We religious individuals love telling military studies. all and sundry has his own army story to tell, and with your permission, i will be able to honor this subculture here and now.
At some point right through my mandatory armed forces service, I and a few different troopers had been despatched from our base to an extra, small base. Three of us had been non secular and the relaxation – secular. once we arrived, we realized that the kitchen turned into not kosher. There became little question about it.
We did what naïve religious troopers do in such situations. We called our company commander, vowed that we might not set foot within the dining room unless it had been made kosher by using a certified consultant of the military Rabbinate, and asked him to deliver us with an option meals source. We have been very surprised when he steered us: "Go into the eating room and eat. we will deal with the kashrut complications tomorrow".
despite the shock, it only took me a couple of seconds to inform him – as our representative in that telephone dialog – "No, it may not turn up. we will no longer set foot in a non-kosher eating room."
Now it turned into his flip to be stunned. "Are you refusing an order? if you don't enter the eating room, i will be able to court docket martial you," he threatened.
"i'm not refusing anything else," I spoke back. "but i will not go into the eating room, in spite of the fact that you come to a decision to court martial me and my comrades."
It changed into now not convenient, but it surely turned into very clear to us. An order that contravenes halacha must no longer be followed, and if the rate to pay is a defense force trial and punishment, so be it. Halacha is more desirable. The end of the story, incidentally, turned into that we got fight rations that very evening, the kitchen changed into made kosher tomorrow, thanks to us, and the danger of a courtroom martial turned into no longer mentioned once more.
Why am I returning to this story, other than nostalgia? The cause, of course, is the insufferable concept of inserting female soldiers in the IDF's armor and infantry gadgets. This new reality will doubtless now not hurt non secular devices like the haredi Netzach Yehuda battalion, however many spiritual fight soldiers may additionally neatly locate themselves having to serve alongside women. The response to such a requirement need to be clear and decisive: No.
there's a wall-to-wall rabbinic consensus, from the haredi end of the spectrum to the greater liberal one, that halacha cannot be maintained in a combat circumstance involving guys and women. it's impossible. and that's why it must be clear and unquestionable, that a spiritual soldier must refuse to serve in one of these unit. It the rate he will pay contains being stationed in a less challenging and fascinating unit, so be it. If the expense is penal complex – so be it. just as the resolution we made in the story I instructed is whatever that goes well-nigh without saying for most non secular soldiers, so is this determination.
this is no longer like the issue with the beards the army desired shaved. here is not some thing that's in dispute, and it is not a question of minhag, or custom. There needs to be an exceptional wall here, going in the course of the complete religious public, from the rabbinic to the political management, from the heads of the tutorial institution right down to the remaining soldiers. this may no longer take place, no means, no how.
