bs"d
Re: A campaign to promote the Mitzvah of Tefillin and Tzizit for the protection for all the soldiers...
The recent aggressive campaign of various groups against Giyus (draft) of Chareidim has led to much Machlokes and a negative impression of Gedoilim who might be perceived as only caring about Yeshiva Bochorim, Bnei Torah, sitting and learning in Yeshiva while not really caring about the combat soldiers facing our enemies in combat nor about the civilians under attack such as residents in Sderot or victims of terror attacks such as the one today in Adam in northern Jerusalem in Samaria.
fyi about LeHovin a newspaper with an Agenda
EXCLUSIVE REPORT: NEW ENGLISH NEWSPAPER LAUNCHED BY HAPELEG SUPPORTERS
This is a propaganda paper with an agenda. No Giyus (Chareidi draft) for Bnei Torah.
Here is the front page article by Rabbi Yosef Berkowitz a pseudonym of Rabbi Sruly London from Flatbush. After reading this article one will come away thinking that Israel and the IDF has one agenda and that is to ensnare Bnei Torah to leave Yiddishkeit.
Lehovin Issue 8 Parshat Devorim page 1 True Unity as Tisha B'Av Approaches by Rabbi Yosef Berkowitz
Lehovin Issue 8 Parshat Devorim page 4 cont article from page 1
Lehovin Issue 8 Parshat Devorim page 6 News Room, Hundreds of Hamas Rockets hit Southern Israel, Kites still wreaking havoc in Southern Israel...
Pull Quote: "Frum politicians and journalists, after all, don't decide things for themselves; they consult with gedolei Torah and follow their directives"
Do the Rabbonim they reference agree with Lehovin's agenda?
I doubt the Gedolim mentioned in this article approve of the agenda of this paper which serves only to divide Am Yisroel and Bnei Torah with Machlokes.
This paper fails to provide Hakoras Hatov to the existing entity that addresses the existential threats coming from our enemies to protect the people. While they acknowledge that the existential threats exist they continuously bad mouth the IDF and the government of Israel who has to deal with these terror threats.
What is blatant is the failure to acknowledge that perhaps the Chayalim in Tzahal are there primarily to defend the security of all the people of Israel rather than to bring about a spiritual demise of G-d fearing Jews.
The accusations and allegations against the IDF and the Israeli Government in the larger scheme of things are false.
Soldiers serving in Hesder units as well as Nachal Chareidi units remain committed to Torah before, during and after their army service. Their religious needs are being addressed so that they are not compromised. They are G-d fearing and believe that their purpose in serving in the IDF is fulfilling the Mitzvoth D-Orayta of protecting the people and the Land of Eretz Yisroel from it's enemies. The majority of the secular Mosarati Idf Soldier as well believes that he is sacrificing his time and efforts in order to protect his family, his home and the people of Israel.
Are there elements in the army that are coming from an impure place which indeed might threaten the spiritual level of the soldier. Perhaps, and it is right to address these concerns. But why throw out the baby with the dirty bathwater?
Ask any Holocaust Survivor if they prefer no Jewish military and no one to protect them and just have Bnei Torah learning as was the case prior to the Holocaust?
How many Yeshivas thrived in Nazi Germany? Can't think of one.
To call the IDF Shmad and a Spiritual Holocaust is to distort reality.
With Tzahal protecting Israel and Hashem protecting Tzahal, there has been more Torah study in the Land of Israel happening than in the last 2,000 years!
Points to ponder..
Why does the Torah command "Vehaya Machanecha Kadosh", that the military camp be Holy, if the Torah was against a military camp? This Pasuk Pshuto KMashmao, its literal meaning, is not referring to being Holy in a separate seating concert!
Why are there so many Mitzvoth DOrayta, Biblical Commandments, pertaining to a military camp? Please consult Rambam Sefer HaMitzvoth or Sefer HaChinuch that has them delineated. Are they not relevant in today's world?
Why is Am Yisroel counted according to Yotzei Tzava, those of age to serve in the army, if the Torah is against a fighting army?
Why did Avraham Avinu, Yakov Avinu, Moshe Rabbeinu, Yehoshua bin Nun, Dovid Hamelech etc. all engage in military warfare and engage in strategy, with real soldiers with real weapons, swords, spears, chariots, horses, elephants etc. Is all this to detract from ones religiousity as this article suggests?
