Reviewing: “Milhemet Mitzvah: Volume 2: Religious Leadership and Halakhic Responsibility in the Military Service Debate” edited by Aviad Hacohen, Yitzchak Avi Roness, and Menachem Butler.  The Institute for Jewish Research & Publications. 2025.
386 pages. ISBN-10: 1962609162.

Rabbi Sender Axelbaum runs the Connections Foundation in Israel. Its mission is to bridge the gap between secular and religious communities, and part of that is getting the two groups to communicate and understand each other. These two communities live in two very different worlds, and the gap between them is significant.

Speaking of gaps, there are countless religious Zionist scholars in Israel who are unknown to Americans. Part of the reason for this may have to do with the fact that their books are not available in English.

While it certainly was not its primary goal, in “Milhemet Mitzvah: Volume 2: Religious Leadership and Halakhic Responsibility in the Military Service Debate” (Institute for Jewish Research & Publications), editors Aviad Hacohen, Rabbi Yitzchak Avi Roness, and Menachem Butler include essays by several Israeli scholars that are well-known in Israel, but unfamiliar to many in the U.S.

Scholars such as Dr. Hannah Kehat, Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Yitzchak Sheilat, Rabbi Neria Guttel and others grace the pages here. If nothing else, this brilliant volume introduces these scholars to an American audience.

My review of “Milhemet Mitzvah: Military Service in Israeli Society and Jewish Identity,” volume 1, is here: https://tinyurl.com/kr2yty4y. This new volume continues enlightening readers on today’s most important and compelling topic in Israel.

Volume 1 dealt with the War of Independence, military service, and the inherent tensions between national defense, Torah study and religious leadership. Volume 2 deals with the overall issue of yeshiva students and conscription. It explores the halachic and ideological dimensions of military service, religious exemptions and national responsibility.

Conscription of yeshiva students is one of the most contentious issues in Israel today. It’s so significant that in the week between this review’s submission and printing, this issue in itself might have led to the dissolution of the Knesset.

Conscription has always been an issue, and the Charedi community has long used its political power and assumed Talmudic reasoning to carve out an exemption for yeshiva students from military service. Some have long given the Charedi community a pass on the issue. But the length of the Gaza War and the staggering number of dead and injured, combined with the somewhat cavalier attitude towards national military service among Charedi leaders, has led many to question their support for the Charedi community.

The numbers from the Gaza War are depressing, with many thousands of soldiers wounded and hundreds dead. A significant percentage of reserve soldiers’ wives say that the strain on their marriages from their husbands being away so long is so serious that they have considered divorce. Countless thousands of children whose fathers are away for hundreds of days are petrified that their fathers will never come home.

Like many, my friend Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf, author and founder of Operation Home Again, has pondered the question of the role of Charedi leaders given those numbers. He, like many, has asked how it is possible that Charedi leadership hasn’t led its followers, over the age of 25 or so, to demand IDF service in new units like the Hashmonaim Brigade, an infantry unit in the IDF founded to accommodate Charedi soldiers.

Apisdorf has also wondered how the Charedi leadership has not demanded the immediate creation of as many such units in the IDF as possible or some other format in order to lighten and shoulder this brutal burden. They seem to be turning their back on their fellow Jews in wartime.

The book opens with an analysis of the debate on the recruitment of yeshiva students in Israel during World War IIby Dr. Amihai Radzyner, professor of Jewish Law and Legal History at Bar-Ilan University. Many of the reasons he lays out, which may have been valid to exempt yeshiva students in the early years of the state, simply no longer exist.

There are now more yeshiva students in Israel than ever before. The hostility and difficulties they may have endured in the early days of the IDF are things of the past.

Dr. Hannah Kehat is the daughter of the late posek and rosh yeshiva, Rav Shlomo Fischer. Her chapter on the status of Torah in the thought of Rabbi Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz, the Chazon Ish, is as insightful as it is fascinating.

The Chazon Ish arguably exerted a more profound influence than any other 20th century leader on forming Charedi society’s ethos and hierarchy of values. While he passed away 72 years ago, his ideological approach has remained the Charedi standard ever since — that Torah study is supreme and of absolute value.

The book closes with a chapter from Dr. David Henshke, professor of Talmud at Bar-Ilan University and the editor of Sidra, the Journal for the Study of Rabbinic Literature.

Henshke is a man at home not just in the classical methodologies of yeshivot but also in philology and historical Talmudic methodology. His latest work on prayer is a 1,300-page masterpiece. You can view its table of contents at: https://tinyurl.com/2hp97exs, which in itself is an awe-inspiring read.

At first, I was disappointed that Henshke’s entry is only 10 pages long. Yet, in those 10 pages, he has written a chapter with incredible depth, genius and precision.

His understanding of the corpus of Talmud and Halacha is evident. Each paragraph shows a total mastery of the topic. His chapter deals with the concept that the tribe of Levi is exempt from military service and is not conscripted under any circumstances.

This assertion is based on Rambam’s words at the end of Hilchot Shemita V’yovel, where he writes that the tribe of Levi “doesn’t wage war like the rest of Israel.” This has long been the Charedi approach to exempting themselves from conscription. They contend that yeshiva students today are classified as members of the tribe of Levi and ipso facto are fully and totally exempt from any sort of national or military service.

Henshke quotes the Brisker Rav, who showed that the assertion is erroneous. The tribe of Levi’s exemption is entirely irrelevant as it does not apply in circumstances where they are needed for the conduct of the war. For reservists who have been away for 300 days, it’s eminently clear that this modern tribe of Levi is needed.

My friend Meyer Mandel said that the definition of a good shiur is one that, after it’s over, makes you want to go and open up a sefer. Reading Henshke’s chapter makes one want to run to the Bais Medrash.

The “Milhemet Mitzvah” series is one of the most critical and consequential books in recent years. With brilliant editors, an all-star cast of authors, and significant content, it certainly should be on everyone’s required reading list.

Ben Rothke lives in New Jersey and works in the information security field. He reviews books on religion, technology, philosophy, and science. Follow him on Twitter at @benrothke.