
issues, and that their only interest and reason for
participation pertains to the formulation of a legal
arrangement for those who study Torah full time ("Torasom
umnosom").
Rabbonim and public figures once more stressed that UTJ's top
priority is just to enable undisturbed and unlimited Torah
learning to whoever is engaged in full time Torah study
("Toraso umnoso"). Chareidi Jewry encourages, respects
and admires the bnei Torah and avreichim who
have decided to devote their lives to Torah study alone, and
it does not advance any initiative whose purpose is to
encourage avreichim to abandon their studies. The
chareidi representatives are not involved in this area and
have absolutely no connection with it.
The writ of appointment was signed last Wednesday by Ehud
Barak after it was held up for more than a month and a half.
During that period, and especially recently, it seemed as if
Ehud Barak had no intention of fulfilling the coalition
agreements signed with UTJ and that he would not appoint the
committee to prevent the drafting of yeshiva students.
The coalition agreement stated that immediately following the
establishment of the Government, a committee for the
prevention of drafting yeshiva students would be set up. The
committee was given three months in which to complete the
draft of the law with enough time so that it could be passed
by the Knesset before the court-designated deadline in
December 1999.
In the first days after the government began, when UTJ
anticipated that the committee would already be set up (and
as necessary according to the timetable that was included in
the agreement), Barak avoided fulfilling his promise claiming
that he was busy with diplomatic matters. A protest was
published in Yated Ne'eman and in response the prime
minister promised the Knesset representatives of UTJ and also
sent a special message to the gedolei Torah, that he
will appoint the committee as soon as he returns from his
trip to the United States during the Nine Days.
That promise was also broken, and a new target date was set:
15 Av. That date also passed and still the promises were not
kept. Three weeks after that last date Barak finally
appointed the committee whose first meeting must take place
soon if it is to complete its work in time for the Knesset to
pass the law before the deadline.
