habayitah.blogspot.com/2024/03/rabbi-zamir-cohen.html
First of all, they do — so observes Rav Zamir Cohen (and all of us).
In fact, charedim can be found all over the army, the police force, and the healthcare system.
In addition to serving as doctors and nurses, charedim run and staff organizations like Yad Sara, Ezer MiTzion, Efrat, Ima ("Mother" — Hidabroot's pro-life organization), and more.
And charedi wholly staff the paramedic organization, Hatzola, and the organization ZAKA, which saves lives as first responders, but its main job is the heart-breaking and gruesome task of collecting dead bodies, body parts, blood, and tissue for respectful burial.
(Because of the policies of the same people who wish to draft into military service every single charedi — including the devoted yeshivah men — ZAKA and Hatzola are kept quite busy cleaning up the gruesome and heart-breaking results of these policies. One can make the argument that pro-life orgs such as Efrat and Ima, plus the anti-assimilation org Yad L'Achim — which also rescues Jewish women and children trapped with Muslim-Arab husbands or partners in Muslim-Arab villages — are also cleaning up the results of secular Leftist policies.)
So the demand for charedim to serve is actually a demand for the kollel avrechim and yeshivah bochurim to serve.
An Answer for the Majority of Jews in Eretz Yisrael – the Believers
Just as a person's physical condition influences his emotional condition (like when a physical illness or disability causes a person to become depressed or bitter) and an emotional condition influences his physical condition (like when a depressed or angry person suffers physical ailments deriving from his depression or bitterness), our spiritual and physical condition also influence each other.
Those who learn Torah stand out as a VITAL part in the defense apparatus of Am Yisrael.
The victory and salvation of Jews in military situations depends on their spiritual health and strength.
(It seems most do not realize that tiny Israel can NEVER attain the military power necessary to fight and win against its myriad and powerful enemies. It's ridiculous to put our faith in the hands of secular anti-Torah Jews, especially when they let us down so many times, most notably with the Yom Kippur War and the recent Horror from Gaza.)
And our spiritual health and strength depends largely on the mass of Torah learners.
Rav Zamir Cohen states that to ensure our protection and the protection of the soldiers on the battlefield, the percentage of Torah learners must be at the very least, ONE-THIRD of the number of military soldiers.
Unfortunately, Rav Zamir notes that we are far from attaining this one-third.
John Spencer, a West Point academy expert on military battle, noted that as bad as the IDF fatality rate for this current war, the statistics and estimates indicate the fatalities should be much, much higher.
If you speak with soldiers who returned from Gaza now, you'll hear them describe how easy it is for terrorists to shoot them from within the myriad seemingly empty buildings crowded around the troops.
Particularly a terrorist aiming at them during low-visibility hours such as night, dusk, or sunrise, the IDF soldiers remain easily detectable while the direction from which the RPG or bullets came is not easily detectable.
An Answer for the Minority (in Eretz Yisrael) of Unbelievers
In other words, without the yeshivot, the Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael would no longer exist, chas v'shalom.
Historically, we see how every Jewish community that lost its yeshivot and Torah study halls, those communities also petered out into oblivion.
A millennium ago, Saudi Arabia hosted powerful Jewish communities. Where are they now? No one even knows a Jew descended from a Saudi community. Just as we have Yemenite Jews, Bukharin Jews, Iraqi Jews, and Syrian Jews with all their minhagim, we should also have Saudi Jews with Saudi Jewish minhagim.
(Although we might not call them "Saudi" because that part of Arabia only became Saudi in 1932. Had those Jewish communities maintained continuity, we might know them by the names of the kingdoms that preceded Saudi Arabia: Hejaz Jews and Najd Jews with Hejaz minhagim and Najd minhagim.)
Yet we don't have any such Jews or minhagim from that area of Arabia.
Nothing remains of those communities.
Sarajevo used to host a thriving yeshivah, which produced tremendous talmidei chachamim (like Rav Eliezer Papo, author of the Pele Yoetz).
Yet the yeshivah gradually disintegrated, the community weakened, then the Nazis came and finished off the rest.
