The War for Israel's Soul

By Moshe Feiglin
It is very symbolic that Defense Minister Barak has chosen Chanukah - the holiday that would never have been born if the Greeks had not attempted to eliminate Jewish faith - to threaten the freedom of thought of a Jewish scholar and educator. "Teach what I tell you to teach," says Barak," and in exchange we will allow the religious nationalist students to combine Torah study with army service - as long as they defer to the army and not to their rabbis."

The struggle between the Israeli regime and Rabbi Eliezer Melamed's hesder yeshiva in Har Bracha is another chapter in the all-out war that the auto-anti-Semitic Israeli elite wages against Religious Zionism. This is a war for Israel's soul. It is the war of the crumbling anti-Jewish old guard fighting for its hegemony against the Jewish alternative that is being born.

Whoever reads the leftist commentaries in Ha'aretz understands that the elites crave another expulsion; they yearn for burning synagogues and the sight of settler families being dragged from their homes. For them, the goal of expulsion is expulsion itself and the goal of the battle against the yeshiva of Har Bracha is the destruction of all the hesder yeshivas. Four and a half years ago, they broke the physical body of the settlements. Now they want to break its spirit.

When Barak expelled the Har Bracha yeshiva from the army, he turned all the remaining yeshivas into state-controlled institutions. From now on, the rabbis of the various hesder yeshivas must all toe the government line. If not, they, too, will be expelled from the hesder arrangement. The students must understand that if a rabbi cannot speak his mind because of fear of the government and its ego-inflated ministers, the Torah that he teaches cannot be one hundred per cent true.

The only logical reaction to the current phase of this war for Israel's soul is for all the hesder yeshivas to cancel their arrangement with the Defense Ministry. Instead, they should send the students who have not yet enlisted in the army to the Har Bracha yeshiva. But it is hard to believe that that is what will happen. So now the ball is in the yeshiva students' court.

For years, Religious Zionist youth have been brought up to serve in the army with self-sacrifice. In Israel, army service is a prerequisite for growing up. Enlistment is like a second bar-mitzvah - an essential part of a young man's maturity and self-image. But now, it is time for the Religious Zionist youth to overcome the army tradition. They must defer their enlistment and enroll in the Har Bracha yeshiva, instead.

Forget about the hesder arrangement. The fact that it is an "arrangement" means that something about it is not right. Study true Torah for two years in Har Bracha or in other yeshivas that are not state-controlled. Mold your values and beliefs well. At the age of 20 - enlistment age according to the Torah - enlist in the army like all other Israelis. Just make sure that you are willing to clearly delineate the limits of obedience.