Everyone deserves a vacation… right?

Everyone deserves a vacation… but sometimes you have responsibilities that prevent you from going on vacation.

Those responsibilities might include the need to make a living. Even if you want to go on vacation, you may not be able to sacrifice several days worth of salary. Or maybe you can take the time off, but you simply don’t have enough money to pay for a hotel room. Perhaps the problem is that you already took a vacation several months ago, and you risk being fired if you do so again now. It’s not necessarily fair – after all, other people go on vacation – but taking a trip that you can’t afford or that would risk your job is an example of gross negligence. In your desire to go away, you’ve ignored the bigger picture.

Our son Yaakov, who serves in the IDF, tries to call us every night; sometimes, however, he doesn’t have his phone, or he simply doesn’t have the time. Last night, he wrote to us at 11:45 PM, saying, “We just came back from an army mission and I have to wake up in another hour and a half for guard duty. I’ll try to call you tomorrow morning.”

Forget vacation; he didn’t have time for a phone call.

Yesterday, I walked through Yarmut Park in Beit Shemesh. It was filled with hundreds of men, women, and children who were enjoying their summer break. As well they should: it is, after all, bein hazmanim – the three week break following Tisha B’Av when yeshivot are not in session – and after three grueling months of study, they certainly deserve a break. They deserve a vacation.

Except that, at least from appearances, almost every person in the park was part of the Chareidi community – a community which publicly excuses the refusal of many of its members to serve in the Israeli army by arguing that their Torah study provides as much or more protection than military service.

This is, at least on the surface, their primary reason for exempting themselves from sharing the military burden. More exactly, they claim that they are not excusing themselves from that burden, as their learning is part and parcel of Israel’s military success.

Which brings me back to the hundreds of men who were barbecuing, relaxing, and unironically playing laser tag by aiming faux rifles while standing behind faux military tents in Yarmut Park. It also brings me back to Yaakov’s hasty message, “We just came back from an army mission and I have to wake up in another hour and a half for guard duty. I’ll try to call you tomorrow morning.”

It’s been a busy week for the Israeli army. There is a war that is taking place on multiple fronts. This week, in fact, has been one of the more intense weeks since the beginning of the terrible conflict. No soldier currently on the front would dream that now is a good time to take a vacation… yet those who claim that their Torah learning is an essential aspect of that same fight, are playing laser tag in the park.

I have argued that blanket military exemptions for yeshiva students en masse is against Torah law and values. Others obviously disagree – but those who disagree, those who maintain that Torah learning serves as a valid form of protecting the Jewish people, need to explain to those who serve in the military what they were doing in Yarmut Park on a day when IDF soldiers were so busy fighting an implacable enemy that they didn’t even have time for a five minute phone call.

Everyone deserves a vacation… but sometimes you have responsibilities that prevent you from going on vacation. By treating this week like a regular bein hazmanim, much of the Chareidi world demonstrates how little it respects both its own principles, as well as the rest of Israel’s population.

We can agree to disagree about Torah’s protective power during a time of war. But by taking this week off, those yeshiva students who claim to be indispensable to Israel’s war effort are showing the rest of us how much they believe their own arguments. They may have other reasons – perhaps valid reasons – that they refuse to serve. But they must stop treating us like fools by insisting that their learning is protective – and then going off on vacation without a care in the world.

Frankly, I felt as though the people playing laser tag were laughing in my face.