@MW13:However, if I was living in Israel, I would have to decide between two very different options:
1) report to the draft office, receive a deferment, and go back to learning; or
2) go protest in the streets.
Just out of curiosity, how would you go about making that decision?
I’ve never actually thought about it; to me, it’s always been an issue of not getting involved when Gedolim are fighting.
What would I actually do? I would ask my Rav shlit”a and my Rosh Yeshiva shlit”a, and follow their advice. I’m quite positive they would tell me to report and receive a deferment.
Option 2, which is “Go protest in the streets”, is something my Rebbes are extremely against – not necessarily because of the anti-violence sentiments expressed above, but for a totally different reason.
The Brisker Rav famously said that the Zionists are חשוד על רציחה. By extension, going to a public demonstration and declaring yourself an Anti-Zionist is Assur because of Pikuach Nefesh. You may think this is taking it a little far? Let me tell you a story. I heard this from R’ Zelig Weinberg shlit”a who heard it from Dayan Grossnass, who heard it from R’ Boruch Be’er Lebovitz direct (I can’t remember if Dayan Grossnass witnessed it or if he heard it from R’ B”B):
R’ Boruch Be’er was by a function, where they began singing Hatikva. All rose to pay tribute to the wonderful State. R’ Boruch Be’er also rose, and then sat down in the middle. They asked him why he stood up at all. He replied that although he obviously didn’t hold of the Zionist regime and would not rise to respect them, he stood up in accordance with the Brisker Rav – if they are חשוד על רציחה, then making a מחאה would be considered סכנת נפשות. He therefore stood up.
The reason he subsequently sat down is because he remembered something R’ Chaim had told him: HaTikva (and the Zionist ideology it represents) is אבוזרייהו דעבודה זרה. Accordingly, standing for it would be considered יהרוג ואל יעבור, and R’ Boruch Be’er was willing to place himself into Sakanah rather than show support.
(The Rosh Yeshiva of Gateshead – R’ Avrohom Gurvitz shlit”a – told me that he was by a dinner in Newcastle when the band began playing Hatikva, and the Gateshead Kollel representatives were unsure of whether to show their contempt or not. They asked R’ Dessler zt”l, who was sitting there, and he told them that because it was only the tune and not the words, they didn’t need to actively make a מחאה.)
Unfortunately, I am self admitted not on the level to be a proper מקבל from my Rebbes; I don’t feel a פחד מות when I walk past a Zionist policeman. My limited intellect does not fully understand the psak of the Brisker Rav. But a nevertheless try my best to follow the psak.
I have seen firsthand those who do take the Brisker Rav literally. My Yeshiva is right by Kikar Shabbos, and when there was a large [peaceful] demonstration on Shabbos afternoon, the police marched right past the yeshiva. I saw one of the Brisker Rav’s grandchildren leaving yeshiva, and when he saw the police, he grabbed his children and ran in the other direction, with an expression of pure panic on his face.