While the soldiers he commands are fighting and dying in Gaza, Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe took some time off Thursday to appear at a Chabad function some are calling a publicity stunt in Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv.
Above: Moshe Ya'alon
While His Soldiers Fight And Die, Defense Minister Takes Time Off To Visit Chabad, Participate In Torah-Writing Ceremony
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
While the soldiers he commands are fighting and dying in Gaza, Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe took some time off Thursday to appear at a Chabad function some are calling a publicity stunt in Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv.
Ya’alon inscribed one letter in a new Torah scroll being written by Chabad in the merit of all IDF soldiers.
Chabad hasidim from longtime Chabad families generally do not serve in the IDF. Many Chabad baal teshuvas and children of baal teshuvas, however, do frequently serve in the IDF, giving Chabad what some say is an undeserved reputation for supporting IDF service.
Chabad also makes public shows out of providing frontline soldiers with visits, food packages and entertainment – although in practice, these events are actually rare and often serve a public relations purpose for Chabad ≠ along with providing it with an opportunity to try to convert soldiers to Chabad.
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Aharonov, director of the Chabad Youth Organization in Israel, said in front of Ya’alon during the letter-writing ceremony held to gain Chabad publicity that Chabad was “assured” that “every soldier for whom a letter has been written in this special Torah will feel an added measure of security.” He also said writing a Torah scroll for the soldiers was a form of “spiritual security” for the soldiers.
“We are assured that every soldier for whom a letter has been written in this special Torah will feel an added measure of security. In our tradition, the letters of the Torah are especially potent with regards to safety and security, and we felt it incumbent upon us to deploy this spiritual means of security for our troops,” Aharonov said.
Aharonov also said that tefillin (phlacteries) will also put “fear” of the Jewish people into the “nations of the world” and emphasized the importance of encouraging Jewish men worldwide to wear them. He cited the Tefillin Campaign launched by the Chabad’s late rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, before the Six Day War in 1967, citing Deuteronomy 28:10: “The nations of the world will see that the name of God is called upon you, and they will fear you.”
Ya’alon obliged and donned a pair of tefillin (phylacteries) and briefly prayed before leaving.
Ya’alon is under fire by Israel’s High Court of Justice for granting blanket military draft exemptions to haredim, including Chabad hasidim, even though the High Court has already ruled that similar blanket exemptions of haredim are illegal.
Earlier this year, Ya’alon openly promised haredi leaders – who all vehemently oppose the draft of any haredim – that no haredi yeshiva student will ever be drafted against his will, and Prime Minister Netanyahu followed shortly afterward by openly making the same, apparently illegal, promise.
But neither Ya’alon or Netanyahu – who are both members of the right of center Likud Party and neither of whom are themselves Orthodox – have made similar offers to secular university students or Zionist Orthodox yeshiva students, who all must serve in the IDF, as do all other non-haredi Israelis. (Zionist Orthodox females can opt to do civilian national service rather than be drafted, but many are now choosing to serve in the military.)
Ya’alon is seen as Netanyahu’s rival for Likud leadership.
Likud’s only natural Knesset allies are haredi political parties and observers think it unlikely Likud will be able to hold power in the next election without them.
Only a tiny number of soldiers identified as haredi by the IDF – exponentially below the actual number who proportionately should be serving in Gaza – are actually serving there. But many of those so-called "haredi" soldiers are not actually haredi. Instead, they are ex-haredim, baal teshuvas, and far right-wing Zionist-Orthodox (commonly known in Israel as harda"l).