by Rav Dov Lior - a Holocaust survivor, former Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Arba/Hevron, and leading religious-Zionist Torah scholar, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel.
Some study in Yeshiva and some serve in the IDF – and both thus contribute to the war effort. But what about someone who has to decide which one is better for him?
Rav Dov Lior - responded to a student of a Hesder Yeshiva (combining Torah study with army service) who asked precisely that question:
Q. Should I continue studying in Yeshiva, or should I concentrate on my army service and become an officer?
Rav Lior:
This is a very weighty question that comes up frequently in Hesder yeshivot. In general, one who can advance in Torah study and become a great Torah scholar, should drop everything else and dedicate his life to the world of Torah. We today are fighting on two fronts equally: for the State of Israel's physical existence, and for the spiritual image of the nation of Israel. The latter is where we decide whether we, nationally, take the path of the Torah of Israel, or be like all the other nations – and we don't have many people who can provide guidance and influence towards the path of holiness; for this, we need many students to be totally immersed in the world of Torah.
I therefore look at each student individually, and if I see that if his Torah abilities are not particularly special, but that he does have the potential to advance in the army, become a commander, and sanctify G-d's Name in that way, then certainly he should go to the army. But the preference must always be given to the sphere of Torah, because we are short on forces in this area.
Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Neriah, of blessed memory (founder, in the 1930's, of the Yeshivot Bnei Akiva movement), once told us that in the Bnei Akiva movement, there was a tendency to direct all the youth to help build Kibbutzim – while he himself directed all those who were capable to go to Yeshivot. When asked why he did that, he said that in all the other fields, a natural selection process takes place, where all the fields are filled with people who are naturally drawn to them. But regarding Torah, if people are not specifically directed to it, the negative sitra achra forces take over and will prevent boys from going to yeshivot. Therefore, every student should ask his rabbi/teacher if he thinks he has the ability and skills to grow in Torah, in which case he should remain in the Yeshiva – and if the rabbi feels differently, then certainly the student should go to the army where he can contribute and raise up the nation with his talents.
The same calculation must be made when it comes to public activism and politics, which are also very important. Everyone must start out by learning Torah for at least two or three years, to ensure that he has a Torah background and that he can "open a sefer (Torah text)." Then, if he has the skills necessary to enter the world of politics, he should go in this direction, for it is important that we have people there, people whose judgment and decisions are not made based on what public opinion seems to want, but rather depend on what Torah says about the issues.
As we know, our generation does not have many people who correctly view and comprehend the magnitude of the Divine Providence that we have been experiencing in recent decades. Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlop, student/friend of HaRav Kook, wrote some years ago that the main point of our generation is Eretz Yisrael, settling and building it, and installing Jewish sovereignty here. This is because he, as other great rabbis, had a Torah view of history; we must see the future based on the past and present.
The Talmud explains how the first disputes between Torah scholars came about: The schools of Shammai and Hillel differed on many points because, the Talmud says, "they did not serve as students to their teachers [they did not attend to their masters] sufficiently."
Similarly in our generation: During the year preceding the unilateral Disengagement and expulsion from Gaza in 2005, then-Chief Rabbis Avraham Shapira and Mordechai Eliyahu emphasized repeatedly that Halakhically, based on the Ramban, one may not cooperate in any way with the expulsion of Jews or the transfer of parts of Eretz Yisrael to the enemy. Yet still, people who called themselves rabbis dared to differ with the Torah greats of the generation, and "ruled" that it was forbidden for soldiers to refuse army orders to facilitate the expulsion. I have no explanation for this, other than to say what the Talmud says: They did not learn from their own rabbis sufficiently, and thus, the Sages' words came true that in the times of the footsteps of the Messiah, "chutzpah will hold sway."
I personally am quite sure that if the entire religious public had arisen as one to say that they would not cooperate in any way with the expulsion, this crime might well have been prevented. But the public saw that some rabbis legitimized the move, and they therefore saw no reason to try to take their own individual initiatives against it. This was especially true for those who were threatened with dismissal or demotion – for not everyone has the necessary boldness and strength to stand up to such pressures. This is the weakness of our generation.
[In response to those who said at the time that perhaps we should take no further part in the IDF:] Even in the times of Moshe Rabbeinu there were those who sinned, and "light and darkness reigned simultaneously in confusion." This is not a reason to stop our attempts to integrate ourselves in the military. Our guys must highlight their skills in the army, and realize that our contributions are important – and in fact are already having an effect.
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