Haredim and the IDF–It’s more complicated than you think

Much of the secular and even the religious Zionist public assumes Haredi objections to the draft stem from a fear that IDF service will lead Haredi draftees to shed their Haredi identity.  It’s not a secret that the IDF is not a wholesome place. A 2021 report showed that as many as a third of female soldiers were sexually harassed during their service, which means that the army isn’t a safe place, especially for females.

Assuming that the army can establish a proper framework – something it’s never managed to pull off in the past, yeshiva students could emerge from their service relatively unscathed on the spiritual front. This sounds like a solution, but is it really the case? Is it necessary for thousands of yeshiva students to leave the study hall where they accrue countless merits for the Jewish people?

No.

We don’t need more soldiers, especially not soldiers whose strengths would be better applied to the Talmud. Our strength does not lie in a physical army, even the fabled IDF. Our warriors Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Sampson, and David didn’t fight them with fists, tanks, nukes, or fighter bombers. They fought with good deeds and prayers. Nor did our diaspora ancestors. To understand how they fought and survived with a great deal less bloodletting than is going on today, look at this Hasidic tale retold by Elie Weisel.

When the great Rabbi Israel Ba’al Shem-Tov saw misfortune threatening the Jews, it was his custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light the fire, say a special prayer, and the miracle would be accomplished and the misfortune averted.

Years later, when a disciple of the Ba’al Shem-Tov, the celebrated Magid of Mezritch, had occasion to intercede with heaven for the same reason, he would go to the same place in the forest and say, “Master of the Universe, listen! I do not know how to light the fire, but I am still able to say the prayer,” and again, the miracle would be accomplished.

Still, later, another rabbi, Rabbi Moshe-Leib of Sasov, would go into the forest once more to save his people and say, “I do not know how to light the fire. I do not know the prayer, but I know the place, and this must be sufficient.” It was sufficient, and the miracle was accomplished.

The years passed. And it fell to Rabbi Israel of Ryzhyn to overcome misfortune. Sitting in his armchair, his head in his hands, he spoke to God: “I am unable to light the fire, and I do not know the prayer, and I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is tell the story, which must be sufficient.” And it was sufficient.

This isn’t just a sweet story – it is the Jewish survival strategy and the strategy we need to apply today.

The IDF is a secularist attempt to protect the Jews without calling upon G-d, and it remains true to that mission today.

It didn’t help us on Oct. 7, and it’s not helping now.

Our holy soldiers fight with great bravery, but they are hamstrung by US restrictions on arms sales, bans on civilian killings, and an insistence previously unheard in the annals of war on humanitarian aid. Gaza has turned into a Middle Eastern Vietnam on steroids, our precious soldiers “operating” and operating in the same spots, unable to achieve victory and tragically losing life and limb in the process.

The IDF cannot win this war, but the united Jewish people can through prayer and good deeds. Just as our forefathers did throughout the ages, let us appeal to our Father in Heaven, the only force that can save us and our only proven path to victory.