The Haredi refusal to take part in the defense of Israel is an obscenity. But the real obscenity is not the preference to remain in the safety of their air-conditioned yeshivas  – assuming they are even sitting in yeshivas. Nor is it the spurious claim some of them make that their Torah learning plays a role in securing our nation.  Nor is it even their hooliganism and violence as they paralyze our roads and vandalize our public transportation system while trumpeting their “refusal to serve in the enemy army”.

All of these are indeed reprehensible, yet they are merely symptomatic of a far deeper and more objectionable root problem. Because what is truly offensive is their utter negation of any Torah that is disconnected from their way of life. Such Torah does not exist. The hundreds of Religious Zionist yeshivot are simply not on their radar. The monumental Torah scholars who abound in the ‘Dati Leumi’  (Religious Zionist) community are irrelevant, as is any of their brilliant scholarship and significant published oeuvre. Haredi rejection is total. Any Torah that does not wear a black Borsalino or shtreimel and answer to the diktats of a 90 year old hater of Zionism does not exist.

Yet even this is hardly the worst aspect of this abomination. Indeed, the most inexcusable and unforgivable part of this scenario is that our cynical and self-serving Government pays lip service (and billions of shekels) to this obscenity. And it is about to sanction this ethos through pending legislation that would effectively enshrine this haredi travesty in basic law.

The fact is, Torah can........

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