Reply To: Seminary vs Sherut Leumi

As mentioned, living in E”Y in these times is, at most, an optional mitzva. Again, even Rabbi Schachter from YU states in that Israeli Independence Day lecture from this past year, that if a person’s ruchnius, children’s chinuch, etc. would suffer from going to live in E”Y, then the person should stay in America and NOT move to E”Y.

I’ve never heard of an optional mitzva. If you mean to say that it is balanced by other considerations, that is one thing. But if you mean that one can just choose to not do it, that seems odd…