Soldiers in the “Adi” security unit, established less than a year ago for Chareidi soldiers, revealed a disturbing violation of Chareidi norms and unit regulations, including public Chillul Shabbos and a female fitness training instructor.
Kol Barama military correspondent Mendy Rizel spoke with four soldiers in the unit who said that most of the soldiers in the so-called “Chareidi” unit are not frum at all, leading to lax ruchniyus standards that have influenced the soldiers that are Shomrei Mitzvos.
“Most of the soldiers are former Chareidim who are no longer observant at all today,” one soldier told Rizel. “The result: public Chillus Shabbos, fitness training with a female instructor, and a shiur Torah once a month instead of daily, according to the unit’s regulations.”
It should be noted that Chareidi units have strict regulations (that are obviously not being followed) to ensure that the soldiers accepted in the unit live a lifestyle in accordance with Chareidi norms.
A soldier told Rizel, “I told them I wasn’t religious, and they told me, ‘You’ll be mechazeik.”
Another soldier painfully admitted, “For the first time, I began to be mechallel Shabbos during my service due to the environment.”
The IDF spokesperson responded to an inquiry on the report, stating, “The incident (involving the female instructor) will be investigated by the relevant authorities and handled accordingly. In this case, the physical training instructor opened the gym for the soldiers but did not conduct the training.”
The statement added, “The IDF places great importance on maintaining service conditions adapted for Chareidi soldiers and works to preserve them through inspections and dialogue.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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16 Responses
in reality, there are always violations of the norm. What was eshet yefat to’ar – an act of tzidkuss?
Did anyone expect otherwise??
Dr.Goyy nobody needs your heretic opinion about where we should risk sending our boys because you don’t feel it’s bad enough. We follow rabbinical directive and you follow your own emotions which is 100% always opposite of what the Torah wants
im not happy about it these incidents either. Its still much better than just regular army service. these kinds of things happen every day in the regular army. i think we should have focused of making the regular army more kosher. i honestly think asking very basic jewish standards isnt too much to ask of even for a non jew
The Zionists are like leopards they never change colors from their shmad goals
dryidd, if you are not being sarcastic, there is absolutely no comparison of yefas toar to drafting chareidim in the army
Dryidd
How krum can you be
That is talking when someone encounters such a situation in battle. that is not talking that the Jewish army base has a yefat toar in their barracks
seems like biggest issue is that charedim are not going into these units, so army fills spots in with “former charedims” – which actually could be a chance for “current charedims” to mekarev the “former”?
If it’s a Chareidi unit, then the soldiers admitted should be Chareidim – or at least be Shomrei Torah uMitzvos. The problem is that there’s a need to fill slots in the units, and not enough current Chareidim to do so – so they redefine Chareidim to include anyone who attended Chareidi school, even if not Frum at all now, leading to a situation as described.
One thing the army did recently do that at least somewhat helps the situation is with respect to the benefits that are offered to Chareidi soldiers, such as extra milgot (grants) and educational assistance. It used to be that a soldier had to serve in a Chareidi unit to get such benefits, leading to many former Chareidim serving in a framework that was no longer appropriate. Now, though, anyone who attended a Chareidi high school or Yeshiva Ketana is eligible for such benefits, even if no longer Chareidi. This was spearheaded by the formerly Chareidi grandson of a Chareidi MK who saw the issue and drove the change.
How to solve the issue initially raised, about non-Chareidim in a Chareidi unit? That’s actually easy – have more current Chareidim join the IDF to fill out the ranks. That way, instead of complaining about how terrible the situation is, Chareidim could be part of the solution.
an Israeli Yid
If you only allow your rejects to join the army, that’s who will be the core.
Hesder works differently.
I’m sure it has its problems.
But meeting the lowest common denominator isn’t part of their Service Manual.
anyone able to decipher dryidd’s comment?
Wouldn’t expect any more from today’s IDF. Want a true Chareidi environment, Gedolim’s rep. Rabbonim have to be on board with very strict penalties such as military court martial for violations (not different than disrespecting the chain of command). These Rabbonim have to be the ones who have final say who is admitted unto their IDF units vs others, no different than Yeshiva admissions. Without such Hashgacha, it’s just a farce.
Good luck trusting not religious people with your religious well-being. They don’t even understand most of the religious Concepts that may even come up as a obstacle to service, they never even heard of these problems most of the time. When you’re left to the whims of those people expect to be let down all the time
DrYidd makes a fascinating and mind blowing point – That our holy Torah already thousands of years ago provided us with the Torah-true Hashkafa and hadracha how to deal with this.
The holy Torah did NOT say that we should dodge our obligation to protect our country and people due to Yefas Toar/Tznius/Znus concerns. To the contrary, the Torah acknowledges the concern, and nevertheless maintains its stance that despite all potential risks and pitfalls, our obligation to protect Am Yisroel comes first.
Aay, maybe you’ll fall in love with this Yefas Toar? Should I rather stay in Bais Midrash and learn?? NO NO NO says the Torah. We’ll create a solution and figure it out, but by all means, DO NOT HOLD BACK FROM DOING YOUR DUTY AND SERVING KLAL YISROEL BECAUSE OF TZNIUS CONCERNS !!!!!!
This is the point I believe DrYidd was implying here
The article is too vague for me to take it seriously. Exactly what Chillul Shabbos occurred? How important was it? Was there an order to do that act? Was it REALLY Chillul Shabbos, or did someone merely miss an opportunity to do their personal chumra?
Without getting into any hashkafic questions lets start with making order of “chareidi” units. To start with the is netzach yehuda/nachal chareidi which is primarily made up of chareidi dropouts and most are no longer frum. Nonetheless they still share a common cultural piece and are different from classic secular Israelis and have different needs. Most of the challenges come from the soldiers there and not from the army. That is completely different from Chashmonaim which is a totally separate chareidi division, on its own base which is genuinely trying to create a Chareidi atmosphere on the base.
These two should not be conflated to be one big “Chareidi unit”