Does Jewish law require yeshiva students to be drafted at age 18? - opinion

For many years, there has been a heated debate in Israel regarding the drafting of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) yeshiva students into the IDF. This has been exacerbated since the military announced in March an immediate shortage of 7,000 soldiers. 

The haredi leadership argue that it is forbidden to draft yeshiva students whose “Torah is their profession” and that they defend the State of Israel through their studies. What does Jewish law say about this topic?

The haredi approach to exempting yeshiva students from military service is diametrically opposed to Jewish law. It is based on a misinterpretation of the words of Resh Lakish and of one paragraph in the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides, and on several aggadic (non-legal) passages in rabbinic literature.

Their approach stems primarily from a fear that yeshiva students might become secular. We shall now prove these points one at a time.

After conquering lands east of the Jordan River, the sons of Gad and Reuven requested to remain there. Moses responded angrily: “Shall your brothers go to war, while you sit here?” They replied that they will first lead the people in battle before returning home, and Moses accepted their proposal (Numbers 32:6-23).

Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Herzog wrote similar words in 1948 to the Yeshiva Committee (Va’ad Hayeshivot) of Israel: “How can one say that Shimon will stand to fight and save himself and Reuben, while Reuben sits with folded hands, relying on Shimon, because Reuben is a yeshiva student?!”

Indeed, this issue has existed since 1948, but it intensified in 1977 when the Likud came to power and eliminated quotas. The total number of yeshiva students exempted from military service has risen precipitously: 1948–400, 1977–8,257; 1986–16,011; 1992–24,000; 2002–36,887; 2012–63,000; 2020–52,741; 2024–63,000.

And the rest of the people of Israel who serve in the regular army and perform reserve duty every year ask: “Shall your brothers go to war, while you sit here?!’”

Indeed, throughout the generations, there have been Torah scholars who also led the people in times of war, including Moshe Rabbeinu, Joshua, King David, Mattathias and Judah Maccabee and his brothers, and Rabbi Akiva. Finally, Rabbi Samuel Hanagid (Granada, 993-1056), an important halachic authority, also served as Vizier and head of the army of Granada for eighteen years.

AFTER EXPLAINING the four exemptions from military service (Deut. 20:5-8), the Mishnah (Sotah 8:7) continues: “When do these exemptions apply? In a discretionary war – but in a milhemet mitzvah (a commanded war), everyone goes out, even ‘the groom from his chamber and the bride from her wedding canopy’ (Joel 2:16).” This was codified by Maimonides (Laws of Kings 7:4), Sefer Hahinukh, the Maharsha, and Rabbi Yitzhak of Karlin (1788-1851), and many leading twentieth century rabbis also ruled this way.

As for a commanded war, Maimonides ruled (Laws of Kings 5:1) that it includes “aid to Israel when an enemy attacks them.” In other words, according to the Mishnah and Maimonides, in defensive wars such as all of Israel’s wars from 1948 until today, it’s a mitzvah for every man and woman to serve in the army.

Pikuah nefesh (saving a life) takes precedence over all the mitzvot in the Torah except for idolatry, sexual immorality, and murder (Sanhedrin 74a and Ketubot 19a), and this was codified by all the major codes. After the massacre of 1,200 men, women, and children on October 7, can anyone dare to say that the war against Hamas is not a matter of pikuah nefesh?

It is permitted to go out with weapons and desecrate the Sabbath in order to save Jewish communities under siege by gentiles. This is stated in the Talmud (Eruvin 45a) and codified by many of the major codes of Jewish law. 

If halacha permits fighting on Shabbat to save lives, and even for monetary matters, how much the more so is it permissible to stop studying Torah in order to save lives and possessions from genocidal terrorists.

THE HATAM SOFER (1762–1839), Rabbi David Tzvi Hoffmann (1843-1921), and Rabbi Moshe Shmuel Glasner (1856–1924) ruled that if the non-Jewish countries conscript Jews into the army, a Jew is obligated to serve according to the halachic principle of Dina D’malkhuta Dina (The Law of the Land is the Law – Nedarim 28a), even though he will probably have to desecrate the Sabbath and eat non-kosher food. 

Many authorities ruled that this principle also applies to a Jewish state (Entziklopedia Talmudit, volume 7, cols. 67-68). Therefore, Jewish law obligates Jews to observe the laws of the State of Israel, including laws concerning conscription.

Rabbi Glasner emphasized that a Jew who serves in his country’s army sanctifies God’s name (kiddush Hashem), while Rabbi Hoffmann emphasized that if a Jew “evades service in the army through subterfuge... Whoever does so causes, God forbid, a desecration of the Name (hillul Hashem, see Lev. 22:32)….”

The non-enlistment of haredi yeshiva students constitutes a massive hillul Hashem, which angers a large percentage of Jews in the State of Israel and distances secular Jews from Judaism.

And what do the haredi rabbis reply to all of the above?

Most prominent haredi rabbis have not written responsa on this issue at all, since they knew that it was impossible to contradict all of the sources mentioned above. Therefore, they published a “Da’at Torah” (Torah opinion) expressing a position without quoting any sources.

Secondly, the haredi rabbis who did write on the subject relied primarily on aggadic passages in the Talmud. However, these passages were not codified by the major authorities, and cannot nullify all the mitzvot and laws mentioned above.

