HaRav Englander is the rosh yeshiva of Beis Shmaya, a yeshiva whose student body is mainly Sephardic. At a recent gathering of alumni, he gave a talk that addressed many of the burning issues of the day. As the Ashkenazic rosh yeshiva of a prominent, high level Sephardic yeshiva, he has an important perspective. Following are excerpts from that talk.
HaRav Shlomo Englander
This past year, there has been much publicity about the draft decree, and the shmad decree etc. It our duty of relate to this issue and discuss its implications.
It seems that the majority of the public is mistakenly confusing the problem of dropouts with the issues of yeshiva students who are learning full time in yeshivos.
The chareidi public has a problem of dropouts and worse. These youths often wind up in army service, whether voluntarily, sometimes through `attractive' come-ons, and sometimes involuntarily if they have forfeited their status as yeshivas students and have no grounds for deferment. But there are no full time bona fide yeshiva students who are genuinely Torasam umnosom and who have adhered to the regulations - and have been inducted nonetheless! Period! On the other hand, there are yeshiva students who are not committed to full time Torah study who have been inducted.
There is much disinformation on the subject. There are also many lies. We have checked into the subject thoroughly and this is our conclusion:
HaRav Boruch Soloveitchik, Rosh Yeshivas Toras Zev, who asked this to be publicized in his name: He told that a year ago, he sat with activists from "rescue" organizations, who spoke to him for an hour and revealed some horror stories, which shocked him as well. According to those stories, serious students were offered attractive temptations and were eventually taken into the army. HaRav Boruch asked these activists to bring him thirty files of the tragic cases which they had dealt with, complete with names and vital identification and information. He wished to examine them in detail, one by one, "to see what's going on." To his surprise, he is still waiting to receive accurate information about those young men. He also publicized a notice that whoever had information about bona fide yeshiva bochurim who had been inducted should step forward and present it to him.
This was repeated with the Rosh Yeshiva of Sfas Emes, HaRav Shaul Alter. A year ago, he, too, turned to those selfsame activists, requesting ten files with full information. He tells, "I received ten files with names and identification. I selected two and examined them, only to find that these youths were never even registered in yeshivos. This was enough for me."
I also say that if anyone has contact information about someone who was a full-time yeshiva student and was drafted, please give it to me. I will check it out. But in the meantime, there is not one known case of this happening.
The Real Reason We Can Continue to Learn
It is important to clarify that the reason a serious yeshiva student can pursue his Torah study is not thanks to the State at all. "The favor of the wicked is bad by tzaddikim." Torah exists because of the promise that "It will not be forgotten from his seed."
HaRav Yosef Leshinsky zt"l told HaRav Zev Berlin shlita: In his youth, he reported to the army induction center and sought to be free of army service (petur rather than a deferral) because of a problem with his eyes. He had to undergo several tests, but passed them. Before a final one, he went to the Chazon Ish for a blessing. The latter asked him what the whole thing was all about. "Do you want to stop learning?!" he asked.
HaRav Yosef replied, "Why do I need to be dependent on their favors to give me a deferment. How do I know if this arrangement will last for the rest of my life? Like this, I will be given an exemption and be done with it."
Said the Chazon Ish, "Know that any young man who devotes himself to Torah, will be able to sit and learn. This is the fulfillment of the promise: `It will not be forgotten from his seed.' They will never take a yeshiva student who is learning into the army. Go, tell them the truth, and you will be given a deferment."
And so it was.
The Sephardic Torah Community
There are a lot of rumors about a special shmad and discrimination against Sephardic yeshivas and yeshiva students.
I saw a pamphlet published in Yiddish that claimed that Ashkenazic yeshivas report to the Army in groups and the whole thing is done in a short time, while the Sephardic yeshivas are forced to send their students individually, and they have to spend hours at the office to get their deferment.
This is a simple lie. We checked 40 Sephardic yeshivas and their arrangements were exactly the same as the Ashkenazic yeshivas.
And now we come to a painful point indeed, and that is the self-esteem of the Sephardi Torah world. We hear that large numbers of Sephardi yeshiva students who are drafted, that there are many weak families or students of weak character etc. and we get the impression of the whole world of Sephardi yeshivos as being filled with students in the process of various stages of mobilization, past or future, or being subjected to strong pressure through incentives, as if they are all on the road of mass shmad.
And we raise an outcry: How long will you continue to abuse and denigrate the Sephardi Torah world! Our eyes see thousands of yeshiva students industriously pursuing their studies in depth and with perseverance, along the path transmitted to us by our rabbonim of all generations. They are not being disturbed, and their esteemed families are excellent and fortified, chareidi for all intents and purposes from generations back, none of their members having served in the army or even having considered doing so. Their youths are intelligent and pure minded, not weak willed, nor from marginal families. That is all hype, lies, falsification.
