Translated [imperfectly] from an article by Rabbi Nosson Rothman
Starting from the period historians call 'the modern era' the situation of the Jewish people changed. Emancipation (equal rights) and other agreements adopted by the nations about two hundred years ago, caused the situation of Jews to change. They left from the ghetto walls and became exposed to the outside world, and thus began a phenomenon of apathy among the people of Israel. Later, with the establishment of the secular Zionist movement that made a name for itself among Jewish youth, the phenomenon expanded and led to widespread secularization among young people in the period between the two World Wars.
Today, this movement continues to develop, and at the same time there were other changes in the Jewish world that need to be addressed.
The first path is the path of the secular movement and assimilation, which drives the desire to be like all the nations. This path has undergone several fluctuations according to the upheavals of the Gentiles themselves, who are constantly changing and declining. At the time when the ideal of nationalism was strong and highly appealing among the Gentiles, even secular Jews followed them and dedicated the Jewish nation and Zionist ideas as the central and main subject. Subsequently, and even today, the idea took hold. Later and even today, the liberal and progressive idea took over global secularism, and those who always want to go along with the Gentiles adopted these methods and ways for themselves.
The idea is becoming more extreme and changing the identity of secular groups, both in terms of the very secular ideologies themselves, the increasingly deteriorating state of the world, and the detachment and distance of people from the Jewish source and their Jewish foundations.
In the early generations of the founding of Zionism and later in the establishment of the state, secularism was militant and aggressive and fought the core of Judaism vigorously. However, the background of Jewish identity was present, with the values and memories from the parental home, and the strength of this background greatly influenced the entire Jewish people. Therefore, even those who carried out measures against religion in the kibbutzim under government auspices and tried to forcibly detach from the Jewish past by adopting communist ideas and similar methods were under some sort of fear not to cut off all the concepts they had grown up with from the general Jewish public. The ordinary secular person, especially immigrants from Eastern communities who did not undergo a full European cultural revolution, did not accept the extreme path of the ruling movements, and the war against Judaism was carried out covertly and was not publicized at that time.
Unfortunately, the secular idea continued to deteriorate and became more extreme, and to this day the systematic secular groups that control in most of the areas here in Israel are outright anti-Jewish.
This movement wants and works to take the people of Israel in a different direction and tries to give a different form to the Jewish people, to be a people like all the nations. The reality is that Jews who try to disconnect from Judaism and assimilating themselves among the nations, do so religiously and fanatically, and adopt foreign ideas in the super-extreme, like the most extreme gentiles. The reason for this extremism is an internal opposition to the deep-rooted nature of every Jew, a desire to lose his self-identity and to disconnect from his past. Parallel to this, the standard-bearers of secularism come out to fight against out traditions.
Therefore, when they identify in the people directions of searching for a new way and returning to their roots, they feel the need to renew the war against authentic Judaism. In the wake of the terrible disaster that happened on Simchat Torah and the war that followed, the people change as we become more Jewish, as a result, the extremism of secularism increases, and they fight with all the tools at their disposal against Torah scholars and those who observe the commandments so that the state will not return to its Jewish character.
This is the direction of the secular movement, which endangers the existence of the Jewish people. Against it, the holy yeshivas were established with great effort and significant investment by the sages of Israel, and they are the answer to the continued existence of Torah and Judaism in Israel against modern secularism. The Torah scholars in the yeshivas and kollels, who follow in the path of the great generations, preserve the Jewish identity, and they are the compass guiding and navigating the path of the entire nation to stand under the banner of a Jewish way of life that revolves around Torah and educates itself and its children in the ways of Torah.
The additional path paved by Divine Providence brought tens of thousands of people, the House of Israel, to the Holy Land, and here is the main center of Torah among the Jewish people. Life in the Land of Israel is full of dangers due to the many surrounding enemies; the entire community—and we among them—are engaged in confronting these dangers, and with God’s help, over the years of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel, we have merited many miracles. The need for defense against the enemies has led to a call for us to bear the burden of the defense of the people of Israel, and we must respond to this matter.
