Imagine the unimaginable
A constitutional bill to define Torah study as a form of national service
Today's news sheds light on a new effort by the Haredi parties to permanently avoid requiring their adherents to equally shoulder the burden of national security.
Uri Regev
01/02/2018 21:28
Tags: draft · Torah study
Lecture at a yeshiva, source: Wikipedia
Dear Friends,
The battle over clashes in the realm of religion and state is heating up. This is reflected in grassroots demonstrations regarding Shabbat in the face of coercive pressures by the Haredi political parties, as well as in ongoing polling demonstrating the rise of the civil Yesh Atid party (which is associated in the public mind with religious freedom).
Today's news sheds light on a new effort by the Haredi parties to permanently avoid requiring their adherents to equally shoulder the burden of national security. This time it's a frantic attempt to preempt the nearing Supreme Court deliberations over the legality of the mass exemption of yeshiva students from IDF service. A demand made by the Haredi parties to pass a constitutional bill regarding the study of Torah was revealed.
While fully agreeing with the first clause of the draft: "the study of Torah is a basic value in the heritage of the Jewish people," one must realize that reality trumps the imagination when it comes to the unimaginable. The draft lays down that "those who have undertaken to commit to a long period of Torah study will be considered as serving the Jewish people, and their right to be exempt from other obligations -among them: security and national service- will be recognized."
One must realize that reality trumps the imagination when it comes to the unimaginable.
Such a constitutional bill, if legislated, will not only exempt all yeshiva students from military or civil service, but it could potentially enable them to be exempt from other duties, such as paying income and municipal taxes, and of course(!) they could demand to be paid as civil servants. When will the Coalition partners of the Haredi parties recognize that the time is long overdue to show these ultra-Orthodox parties the door??? It seems that there is no ceiling on chutzpah, and when it comes to dodging their national duties, the Haredi parties see no limit.
The answer is very clear - it starts and ends with Hiddush's core mission to bring into full bloom Israel's Declaration of Independence's promise of religious freedom and equality.