Tzedek-Tzedek

I fondly recall our rabbi in the synagogue I attended in England solemnly and loudly praying for the welfare of the Royal Family, in English, from the bimah. The older siddurim there had the names of kings, queens and princes long departed.  This is an ancient tradition in Jewish communities around the world, to pray for the welfare of one’s host countries and rulers, usually in the language of that country. The earliest source is Biblical: And seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the Lord in its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper. (Jeremiah 29:4-7) And in the Mishna, it states (Avot 3:2; and cf. Avodah Zarah 4a): Rabbi Hananya the Deputy High Priest says: Pray for the welfare of the Kingdom (= Rome ), for were it not for the fear of it, a man would swallow his neighbor alive. Rabbi Hananya lived at the end of the Second Temple period. He is saying that the Jews should pray for the Roman government for, if not for them, the...

A pashkevil is a flyer or poster which is distributed or pasted up in Chareidi communities, making announcements to the public. They are often used as a means of putting pressure on individuals or institutions regarding policy or behaviour. They are sometimes signed by the author, but are usually anonymous, or are signed by a fictitious committee, which usually consists of solely the author. Some claim to be written in the name of famous rabbis, but the authenticity of those rabbis support for the message of the pashkeville is dubious, at best. For example, I have seen two pashkevilim recently in Ramat Bet Shemesh. One was poster sized, glued onto almost every non-moving object in the neighborhood, denouncing in the strongest terms, a new yeshiva high school (accused of teaching some secular studies, rather than 100% torah studies); this pashkevil was apparently signed by a dozen or so leading Ashkenazi chareidi rabbis, who decreed eternal hell-fire (or local equivalent) for a...

In the current dispute between Ehud Barak, Minister of Defence, and Rav Eliezer Melamed the Head of Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva, it is very unclear in the press reports what either Ehud Barak or Rav Melamed’s objectives are. It does seem that Ehud Barak’s insistence that there be "no insubordination" in the Israeli army is eminently reasonable. No other army in the world permits insubordination – the refusal to obey a lawful order from a superior. Nor can Rav Melamed reasonably expect a Minister of Defence to permit insubordination, which could undermine the effectiveness of the IDF in implementing its critical missions. An army doesn’t work by asking the regular soldier which combat missions he will or will not choose to carry out. On the other hand,. Ehus Barak surely recognizes and appreciates the important, indeed critical, role of National Religious soldiers in the armed forces (some 25% of Israel ’s crack combat troops) – and of the highly motivated Hesde...

Does the Army Need the Dati Leumi – or the Dati Leumi Need the Army? Over 25% of combat troops in the Israel Defence Forces are now National Religious (Dati Leumi). Many of these participate in the Hesder Yeshiva program, which was established in 1953 by the Keren BeYavne Yeshiva. The Hesder program typically last five years, of which some 16 months is army training and active service, while the remainder is spent in religious studies in over 40 yeshivot around the country. On the one hand, this program is the flag-ship of the National Religious camp – combining torah studies with fulfilling the practical mitzva of defending the Jewish people and the Jewish State – paid for by the Ministry of Defence. On the other hand, many of the Army's finest and most motivated troops are from the Dati Leumi camp in general, and from the Hesder Yeshivot in particular. Israel's military cemeteries attest to the awesome heroism of so many of of these young men in the battlefield. ...