Comments on: Interview with the Commander of IDF Officers’ Training Base

By: Milhouse

Milhouse — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:46:46 +0000

You explain to cadets that the authority rests with their commanders who receive their authority from the state which receives its authority from her citizens.

And where do they get it from? That is the real question. A secular person assumes that all authority naturally rests with individuals; after all, where else could it come into being? A person naturally has no master; any authority that one would seek to exercise over him must come from him — he must have delegated it. A religious person knows that this is not so; we were created by Hashem, and He has authority over us, and we have no right to countermand His orders, let alone to delegate such a right to a state, which will in turn delegate it to an army officer.

By: lebidik yankel

lebidik yankel — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:14:48 +0000

He said what he had to, I cannot see how he could have answered differently and not get thrown out. But supposing he is right and that soldiers need to do whatever the commander says, even if it is needless chillul shabbos, because otherwise the army cannot function and it is a case of pikuach nefesh: Doesn’t that in itself – that placing ones self in the army means chancing chillul shabbos – preclude a frum person from enrolling unless there is absolutely no alternative person to take his place? Unless the army is undermanned to the point that it is crippled?

By: talmidbavli

talmidbavli — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:41:19 +0000

The cadets must take orders from their commanders and the commanders from the state and the state from its citizens and it’s citizens were commanded by G-d to keep all the Torah’s commandments.