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29 Kislev 5773 - December 13, 2012 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Rabbonim Reject Government Attempts to Tempt Yeshiva Students to Join the Army

by Yechiel Sever

Rabbonim reacted very strongly against the Government moves on Sunday to extend a program of national service for chareidim. Gedolei Yisroel rejected the repeated attempts to seduce yeshiva students to leave their yeshivas and said that it was part of a longstanding focused attempt to undermine the yeshiva world and to weaken the values held dear by Jewry whose members dedicate their lives to Torah study as yeshiva students and kollel avreichim.

Coming as it does in the middle of an election campaign in Israel, the comments of the rabbonim elicited sharp reactions from many secular politicians.

At its weekly Cabinet meeting, the Israeli government extended a program that had been part of the Tal Law that expired in the summer. The program had allowed chareidim to join national service programs as civilians in areas such as welfare and public health.

In a letter published last year dated Motzei Shabbos Mikeitz, 5772, HaRav Eliashiv warned, "it is necessary to protest and to warn against all sorts of attempts from the outside to damage the pure cruse of oil, by establishing "special frameworks for chareidim" that will be under their total control and in their spirit, and including various frameworks and paths for national or civil or army service whose purpose is to create places where a group of chareidim will be formed which is under their control and subject to their cultural influences." (See the full letter here.)

With the announcement of the decision of the Israeli government, Maran HaRav A.Y.L. Shteinman said that we must warn the public against this grave and dangerous trend whose purpose is to undermine the foundations of our existence, and run counter to the nature and aim of every ben yeshiva to dedicate his life to learning Torah.

Maran shlita said that we must make it clear that no one should join these organizations and that the entire aim of the programs is to change the aspirations of the typical ben yeshiva who only wants to stay in Beis Hashem throughout his life, to cleave to Torah and to those who transmit its ways.

The national and civil service is entirely prohibited by all maranan verabbonon. Reports have reached Yated that the civil service forces the chareidim in its ranks to attend special workshops designed to convince them to join the general work force. Sometimes they try to hide this aim, but it is clear from the statistics that they proudly quote, that 85 percent of the chareidim going through the civil service later went on to work full time.

Maranan verabbonon said that we must fight for our souls and stand immobile like a wall in the face of all these dangerous temptations.

To see the article written last year about this issue click here.

 

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