I have been following this thread for some time. There are some very good points made by several people. On the other hand, some of the views expressed here are somewhat like living in another world! I don’t think some people here actually understand how they are viewed by the vast majority of the population. There are 2 main points I would like to make:
1. Since when did it become acceptable for the majority of the male population not to work? I learn Daf Yomi, and it is pretty obvious that the vast majority of tanaim and amoraim held regular jobs. Rashi was a winemaker. Rambam was a doctor. All of a sudden, work is assur? In fact, so much so that chareidi girls in Israel are persuaded that it is much preferred for them to marry a kollel rather than a working man! Well, if you want to live in poverty, that’s fine, although the Germara teaches that one that does not teach his son a trade teaches him to steal (as he will have no other way of making a living). Instead, what happens today is that the vast majority of Chareidim simply take money from the government. All that does is make charedim look like parasites in the eyes of those that work for a living.
2. Then , to top it off, they absolutely refuse to serve in the army. So, let’s some up. If someone living in America absolutely refused to work in order to live on welfare, and then refused to serve in the army (if there were a draft), and refused to even do community service, what would you think? Welcome to the Obama world. I have to support these people and I resent that able bodied people don’t work. How do you think the Israeli working population views you?
Meanwhile, some people seem to think that since they were not in favor of the country, the govt has no right to make them serve in the army. Are you kidding me? If you lived in Egypt or Italy or Greece or any other country and they drafted you, do you really think you could refuse with the excuse that you are learning full time???? At the very least you would be imprisoned; you might be sentenced to death!
One more point. Some people have made the argument, “well, we don’t really care what the rest of the world thinks”. Let me remind you that in the last century, the Jews in Germany, Austria, Poland etc had the same POV, with disastorous results. The Meam Loez reminds us that the Jews in Mitzrayim had no idea what the Egytians felt about them, with the disastorous result that 4/5 of the population died there.
I’m not suggesting that anyone will die over this, chas v’shalom. However, I do think the chareidi community should do some real soul searching on whether Hashem really desires that living your life by refusing to work or take on communal obligations of the State is correct.