The Haredi Draft Plans B and C – Levitical Service

I have already written multiple blog posts on the avoidable tragedy of the Haredi draft.

Sadly, the situation is playing out exactly as anticipated with the bullheaded stubbornness of all parties deepening internal divisions at a time when Jewish unity should be the priority.

Intensification of current efforts to draft Haredim are likely, G-d forbid, to cost the State of Israel and the Jewish people far more than any benefit that could possibly be gained.

In what we may call ‘Plan A’, I have proposed a solution that addresses all Haredi concerns and creates a win-win-win for Haredim, for Torah study and for Israel’s urgent security needs.

Specifically, Plan A will lead to a Haredi draft that strengthens Torah study, strengthens Haredi livelihoods and identity, and strengthens the national security of Israel.

Let me now turn to Plans B and C, which are quite compatible with Plan A.

Some Haredi leaders, drawing on a famous statement by the Rambam, have argued that Haredim are a modern day tribe of Levi, fully devoted to the service of G-d, and thus entitled to blanket exemption from other forms of national service.

In a blogpost from 2013, and drawing from the same Rambam, Rabbi Prof Jeffrey Woolf has argued that the ‘service of G-d’ in this context is not Torah study alone, as some Haredim seem to be arguing. He writes as follows:

“Asked Rav Soloveitchik, how do the Priests and Levites come to deserve really munificent public support? The answer is provided by Maimonides himself, and conveniently ignored by the Haredi establishment. ‘This tribe was set apart to serve God and to minister to Him, to teach His straight ways and righteous ordinances to the multitudes.’ The Levites weren’t paid to study. They were paid to teach! They were paid to serve the Jewish people. They were paid to serve as the army education corps in times of war. The justification for receiving support is predicated not solely upon the metaphysical blessing vouchsafed by God on those who support the Torah (a blessing earned in at least as great a measure by Hesder and Mechina student/soldiers), but by giving back to the broader community! It is that arrangement that earns the Levites (and the Priests) their keep. Anything else, I will add, is unjustified and illegitimate.”

So Plan B involves Haredi service in the capacity of army educators, as well as making a broad-based contribution to national religious education.

The dual parshiot read in synagogues last Shabbat, Mattot-Massei, helps us to identify Plan C.

The Torah says, “The towns that you assign to the Levites shall comprise the six cities of refuge that you are to designate for [a man] who has killed someone to flee to, to which you shall add forty-two towns.”

In the biblical system of justice, killers responsible for someone’s death would flee to cities of refuge pending a court appearance, lest a ‘blood avenger’ strike them down before justice could be done. Whereas those responsible for intentional murder, would be subject to capital punishment, those responsible for manslaughter would remain confined within a city of refuge.

As the cities of refuge were assigned to the Levites, we can therefore see another responsibility the Torah assigns to the Tribe of Levi – to serve as prison guards.

At a time when Israel’s prisons are overflowing to the extent that some suspected terrorists have had to be released, Haredi service as prison guards therefore represents Plan C.