HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch shlit”a, Rosh Yeshivas Slabodka, delivered the keynote address on Thursday at the Vaad Bnei HaYeshivos asifa in Chofetz Chaim, attended by Roshei Yeshiva from across Eretz Yisroel. In his remarks, Rav Moshe Hillel addressed the pressing issue of the gezeiras hagiyus and spoke with forceful clarity about Klal Yisroel’s role and responsibility.
“We are not lacking in mesirus nefesh,” Rav Moshe Hillel said. “If the Ribbono Shel Olam wills it, it is not a problem. There is confusion out there — they say, ‘They are doing, and we are not doing,’ even though they know that Torah magneh u’matzleh. We must know why we are here in Eretz Yisroel. The Torah says that if Yidden commit aveiros, the land will spit them out. So why has the land not spat us out? Because we are learning Torah. The only reason there is an Eretz Yisroel, the only reason people live here, is because of us — because of our Torah.”
The Rosh Yeshiva recounted a conversation with a senior member of the diplomatic corps, who told him that certainly a country needs an army — but that without ruchniyus, there is no state at all. “Even a goy understands,” Rav Moshe Hillel said, “that without halacha, there is nothing.”
Turning directly to the current crisis, Rav Moshe Hillel stressed: “The army is not a place for a ben Torah. There are questions of chilul Shabbos and giluy arayos — it simply does not belong to us. A senior government minister told me, ‘I hope and want a chareidi who enters the army to leave still a chareidi.’ But he himself admitted — today, that is not the case.”
Rav Moshe Hillel concluded: “Even those who are not learning full-time may not join the army. The army, in its current state, is not a place for chareidim at all.”
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13 Responses
When the army will be taken over by Gedolim eventually then Chareidim who are noy serious learners can join. Of course by then no women will be there and the army will be safer even physically.
ki lo machshevosaiy machshevosaichem tells us that we cannot explain why the shoah occurred or why the State of Israel was born slightly thereafter.
Please don’t blame the Holy Torah for the disgrace that is called “Israel”. We Jews are NOT the reason this travesty has ravaged our generation, may the state be quickly and peacefully dismantled.
Please don’t flip upside down the words of Rav Hirsch, shlit”a, who – according to the body of this article – didn’t say anything about the state called “Israel”, rather he spoke about the zchis for Jews (not kofrim) to live in Eretz Yisroel. This would be the same zchis and the same Eretz Yisroel regardless of state borders or governance.
In the 19th and early 20th century, all the rabbonim said that America is not a place for Yiden Shomrei Torah. But if they would would have all been encouraged to emigrate to America, America would have turned into Mokom Torah just like it is today.
Same here if all the Chareidim would join the army, the army would turn into a place for Chareidim and they would have a huge influence on the Chilonim.
Somehow, Chareidi leaders, including the one quoted in this article, seem to believe that it’s the learning of their community only that has value – and not that of others who are as medakdek b’mitzvos as they are and who would like nothing better than to return to their Yeshivos to learn. The difference is that those others actually internalized what they learned about Halacha – they LIVE Torah, instead of just LEARNING Torah.
I hate to say it, but this speech reminds me of nothing more than the Midrash that explains how the Meraglim, the then-Gedolei Yisrael, went wrong to the point that they lost their chelek in Olam Haba’a. The Midrash explains that they saw the life in the Midbar, surrounded by the Ananei haKavod, eating Man, and hearing Torah directly from Moshe, as the ideal – so they did not want to go into Eretz Yisrael and need to deal with the mundane – with Mili d’Alma. HKB”H, though, did not agree – the role of a Jew is not to sequester himself from the world, but to engage and bring Kedusha to the day-to-day. How do these leaders distinguish what they support from the Meraglim’s position?
I’d love to hear an answer – and “they’re the Gedolim, so we need to listen” does not count as one.
an Israeli Yid
What’s funny is you have secular people like Netanyahu making bold statements that military service doesn’t interfere with religious lifestyle, but he doesn’t keep Shabbos himself. I guess I should take his word for it? You don’t get spiritual advice from a lobster eater. The rabbis have made it very clear and the statistics don’t lie for anyone who isn’t blind to see it, too many don’t come back to Shabbos observance and the risk is too high to risk
DrYidd:
First, the gemara says explicitly that if yissurim R”L L”A come to someone then “yifashfeish biMaasav”, that he should examine his deeds. That means that we are supposed to try to understand why Hashem does what He does, even if our human limitations may sometimes prevent us from understanding. It is actually self-defeating to do otherwise, because Hashem sometimes sends messages in various forms, like to express His displeasure with a certain intended action, and He wants us to pay attention to those messages. Certainly, then, something like the Holocaust should not be an automatic assumed unknown.
As well, we know that Hashem runs Klal Yisrael as a whole via schar viOnesh. So, if he allowed a massive punishment to have happened then (the Holocaust), that means that it was obviously an onesh.
Specifically about the Holocaust, gedolim have written about it, including Rav Miller in A Divine Madness. Everyone knows that Zionism and other -isms wreaked massive destruction on frum communities in pre-War Europe. It isn’t very difficult to put 2 and 2 together.
Regarding the Zionist “State”, gedolim have written explicitly about how that came to be, including the Brisker Rav who stated it was due to some in the Agudah accepting it as a foregone conclusion and due to all those who prayed for it to come into being…vaYetzei haEigel haZeh.
ader:
By that logic, then if all chareidim were to CH”V join the Catholic Church, then that Church too would turn into a Makom Torah?
You also seem to have missed that the Zionist army is a shmad. Period.
Why does everyone think they can have an opinion on what a Gadol said or did? The very idea that anyone can freely weigh in on a Gadol’s words is itself a foreign, anti-Torah concept. Torah leadership is not subject to public commentary or debate.
please remove the comments that are full of sin’at hinam. they do not belong here.
The only reason Israel exists is because the Almighty L-rd in his kindness is bringing His people back to the land He promised our forefathers. It is that simple. Kibutz golius. We deserve nothing. Everything He gives us is one big matana, and we should express our hakaras hatov, not our gaavah.
There are thousands of Hesder Talmidai Chachamim of the highest degree who are Davuk b’mitzvos who go in as such and come out as such…. I know many of them. I say with all due respect that it is the failure of the Charedi system if Erlicha Benai Torah will be ruined from army experience. These same Benai Torah fall prey in the business world. It’s time to ask ourselves why?
yes and no. you are not the torah.