I am not in the habit of excerpting large segments of other peoples words. But paraphrasing him will not do it justice. If his description of how the 2 religious communities in Israel experienced Rosh Hashana this year is accurate... there are no words. Here is what he said:
When I went to shul, which is normally very crowded for Rosh HaShana, I was struck at how many empty seats there were; then I realized that it was because so many young men had been called back into the reserves. My son’s hesder yeshivah is half empty. During davening on Rosh HaShana morning, there were tears shed as even more young men were called out of shul. The Rav was crying during his speech.
Similar scenes took place at every dati-leumi shul in Israel. But for charedi shuls, generally speaking, there was no significant difference between this Rosh HaShana and every other one. Everyone was home with their families as usual, except for those who were in yeshiva or Uman…
How can it be that we’ve been at war for a year, with so many millions of people’s lives turned over, and yet for the charedi community it’s just life as normal? How can it be that there is a severe IDF manpower shortage when there are so many able-bodied men available? How can it be that endless thousands of non-charedi men are suffering from being away from their lives and jobs and families for months on end and risking life and limb, while charedim continue their studies or their jobs as usual, and do not even provide any physical or material assistance to the soldiers or their families or others affected by the war?
These questions have been troubling me too. I have always felt that Charedim should be just as subject to the draft as everyone else. With a reasonable number of exemptions just like there are for Israelis in other segments of the country. What the numbers or percentages of Charedi exemptions should look like can be discussed. But in no way should every single Charedi automatically be exempt.
This is of course especially true now at a time of war against enemies sworn to our destruction. In my mind, there is no way there can be any moral justification for exempting an entire segment of the Israeli people. And yet, if the above description of Rosh Hashana in the 2 communities is accurate, it is almost as if the Charedi world doesn’t care about what happens outside of their own Daled Amos – their narrow isolationist world. In all of the Charedi world was there really not a tear shed for the sacrifices of life and limb by soldiers fighting our enemies? Can they be that callous? That evil?
Clearly that is not true. Who can forget the gut-wrenching description by Rav Asher Weiss of his visit to an IDF soldier hospitalized after losing his legs and an arm? That hardly describes someone that doesn' t care. And yet I doubt Rabbi Slifkin made up the scenes he described in Charedi shuls this Rosh Hashana.
To his credit Rabbi Slfkin rejects the notion that there is any evil intent by the Charedi world in their lack of any references to the suffering by families in the Dati world. He attributes it to what he calls the perfect storm of Hashkafa and politics. Which he explains in detail.
That said, I disagree with the kind of harsh measures he suggests as a solution. Frankly I think it would have the opposite effect. Making life financially miserable for them is just going to make them mad - and more determined than ever to resist in every way they know how.
Charedim are not prone to violence, But there are sizable numbers of them that have resorted to violence in reaction to government policies they didn't like. Will draconian measures Rabbi Slifkin suggests see Jew fighting against Jew in bloody battle? That will surely not bring a resolution to the matter.
There is also the fact that there are many Charedim – even in Israel that privately do not agree with the hard line against army service expressed by their leadership. I have spoken to some hard core Charedi Mechanchim in Israel that have admitted to me that there are a lot of Charedim in Yeshivos that shouldn’t be there. There have also been reports that at least one Charedi leader, Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, who has expressed the view that Charedim that do not study Torah full time should be subject to the draft.
While we are along way off from compromise, I still believe that is a better route to pursue justice on this issue than to bring Charedim to their knees financially. Hard to win friends and influence people that way
Rav Hirsch’s apparent change of heart supporting a path for some Charedi to serve in the IDF would be a good way to start a conversation with the government about a possible solution where the abovementioned contradictory Rosh Hashana experiences would never happen again.
What we need now more than ever is unity. Elusive though it may be - it must be a goal. It is the only way to achieve compromise.
Here is something to think about. Perhaps it was disunity that contributed to massacre on that day of infamy last October 7th. Our enemies saw a country divided. Maybe they saw it as an opportune time to attack.
The portion of the Torah portion that was read on that very day makes the following comment (33:5) He (God) became King over Jeshurun (Israel) when the numbers of the nation – the tribes – are gathered unity. Put another way: United we stand. Divided we fall.
We are now once again in a state of disunity.