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Aug 4, 2014
Interesting Psak: marriage during IDF service
Rav Shmuel Dvir, head of the halacha track in Yeshivat Bet Moriah in Beer Sheva, has written an interesting psak in Techumin.
Rav Dvir writes that a newly married groom is obligated to be home for the entire first year of marriage. This obligation contradicts the military service of a fighting soldier in the army. A soldier serving in a combat unit can only be home on weekends, in the best of situations.
Rav Dvir says the Torah clearly means to say, when it says a chosson must be home for one year and a new groom should not go out to the army, that it is better to get married after army service has been completed, or, alternatively, more than a year prior to serving. The only exception is one who is going to serve near his home and can go home daily..
Rav Dvir also says that even if the kallah is willing to allow her new husband to serve, and she forgives his lack of presence, it might not help his situation.
Rav Dvir concludes that one must do everything possible to postpone getting married until after one's army service has been completed, or get married before serving and then wait a year before serving, or serve in a non-combat unit in which one can go home daily - and then only get married after his training period is over..
source: NRG and Srugim
Lots of men do get married during their IDF service. Either this psak will be ignored, or it will influence major changes in society. It will probably be ignored.
Rav Dvir writes that a newly married groom is obligated to be home for the entire first year of marriage. This obligation contradicts the military service of a fighting soldier in the army. A soldier serving in a combat unit can only be home on weekends, in the best of situations.
Rav Dvir says the Torah clearly means to say, when it says a chosson must be home for one year and a new groom should not go out to the army, that it is better to get married after army service has been completed, or, alternatively, more than a year prior to serving. The only exception is one who is going to serve near his home and can go home daily..
Rav Dvir also says that even if the kallah is willing to allow her new husband to serve, and she forgives his lack of presence, it might not help his situation.
Rav Dvir concludes that one must do everything possible to postpone getting married until after one's army service has been completed, or get married before serving and then wait a year before serving, or serve in a non-combat unit in which one can go home daily - and then only get married after his training period is over..
source: NRG and Srugim
Lots of men do get married during their IDF service. Either this psak will be ignored, or it will influence major changes in society. It will probably be ignored.
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Labels:
IDF,
interesting psak,
wedding
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I discussed this with several of my teachers and Rav Mordechai Eliyahu in '82. I had gone to Rav Eliyhau and said that I understand that fighting in the IDF in our time is a milhemet mitzvah, and that as such no one is exempted; and therefore I saw myself as obliged to report for duty when called and not ask to be released. He didn't contradict or correct any of what I said. When I later asked regarding the fact that I was being asked to voluntarily do much more miluim than the law required, he responded that in our time that is reasonable and it is permitted even for a new groom to do so.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised because the position that Rav Dvir is taking is appropriate for a milhemet reshut, and I don't know why he would categorize IDF service in our time that way. The Srugim article didn't cover that.
Thank you Mordechai for confirming this. Our current state of war is widely viewed as milchemet mitzvah, certainly in the dati leumi world (the readership of Techumim) but interesting to see this psak nonetheless. I'd like to see hard facts though about the success/failure of 'army weddings' compared to 'regular' dati weddings and certainly compared to the stats of the general public. I think that those stats should play an important part of any psak in the 21st century.
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