Rabbi David Stav, Chief Rabbi of Shoham and head of the Tzohar organization, was among the demonstrators who joined Wednesday’s “March for Conscription” in Yerushalayim, a rally calling for members of the chareidi community to be drafted into the IDF.
In an interview with Arutz Sheva during the event, Rabbi Stav acknowledged that attending public protests is not his typical mode of expression. “My way to express myself is through writing, through talking to the people, not through physical participation in demonstrations.”
This time, however, he felt compelled to join the demonstration in person. “We can not continue anymore without raising our voices, yelling, screaming, praying, because we understand that just this morning we started a new action in Gaza. Another battalion started to participate.”
Rabbi Stav shared the emotional toll he has witnessed within his own circle. “So many of my students and congregants who were called from their universities and yeshivot again to serve for the fourth and fifth time. It’s breaking up families, it’s destroying jobs, and it’s impossible that one tribe will carry the responsibility of the state, and another tribe, which has tens of thousands of men, would not be a part of that mission.”
Referencing Pirkei Avos, he said, “Carrying the burden of our society is one of the 48 ways that the Torah is given to us. The minimum that we can expect is that there would be no tribe that’s excluded from that holy mission.”
Rabbi Stav also criticized both the military and government for what he sees as a lack of initiative in implementing real change. “Instead of that, the government is currently doing the opposite: it encourages people not to go to the army by giving them so many incentives and benefits that there is no reason for them to go to the army. On the other hand, it does not encourage anybody to go to the army.”
He argued that the IDF itself must make serious efforts to integrate chareidim properly. “Show it’s serious by fitting itself and the conditions so they are suitable for the chareidi soldiers, they are not doing enough, and stop lying to the people by telling them that thousands are drafting, when we know that they count people that were chareidi five or six years ago and stopped being observant a long time ago.”
In his view, the two key bodies responsible for leading the charge—Israel’s government and military—are failing to fulfill their role. “These two institutions that are supposed to be the first ones to be interested in drafting the chareidi society, they are not doing their mission. Once they do their mission, at least the big part of the chareidi society will be drafted.”
{Matzav.com Israel}The post Rabbi David Stav Attacks Yeshiva Bochurim: “No Tribe Should Be Exempt From Holy Mission of Military Service” first appeared on Matzav.com.