Ho Hum

According to a Mako News report (as reported by TOI - I did not see the original), an IDF soldier was punished, by being required to stay on base for a weekend, for putting meat and dairy products on the same shelf in the same refrigerator. According to the report this soldier was aware of the rules against this and did so anyway.

Some are shocked about what happened, calling it religious coercion or another step along the way to a halachic state.

My only comment is that the army is all about its rules, and rules are enforced with strict disciplinary measures very harshly.

Obviously there is nothing halachically wrong with milk and meat products being on the same shelf in the refrigerator. The issue here is that the army has a rule that was broken, not that a halacha was transgressed. When my son was in the army I learned that the first punishment they go to is to require an offending soldier to stay a weekend he otherwise would have had off.

Why does the army have such a rule that is seemingly halachic, even though it is not really? I can surmise, without actually knowing, that it is being overly cautious. With the need to keep bases, kitchens and refrigerators kosher, and being aware that many soldiers are not religious and do not know the halacha or the nuances of halacha, the army, probably via the IDF Rabbinate, has determined a set of rules to keep everything as kosher as possible in the least confusing manner. Are you going to start teaching non-religious soldiers the intricacies of kashrut and hope they get it right? That is not realistic, so they make all encompassing rules to ensure the kashrut status without worrying about what individual soldiers might do on their own.

What happened here though is that a soldier broke a rule, like any other rule. This one just happened to be one involving a religious issue on base. That does not mean he is any more in the right for doing it. It is the army and the rules are the rules.