Why did Moshe Rabbeinu rebuke the Tribes of Reuvein and Gad for not joining with the rest of Am Yisroel to fight and conquer Eretz Yisroel?
Why does the Shulchan Aruch clearly state one is obligated to violate Shabbos and go to war to protect Eretz Yisroel?
Not to have a Jewish army is suicidal!
Alternatively, why can't Torah Leadership insist that the Defense Ministry be led by G-d fearing Jews?
To isolate all the G-d fearing Jews from the IDF will only serve to weaken the army since a G-d fearing army is the secret of its success!
Why not celebrate the recent appointment of promotion of Brigadier General Ofer Winter as Liberman's Military Secretary.
A July 9, 2014 call from an officer, then Givati Brigade commander, to his soldiers on the eve of entering the Gaza Strip:
"History has chosen us to spearhead the fighting against the terrorist Gazan enemy which abuses, blasphemes and curses the God of Israel's forces," Winter wrote. "We have planned and prepared for this moment and we take the mission upon ourselves out of commitment, complete humility, and because we are prepared to endanger ourselves and lay down our lives in order to protect our families, our people and our homeland."
Winter then recited the Sh'ma Israel prayer, asking "the God of Israel" to "make our path successful as we go and stand to fight for the sake of your people of Israel against a foe who curses your name.
From the words of this article in LeHovin, one comes away with the wrong impression that the IDF is an unholy entity with an unholy agenda. Probably the majority of the readers living in Flatbush, and hopefully Lakewood aren't impressed with this falsehood, but they might walk away with a lack of respect for all the Rabbonim mentioned in this article who are perceived to take the position of this paper which slanders the IDF and the Draft as being detrimental to serving G-d and keeping Torah and Commandments?
Silence will empower the side of evil. By remaining silent and the public clueless of the Gedoilims position regarding whether or not there should be an army protecting Israel, and what role the Bachurim, the Bnei Torah should play to help the physical protection of Eretz Yisroel suggests that Bnei Torah should have no active role. The argument being that to have an active role spells spiritual suicide.
How then will Bnei Torah be included in the Nation of Israel's Army of Hashem? As it says Elef LeMateh, Elef LeMateh.
אֶלֶף לַמַּטֶּה אֶלֶף לַמַּטֶּה לְכֹל מַטּוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל תִּשְׁלְחוּ לַצָּבָא.
במדבר לא ד
כל אזרח שאינו מגוייס לקרב יכול להשתתף במלחמה על-ידי תפילה. כך למדו חז"ל מהפסוק:
אֶלֶף לַמַּטֶּה אֶלֶף לַמַּטֶּה לְכֹל מַטּוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל תִּשְׁלְחוּ לַצָּבָא. וימסרו מאלפי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶלֶף לַמַּטֶּה שנים עשר אֶלֶף חלוצי צבא." "תורתנו הקדושה מעידה כי במלחמת מדין נצטוו להיחלץ "אלף למטה אלף למטה". ואיתא במדרש רבה ובילקוט שמעוני ש"וימסרו" היינו עוד אלף למטה. פירושו שהיו נמסרין זוגות זוגות, כדי שיהיו מתפללים איש על רעהו. ואכן במלחמת מדין נאמר "ולא נפקד ממנו איש". ובודאי העובדה שניצלו כולם הייתה בגלל תפילת כלל ישראל" (הרב שמחה הכהן קוק, האדמור מבוסטון).
translation:
Any citizen who wasn't drafted for combat can participate in a war by prayer. This is how Chazal learned from the verse:
"A thousand to a Tribe, a thousand to a Tribe from all the Tribes of Israel you will send to the army. And they will give from the thousands of Israel 12,000 combat Soldiers". Our holy Torah testifies that in the war of Midian they were commanded to extricate "a thousand to at Tribe a thousand to a Tribe." And it is written in the Midrash Rabbah and in Yalkut Shimoni that "they were given", means there were another thousand from each tribe. It means that they paired each soldier with another soldier who would pray for the other. Indeed, in the war of Midian it was said, "And no one was unaccounted for." And certainly the fact that they were all saved was because of the prayer of Klal Yisrael "(Rabbi Simcha Hacohen Kook, the Admor of Boston).
We learn that the Torah does promote Chayalim that are engaged in active combat and promotes other Chayalin engaged in Tefilla.... The safety and security of the Chayalim actively engaged in combat is directly connected to the entire Nation's worthiness.
