The question of the enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox in the army of the Jewish people is not new and has not finished generating ink. But what appears today as a fault line is a relatively recent position, which ignores the combative history of many Orthodox people before and after the re-establishment of the State of Israel. In our tradition itself, the defense of the people of Israel is in no way a fault but a duty; When it comes to protecting Jewish life and Israel’s sovereignty, the fight becomes a mitzvah.
Rav Moche Zvi Segal parading behind Jabotinsky's coffin during his reburial in Israel.
The figures of Joshua, David and the heroes of Israel in the Tanakh remind us that the Jewish ideal has never consisted of sacred passivity in the face of danger: prayer accompanies the fight, it does not outsource it to others.
Thus, this complementarity is illustrated in the modern history of the Yishuv, through figures sometimes very far from religious Zionism alone, whose commitment is more widely known.
THE Rav Ugly Zvi Segal emigrated to Israel in 1924. Coming from a Hasidic family, he decided to enlist in Etzel (Irgun) before taking command of the Lehi in Jerusalem. He sent a large number of Yeshiva students to Lehi where they would fight the British in order to free Eretz Israel from their yoke. He subsequently became a central figure in Chabad circles in Israel.
Another central figure, Menahem Eichler was born in 1922 in Mea Shearim. He studied there at Yeshiva Hatam Sofer. Faced with British domination which oppresses the Yishuv and the intensification of Arab attacks, Eichler decides to create - in Mea Shearim - a Lehi unit composed exclusively of ultra-orthodox Yeshiva students. This unit will be particularly noted for the bravery of its members; a source from the time even reports that before an operation likely to spill over into Shabbat, Eichler went to ask permission from the rabbi of Belz, who granted it. After independence, Eichler returned to his classic Haredi life in Jerusalem. Irony of history; his son, Yisrael Eichler (deputy for the United Torah Judaism party), is today one of the fiercest opponents of the recruitment of Haredim into the IDF.
The absolute refusal of military engagement that some today establish as an ancestral principle is not an immutable heritage, but a recent, convenient and selective rereading of a Haredi history which also experienced commitment, risk and sacrifice.
We can hope, therefore, that the integration of the haredi community into the Israeli army will be carried out in the continuity of this fighting memory, in the lineage of the bravery of so many of their fathers before them.
Tel Hai.
Elie Levy is director of education at Betar de France and co-founder of the MEJF.