Ongoing IDF Antireligious Hate Under Corona

BS"D

When There's No Justice Below - It Rains Down from On High

30 Nissan, 5780 °°° April 24, '20 °°° Par. Tazria-Metzorah [ver. 1a]

[The initial post of this article -  https://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2020/04/ongoing-idf-religious-persecution-under.html - was circulated in this week's email of the Coalition for Jewish Values.]

By Binyomin Feinberg,

FeinbergBinyomin@gmail.com

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A. URGENT CORONAVIRUS ALERT:

Firstly, we share an important notice for all Israeli draft-age girls and women, including those holding dual-citizenship:

https://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2020/04/alert-for-israeli-draft-age-women.html

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Secondly, here's the update link for the month of Iyyar, to check in case we post something during the week between our regular Wednesday/ Thursday posts:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z2nuHMNh-CQ3Te2MdV04dmFfkkmQ0TLNKElS9JT6yJc/edit?usp=sharing 

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B. The Religious Persecution of Olga S.

Let's start with a brief review of one exemplary, ongoing travesty of overt religious persecution by the Israeli Army - traversing the span of over a year and a half: the case of a Ba'alas Teshuvah ("Observant-by-Choice") girl, Olga Shamilov:

The procedure for religious and traditional girls to secure their legal entitlement to a Religious Exemption from Israeli Army service is to present a Tatzhir Dat (certification of religiosity) to the Draft Offices. Olga obtained her  tatzhir via a Bais Din (Rabbinical Court), and properly submitted it to the Tel HaShomer Draft Office. She was subsequently summoned to a Rayon Dat (a "religiosity interview").  On Nov.19, '18, almost 1-1/2 years ago, she  met the Army draft officers (apparently being totally uninformed of the halachic and practical objections to submitting to these religiosity interrogations), and she answered the questions properly.  Nevertheless, the draft offices refused to grant her the religious exemption from Army service, to which she is legally entitled.

They then summoned her to another interview. She made the trip down again, only to hear the (ostensibly religious) female Army officer inform her that the Army is rejecting her petition for a religious exemption. The officer provided no reason for the rejection.

Of course, enlisting women altogether is prohibited by Torah law, even if done fully willingly. However, in this case, lacking basis for rejecting her petition, the Israeli Army is breaking Israeli law as well, by denying Olga her entitlement to a religious exemption (as her attorney informed the Army in a formal complaint filed this January).

Additionally, the Army officer tried convincing Olga to enlist - DESPITE clearly being a Ba'alas Teshuvah. Some readers unfamiliar with the Orthodox milieu may not fully realize the degree of sheer antireligious Israeli chutzpah on full display here.  To even venture to suggest that a Ba'alas Teshuvah enlist at the beginning of her process of strengthening herself in her newly-found religious heritage is the height of temerity. And that's even coming from a liberal secular perspective. Far worse: the officer did so AS a religious woman. 

B"H, Olga remained resolute. She elaborated, stating that she's seeking to become something better than what she currently is. (That's a statement all of us ought consider.) The "religious" officer was unmoved by Olga's steadfast devotion, and even ended with a genteel but clear threat to Olga: "being a deserter ("Arikah") isn't pleasant." Readers of our columns will recognize how politely that euphamizes the sum total of the female Israeli Refusenik experience.

Olga was hit with a draft date in October - this past October. That's about six MONTHS of being absent from the Army.  Imagine the ongoing psychological pressure that imposes on a young person, and a Ba'alas Teshuvah in particular. There is NO excuse for tolerating such persecution of a religious girl, or of any girl. We will be judged (and very possibly are being judged, at this juncture) for not raising a storm of protest over the ongoing abuse of Olga, and hundreds and hundreds of girls and women like her. They suffer in silence because we wallow in silence over their plight.

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C.  A few Torah sources on how tribulations prompt us to introspection, and a second look at the antireligious persecution of Olga S.

