Photo Credit: Flash90
Israel Katz with the Haredi Finance committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni.

In a speech that followed his resignation from the Knesset former defense minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday night that the government is promoting a bill exempting Haredim from conscription in a way that “contradicts the needs of the IDF and the security of the state,” and added that he could not be a party to it (Yoav Gallant Quits Knesset).

In response, his successor at the defense ministry Israel Katz tweeted that “there is no room for cynical political use” of the conscription issue, adding that “The new conscription law, upon its completion, will bring about a historic turning point and the recruitment of tens of thousands of additional Haredim for significant service in the IDF for the first time since the establishment of the state – in contrast to the policy that had been recently implemented, which failed and actually led to a decrease in the number of Haredim who serve in the IDF.”

Advertisement




According to the Haredi Kikar HaShabbat, the main difference introduced by the new bill is that yeshiva students whose “Torah is their vocation” (Toratam umnutam) will be exempt from conscription––a principle endorsed and demanded by all the Haredi Knesset factions––while Haredi youths who come of age and are no longer in yeshiva will be given a choice between enlisting in the IDF and joining voluntary services such as United Hatzalah, ZAKA, and the police.

One word about the Talmudic term “Toratam umnutam,” which in modern Israeli discourse has mutated into “Torah is what they do for a living.” The origin of the term is in tractate Shabbat, 11a:

“With regard to those engaged in Torah study, they need not interrupt their study for prayer, but they are required to stop to recite the Shema. As it was taught in an exterior Mishnah: Torah scholars who were engaged in the study of Torah, stop their Torah study for Shema, and they do not stop for prayer.

“Rabbi Yochanan offered a caveat to this statement: They only taught that they need not stop for prayer with regard to the likes of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his colleagues, whose Torah is their vocation and they never interrupt their Torah study. However, for the likes of us, who also engage in other activities, we stop both for Shema and for prayer.”

Now, Rabbi Yochanan, who lived in Eretz Israel in the 3rd century, was the senior first-generation Amora, and the head of the yeshiva of T’veria for decades – and even he did not consider himself as qualified for the status of “Torato umnuto.”

So much for language mutations…

On March 24, it was announced that a draft bill set to be presented by the Israeli government in the Knesset would include an exemption from military conscription for Haredi yeshiva students. Under the proposed legislation, students would be required to remain in yeshiva until the age of 35, instead of 26 as previously mandated. This change aimed to incentivize Haredi individuals who are not actively studying to enlist, thereby allowing them to enter the workforce at an earlier age. The following day, the government took back its plan to raise the exemption age to 35.

Subsequently, the bill was revised to lower the exemption age to 21 for two years, then increase it to 22 for one year, and finally set it at 23. This adjustment seeks to encourage greater Haredi participation in the labor market by enabling them to leave yeshiva earlier, as opposed to the previous standard of remaining until age 24.

On April 11, it was further announced that the Haredi political parties had agreed to a target of 25% recruitment from the Haredi sector during the initial years of the law’s implementation. This target translates to approximately 3,000 Haredim being recruited for military or national service in the first cycle following the law’s enactment.

At this pace, Katz’s promise of “tens of thousands” of Haredi recruits would materialize around 2035, give or take a year.


Share this article on WhatsApp:
Advertisement

SHARE
Previous articleProfile Perspectives: Tips to Fit Israeli Investments into U.S. Portfolios
Next article‘Kinocide’ Report: Hamas Systematically Targeted Families on October 7
David writes news at JewishPress.com.