While Israeli soldiers risk their lives in Gaza to uproot Hamas rocket launchers and terror tunnels, haredim – few of whom serve in the IDF and whose political and religious leaders have openly forbidden their followers from doing so – have launched an effort they say will protect those soldiers – haredi prayer.
Haredim Offer To Pray For IDF Soldiers To "Protect" Them
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
While Israeli soldiers risk their lives in Gaza to uproot Hamas rocket launchers and terror tunnels, haredim – few of whom serve in the IDF and whose political and religious leaders have openly forbidden their followers from doing so – have launched an effort they say will protect those soldiers – haredi prayer.
Called “Eleph Lamateh Eleph Lamateh,” it urges haredim to “adopt” a soldier by learning their proper Hebrew name and – praying for them.
Not all IDF soldiers, however, are Jewish under Orthodox Jewish law and no accommodation has been made to pray for them.
The current conflict in Gaza not only called up tens of thousands of IDF reserve soldiers, it also exposes the effects of haredi draft dodging for all Israel to see.
Non-haredi families across the country have family members in harms way, fighting in the narrow alleyways of Gaza, while almost no haredim do. Non-haredi Israelis as old as their late 40s have been called up to serve in Gaza while their haredi contemporaries continue to study in yeshiva. Indeed, a 45-year-old secular reserve officer was killed Saturday when Hamas terrorists infiltrated from Gaza.
When Hamas rocket fire on Israel’s south became heavy, haredi yeshivas located there fled north with the populations of draft-exempt and draft-dodging students while Zionist Orthodox yeshivas in the south remained there and continued to function as many of their alumni fought in Gaza.
Haredim , however, still claim that their Torah study protects Israel from harm, and say this “protection” is in part why the government is wrong to try to draft them into the military.
But when rockets began to fly, haredim fled.
The prayer initiative was originally launched nine years ago by the Bostoner Rebbe. A new call to follow it was made last week by his son and by Rabbi Simcha HaKohen Kook, the haredi chief rabbi of Rehovot.
They posted an online spreadsheet of Hebrew names of active duty IDF soldiers submitted by their families and of haredim and others who have agreed to pray for them.
As of this writing, fewer than 150 people have agreed to pray for one or for several soldiers and almost no soldier's families have signed their sons up.