The haredi lifestyle as currently constituted is unsustainable. Everyone knows it, even their gedolim know it – but many are afraid to speak the truth for fear of physical attacks or peer reproach. They are literally trapped in a different era, using the language of Czarist Russia, Antiochus and Purim to describe a government that is the biggest financial supporter of Torah in the world. I fully endorse the notion of a Yissachar-Zevulun relationship for as long as the parties agree, but no Yissachar has the right to force someone else – the whole society? – to be a Zevulun. That is simply not part of the Torah system.
What is wrong with all Jews participating in national defense? Or, if for whatever reason haredim feel they cannot, what is wrong with even haredim doing national service – helping out in nursing homes, teaching Torah in deprived communities, even doing chesed work for a year or two? That is known as giving back to society. One can’t only take; one must give as well. Certainly, as Rav Dessler emphasized repeatedly, giving – not taking – is the essence of the righteous person.
When I learned in Israel, I thought it quite natural to participate in the national defense. I didn’t necessarily enjoy the loss of sleep because of overnight patrols, but I am happy I did it, and only benefited from it, even in terms of Talmud Torah. How can Zaka take time off from learning to pick up the pieces, r”l, after a terrorist attack? Why can’t the same people work to thwart the terrorist attack in the first place?
Indeed, the army doesn’t really need haredi service as much as the haredim – for halachic and moral reasons – need it for themselves. But army service is mainly a portal into the work force, and that is key. The work force participation rate of adult males in the Israeli haredi community is scandalous.
Perhaps that is the true “war on Torah,” because the impression given that one cannot be a Torah Jew and a talmid chacham while working to support one’s family is an outrageous canard. All the Tannaim and Amoraim worked for a living. The greatest of our people – Avraham, Moshe, Yehoshua, David, etc., – all went to war when necessary. The Torah exempts four classes of people from battle: the scholar is not one of the exemptions, for Jewish wars especially require the participation of talmidei chachamim.
I am inclined to agree with Rav Rakeffet of Yerushalayim: “Someone who thinks that he will not be a Gaon if he serves for a short time in the military will not be a Gaon in any event.” But it is unconscionable to expect the rest of society to support a lifestyle that is alien to it – and, frankly, alien to Torah.
Why would a “secular” Jew be attracted to a “Torah” lifestyle that demands estrangement from the general society, a cloistered abode, a rejection of general knowledge, an inability to function in the presence of women, and a disdain for gainful employment and self-support? It doesn’t seem very attractive, except for one who wants to escape from the world.
I don’t believe that haredim should be imprisoned for refusal to serve, nor that it will ever happen. But, I note half in jest, what if it did? One can learn Torah full time anywhere, even in prison. In fact, prison is ideal. Rav Meir Kahane, Hy”d, wrote a 500-page sefer while he was in prison. Every Israeli prison has a fully-stocked bet midrash, there are regular minyanim, magidei shiurim come every day, the food is mehadrin, there are no women present, no distractions at all. There are regular furloughs for Yamim Tovim. The government can support them anywhere. It’s just a change in venue. I don’t underestimate the hardships of prison life, but the Israeli jail is not the Gulag to which Jews were sent for learning Torah.