Haredi Leader Tells Yeshiva Students To Dodge National Service, Shas Calls Gov't Plan A "Terror Attack"

Haredi leader Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman called on haredi yeshiva students to refuse to serve in the civilian national service program meant to help them avoid the military draft.

Originally published at 10:02 pm CST 12-10-2012

Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman

Haredi Leader Tells Yeshiva Students To Dodge – National Service
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

Haredi leader Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman reportedly called on haredi yeshiva students to refuse to serve in the civilian national service program meant to help them avoid the military draft.

But this does not mean that Shteinman wants the yeshiva students to serve in the military – he doesn’t want that either.

According to an article published in Yated Ne’eman, the newspaper that serves as mouthpiece for the Degel Hatorah political party and Shteinman, “with the publication of the government decision yesterday, our rabbi and leader, the great Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, gave an instruction to warn the masses against this severe and dangerous phenomenon, whose only purpose is to undermine the foundations of our existence and is against the very essence and purpose of a yeshiva student which is to dedicate his life to Torah study…[the haredi world must] defend its existence…against all the new temptations of the leaders of the regime which damage the foundations of Judaism, whose only purpose is to create a dangerous erosion of students away from the sanctuary of Torah, and so people must be warned not to be enticed whatsoever to go to these services.”

Yated Ne’eman also reportedly printed a ruling from the late haredi leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv condemning national service.

"One must protest and warn against all moves to harm the pure oil jug by those who offer special frameworks for Haredim that would be under their control and according to their spirit, including all sorts of routes and frameworks for military and national service,” Elyashiv wrote.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Sefardi haredi Shas Party also attacked the national service option.

Yehuda Avidan called the government’s decision to exempt 1,300 ultra-Orthodox Jews from the military so they can instead join the national service a "terror attack."

[Hat Tips: The Lion, Seymour.]

Comments

[netflix]

Steinman himself was a draft dodger:

Upon reaching draft age in 1937, he was subject to the Polish draft, as Lithuania was then under Polish control. He and his close friend, Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik (a grandson of Rabbi Chaim Brisker) tried to evade the draft by starving themselves, but they were declared fit to serve by the draft officer. The two then fled with other Brisk students to Montreux, Switzerland, where they returned to Torah study in Yeshivas Etz Chaim.

[dh]

That photo must be really old. He looks so young and refreshed.

[Christopher Hobe Morrison]

Maybe he would prefer that they served time in jail.

[David]

He absolutely has to get down to the local dog wash and get that beard fixed up. Needs flea treatment, trimming, grooming.

[David]

Honestly, a beard might be a mitzvah for some but where in the Toyreh does it say that it has to be filthy and disgusting? Jews are meant to be clean and well-groomed according to all have read.

[ah-pee-chorus]

he should be jailed for encouraging others to break the law.

[A. Nuran]

Christopher Hobe Morrison writes: Maybe he would prefer that they served time in jail.

Why not? There are no women. There is no Internet. The food is all supervised. Plenty of time for prayer. Sounds like yeshiva life with the government picking up the tab