Draft dodging yeshiva students TB Sotah 44

Daf TB Sotah 44 concludes the eighth chapter of our massekhet. On the whole, it continues to discuss the exemptions for military service of the previous daf. One of the major areas of contention between the secular and traditionally observant Jews and between the ultra-Orthodox in Israel is the blanket exemption which lasts the entire lifetime given to the ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students. In essence, this exemption is the loophole that allows these students to dodge the draft. The number of these yeshiva students increases from year to year. The ultra-Orthodox do not share the burden of defending the Jewish state.

Rabbi Reuvan Hammer z”l on behalf of the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel’s Law Committee wrote a responsa in the year 5747  answering the question “Does halakha justify this exemption? The English summary follows:

“As a general principle, the Torah commands the responsibility of military service of every Israelite. There are temporary exemptions for those who are at a particular point in their lives and have not the opportunity to savor specific major personal developments. And the one who is fearful-who is psychologically unfit-is exempt. The rabbis tended to nullify the exemptions. Thus they saw the exemptions as temporarily waving front-line duty only; there remained the obligation to perform auxiliary support services. They further nullified the exemption as applying only in the instance of an optional war (the purpose of this war is to enlarge the borders of the land of Israel-gg). The commanded war, the necessary war, avoids all exemptions. Surely pikuach nefesh-the saving of a life-is a commandment of the highest priority. In today’s world, service in Zahal, the Army of Israel, is an act of pikuach nefesh. It is at the same time a concretization of the commandment “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.” During the biblical period one may understand that levites and priests as ritual functionaries and teachers were exempt from normal military duties. But even if there were such a broad exemption, it does not appear to have extended to a period of warfare. Among the commentators, some reject this approach to blanket exemption altogether. Others would apply only to rare outstanding individuals-not as a basis for general exemption of large numbers. There is a Talmudic approach which would exempt “rabbis” from some kinds of routine obligation. We surely do not see this as a basis for exempting large numbers of students from the commandment of saving Israel from its enemies.

“Conclusion: Service in Zahal is a halachic duty incumbent upon every Jew living in the state of Israel. Whoever sees himself as engaged in important religious work has an even greater obligation to set an example by military service. Only in this way can he be properly prepared to effectively participate in a commanded war for the safety of the State of Israel. Not to do this involves violation of three major mitzvot: Participation in a commanded war for the defense of the state of Israel; “do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor;” the saving of human life. To shirk this duty is to violate the Halacha.”

Pre-World War II in Eastern Europe, only the best students studied in yeshivot. If the student was not  yeshiva material, he went to work. Even the majority of the best students ultimately left the yeshiva and found employment to support his family. Only a small majority remained in the yeshiva their entire life.

David Ben-Gurion, the greatest founder of the modern State of Israel, made a tragic mistake by giving the ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students military exemptions. After the Holocaust, he was persuaded that the remnant of that world deserved special dispensations. He was willing to grant such exemptions because he thought that the ultra-Orthodox would disappear as the majority of them would ultimately embrace modernity.

How wrong he was! Now all the ultra-Orthodox students, whether they are academically able are not, remain in the yeshiva and do not enter the workforce at all. Their rabbis demand larger and larger subsidies to maintain their schools.  In fact, another complaint of secular Israelis is that these yeshiva students do not have any of the skill sets to contribute economically to the society they live in. They take, but do not give in return.