We have for the duration a schnorrer, a Rosh Yeshiva - head of a religious school for students studying the Talmud.
I asked the gentleman if the young men at his yeshiva did their time with the Israeli armed forces? He answered with one word: No.
With that my wallet closed tightly.
Never mind that he is, allegedly, a Sefardi dressed as an Ashkenazi, with black kapote (but sans gartel even on Shabat) and tzit-tzit hanging out. (He had no noticeable peyot - ear curls - so there's no suspicion that he's a Yemenite.)
Here is an organization supported by state money (donated in large measure by non-Israelis often to massage their own consciences), teaching students getting a stipend from the state who are encouraged to have wives who receive welfare from the state and who have children, each one of which gets a stipend from the state.
But they give nothing - shum davar, efes, nada - back to the state.
No military service.
No national service.
They're "religious" and their duty for the state is studying Talmud.
Granted they DO have large families, but their children will follow in their paths of thumbing their noses at the state that provides for their welfare.
The contention that because they are "religious" is phony.
Joshua, Moses' handpicked successor and certainly "religious" not only went to war, he led the warriors.
Pinchas, the second high priest, went to war with Joshua.
In fact, in the period just after we entered Canaan, the only people exempt from going to war were (a) those under or over age, (b) those newly betrothed or married, (c) those who had recently built a new house, and (d) cowards.
The husband of one of my sisters-in-law is religious; he went to the army. His only son, also religious, went to the army (and still is a reservist). I have a brother-in-law who is religious and he not only went to the army, but he was in battles.
My sister-in-law's husband and her son, and my brother-in-law all work but find time for Torah study. They receive nothing from the state to study. In fact, the sister-in-law's husband spent his own money to learn to be a hazan - and had is son taught as well. When my #1 son visited them, he took him along for the class, a trip from Haifa to Jerusalem and back which was made every week for several years.
Most of the people in my congregation went to the military - either Israel's or the United States'. An 80-year-old gentleman tells of his service with the US Army; I can talk of my time with the US Air Force.
I have a sister-in-law who went into the Israeli army; she could have avoided it as many young women do, by opting for national service.
The Israeli army always has had rabbis in uniform. Some became famous; Rabbi Shlomo Goren, a"h, is an excellent example. My nephew was a masgeach (food preparation supervisor) - but in the army none-the-less.
There ARE yeshivot that do send students to the army or to national service.
There ARE yeshivot that insist learning be coupled with work, a real job.
The students who do their time - either with the army or in national service - and those who work and study have my greatest respect. It they become religious leaders, not necessarily rabbis, they will understand how the "average Jew" feels; they'll know something of the life of a typical Israeli.
The ones safely ensconced within the safety of yeshiva walls, who spend their life studying Talmud and increasing the population that will follow their fathers on the dole; these people are beneath contempt.
Until they give something back, not a prutah will they get from me.
Yohanon Glenn
Yohanon.Glenn at gmail dot com
