The Moral Question of Exempting Haredi from Military Service

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Ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrators gather for a protest against a ruling by the Israeli High Court that they must be drafted into military service, in Jerusalem’s Mea Sharim district on June 30, 2024. Most Jewish men and women in Israel must serve in the military, but since 1948 the insular ultra-Orthodox community has been granted draft exemptions so some students can continue yeshiva study. Over the years, the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, community has ballooned, and with it the number of exemptions. The new ruling could break up the right-wing coalition government and send the divided country to new elections. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

It cannot be an easy thing for any parent to see their children off to serve in an army, especially one that is engaged in an active war.

With this perspective in-mind it must be particularly galling for parents in Israel seeing children not making the same sacrifice as their own simply because they happen to be studying full time at a Haredi Yeshivah and shielded from serving under the caption “Torato Omanuto”- translated as – “Torah study is their vocation”. Furthermore, the cap on the number of exemptions under this arrangement was removed by Prime Minster Menachem Begin’s Likud government in 1977.

There has been decades of national struggle in Israel over this societal dissonance encased within the legal and political imbroglio exempting Haredi from military service. Moreover, just before the Gaza war started in October 2023, there had been anguish and a major public outcry against weakening the separation of powers that would have allowed the passing of a Basic Law making the draft exemption of Haredim permanent.

It was therefore an historic event when Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled unanimously on June 25th, 2024  that “there was no legal basis for the government to refrain from recruiting yeshiva students…and inflicted serious harm to the rule of law and the principles that all individuals are equal before the law. It also ruled that in the absence of a legal framework of exempting such students from the draft, there was no legal basis for subsidizing these institutions to support such students.”(https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2024-07-02/israel-high-court-rules-that-state-must-draft-yeshiva-students-to-the-military/).

While this ruling appears to be a paradigm shift in having Haredi serve in the IDF there is still resistance from Haredim to cooperate and provides the Ultra Orthodox parties within the current government coalition, like Shas, a reason to dissolve the current government led by Netanyahu. To force yet another election and attempt to get the ruling overturned. It is this situation which I wish to focus on.

Below are the arguments I have heard or read supporting the Haredi position of resistance to being conscripted into the Israeli Defense Force (“IDF”):

• Haredi fear they will be secularized by joining the army.
• Haredi are essential for preserving the Jewish foundation of Israel and therefore should not be sacrificed to warfare.
• Haredi devotion to Torah study and prayer is essential for the IDF to prevail over its enemies.
• Forcing the draft on Haredi violates religious freedom.

To my mind all these arguments are self-serving, cannot be fully substantiated and in no way address the real needs of Israel which is to have a robust army in order to survive.

Is the Haredi commitment to religious practice so fickle that it will collapse when coming into contact with secular Jews? Is that true of the Modern Orthodox that currently serve with distinction in the IDF?

Perhaps we could use the Maccabean revolt as an analogy for why the ultra Orthodox Jews should be part of the IDF since observant Jews fought alongside the priestly “Hasmoneans AKA Maccabees” against Hellenization. Applying a well-known form of reasoning in the Talmud, Kal v’chomer, how much more so should Haredim join the IDF in its cause for the survival of the Jewish State against their genocidal enemies when the Maccabees fought against Antiochus IV to defend their religious practices. It is therefore not surprising the IDF chose the nomenclature “Hasmonean Brigade” to accommodate Haredi soldiers who were previously exempt from conscription in Israel. As of January 5, 2025 50 Haredim had successfully enlisted in the brigade (https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/hysl2tv81e).

Another religious justification for Haredi conscription is from Hilchot Melachim 5:1 (laws concerning kings) of the Mishneh Torah, where Maimonides (“Rambam”) explicitly considers a war fought to assist Israel from an enemy that attacks them a “Milchemet Mitzvah” (“war of obligation”, “a commanded war” or a “religious war”) in which everyone without exception should participate.

The fact is, the military missions in Gaza and Lebanon have cast an enormous strain on the IDF and more conscripts are needed to alleviate the burden. It is quite extraordinary to think that with Israel fighting existential battles 13.3% of its population, representing the Haredi segment, considers they should be exempt from conscription. With Haredim being the fastest growing population sector in Israel this percentage is expected to increase to 16% by the end of this decade. The notion that all members of this group should be exempt from serving in the army is like willing the collapse of the country and emboldens Israel’s enemies.

In October 1948, Ben Gurion granted exemption to Yeshiva students when their numbers were very small (400). The number of Haredi eligible for exemption (at the time of the ruling on June 25, 2024) has since grown to around 63,000. The Jerusalem Post quoted a letter Ben Gurion sent in 1958 to the then Chief Rabbi, Yitzhak Herzog, which stated “In foreign countries, non-Jews don’t rely on Israeli defenders, here, we are all Jews, and our country depends solely on us. This is primarily a significant moral question. Is it right for one mother’s son to risk his life for the homeland, while another’s son studies safely at home, when most Israelis sacrifice themselves?” (https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-807773).

It is therefore time for Haredi to acknowledge and face up to the moral question posed by Ben Gurion and participate in the Milchemet Mitzvah. Using the demand for Haredi exemption from the draft as a cudgel to blackmail coalition governments to do its bidding is a huge moral failure which sullies the righteousness of Haredim and divides the State of Israel. Hopefully, by abiding with the historic ruling of Israel’s Court of Justice in June 2024 this perennial scourge on Israel’s unity will be put to rest; otherwise the country will be torn apart both morally and spiritually.