For a proper response, we must view the reality of all Israel in a broader perspective. Even though the public needs of the people of Israel have grown, we must not limit ourselves to seeing only the need on the security level; rather, the public need of all Israel to preserve Judaism as its form has also grown and expanded greatly. On this level, we face the most significant adversary of the people of Israel – secularism.
Secularism is hostile to the Jewish people and endangers the very existence and the continuity of the Jewish People, it challenges and undermines our people as being the nation of Hashem, and therefore our first war, before our public material obligations is the essential, existential struggle for our existence as the people of God. If we come to discuss the parameters of halacha, whether a life-threatening war against Hamas takes precedence over a war against secularism that has arisen against the Jewish people, it is clear from several aspects that the war against secularism takes precedence over a life-threatening war, as they are enemies of Jewish existence.
The mission of all Israel is stated explicitly in the Torah - 'And I shall be sanctified among the children of Israel' - and we are obligated to give our lives for this. Although nothing stands above saving a life, the very existence of Judaism itself depends on the preservation of the form of Israel so that they remain sanctifiers of God, which is inherently prior to the preservation of the physical lives of all Israel.
There is no reason or justification to fight solely for the self-definition of Jews in the Land of Israel similar to other nations, because that is not the proper banner of the Jewish nation. The Jewish nation without Judaism is not a nation at all. Jewish identity relies on the reality of the covenant between the people of Israel and God, and the survival of this identity takes precedence over their existence in the Land of Israel, and it represents the existence of the Jewish people in general.
The early struggle for the existence of Judaism against secularism gives meaning to the additional battle to save souls. In the reality in which we live, we cannot be partners in the war against the enemies, because the path and route of the struggle for religious Jewish existence happens through the spiritual growth of people in the major centers of Judaism—the yeshivas. The yeshivas uphold the primary struggle for the existence of the Jewish people, as they carry a fundamental message for our lives: that the Torah of God—that is, the guidance that God gave and taught the people of Israel—occupies a central place in life and in beliefs. God's word is the central matter in life, and it directs all ways of living. In our generation, our main role is to increase the sanctification of God's name, as the great rabbis of Israel in the previous generation repeatedly emphasized. The existence of the yeshivas defines the essence of the people of Israel and guides the path of the entire nation, who gather and are influenced by the Torah centers even to the farthest places; this is the greatest sanctification of God's name.
Our responsibility is towards the whole nation, as Rav Shach of blessed memory wrote in his letters, thinking also of the masses and the future of their children. There is no way to fight against secularism without the reality of the yeshivas and the world of Torah. For this reason, all young people study in yeshivas, unlike the usual the custom in the past before World War I, when only those who really wanted to study Torah would come to study in a yeshiva, yeshivas now establish a strong center of Jewish life that any Jewish boy can belong to in any situation. And the more the yeshivas are nurtured and strengthened, the more the reality of Judaism exists and is reinforced, adding strength to the people of Israel to stand against the war of secularism. This conclusion does not only apply to those with a worldview that rejects the state, but even those called "Chardal" [Charedi-Nationalist] also understand that if they want to protect their children and continue the existence of the people of Israel, they must establish yeshivas where they do not enlist until they have grown in Torah and are a more advanced age.
Consequently, since the primary battle imposed on the people of Israel is over their existence and identity, and the yeshivas have taken on this role themselves, anyone absent from there shirks their main duty as a Jew. On the contrary, there is an inequality in the burden among the secular and also among the traditional, who significantly do not take part in the spiritual war to strengthen Judaism.
The religious Zionists who are involved in combinations, and are influenced both by yeshivas and by the army, understood that even they will succeed in surviving spiritually only through their connection to the world of Torah. It is impossible to build Torah and support those who are somewhere in the middle, without establishing yeshivas similar to the Charedi yeshivas. Nevertheless, it is clear that even those who succeed in surviving within the environment certainly cannot serve as a base in the fight against secularism. If they do not rely on the world of Torah, they and their children will be easy prey for secularism. That is the reason we do not even consider it at all as a possibility to think about and find ways to integrate with military service, since as part of our struggle we have an important interest in emphasizing that enlistment in the army cannot sustain us as Jews. Our systematic emphasis is that we do not see at all the possibility of integrating into the military system, because this disregards the importance of our role. If we do not engage in establishing yeshivas and strengthening them, we will fail in our main role.
