Rabbi Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss noted that the Shulkhan Arukh (Code of Jewish Law) allows Shabbat law to be broken to save a person from prison, even if that person is an evil man or a criminal. He then ordered haredim to do the same if necessary to escape serving in the IDF.
Above: Rabbi Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss
Break Shabbos To Dodge The Draft, Senior Haredi Rabbi Says
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
The #2 rabbi of the vehemently anti-Zionist Edah Charedit haredi umbrella group issued an unusual public ruling earlier this week.
According to a report in Yeshiva World that is based on a report in the haredi weekly BaKehilla, a newspaper controlled by Belz hasidim, Rabbi Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss classified joining the IDF as a Torah prohibition, meaning someone who did join the Israeli military would be breaking halakha, Jewish law.
Weiss reportedly said that haredim are obligated to do everything in their power to dodge the draft, and he instructed haredi yeshiva students and young married men to prepare themselves for battle while they continue studying Torah. Weiss ordered haredi yeshiva students to go to prison rather than serve in the IDF because serving in the IDF is never an option.
Weiss noted that the Shulkhan Arukh (Code of Jewish Law) allows Shabbat law to be broken to save a person from prison, even if that person is an evil man or a criminal.
This halakha, Jewish law, Weiss cited is sometimes used by haredim to justify attempts to keep criminals out of prison, including in some cases child sex abusers and child rapists.
Weiss then told a story about Jewish Agency emissaries who went to Morocco years ago to encourage young Jews to immigrate to Israel – what Weiss called “trapping souls.”
Many young Jews chose to immigrate to Israel.
To prevent the Jewish Agency from successfully “trapping” any more “souls,” anti-Zionist haredi rabbis sent people in cars on Shababt – normally a violation of Shabbat law – to stop them.
Weiss said that the military draft is now a similar issue, and he authorized haredim to “break Shabbos [laws] to avoid induction into the IDF” – and in this case there is no difference between groups, Weiss noted. Ashkenazim, Sefardim, hasidim or non-hasidic haredim must all refuse to serve in the IDF and Shabbat law can and should be broken if necessary to achieve this.
While this can be understood as permission to drive on Shabbat to escape military police, it can also be understood as permission to violate Shabbat law in order to riot and attack police and government institutions – something haredim have done in the past after Shabbat has ended. But Weiss' ruling would appear to allow haredim to do this on Shabbat when they are already gathered together in large groups in synagogues.
[Hat Tip: Seymour.]