BS"D "Violating the Vineyard?"
27 Menachem Av, 5779 °° Wednesday, Aug. 28, '19
Parshas Re'aih, "Lo sish'mah ... kee m'naseh HaShem Elokaichem Es'chem laDa'as haYish'chem Ohahavim es HaShem Elokaichem b'Chol levav'chem u'v'chol naf'shechem." (Devarim 13:4)
By Binyomin Feinberg, Jewish Press contributor*
* Opinions and perspectives expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the ownership or management of The Jewish Press.
"I will violate (or "desecrate" / "profane" - "A'challail") the Vineyard - and I'll start with your daughter."
Venture to guess who made that statement - to an Orthodox Jewish mother - about her devoutly religious, and precocious 17-year-old daughter. A Cossack band leader? An SS Lieutenant? A member of the Soviet Politburo? No; reportedly, it was Keren L., an officer in the Israeli military Draft Office, in February of this year.
Keren evidently made that statement in response to the refusal of the girl's mother to allow her daughter, Avigail, to submit to the IDF's female draft. Female enlistment into the IDF is forbidden by all leading Torah authorities across the spectrum. Avigail's mother, Mrs. Ester R. H., is herself a baalas teshuva - and former Israeli Air Force captain. Now she finds herself simultaneously fighting two epic battles. For over six years, she's been fighting daily for her own life, against a formidable medical condition. Now, she's also fighting for the life (spiritual, at the very least) of her only daughter, Avigail Leah, to save her from a military persecuting her for simply following the Torah.
We first reported on this shocking story yesterday (see https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/08/another-religious-girl-and-her-idf-vet.html ). However, revealing details continue to emerge in this ongoing saga. Their struggle to resist the female draft extended over most of the past year. Avigail successfully applied for her religious certification documentation in mid-November '18. The government's resistance to providing Avigail her religious exemption - to which religious girls are entitled to by law (and status quo) - became apparent this past February, when her mother had a phone conversation with the aforementioned draft officer. In response to the Draft official's insistence that Avigail enlist, her mother explained that her daughter is fully religious and entitled to a religious exemption no less than any other religious girl.
In the face of the mother's resolute stand, the aforementioned officer retorted:
"Achallel et haKerem" ("I will violate/ desecrate/ profane The Vineyard") "-- and I will start with your daughter."
Thereby, in addition to revealing her intransigence, she exposed her true motivations.
That statement, on its very face reveals three things, for starters:
(1) a shocking sense of entitlement;
(2) a clear social-engineering agenda; and
(3) the unmitigated chutzpa to utter such terrible words.
In reality, many officials within the Israeli government make no secret of the fact that they have an agenda of drafting religious girls, and - quite apparently - especially religious girls. Moreover, as many individual cases of attempted drafting of religious girls reveal, many officials also feel entitled to act on that agenda, drafting religious girls at whim, even in blatant violation of Israeli law and the status quo.
This targeting of religious girls is actually reflected in a declared military policy shift about six years ago, when the Israeli government openly declared increasing the drafting of religious girls to be an official objective. That itself was no less than a declaration of war against the religious community. Concurrently, the funding of key religious institutions and community services has played a vital role in helping keep strategic individuals in positions in which they can partially blunt communal religious reaction to the ongoing crusade against Kedushas Bnos Yisroel.
We could delve into the deeper meanings of the aforementioned statement, but that isn't necessary at the moment. Suffice it to look at the tangible actions of the draft officials against religious girls, in this case, as well as many others, including those cases briefly reported on in the Jewish Press ever since Rinas bas Chedva was tormented for 39 days for fleeing her abusers in the IDF, and for her refusal to return to her abusers, and enablers, in the IDF.
It is also noteworthy that Keren used the term "Kerem," vineyard. In Tanach, the Jewish People are referred to as a grapevine (e.g. in Tehillim 80), as well as a vineyard ("Kerem"), e.g. Yeshayah 5:7. Violation of The Vineyard is an apt description of what drafting girls- especially religious girls - is all about. They take 18 year-old girls - just about ready to marry and start a family, and tear them away from their families, and out of their natural spiritual growth trajectory. Far worse, they place these girls into an environment that overall is secularist-dominated, highly promiscuous, and exploitative*. This is not to mention the escalated physical dangers of women being in a military environment, especially in the female - and even mixed (yes) -combat units. If that's not a "violation of the Vineyard," what is?
Please daven for Avigail Leah bas Ester Rus Leemor, and for her seriously ill mother, Ester Rus Leemo bas Tzippora. Avigail is facing the threat of imminent arrest anytime now, while her mother's condition has recently deteriorated.
The time to speak out against this unmitigated rishus is now. Our federal elected officials need to hear from us, in America and beyond. We are judged by how we stand by those in precisely this type of danger.
###
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* For further research, linked below are a few sample articles: (Warning: Some or all of these articles include text and/or images that are too explicit for unfiltered access for many of our readers.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Promiscuity & Abortion in the IDF:
