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Jul 15, 2019

changing the nusach of the prayer for the welfare of the IDF soldiers

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.



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4 comments:

  1. This is getting out of hand already. It's understood when it says 'chayalei', it means all the 'soldiers'. This silly suggestion will just set another precedent for other ridiculous changes, which could eventually lead to extremist views on everything. Think of all the craziness going on already.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with anonymous above for many reasons:
    1) In Hebrew, the masculine form includes both males and females.
    2) Should we now change the nusah to: על הצדיקים ועל הצדקניות ועל החסידים ועל החסידות... just to placate the feminists? How about ולמלשינים ולמלשינות?
    3) Praying for female soldiers may be considered lending an approbation to the existence of female soldiers, which רובו ככולו Poskim forbid.
    4) Imagine the cost of changing all siddurim, mahzorim, etc. to make some people feel good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1) More than that -- the סמיכות form of a plural is always the same for both, so חיילי already refers to both חיילים and חיילות.

      Delete
  3. People are already adding too much. One guy I know throws in Hatzalah members. (He's big in Hatzalah.)

    ReplyDelete

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