The aforementioned things are true regarding military service in any form it may take, even if the army is not a secular institution with educational influence. The loss of the yeshiva years during a young man's period of development and maturation is critical to his Jewish existence, and no young man is required to give up the years of his youth during which he shapes his entire life, to live disconnected from centers of Torah. However, the reality of the army today is different, and it is a much more serious issue. There are voices of people who believe that a person who goes out to work for a living after the yeshiva years can pass through designated military units and thereby avoid sanctions and other difficulties, and of course have economic benefit, and thereby he will also fulfill his duties to the community.
It is not well known to what extent the military institution in all its conduct operates like an educational institution with a strong influence on everyone who is part of its ranks. The style of work and the atmosphere under military authority is not at all similar to the working style in civilian places. The army has a form and uniqueness that imprint on a person's secular character with strength and intensity.
This is what I heard from several people who joined the army at an older age after marriage, and described the extreme distance and contrast between the lifestyle of an observant Jew and the atmosphere and conduct within the army framework. One of them told me that he was caught as a draft evader and reluctantly agreed to serve in the army, and the army seemed to go out of its way for him to the point where his commander said, 'After everything we’ve done for you, what would you say to someone who asks if it’s worth coming here?' And he said, 'I would tell them that when they caught me as a draft evader, I made a mistake by not being imprisoned until they released me, because serving in the army was a great disaster for me.'
The commander was really angry and said, 'Aren't you ashamed? After we accommodated you so much?' Then the soldier said to the commander, 'I don't know what you wanted to do, I can only say that you have no idea what the life of a Charedi looks like. The entire routine, army spirit, and all the arrangements are completely opposite. You have no understanding and no ability to truly accommodate a Charedi person. The matter is actually simple for anyone who takes a moment to observe. It is very difficult for a secular institution whose leaders and commanders are secular people to accommodate a Torah-observant individual.'
And indeed, there is a real difficulty here, which apparently stems from the fact that secular people, unlike Gentiles, are not compromising; rather, they are people who live their world and their concepts intensely, and it is important to them to educate everyone to join them and be like them. They want to be "mekarev" people to secularism similar to how religious people want to be mekarev to religion. The founder of the Netzach Yehuda Battalion of the Nachal Charedi claimed that during the 25 years he worked with the army, there was no agreement made with the army that was not violated. The systematic breach of promises reveals that the aim of the recruitment is nothing but to bring us under their control and to change our character to be like theirs.
One of the powerful forces of the enemies of Judaism that stands against us in the struggle against secularism and the assimilation threatening the continuity of Jewish existence in the Land of Israel lies in the fact that governance is in secular hands. Government power is a formidable force with a position of superiority in many areas, even granting a supposedly important status that greatly influences those under its control. It is sometimes amazing to see how Charedi people, and even yeshiva students, act with inferiority in the face of the government's power, as if they compare themselves to it as though it represents the big world, true reality, and success. Our education is built on the fundamental assumption that it is impossible to rely on and entrust the management of the people of Israel to secular hands, whether in their material affairs or in their confrontations with enemies. From the wicked comes wickedness, and it is impossible to rely on them in handling matters of life and death or even in managing a homeowners' association. They are disqualified for all tasks (Maimonides, Laws of Kings, Chapter 1, Halacha 7).
Our defense against the power of a secular government is in opposing accepting it in the first place. We see it as an illegitimate and corrupt government that not only does not advance the people of Israel in terms of their Judaism but harms the people of Israel in all aspects. Our participation in government through taxes and municipal fees is out of necessity, as we need to manage economically and live in this place under this government, but since, in any case, it is a 'matter of property,' their influence is not so decisive. However, certainly when it comes to areas that require self-sacrifice, the power of trust in the secular government, which is responsible for matters of life and death, greatly strengthens the connection and trust in the entire secular leadership system, and endangers us in the struggle to uphold Judaism in the state. In my opinion, secular people understand this well, and therefore they press very much on the point of military conscription, which will define secular hegemony as the ruler over the entire population in the country, including the Charedi community.
May God grant that we succeed in our war, which has been imposed upon us, and He will also save us from the wars of the enemies who rise against us from outside, and we will come to Zion rejoicing soon.
