Recently reporesentaives of the Dati Leumi community, especially rabbonim in the ocmmunity, have made a big deal about an army logistical change in which female soldiers are being taken to serve in the armored corps, most notably in hummers and namers. They are generally serving in these vehicles as either drivers or paramedics. Traditionally the armored corps is a division that the Dati Leumi community frequently sent its soldiers, especially hesder students, to serve in. The community reps, especially the rabbonim see this as a breach of tzniyus and have basically considered this a "breach of contract" of sorts (figuratively speaking) with the dati leumi community, and if necessary they will instruct their students to serve in other divisions instead.

Lieutenant Colonel Itamar Eitam, son of Efie Eitam, was injured in Gaza yesterday as he took a bullet from a sniper.

Just under a month ago, Rav Avraham Zarbiv, a dayan on the beis din of Tel Aviv, set up a new institution in Gaza - the beis din of Gaza. Rabbi Zarbiv is on hiatus and is currently a combat soldier fighting in Gaza.

Another interesting psak from Rav Zilbershtein regarding the issue of celebrating Hanukkah while fighting a war in Gaza is the following:

It was only a matter of time. 

this law under debate right now, from uniform to studies, in which the government would fund the a majority of the academic studies of soldiers after they leave the army, is interesting.

According to Kipa, a proud grandfather of a female soldier int eh IDF has appealed to have the text of the prayer for the welfare of the soldiers changed to explicitly include female soldiers as well.

Yuval Peleg appealed to the IDF Rabbinate saying that just as we daven for female soldiers who died in battle, we should not wait until after death to daven for them but should equally daven for their welfare when serving int he army before battle.

Peleg wants the text to says "לחיילי וחיילות צה"ל"  just as in the yizkor memorial prayer it says "sons and daughters.

The IDF responded saying it is not up to them and the prayer is said in civilian synagogues, so the appeal should be presented to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. Peleg did so and Rabbi Lau, Chief Rabbi of Israel, said he has submitted it to the Rabbanut council for debate and discussion of the matter.

I get his point comparing it to yizkor, but davening for "the soldiers of the IDF" includes all the soldiers, male and female, so it seems unnecessary, but I also see nothing wrong with it. If it makes people feel better, I see no reason not to make the change. The only issue I can possibly foresee is the Rabbanut not wanting to be seen as encouraging women to serve, by changing the text. The reality though is that many do serve, whether the Rabbanut wants them to or not, so we should daven for them and their safety.

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.

Wow!

After 37 years, the IDF has just announced they have brought the remains of Zacharia Baumol back to Israel for proper burial!

Baumol was one of the soldiers MIA from the battle of Sultan Yagqub in Lebanon during the Lebanon War.

Rav Eyal Karim, the Chief Rabbi of the IDF today confirmed the identification of the remains as those of Baumol.

The IDF is saying that some details of the operation will be revealed in coming days, but,  understandably, others will not. There was no prisoner transfer or deal for the body - it was purely a military operation to find and retrieve the remains.

May his memory be for a blessing and may his family find comfort in the closure of this long chapter.  And may the remaining soldiers MIA be found and returned soon (Ron Arad, Yehuda Katz, Tzvi Feldman, Gug Hever Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul).

Update: According to the news, along with the remains of Baumol (and his tzitzis), remains of a number of other bodies. The other remains have not yet been identified.

According to a news report on Behadrei and Srugim, 4 religious soldiers from a hesder unit in basic training were in a group on a trip visiting Har Herzl. During the trip one of the visits was to the grave of PM Yitzchak Rabin. The boys refused to visit the grave, for ideological reasons, and after being warned that they are due to receive a punishment for refusing orders they doubled down and escaped from the army base.

Soldiers need to know they are in the army, not in free society. Soldiers do not get to choose what they do and what they do not do. As long as they are not being given illegal or immoral orders, they need to be disciplined and follow orders. That is Army 101. An army cannot function without army discipline and a lot of what soldiers go through during basic training is to teach them the discipline required for military success.

So, if the army wants the group to visit a series of graves, you go even if you don't like one of them. Dont say tehillim on his grave or put a stone or whatever, linger in the back of the group, but go.

If the army was taking them to a series of graves of dead prime ministers and heroic soldiers, then go to them all, even Rabin's. However, and I don't know what graves the group was visiting, if the army is taking the group specifically to Rabin's grave to indoctrinate them in something, then I can understand their skipping out. The army needs to train the soldiers to fight and fulfill their various roles, not to teach them ideology or to decide who needs to be admired and who not.

MK Yoel Rzvazov (Yesh Atid) has proposed a law that is described, by Ladaat, as populist (rather than out of a true concern for the beneficiaries).

The proposal is that any attack on a soldier would get a harsher punishment than the normal law already on the books and would be subject to up to 10 years in prison, depending on the nature of the attack - if attacking with a weapon, if attacking with multiple assailants, or if the soldiers is on active duty when attacked.

Yesh Atid says making this punishment harsher will create a deterrent.

Yesh Atid says that under the current law, attacking a public servant, among which is included a soldier, is punishable by up to 7 years, but nobody ever expected a situation in which soldiers would be attacked like they are today and this would need to be dealt with, but today there are sectors of extremists that violently attack soldiers found in their areas or nearby, whether on duty or not. Therefore, it is necessary now to separate soldiers from the regular public servant law and make the offense bear a harsher punishment.

Of course we all know this won't pass, as the Haredi parties will not allow the coalition to support such a law proposed by Yesh Atid. And, they have never before supported any similar proposal, despite saying they oppose violence against soldiers.

However, in their defense, if the assailants do not care about a potential 7 year prison sentence for attacking soldiers, it is unlikely turning it into a potential ten year sentence will make any difference. In a certain sense they are right - there is a law already on the books that is not being enforced. Instead of writing new laws, just enforce the laws that are already on the books.

And then the Haredi askanim and politicians need to stop working to get anybody arrested for such things released.

this cannot end well.. but the police usually don't give permits to provocative rallies like this, and they did for this one...