ONCE AGAIN THE HARIDEEM (religious extremists) are fighting for their stipends and to keep their “boys” out of the army.
Meanwhile, all other reasonably healthy males have to risk their lives for the “boys” sitting on their backsides, safe from any danger.
THIS “ESCAPE TO YESHIVOT” is due to an agreement the harideem made with the same man that was prepared to murder fellow Jews. The yeshivot managed to be part of the left-wing Labor governments; governments unable to reach a peace agreement with any neighbors during Israel’s first 39 years (1948 to 1977).
After Labor was finally defeated by Menachem Began and his Likud party (vs. Netanyahu’s Likud party), the yeshivot climbed into bed with Likud and Began — in order to have a government that finally managed a peace treaty with Egypt.
So much for history.
Everywhere students from First Grade to Bachelor degree candidates regularly are tested. In primary and secondary schools, failure to “make the grade” often means summer school of, worst case, the student has to repeat the academic year.
At the university level, failure to progress may mean the end of a college “career.”
In the military, failure to perform means separation from the service (hopefully before the person causes injury or death to his fellows).
TEST THE YESHIVA “BOYS”
In order to receive rabbinical ordination a potential posek — a person who can rule on religion-related questions — the person must prove his understanding of Jewish law.
For most men, reaching that level of understanding takes several years.
Yeshiva “boys” should be tested to see if the are learning and retaining anything. Those whose progress is questionable should be invited to move on; to leave to yeshiva.
The rare genius should be encouraged to continue his education, but at another yeshiva so the student will learn from others. This has been common practice since at least talmudic times.
Some editions of Avot provide mini-biographies to those cited, including the masters under whom they studied. This “find a new teacher” is good advice for collegians going for a masters or PhD — go to a different university with different professors to avoid “in grown” learning.
There is no question that we need knowledgeable rabbis and lay leaders, but these people need to be aware of the real world, unlike the Vilna Gaon who lived a sheltered life.
Yeshiva “boys” who can’t cut it; who are “hiding out” in yeshivot while their wife works and manages a household and while others are inducted into the military that protects these “boys” need to be dismissed.
“Boys” that are “invited out” of a yeshiva need to do SOME type national service; if not the military, then work in a hospital or a school; clean up their own neighborhoods. Learn a trade or profession and get off the dole (and give the wives a break).
Get a job ?? Blasphemy! Torah (actually talmud) study must be a full time job, just as it was during the talmudic period.
Wait! Some of the leading lights of the period worked!
Not just as rabbis or teachers, but as shoe makers, farmers, beer makers, and more.
Shammai said (Avot1 Mishnah 15) make the study of the law a “fixed duty.”
(עשה תורתך קבע) He did NOT say to study all day.
Gamaliel ben Judah HaNasi said (Avot 2 Mishnah 2) “Excellent is the study of the law in combination with some worldly pursuit for the exertion entailed by them both makes thoughts of sin to be forgotten.”
Above English and Hebrew from Ethics of the Fathers, Judaica Press, ©1964,ISBN 0-910818-15-0
Even today, many rabbis have “real jobs.” I know of several programmers, an electrical engineer (who used to be an Army rabbi/paratrooper), a holistic medicine practitioner. I also know rabbis who work as teachers and congregational rabbis, who work as kashrut supervisors and congregational rabbis. These men are not “kolelers” nor “yeshiva boys.”
SINCE STUDY OF TORAH is supposed to protect Israel — actually, the “boys” study the talmuds and later writings — let the yeshivot acquire trailers, caravans, and move their students close to the borders. If study in far-away Jerusalem is good, study at the border MUST be better.
The soldier could see that the yeshiva boys are sharing the danger and each might develop a little respect for the other.
TO BE FAIR
Dodging the draft is not limited to yeshiva "boys" in Israel.
The U.S. has a long history of draft dodging dating back to the Revolutionary War.
A few recent draft dodgers include (according to Showbiz CheatSheet):
Bill Clinton
Bill O’Reilly
Dick Cheney
Donald Trump
John Wayne
Mitt Romney
Rudy Giuliani
Rush Limbaugh
Ted Nugent
Eisenhower, LBJ, JFK, Nixon all served. Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. tried to enlist in the Army in December 1944 but failed the physical exam because of a double hernia, color blindness, and calcification of the lungs.
For the record, this scrivener enlisted in the regular Air Force, unlike many future politicians and entertainers who opted for the (Air) National Guard.
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
