Chazon Ish [ZTL ZYA] and Military Draft Exemptions

Yehuda Dov wrote this in VIN News on 2025 November 13:

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In the days of the Chazon Ish,
the Charedi world was very different, and Charedim who did not
“make a living” from Torah study were obliged to serve in the IDF.

The proof is that one of the Chazon Ish’s students,
Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach, who later became
head of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, also held the same view
regarding those “worldly roamers wandering aimlessly
through the streets of Bnei Brak and Jerusalem.”

He ruled that Charedi draft evaders are no less than
persecutors of Torah study, and that the Charedi public
has no interest in freeing them from the IDF draft.

But who will tell us that this was also the
outlook of the great leader, the Chazon Ish?

This exact question is examined, among other topics,
in the monumental book by researcher and historian
Professor Binyamin Brown, “The Chazon Ish —
The Decisor, the Believer, and the Leader
of the Charedi Revolution”
(Magnes Jerusalem and Yeshiva University Press, New York).

On page 304, [Professor Binyamin] Brown writes:

“He [the Chazon Ish] did NOT think that the exemption
from military service should be given to every Haredi Jew
simply by virtue of being Charedi, but only to a
fairly narrow group of yeshiva students.”

And here the learned author gives us a bit of history:

“In fact, that was the situation until Agudat Yisrael
joined the Begin government in 1977 [CE].
From that point on, almost every Charedi man declared
‘Torato Umanuto’ and received a postponement of service.
Under the umbrella of this exemption, thousands of
Charedi men who did not study in religious institutions at all,
and in some cases those who had dropped out of yeshivot,
were released from service.”

It appears that the first Likud prime minister, Menachem Begin,
was dazzled and swept up by the displays of piety
from Charedi leadership and granted a broad,
wholesale exemption to the youth in black hats,
regardless of the cost in terms of the blood
of fellow Israelis who were not part of that camp.

[Professor Binyamin] Brown continues:

“It is quite clear that the Chazon Ish would NOT have
justified exemption on that basis.
In his halachic novellæ he tended even to narrow
the bounds of the Torah-based exemptions to the
‘returners from war’: those who
‘built a house and did not inaugurate it,’
‘planted a vineyard and did not yet enjoy its produce,’
‘married but did not yet take a wife,’
or the ‘timid and faint-hearted’
— and he ruled that these ‘returners’
[i.e., those exempt from appearing to defend Israel]
are only released ‘when Israel’s survival does not depend on them.’”

And here comes the most astonishing punch line.
The Chazon Ish writes in his chiddushim on Orach Chaim 112/114, chap.6 clause 3):

Plain and simple.
The Chazon Ish is explicit, with no conditions, no caveats.
Just close the Gemara and stand up to save Israel immediately.
Nothing more to add.

To provide further support for his conclusion, Brown quotes Pe’er HaDor
— a book written by a group of Charedi writers led by Rabbi Shlomo Cohen,
a pupil of the Chazon Ish from the Vilna period and one of his great admirers,
considered the official Charedi biography of the Chazon Ish:

“Even Pe’er HaDor, written before the wholesale exemption
for Haredim in 1977 [CE], dares to cite things in his name
(which today would of course be censored) that point to
his opposition to freeing those who do not study Torah.

According to one rumor he recommended conscription
to the IDF for ‘those whose Torah is not their profession’
(see Pe’er HaDor cols. 262–264), and according to another testimony
(Pe’er HaDor even cites it, amazingly, from the newspaper HaTzofeh
— note by B.B.) he even said that one who is not truly
‘Torato Umanuto’ and pretends to be a yeshiva student
in order to obtain a postponement from military service
has the status of a persecutor of all the yeshivot in the land.”

[Professor Binyamin] Brown cites additional sources
to corroborate his assessment and sums them up:
“There is great doubt whether the path of Charedi society today
would have been acceptable to him [the Chazon Ish].”

SOURCE: article titled: “Would The Chazon Ish
Have Accepted A Total Exemption For Charedim?
Apparently Not” by Yehuda Dov,
2025 November 13, VIN News * www (dot) vinnews (dot) com
_________________________________________
FULL DISCLOSURE:

I did NOT write this article or any part of it.
I do NOT know the person who wrote this article.
I just copied it from VIN News.
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