Israel is at a crossroads. Leading rabbis are openly calling for civil disobedience by ignoring or even tearing up draft orders. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a political dilemma that could bring down his government. At the same time, the country is preparing for a new military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Tens of thousands of reservists are being called up, many of them for the second or third time since the war began. Tensions in Israeli society are escalating. But there are also Orthodox soldiers like Haim Treitel.
On the one hand, there are young men and women who put family, career, and studies aside to defend their country, often under the most difficult conditions and for months at a time. On the other hand, a growing number of ultra-Orthodox men are evading military service out of religious conviction, with the backing of their political and spiritual leaders. Given the ongoing war, an uncomfortable question arises with new urgency: How long can a country in a state of emergency maintain such fundamental inequality...
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I have always wondered, why some of the ultra-orthodox show contempt for King David who was both a torah scholar and soldier !
I have often thought the ultra orthodox live in fear, but fear is not of the Lord, it is of the enemy of the Lord. As long as the devil can keep the ultra orthodox living in fear, he has defeated them. The scripture tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, if the orthodox youth have that fear in their hearts, they will have the wisdom they need to defeat secularism. You have to experience fear to know how to defeat it.