There are four main arguments against conscription, all of which can be refuted.

Rabbis do not need guarding

“Rabbi Yehuda Nesi’ah imposed a tax on the Rabbis to contribute to the construction of the city wall. Resh Lakish said: Rabbis do not need guarding” (Bava Batra 7b, cf. fol. 8a). This ruling was codified by the Rambam, the Tur and the Shulhan Arukh.

There are at least four problems with this argument:

Exemption of Torah scholars from taxes for guarding the city walls teaches nothing about exemption from saving lives or a commanded war.

In Bava Batra, the attackers only come to plunder. However, if there is a danger to life, would anyone imagine that Torah scholars are exempt from the commandment of pikuah nefesh?!

Resh Lakish says that the scholars themselves do not need defense, not that their Torah study protects the entire Jewish people. If they do not serve in the army, perhaps they are protected, but what about their families and nearly ten million citizens of the State of Israel?

Even if we disregard the simple meaning of Resh Lakish’s words, we must also apply common sense. As Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin wrote in 1948: “Master of the Universe, is it permissible to rely on a miracle in a situation of actual danger to life and say that rabbis do not need guarding? And the Hevron massacre of 1929... proves this... Please O rabbis, those holy Martyrs, did they ‘need guarding’ or did they not ‘need guarding’!?”

Like the Levites

The haredim also like to quote this passage from the Rambam (Laws of Sabbatical and Jubilee 13:13): “...and not only the tribe of Levi, but every single man from all the inhabitants of the world whose spirit moves him and understands with his intellect to distinguish himself ‘to stand before the Lord to serve Him and to worship Him’ (cf. Deut. 11:13) to know God... and he lifts from his shoulders the yoke of many calculations that people sought — behold, he is sanctified with a holy sanctity, and God shall be his portion and inheritance forever and ever, and he shall merit in this world that which suffices for him, as He merited for the priests and Levites…”

Rabbi Aharon Kotler (1892-1962) and other haredim claim that “all the inhabitants of the world” are “the Bnei Torah (children of the Torah) of the generation who are completely devoted to Torah...”

With all due respect, this is not the simple meaning of the Rambam at all.

First of all, as the Radbaz (ad loc), Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein and many others have emphasized, there is no source for this law in rabbinic literature.

Secondly, the expressions “and understands with his intellect” and “to know God” are not related to Torah study at all. 

Rabbi Prof. Eliezer Berkovits demonstrated convincingly that these expressions are taken from the philosophical realm of the Rambam in his Guide for the Perplexed and Mishneh Torah: Laws of De’ot (Knowledge). And it is precisely this type of knowledge that haredi yeshiva students do not study.

Thirdly, this paragraph in the Rambam does not say one word about exemption from military service.

Finally, Prof. Menachem Kellner has demonstrated that “all the inhabitants of the world” means “all human beings” – “all of humanity” – as it does in five other places in Maimonides’ code and in the Mishnah.

Only the Torah protects the people of Israel

IN APRIL, eighteen Sephardic rabbis published a letter entitled: “Clear Instructions Against the Draft Decree”, writing: “We must strengthen ourselves with complete faith that only the Torah protects the people of Israel.” The words in italics hint at the phrase “Torah protects and saves” (Sotah 21a), but Rashi explains ad loc: Protects from suffering and saves from the evil inclination. In other words, the Torah does not protect against bullets, missiles, and bombs. 

Furthermore, even if someone wants to ignore the simple meaning of the expression, can one aggadic statement in the Talmud that was never codified nullify all of the above-mentioned mitzvot and laws?!

And even if one distorts the simple meaning of this aphorism, did the Torah of the Rabbis protect against Titus, Hadrian, the Crusaders, Chmelnitzky, and the Holocaust?! It is not wise to rely on aggadic statements that are contradicted by the simple facts of our history.

Better death than becoming secular

A poster at a recent haredi rally reads: “Better that our children die than become secular.” Without a doubt, this is the real reason for haredi opposition to military service. The rabbis’ letter argues that the purpose of the “conscription decrees” is “to fight against God and against His Torah through various decrees... and to reduce the number of Torah observers, as they themselves have stated.”

Beyond the fact that the IDF and the majority of Israelis who support haredi conscription have never stated such a bizarre intent, the entire tone of the letter speaks of the State of Israel as if it were a state of gentiles whose sole purpose is to assimilate the ultra-Orthodox. That is absurd.

Indeed, it’s a direct continuation of the haredi opposition to conscripting young Jewish men into the Austrian army starting in 1788. At that time, they feared desecration of Shabbat and forbidden foods. 

It is tragic that the haredim in the State of Israel today fail to see any difference between the Austrian army at the end of the 18th century and the IDF in the 21st century.

In the past, the IDF had a melting-pot policy and there was concern that yeshiva students might become secular. Today, the IDF is ready and willing to draft the haredim into separate units with glatt kosher food and Torah study, such as the Netzah Yehuda Battalion established in 1999.

IN CONCLUSION, there is no halachic or moral justification for haredi draft evasion. “Shall your brothers go to war, while you sit here!?” May it be God’s will that the haredim understand that they have a halachic as well as a moral obligation to serve in the IDF from the age of eighteen – in order to protect their families, their people and their land.

Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin serves as President of The Schechter Institutes, Inc. in Jerusalem. A more detailed version of this responsum can be found at www.schechter.edu