Being disengaged from the mainstream while disparaging our brothers who are actively engaged in combat, those who are carrying the burden disporportionately, is unfair and serves only to weaken the army engaged in combat.
Noone is exempt from this battle.
Let us therefore suggest the following!
Tefillin and Tzizit is the best Shemira for the Chayalim. This campaign can unite all of Am Yisroel. Every Jew, practicing or not, should be encouraged to put on Tefillin and Tzizit for the protection of the soldiers! Are the Roshei Yeshivot and Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah actively encouraging each and every Bachur, and every frum Yid to have extra Kavana when putting on Tefillin and wearing Tzizit. When davening and learning Torah, they should remember to always have in mind the protection of the combat soldiers on the front and the protection of civilian populations such as those targeted by Hamas Rockets. Chayalim and civilians under attack are depending on Bnei Torah to have this in their uppermost consciousness.
The reality of the threat is driven home best when one is under attack. Ask the children living in Sderot with sirens going off. Surely sitting in Yeshiva protected, far away from battle, makes it difficult to have the same Kavana as the G-d fearing soldier on the battlefield facing the enemy.
We can all agree, it is not Kochi veOtzem Yadi, our might and strength, that will ultimately protect us.
This point was recently brought home when a bullet pierced through the ceramic bullet proof vest of the IDF Soldier Aviv Levy hy"d.
Excerpts from this front Page Lehovin article....
"Dozens of leading Sefardi roshei yeshiva and rabbonim led a throng of thousands in tefilla at the kevorim of past great leaders of Sefardic Jewry. They cried out to Hashem over a decree that in just the last five years have brought, in the words of the Sefardi gadol Rav Yehuda Ades, a "spiritual holocaust for the Torah world in general and especially for the Sefardi Torah World".
A group of America's most revered talmidei chachamim met to discuss the situation in Eretz Yisroel. The meeting, which brought together an unusually wide spectrum of manhigim, including Chacham Yosef Harari Raful, Rav Dovid Feinstein, Rav Aharon Feldman, Rav Osher Kalmanowitz, Rav Malkiel Kotler, Rav Dovid Harris, Rav Yaakov Horowitz, Rav Aharon Schechter and Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel, was convened amidst deep concern at the reports of what is happening to bnei Torah there."
And in Eretz Yisroel itself, of course, gedolei Torah from every segment of Torah world have been crying out in pain over this crisis of immense proportions for the future of Torah and Yahadus in Artzeinu HaKedosha. There are the gedolim whose profound distress at what is taking place is publicly known, like Rav Dovid Soloveitchik, Rav Azriel Auerbach, Rav Shmuel Deutsch, Rav Tzvi Friedman, RaYisroel Yaakov Kalmanovitch, Rav Tzvi Rotberg and Rav Moshe Shterbuch.
But there are many, many others, some of whom have kept a lower profile. On Shiva Assar B'Tamuz for example, the renowned mashpia Rav Tzvi Meir Zilberberg led a yom tefillah in Meron at the tziyun of Reb Shimon bar Yochai,where Tehillim was said for almost four hours, with Rav Tzvi Meir leading the tefillos with bechiyos nora'os. ..."
What was missing from this article was the Gedoilim crying out in pain over the suffering of those in the south who have been targeted with Hamas Rockets that hit southern Israel and the kites still wreaking havoc in southern Israel that they reported in the News Section of the paper.
Readers might put 2 and 2 together and conclude that these aren't burning issues for the Gedoilim and if only there would be no Chareidi draft, then Hamas would stop sending in rockets and kites into Israel and ISIS would never threaten Israel. It's like if we would only allow a Palestinian State in Judea and Samaria then there would be peace and security in the low lying population centers like Tel Aviv and Bnei Brak.
But obviously this is highly unrealistic. Because a more logical conclusion is that we need a practical way to stop Hamas from attacking Israel and that a G-d fearing IDF is probably the best answer.
Another worrisome article in Lehovin:
Lehovin Issue 8 page 8 Parshas Devorim
Nationality Bill Loom Disastrous
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Sincerely,
Robin Ticker
Activist emails sent to my list are L'Ilui Nishmat Yisrael ben David Aryeh ob"m (Izzy - Kaplan) and Howard Chaim Grief great activists and lovers of Eretz Yisroel, Am Yisroel and the Torah. Yehi Zichronum Baruch. May their memories serve as a blessing.
