Rabbi Buaron: Why Haredim are forbidden to serve in the IDF - even if they don't learn

Tens of thousands gathered last Friday night (Parashat Pekudei) for a mass rally in Jerusalem against the conscription decree, led by the head of the yeshiva, the Gaon Hakham Tzedaka, who has been leading the fierce struggle against the conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews to the army alongside the great Sephardic Torah scholars in recent years.

One of the central speeches at the event was by the respected judge, Rabbi Zion Buaron, who explained the Sephardic perspective on why a young man who doesn't study in a yeshiva is also forbidden to enlist.

At the beginning of his speech, the Rabbi said: "I once thought that a young man who doesn't study in a yeshiva should go to the army - how is he different from others? But then I understood, as can be seen today, that there are no rules there, everything is abandoned, and a young man who goes there will certainly learn to violate Shabbat and become permissive in all the serious transgressions."

"I heard a while ago," Rabbi Buaron shared with the tens of thousands of participants at the rally: "from an officer who dispatched the Netzach Yehuda battalion on Shabbat, telling them there was a life-threatening operation. They took them to the Hebron area, and what was revealed? There were some hilltop youth causing disturbances that needed to be evacuated - this is what they called a life-threatening situation. This is an example of Shabbat observance in the Israel Defense Forces."

He further related: "Once they used to say there was a difference between the left and right, and that the right had more respect for religion. That was all in Begin's era. But in our time, it's exactly the opposite. Who destroyed Shabbat? The right. Anyone who remembers, at the beginning of the war, they gave instructions for El Al to operate on Shabbat, then the railway, and all this under a right-wing government. And this is a government in which the ultra-Orthodox and the Religious Zionists sit - there's no respect for Shabbat, everything is abandoned."

Rabbi Buaron further cried out: "And no one in the government protests against the desecration of Shabbat. They release hostages specifically on Shabbat. Public Shabbat desecration by the government, and no one opens their mouth. Where is Shas? Where is Religious Zionism? Where is Smotrich? Where is Goldknopf? Once they called the party he belongs to 'Judaism of Torah and Shabbat,' what's left of that today? Neither Judaism nor Shabbat. This is how we go from bad to worse. They're destroying everything."

According to him: "We talk to our Knesset members, and they say 'what can we do'... What do you mean there's nothing you can do? When Moses saw the situation of the people of Israel, he broke the tablets. If you really care about religion, about Shabbat, and about yeshiva students, please leave the government, break up the government. Now with the decree against yeshiva students, unfortunately, if they pass the law currently on the agenda, setting an annual quota of fifty percent or more students each year, it will first and most powerfully harm us in the Sephardic yeshivas. No doubt!"

Regarding the difference between Ashkenazim and Sephardim, the Rabbi said: "Our Ashkenazi brothers are strong, none of them will show up, and those who will have to meet the quotas are only our Sephardic brothers, who are weak, weak in character and weak in strength, without family support. This is what could happen. All the Sephardic yeshivas will be destroyed, not just 50%, but most of them. This is what will happen, and no one cares."

He further said on the subject: "Degel HaTorah supports the law. Why? Because they know the Ashkenazim will be less affected by it, but we unfortunately don't have the Chazon Ish we once had. The Chazon Ish in his time saved Sephardic Judaism and established yeshivas throughout the country for new immigrants - for Yemenites, Moroccans, in Hadera, Afula, Jerusalem, Netanya. Today we don't have that."

According to the Rabbi: "Today we have become like two nations, unfortunately. Sephardim and Ashkenazim. It's shameful to talk about it, but that's the reality. An Ashkenazi today doesn't care if the Sephardic yeshivas are destroyed. And I say this with full responsibility. Perhaps apart from a few individuals who do care. We don't have the Chazon Ish or Rabbi Shach who fought for this. Today everyone only cares about themselves. And if we don't stand up for ourselves, who knows what might happen. When there is no Torah, God forbid, there is destruction, there are plagues, terrible things happen. The Holocaust in Europe came after they destroyed religion. In Russia, it was the same."

The Rabbi continued to cry out in pain: "Here in the State of Israel, in the Holy Land, a young man cannot sit and study Torah?! And we have no one to rely on... In Shas, they threaten yeshiva heads, saying 'whoever participates in this rally, we'll cut your funding.' This is the situation today. Where is the truth?! We care about our children and our grandchildren. Just when we finally have magnificent yeshivas of Sephardic Judaism, everything could collapse, God forbid, and all because of politicians who are not affected and don't feel the pain."

"My son," said the Rabbi, "studies today in a yeshiva in Bnei Brak, and all the yeshiva students will receive conscription orders. I approached MK Yinon Azulai from Shas, asking him why he doesn't check why they're only sending orders to Sephardim. He told me he would check, and then said that they also sent to some Hasidim. I told him he knows that's just for show. Their whole goal is the Sephardim. The army doesn't want Gur or Vizhnitz sitting in their camps, setting up shtieblach and mikvehs. That's not for them. They're looking for our Sephardim who are weaker, and that's how they want to destroy all the yeshivas."

The Rabbi further told the thousands in attendance: "Two months ago, I spoke with the Gaon Rabbi Shraga Steinman (a council member from Degel HaTorah). He told me, 'Know that in Russia there was what they called the Cantonist decree, where they would kidnap Jewish children and take them to the Czar's army. Who would they take? Orphans or children of the poor who had no one to fight for them. And this is what could happen here in Israel, that the Cantonists of our generation will be the Sephardim.' He is a truthful man, Rabbi Steinman; he said what pains him."

The Rabbi cried out and added: "We must not be indifferent and say 'peace upon my soul, this won't happen to me.' We need to wage a war of extermination against this law. We won't rely on Degel HaTorah to legislate this law for us; we need to take care of ourselves. The truth cries out, the truth hurts, and no one pays attention. Everyone says it will be good. What good? What good can come from a law that is about to collapse our yeshiva world?"

In conclusion, the Rabbi said: "We are not against the Ashkenazim, God forbid, we are one people. But in their eyes, we are another people - not one people! I'm not the one saying this. The Klausenberger Rebbe said this to his son: 'We have become like two nations, not marrying each other, not accepting students to yeshivas or female students to seminaries. We have become like two nations, unfortunately. And if I am not for myself, who will be for me?' We need to cry out to God with all our might, to wage a war of extermination against this terrible decree."