1.  The Gemara (Babylonian Talmud, tractate Brachos 5a) elaborates on "yisurin," tribulations. At the risk of the appearance of oversimplification, the general principle is that we deserve what we get. The outstanding question is specifically WHICH things we did can be identified as serving as causative factors in a particular tribulation that we're suffering. Rashi there, s.v. "pishpaish;" explains that we are to utilize the yisurin we're experiencing to identify the types of sins we've committed that match those yisur.

2. Similarly, according to Rav Chaim of Volozhin OB"M (in his commentary "Ru'ach Chaim" on Pirkei Avos (4:14), as well as in his "Nefesh HaChayim"), a central function of the Divine principle (Hanhogah) of "Mida Keneged Mida" is to serve the purpose of aiding us in identifying which iniquity precipitated the given punishment. Thereby, we can identify which particular sin G-d is beckoning us to repent from, via those tribulations. See also the Rambam, Mishneh Torah, Hil. Ta'anis, 1:1-3.

3. The Maharsh"a at the end of Gittin 58a states that the Churban HaBayis (second) was triggered by an individual act of wickedness (detailed there) which was not (properly) protested by the Jewish community. That failure to protest evoked the Heavenly Wrath that finalized the decree to destroy the Second Jewish Commonwealth.

4. That incident, described in Gittin, pales in comparison with what commonly occurs nowadays, in a multitude of areas. That would also include the ongoing travesties covered in these posts, in regards to innocent Jewish girls being forced to serve in the notoriously promiscuous, exploitative Israeli Army. (Again, females serving in the Army is prohibited according to all leading Torah authorities, regardless of religious observance, ethnicity, etc.).

5. That fact should give us ample cause to consider the role of  systemic corruption in allowing this crime wave against Bnos Yisroel to be perpetuated, and even facilitated by frum parties. And, above all, we ought consider what we could do about it, and what we are not doing. Of course, then we ought consider possible consequences of those failures, that appear to be hitting us between the eyes in recent weeks.

6. In our Jewish Press Dispatch column of Nov. 15, '19 (p. 17), we reported on the case of the aforementioned Ba'alas Teshuva, Olga Shamilov, about 19 y/o, who was (illegally) denied her religious exemption from Israeli Army military service, without even the pretext of a justification.

7. Generally,  Israeli law requires the Army to provide a girl an automatic religious exemption once the Army receives her religious verification documentation, unless they can show a substantial reason to dispute it. 

8.  In Olga's case, the Israeli Army spectacularly failed to present any objections to her religiosity, and, in the second interview, stunningly acknowledged her Ba'alas Teshuva profile.  What is even more revealing of unbridled arrogance is the fact that the Army didn't  even bother trying to provide her with a semblance of a rationale. Adding insult to injury, the Army had her schlep down to an interview just to inform her of what they could have easily told her by mail and phone: they're denying her request for her legal entitlement to a service exemption. Apparently, they  planned to use the pretext of the meeting to prevail on this Ba'alas Teshuva to forgoe her newly rediscovered religious heritage (one the antireligious establishment made sure to keep at bay) - in order to make her "contribution" to the country (or, somewhat more precisely, to the hormonal needs of some of the men who are purportedly so dedicated to protecting the Jewish People).

9. That interview, her second, was interesting for other reasons as well.  She was interviewed by a female Army officer who tried trafficking her into the Army on the basis of Army service not proving disruptive of her own religious lifestyle. The Army officer described herself in line with the Dati Le'umi (national religious) community. 

10.  Well, how Dati (religious) she is in her personal life, I really don't know. But "Le'umi," certainly not. What type of "Jewish nationhood" will be left over if even the religious women start enlisting in droves, as is a declared Israeli Army goal? Just talk to candid Mizrachi /national-religious oriented people in the post-Army milieu to hear about what goes on, what women are subjected to, and how emotionally and psychologically unfit many post-Army women unfortunately are for a Torah-marriage and raising a family. (Time spent speaking with anti-Zionist types, or most Chareidi people, about this particular topic is usually not well spent. Most of them have precious little idea of how bad it is on the ground, because it's so far removed from their milieu.)

11.  We hope not to need to revisit this case, but if we do, some religious politicians will have a lot of explaining to do.