How long will they continue to say that the Sephardic Torah world is weak and less than the Ashkenazic Torah world? On the contrary! Come in to yeshiva Beis Shmaya and you will see what our learning looks like on Friday, and what the beis medrash looks like on leil Shabbos! Where is there a yeshiva where the bochurim organize a seder of 7-8 hours on Shabbos from the morning until minchah?
Beis Shmaya is not less than any other yeshiva. And we do not mean just Beis Shmaya. There are many well-known Sephardic yeshivas that are important and prestigious and their students bring honor to the entire Torah world and have nothing to be embarrassed about by any other yeshiva. They learn more and more intensively than any other place. Enough! Enough of this degradation.
For the Sephardic Torah world this is our fist message: No more degradation of the Sephardic Torah world.
What About Dropouts?
We have to discuss the issue of dropouts: those who leave yeshivas and stop learning full-time. This is a problem of the entire chareidi community, Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Chassidim. There are so many dropouts that we cannot ignore them and we should not ignore them. It is a tremendous problem and we must deal with it. Many of those dropouts eventually reach the army.
The question is: What should we do? There is a fire! People are getting burned! And then some people come and ask if those who are getting burned are getting deferments from the army. Fools! Is that the issue? No! Come and help put out the fire. Set up special yeshivas, or programs or something to help save those who are getting burned. Their ruchniyus is at risk.
There is a Jew in Jerusalem, HaRav Chaikel Miletzky, who is the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Rashi. He has hundreds of students who are dealt with, with love and dedication. Every year he helps found dozens of Torah families.
This is the answer. Save these dropouts.
But we have to make it clear. It may be painful but we must say the truth, according to what our rabbonim taught us and publicized in the past. Bochurim who are not learning, or worse, who have fallen from the level of yeshiva students — should be arrange for them to be deferred from army service or not?
We have nothing to add to the letters written in the past by HaRav Yechezkel Abramsky zt"l who was the nosi of the Vaad Hayeshivos, and by Maran HaRav Shach zt"l.
The following is the translation of a letter written by HaRav Abramsky on the stationery of the Vaad Hayeshivos:
To HaRav HaGaon....
The clear and uncompromising position of the Roshei Yeshivos not to allow draft deferral to anyone except to those talmidim that Torasam Umnosom, is well known. ... The yeshivas have always looked upon someone who uses this zechus dishonestly as a rodef who threatens the well-being and honor of the yeshivas, and they did not hesitate to drop any talmid who does not fulfill all the conditions of Toraso umnaso, from the list of yeshiva students.
... We request that all roshei yeshivos make a strict examination of all their talmidim, and to expel any talmid
— if there are such — whose Torah is not umnaso and to inform the Vaad Hayeshivos of this.
With the blessings of Torah, Yechezkel Abramsky, Nosi
There is also a letter from HaRav Shach written on Vaad Hayeshivos stationery:
To HaRav HaGaon... Those things that are well-known do not need proof, namely, that the zechus to have a deferment of service in the Army is only on condition that Toraso umnaso. He should not engage in any material pursuit, not during yeshiva sessions and not at other times. All gedolei Yisroel approved this takono, and saw it as an unbreakable condition. ... And only talmidim for whom Torasam umnosom, as mentioned above, will be certified by them for draft deferral. Only they and not those who do not qualify.
With the blessings of Torah, Elozor Menachem Man Shach
In the sefer Orchos Rabbeinu (page 337, paragraph 38) it says: "Mori verabbi (shlita) zt"l told me several times that those who are registered in yeshivas in order to get out of the army, and they work, are absolute rodfim. Mori verabbi said this several times. And he said that they can cause bochurim who really sit and learn to be drafted."
Clearly the gedolim said that only those who learn are to be deferred as yeshiva students. If someone said this today, they would demonstrate against him.
We have a letter from 12 Cheshvan, 5724 (1964).
The natural goal and overall purpose of every talmid yeshiva, as long as he is in yeshiva, is to give over all his strength to the Torah, without any qualification. To use every free moment to acquire daas chochmah and Torah, and to complete his spiritual being. The yeshiva is his world, and all his interest should be holy and dedicated, "to understand, to learn, to listen, to study and to teach... all divrei talmud Torasecha with love." There should be nothing else, not in the day and not at night, he is always obligated to study Torah. Any other purpose, no matter how vital, does not free the ben yeshiva from this obligation and does not permit him to leave the world of Torah learning.
Therefore we call upon all talmidei yeshivas, who are implanted in the house of Hashem and blossom in the courtyards of our G-d, not to participate, and not to have any part of any demonstration whatsoever, not at this time nor at that time, not to participate or even to observe out of curiosity. Ve'ein mezarin ello lemezurozin.
It should be understood, that participating in demonstrations harms to very learning of the yeshivas. It arouses anger and critics of the learning. Both these things threaten and endanger the level of the yeshivas. We warn, therefore, about the seriousness of this problem. We are sure that the remnant of our learners will not harm the Torah and its study halls.
Signed
Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, Yechezkel Abramsky, Zalman Sorotzkin, Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman
