Hear the Cries of the Silent Heroes of Israel
3 Sivan, 5782 / Bamidbar / Le'Ilui Nishmas Dinah Bas Itta Libah A"H / June 2, '22
The crisis of female Israeli teenagers being routinely bullied, hounded, persecuted, arrested, and incarcerated over their refusal to submit to Israeli Army Draft Office dictates remains an ongoing threat, one of monumental proportions, to the long-term survival of Jews as Jews in Israeli society. Israel, unlike the vast majority of countries, drafts 18- year-old girls into the military. They generally allow girls to apply for a "religious exemption." If the Army wants to challenge that application for a religious exemption, they do so, in a multitude of ways, some of them officially legal.
Our primary objection here is against the very drafting of women altogether - of any level of religiosity, of any background, color, or ethnicity - Jewish or otherwise. The level of religiosity of a girl is irrelevant here. Forcing women into military service has no place in any society - especially one that claims to civilized. This is all the more so in the modern era of mixed-gender units, fallout of ascendant "Dequality" Dogma.
The very fact that - at just about any given time - there are girls sitting in Israeli Military Prison over their refusal to enlist in the Army is an outrage and kitrug. It's also the zenith of hypocrisy, when perpetrated as official policy by a country claiming to be the "Jewish" state. I can think of few things more antithetical to Judaism than forcing young women, the future mothers of the Jewish People, into the morally corrosive, exploitive military milieu - especially given all of the depravity ensuing from that policy, including the devastating abortion rate. If you insist on calling yourself a Jewish State, then at least pretend to "walk the walk," on this and other foundational issues. Otherwise, don't just "talk the talk."
This is something we all must clarify, unrelentingly: The Israeli law that mandates the drafting of "non-religious" girls is itself an outrage. No Torah leader ever agreed to such a barbarian law. In fact, the world-renowned Brisker Rov, OB"M, was even more adamantly opposed to drafting non-Torah-observant girls than drafting Torah-observant girls - the latter also being absolutely prohibited - "Yai'horaig V'al Ya'avor" (see Sefer Yeled Sha'ashu'im, p. 350). At most, some Torah leaders of previous decades may have deemed it impossible to fight the female military draft per se. That apparently prompted some of them (but NOT the Brisker Rov - see Sefer Yeled Sha'ashu'im, p. 348-9) to acquiesce to focus on saving whom they could from an Israeli government hellbent on drafting girls, namely "religious and traditional" girls.
However, things have changed. In recent years, the very policies put in place to ostensibly shield religious and traditional girls from being drafted into the military are being regularly exploited to persecute and draft the "easy targets" among them. "Easy targets" for the Israeli Army Draft Office include traditional (Mesorati) girls, Ba'alot Teshuva, Ethiopian girls, immigrants and their daughters, girls from divorced families, and girls who have a very ill immediate family member. They also include girls who, for whatever reason, studied in a non-religious school.
° Consider the irony of the latter: much of the secularist Israeli establishment relentlessly complains how so many of the Torah-observant population shun secular education. These secularist critics mockingly dismiss legitimate religious objections to many secular educational venues. However, when a religious girl does enroll in a non-religious school, even if its with religious safeguards, this same secularist cast of characters brands her as irreligious, and therefore unqualified for a religious exemption from military service.
° Another phenomenon accentuates the raw corruption of the escalating crusade against religious and traditional girls. Israel is fond of flaunting its Hi-Tech credentials and accomplishments. In marked contrast to its ability to shoot down drones with lasers, they can't seem to deliver critical mail to their own Army Draft Office. The Israeli Postal Service is able to deliver mail to everywhere in the country. Yet, it very frequently "fails to deliver" military exemption certification from Israeli girls to the Draft Office - located right in Jerusalem, on Rechov Rashi. This coincidental "quirk" in mail delivery helps the Draft Office persecute girls for ostensibly failing to submit requisite paperwork. Thereby, the Israeli postal service plays an important role in what some see as a trafficking scheme, seeking to force teenage girls into enlisting in the Israeli Army. All of this absurdity is clearly on orders from "on high."
The predictable results of drafting 18-year-old females into an immoral military milieu have been apparent for decades. One of these is widespread abortion. Abortion, according to Rav Moshe Feinstein OB"M (d. 1985), is murder for Jews and non-Jews alike (Iggros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat, Vol. 2, e.g. 73:8, p.310).
Those seeking to stop the unrelenting abortion of Jewish babies, which has killed over two million (!!) Israelis, would be advised to seek ways to end Israel's female military draft. That one policy shift - one which could definitely gain unusually broad public support - would reduce abortion dramatically over time.
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On Abortion, according to Rav Moshe Feinstein, a premier, world renowned authority in Jewish Law, [from The Jewish Press, slightly edited]:
"Abortion in Jewish Law: DID YOU KNOW....?
That Reb Moshe Feinstein, OB"M, a premier authority in Jewish Law, writes in a responsa (Iggros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat 2:73:8 p. 310) that not only are Jews prohibited from committing abortion (except in the most extreme circumstances, specifically danger to the Mother's life -BF) but we are also prohibited from assisting even non-Jewish people in committing abortion. Abortion is prohibited for non-Jews too, as a capital crime. Even if refusing to perform an abortion would result in "Aivoh" (antipathy towards Jews), it remains prohibited for Jewish doctors [to even participate in]."
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Interestingly, that responsa was penned on the 16th day of the Hebrew month Iyyar, 5742, being exactly 40 years - to the day - prior the Jewish protest in Washington DC, on Tues. May 17, '22, against the NCJW faux "Jewish" demonstration for abortion legalization. [One week earlier, he had written a responsa (CM 2:70, p.300), clarifying some errors that led some to lenient positions on abortion.]
It's not the only responsa he wrote decrying abortion as murder - for all Mankind, Jew and non-Jew alike (see ibid., 2:69, p.294). Cf. ibid., 2:69 (p.294); 2:71, p.302 (regarding the Rambam in MT, Hil. Rotzaiach 1:9; Noda BeYehuda); p. 303 (para. 1-3).
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Promiscuity and rampant abortion in IDF, sample reports:
1) https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/40-cases-of-rape-reported-in-the-IDF-signifying-rise-in-complaints-561765
2) https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Dramatic-rise-in-number-of-IDF-soldiers-reporting-sexual-assault-572369
3) https://www.israelhayom.com/2018/12/12/idf-sees-spike-in-sexual-harassment-complaints-in-2018/
4) https://www.1202.org.il/en/union/info/statistics/arcci-statistics
5) https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/.premium.MAGAZINE-israeli-choreographer-takes-on-routine-sexual-harassment-in-idf-1.6717980
6) https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/IDF-to-offer-day-after-pills-to-soldiers-570107
7) https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-to-provide-morning-after-pills-in-effort-to-decrease-abortions/
8) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16146146/
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Ostensibly Orthodox advocacy organizations ought to be focusing on these burning issues, rather than issuing absurd statements trepidating or obfuscating over the U.S. Supreme Court possibly alleviating Roe, in the wake of the bloody legacy of the 63 Million. However, they are not. And that itself says much more than we ever could.
On the opposite side of the moral spectrum, those who stand with the aforementioned female refusenik heroes of Klal Yisroel will share in their monumental merit. Those young women, refusing to enlist in the Army, despite Army Draft Office terror and antireligious persecution, endure so much - and thereby secure the continuity of the Jewish People, whose identity is inherently connected to our fidelity to the Torah - as it was given to us on Har Sinai - just over 3333 years ago.
Wishing the readers an uplifting Shavuos,
Rabbi Noson Shmuel Leiter,
