Rav Avigdor Miller on The IDF: Defending the State and Ruining the Youth
Q:
There has been talk in ארץ ישראל about the frummeh agreeing to join the IDF in separate regiments that will be frum, called the נחל חרדי. What does the Rav think about this?
A:
Some people are proposing to take frum boys into the army in frum regiments. You should know that it’s a shtus, a complete foolishness. The army is made לכתחילה for the purpose of changing the minds’ of the boys while in the army. The purpose of the army is to make the youth into Israelis. This is something that their leaders have said long ago. And it’s well-known by those who understand things. And we don’t want our children to become Israelis. We want them to remain Jews. And this talk is only a ploy that they’re using now to deceive the frummeh into entering the army.
The truth it’s that עם ישראל has to keep out of the army. We have to maintain our privilege, as many other countries maintain, that Rabbinical students are פטור from the draft. That they should be exempt from the draft. And let’s continue to fight for that, and not to yield and not to listen to the מסיתים ומדיחים who are talking about frum regiments for the frum boys.
TAPE # E-253