To the Editor:

Thank you for printing the front page article “Could Foreigners Who served in Israeli Army Face War Crimes Charges?” By Barak Ravid in your August 25 issue. The article quoted a letter written by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki concerning prosecuting foreign volunteers for the IDF for war crimes. Perhaps you would be so kind as to pass on this letter to Foreign Minister Maki.

Dear Foreign Minister Maki:

It has come to my attention that you wish to prosecute foreigners who served the Israeli army.

One of the organizations that you point out is Sar-el. Sar-el is an organization that allows civilians from a number of nations, men and women, young and old, Jew and Gentile to serve in positions in the Israeli Army that requires no previous experience. Many people are so inspired by their Sar-el experience that they stay long past their original commitment. Others return year after year (I have served twice). For anybody considering a trip to Israel I would say if you haven’t been to Sar-el you haven’t been to Israel.

My experience was so inspiring to me that I decided to join the Israeli Army. Though I was not in Mahal, the other organization that you call out by name, during my service I have met many Mahal soldiers. Mahal soldiers come from all over the world and are guided only by their idealism and love for Israel. These soldiers are intensely motivated and many will serve in the most elite combat units that the IDF has to offer.

I am myself a citizen of both the US and Israel. I mention this as dual citizens are another group that you mention in your letter. I served with immigrants from around the world some of whom served in the military of the nations that they came from. Like the Mahal, none of us had to serve but as you can probably guess we were also intensely motivated as our brothers who served in Mahal.

We all take an oath or affirmation to protect and defend the Jewish people, with our own lives if necessary and are given the necessary skills to do so. Part of that oath or affirmation is to use our ability to do good and never evil.

With this in mind, Mr. Foreign Minister, I would like to say to you and the terrorist organization that you belong to; your fellow travelers in that tower of Babel known as the UN, and your anti-Semitic lackeys in the White House and State Department that if you feel the need to contact me I am NAHAL Pvt. William D. “Zev” Rosenberg, IDF (ret.)

To the Editor:

I would like to start by thanking the editors and publisher of the Jewish Link for their work in bringing information about the events that concern our community and often providing a fresh perspective on the issues of the day.

I was happy to see the headline “Is there a Halachic basis for the refusal of haredi men to serve in Tzahal.”  This controversial topic is often discussed on the basis of emotions and ideology without any reference to Halacha and its sources in the Gemara, Shulchan Aruch and the Poskim.   It would have been refreshing to see an actual analysis of this question from the standpoint of Halacha and an evalution  relative value of the obligations of Torah study and national defense.

Unfortunately, the article provided nothing of the sort.    There were plenty of emotional questions regarding the conduct of the Haredi community in Israel that are surely on the mind of the author and many of the readers.  But that is nothing new.    However, as a halachic analysis, this  article is completely inadequate.  Indeed, it is hard to imagine how an article that claims to be analyzing halacha could quote no sources from Talmud other than 2 Mishanyos in Pirkei Avos.    A halachic analysis of any subject usually (as I’m sure many of the readers know) begins with the analysis of the relevant passages in the Talmud (or maybe Tanach), then tracing their interpretation through the Rishonim towards the Shulchan Aruch and later commentaries.  The resulting ideas are then “plugged in” into the situation at hand to reach a conclusion.  In many cases no unequivocal answer emerges. None of this is present in this article and it does not provide anything new to the Bergen County reader that the reader did not know already.  At most it may qualify as tochacha (rebuke) to the haredi community in Eretz Israel, although clearly that community will not hear or read this rebuke and the benefit of this article is therefore questionable.

As far as the actual halachic analysis of the issue, it is beyond the scope of this letter, but there is a teshuva or R’ Moshe Feinstein (Yore Deah, 4:33), written to two boys from the Religious Zionist Yeshiva “Netiv Meir” in which  R’ Moshe says that even though serving in the IDF is a very important matter and a mitsvah, learning and growing in Torah is even a bigger mitsva, and the merit of the Torah learning will also serve as a protection for the nation.  Now while this is not an exhaustive treatment of the subject, perhaps it can serve as a starting point in the discussion of the relative merits of Torah study vs. serving in the IDF as a form of national service.

Aryeh Grinberg
Fair Lawn, NJ