Parshat Shoftim: The Torah’s complete list of exemptions from military service

The Torah commands every able-bodied male to fight in Israel’s wars. In fact, we have already gleaned from Bamidbar/Numbers 1:1-3 that any male who has not served in the military is simply not counted. It’s as if he doesn’t exist, and therefore has no right to a portion in the Land of Israel.

שְׂא֗וּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ֙ כל־עֲדַ֣ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם בְּמִסְפַּ֣ר שֵׁמ֔וֹת כל־זָכָ֖ר לְגֻלְגְּלֹתָֽם׃

מִבֶּ֨ן עֶשְׂרִ֤ים שָׁנָה֙ וָמַ֔עְלָה כל־יֹצֵ֥א צָבָ֖א בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל תִּפְקְד֥וּ אֹתָ֛ם לְצִבְאֹתָ֖ם אַתָּ֥ה וְאַהֲרֹֽן׃

… Take a census of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names of every male, head by head. You and Aaron shall record them by their groups, from the age of twenty years up, all those in Israel who comes out of the army of Israel.

Clearly these verses imply that there were some, perhaps even many, men over the age of 20 who did not serve in the military and who were, accordingly, NOT included in the census.

In Parshat Shoftim the Torah itemizes legitimate justifications for not having to participate in Israel’s existential battles:

No matter how many times you read these verses you will not find any exemption for men who are learning Torah. And, a fortiori, no exemptions for men who are not learning Torah but merely dress up like those who do. What’s more, with the sole exception of cowards, all of the Torah’s exemptions are temporary; to accommodate particular, legitimate, short term situations.

There is simply no basis or justification – from the Torah’s standpoint – for dodging the draft. Indeed, there is no basis from the Torah’s standpoint for the notion of Toratam umanutom, ‘Torah is their vocation’. Rambam states clearly in his Hilkhot Talmud Torah (Laws of Torah Study) Chapter 3, that making money from learning Torah is a desecration of God’s name and leads to the embezzlement of the public.

Proving that full-time Torah learning is reform (lower case ‘r’) Judaism is easy. In fact, the entire concept of kollel was a late 19^th Century innovation. At the time, it meant recruiting 30 young men of exceptional talent. These scholars would then break down into pods of three study partners, each to be located in a different city which had a respected and qualified rabbi. These trios would spend three years, AND THREE YEARS ONLY, studying and teaching Torah while learning the profession of being a community rabbi from the rabbi of that town. When the three Kollel years were over they would take positions as community rabbis. The notion that this Kollel concept would evolve into masses of men  – regardless of scholastic ability  – who sit and learn for life, at public expense, was unthinkable. There was no precedent for this in Jewish history. Zero.

So how did it come to pass that in the State of Israel there are at least 60,000 army-age haredi young men who claim exemption from military service on the questionable ground that they are engaged in Torah study? And how is it that there are hundreds of thousands more, no longer of military age, who are lifetime dependents on public largesse, i.e. the taxpayer, to support themselves and their families?

Who is to blame for this distorted reality? Who is to blame for depriving our tax-paying , army-serving citizens of billions in order to support an ever-expanding fifth column of shirkers and non-productive citizens?

If you think haredim, their rebbes and roshei yeshivah are the guilty party you’re 100% wrong! Like Israeli Arabs, who are also exempt from the military and who also mooch of the public treasury, Haredim never made any pretense of being supportive of the Jewish state, or of desiring to play any constructive role in its welfare.

While the Israeli eye looks toward Zion (ayin l’Tzion tsofiyah’) the haredi eye is focused on Belz, and Kretchneff, and Vishnitz, and  Slobodka, and Mir, and Breslov and a hundred other paradigms of a diaspora ideal which they attempt to replicate in our midst.

The individual haredi’s allegiance is exclusively toward his rebbe or rosh yeshiva. And their galut ethos makes it permissible, even mandatory, to milk a hostile regime in which they live  – and there can be no regime more hostile than a Zionist one – for all its worth. There is no shanda in taking. There is no disgrace in using every trick, ‘kombina’ disinformation, misinformation, chicanery and double dipping. It’s all kosher.

When Hassidic rebbes receive millions of dollars each year in cold cash as “pidyoynos’ from their followers, is even one shekel reported as income? Rhetorical question. Theirs is an economy apart: What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is also mine if I can get my hands on it. And, of course, with that money I will do a great deal of hessed – helping others like myself who are less adroit at playing the game of ‘Let’s cheat the poritz’.

So I don’t blame them. They make it very clear with their choice of dress, their choice of language, and their choosing to disassociate from the greater society that they do not identify with Israel. They have vastly more in common with Israeli Arabs than they do with Israeli Jews, and would surely have no problem allying themselves with the Arab parties if there was something tangible in it for them. (And like Israeli Arabs, there are a handful of haredim who actually do support the State and who do enlist for military service.)

So who then is to blame? The answer in two words is “WE ARE”; More specifically, the Zionist parties we vote for.

A man like Bibi Netanyahu cynically assembles a gaggle of anti-Zionist haredi parties in order to cobble together a coalition that will keep him in office — so long as he gets us to pay them billions, and allow their minions to avoid military service.

If, at the very least, he would declare that his accepting them into a coalition is a necessary evil, that he has no choice but to make anti-Israel haredi parties part of his government and cabinet, we might forgive him. But, no, he has the bald faced hutzpah to declare that such parties are natural partners in a right wing government and that we should welcome their participation. Bibi is no fool. This totally secular blasphemer has zero illusion about who is bedmates are. All we ask is that he speak the truth.

And it isn’t just Bibi. His would-be replacement, Benny Gantz spews the same drivel. In his speeches Gants tells us how important the Torah learners are for the State of Israel. He is preparing us for the day when he pulls the same shtick and Bibi in order ensconce himself in the prime minister’s throne. Indeed, to date the only political leaders who have refused to allow haredim into their circle are Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennet. Otherwise from Ben Gurion to Bibi every prime minister has subjected the citizenry to this shirking and extortion. (Not to mention the fact that there are literally thousands of Zionist Torah learners who serve, fight and give their lives for our country.)

Perhaps it was more excusable back in the 1950s when the haredi numbers were few and the impact on our defense and finances was limited. This is no longer the case.

But the question is, are we stuck in this quagmire, or is there a way out? The question is rhetorical.

The way out is for all the legitimate Zionist political parties – from Meretz to the National Religious  – to sign a pact that none of them would belong to, or form, any government that includes a haredi party in its coalition. Yes, this would make it difficult to form a government. Difficult but hardly impossible. We’ve seen it before with Bennet and Lapid. Initially this would mean having to include such strange bedfellows into the ruling coalition as Labor and Likud, or even Meretz and the National Religious. But one can, and should, argue that Meretz has far greater legitimacy to govern than Shas or Agudat Israel. And clearly, such a coalition could achieve miracles in cleaning house and shutting down the feeding trough in Bnei Brak and Meah Shearim,

This way the beleaguered citizens of Israel will at least be saving billions that could be put to far better use. More importantly, over time, many haredim will come to realize that they must become part of the solution rather than remain part of the problem. Who knows, but one day they will replace ‘Kretchneff ‘with ‘Tsiyon’, unless Mashiach comes first.