Dear Friends,
I’m quite uncomfortable sharing this, but Ronit is encouraging me to do so, so I’m listening to her!
R. Harry Maryles, a talmid of Brisk Chicago and father-in-law of Rabbi Micha Greenland, Director of NCSY, picked up on my article and wrote the following:
One of the most widely respected commentators on the Jewish world - particularly the Orthodox Jewish world is Rabbi Hillel Goldberg. Editor and publisher of the Intermountain Jewish News out of Denver, Colorado. When I say ‘widely’ I include the Charedi world. He has been a frequent contributor to Mishpacha Magazine. I am one of his biggest fans. And tend to agree with him the vast majority of the time.
Rabbi Goldberg has managed to transmit his values to his son, Rabbi Chaim Goldberg. I base this on the fact that he has published his own commentaries on the Jewish world and found them to be similar to his father.
What I wasn’t aware of is that Chaim apparently made Aliyah and now lives in Israel. And has joined the IDF in one of their Charedi units.
I’m not sure how Chaim would describe himself. Perhaps he is a Centrist or a moderate Charedi. But he is very knowledgeable Jewishly; clearly someone that is Medakdek - very careful about his religious obligations; and someone that thinks for himself. He recognizes the gross injustice of boycotting army service in a country under constant siege by deadly enemies.
Chaim has written an article in the Jewish Press about his experiences there that should put to rest all the excuses made by the Charedi leadership for boycotting it. It isn’t just about taking ‘Lomdei Torah’ (those that study Torah diligently full time) out of the Beis HaMedrash. That seemed to be the mantra for opposing IDF service and used as part of their clarion call in raising the 100 million dollars in government funding they lost for boycotting it.
That may be important but secondary. The primary reason seems to be that the army will make a ‘Goy’ out of you. Meaning that if you go in Charedi, you will come out secular. The army’s cultural influences will disabuse you of your religious beliefs and observances.
I have been trying to refute that narrative in a variety of ways for some time now. But Rabbi Chaim Goldberg gives us a first hand account of what really goes on in IDF Charedi units that should dispel any fears about Charedim going OTD there. Here are a few excerpts that tell the story:
You can read R. Maryles’ full blog post here
For new readers, my article about Shlav Bet is here: https://chaimgoldberg.substack.com/shlav-bet-a-charedi-friendly-army
Also, there are some points which I couldn’t fit into the article. In case I don’t get to writing another article about the experience overall, I’m including them here in brief.
1) Zmanim/Being on time:
Anyone who knows me, knows I’m rarely on time. I’m not proud of it, but that’s the way it is. The army pounds in the value of timeliness incessantly. I’m proud to share that on my first Shabbos post-training, I was on time to every single davening! And since then, I’ve still been on time to davening much more frequently.
2) Phone/computer usage:
I’ve become somewhat addicted to the news/the screen. I try various methods to help myself in that regard, such as virtually cutting out social media usage and not having internet on my phone. Nonetheless, I’m on the internet more than I would like to be.
I made a conscious decision not to bring my laptop to my army training, which essentially meant I had no internet. Major news events took place, such as the assassinations of Hezbollah/Hamas’ second-in-commands. Normally, I’d be reading many news/opinion articles about it. But I couldn’t. They even took away our phones much of the time. Lo and behold, it hardly made a difference. I found out the news from my comrades and commanders; in fact, it was refreshing to share human connection over news events.
3) For those interested in the question of what Torah sources say about army service, here is a footnote to the 3rd paragraph:
Two examples of such are the Tribe of Levi’s exemption and “Torah Protects.” The idea of Levi's exemption and its applicability, or lack thereof, is discussed fully in the author's earlier IJN article, “Should the IDF exempt haredi Jews?”. Explaining the concept of "Torah protects" cannot be done properly in a footnote. That said, the crux of the issue is that while there absolutely is such a value in the Talmud (Sotah 21a), it is said specifically with reference to the same person who studies and fights. It does not mean that the Torah study of someone exempting themselves from fighting provides protection to soldiers. Of course, all Torah study carries value as part of raising the Torah observance of the Jewish people, which is also a factor in military success. Such Torah study is meant to be done by those who are not needed or unable to fight, or the soldiers themselves (Megillah 3a).