Only an assimilated skeleton remains today.
I first noticed this dynamic as an assimilated girl moving into the Modern Orthodox world. I read a Jewish history book written by an anti-Orthodox assimilated Jewish professor and it struck me that every time the yeshivish community disappeared in a certain location, the entire Jewish community disappeared — then picked up somewhere else and started all over again.
I noticed this with his description of the Destruction of the Second Temple, and also with the development of the Reform movement in Germany. And many examples in between those two eras.
It fascinated me that despite his overt mockery of Orthodox Jews and Torah Judaism, he still could not hide the literal historical facts of the correlation between the disintegration of Torah and the disintegration of actual Jews and Jewish communities.
We see how today, Jews raised without Torah happily leave Eretz Yisrael to live in other countries and also intermarry (whether within Israel or outside it) — including the descendants of the founders of Medinat Yisrael, such as Ben Gurion and his ilk.
In other words, any Jew who wishes to keep their Jewish line and the future of Jews alive should ensure the health of the yeshivot.
Revealing Open Secrets about How the Army Relates to Torah Judaism and Torah Jews
Rav Zamir quotes the results of a survey, in which they discovered that the group of religious Zionist Jews known as "charedi-dati-leumi" suffered the loss of 210 Jews going off the derech out of every thousand who completed army service, while the mainstream dati-leumi suffer the loss of 310 out of 1000. What's known as dati-leumi "lite" suffers the loss of 510 per 1000.
Certainly, those coming from communities and upbringing with a stronger commitment to Torah and mitzvot (like the charedi-dati-leumi) leave the derech less, so the army cannot be completely blamed for this, but nonetheless, the influence of the army on their spiritual level remains undeniable.
In addition to the not-so-Torahdig atmosphere of the Israeli army, the army also hosts a foundation to support soldiers who decide to leave the fold.
Rav Zamir asks why is there no parallel foundation to assist secular soldiers who wish to become more religious?
After all, they also face opposition from their families, feel alone, and need support.
Why does the army only offer support for soldiers who decide to become LESS religious in the army?
This is in addition to religious soldiers facing orders obligating them to violate Torah prohibitions — silly orders which do nothing to enhance the security of the State, but only serve to demoralize the spiritual state of the religious soldiers.
Rav Zamir also reveals the well-known open secret that the army only promotes those who wish to serve the secularist interests of the army (even if they look externally somewhat religious) and especially those who are also secular themselves.
(Years ago, I remember a religious Zionist paper publishing the results of a survey of religious Zionists as to why religious soldiers comprise such a small percentage of high-ranking military positions. Around 70% perceived it as having to do with religion and they themselves experienced a glass ceiling due to their level of religiosity.)
Many look to Ofir Vinter as a successful religious army official, but Rav Zamir points out that the military establishment distanced him after he quoted Torah verses to his soldiers prior to their entry into Gaza during this current war.
Rav Zamir notes that a great many Muslim-Arabs also enjoy full citizenship with all the benefits that entails, yet the majority do not participate in any army service.
Why do those who besmirch charedi Jews and yeshivah men (whose actions and Torah learning actually contributes to the protection and defense of the country) refuse to acknowledge the thousands of Muslims who enjoy all the benefits without any military contribution?
But for Wonky & Destructive Politics, It's Okay to Avoid the Draft & Not Follow Orders?
Not only that, these same hypocrites (my term, not Rav Zamir's) chanted: "Not only will we not enlist, we will call for the soldiers to refuse to follow orders!"
For them, the rav continues, the push to bend the Israeli Supreme Court to their demands was seen as a "mitzvah" for which they believed "Allow yourself to be killed, but do not serve in the army" — Yehareg v'al yisharet batzeva – ייהרג ואל ישרת בצבא.
(The rav is making a witty play on the words of the halacha pertaining to a small handful a specific mitzvot: Yehareg v'al ya'avor — Allow yourself to be killed, but do not transgress.)
Rav Zamir concludes with encouragement to continue davening that Hashem blesses His Nation with peace.