Showing posts with label Draft Law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Draft Law. Show all posts
Sep 7, 2026
Halacha Headlines: 9/5/26 – Shiur 575 – ELECTIONS IN ISRAEL – CHAREIDIM AND THE DRAFT | TZEDAKA QUESTIONS | MUSICAL SELICHOS (audio)
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Jul 30, 2026
Quote of the Day
you've slaughtered every part of our bodies - we are full of blood. Today a Jewish Haredi is disgraced, one is afraid towalk in the street, another is afraid to take his kids to daycare, another can't go to yeshiva, another cant ravel abroad for vacation, they can't travel for vacation like everyone else...
-- MK Yitzchak Goldknopf...
he is always good for an ascerbic quote..
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Jul 14, 2026
freezing arrests
At the behest of the Haredi parties, the Knesset passed the law a short while ago that enacts a temporary measure to freeze the arrests of yeshiva bochurim who have the status of being deserters. Without getting into the details, it is just a temporary measure and only applies to yeshiva bochurim (and will require supervision and inspections of the yeshivas).
I assume this law will be shot down by the Supreme Court pretty quickly. I do not see how you can pass a law to exempt some people from arrest for the same crime that other people are being arrested for at the same time.
I do not know why they did not propose an easy solution of freezing arrests of all deserters for the same period. That would provide equal application and would perhaps give it more of a chance of sticking (though I am no legal expert so may be entirely wrong about that).
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Jul 1, 2026
Quote of the Day
For once be flexible and finally understand the gravity of the moment and the tragedy that is approaching... what would you like to happen? people killing each other? murder in the streets? it is time that you get over yourselves and look at what is happenign out in the field. Where have we gotten? We have gotten to a point where a yeshiva bochur learning Torah in the State of Israel. the Jewish State, is afraid to go out into the streets and needs to dress up in a different way out of concern fort being arrested...
-- MK Yinon Azulai (Shas), directing his ire at the team of the Attorney General and went on to say that the aggressive arrests and enforcement are not achieving their goals but are creating the opposite effect of locking the Haredi community down even more as they circle the wagons to oppose it and it raises the antagonism in the Haredi community towards the State and the IDF...
He is right, but it takes two to tango. The reps of the Haredi community have also not been flexible. They also need to look at what is happening, recognize the gravity of the moment, and be flexible. Maybe if both sides show a little bit of flexibility perhaps we can come to a reasonable resolution.
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Jun 24, 2026
Quote of the Day
the day will come when we'll turn the country upside down, but that's at a later stage. The entire land like a bonfire. Do you think they'll make slaves and servants out of us? The moment will come when everyone will go out to protests across the entire country. We'll take the prisons and turn them into yeshivas
-- MK Ytzchak Goldknopf, in advance of the Haredi car protest
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May 24, 2026
Draft Law creates crazy situation
This situation with the Draft Law and the elections has taken a strange turn..
The Haredi parties, especially Degel Hatorah, were pushing for the law to be brought to vote, though they never said they got the go ahead from Rav Landau and Rav Hirsch to actually support it. When they sqaw it was not coming and PM Netanyahu was not doing anything about it, ot the point that Netanyahu told them it will have to wait for the next government, they decided to bring down the government over it. Even though they themselves never said they would support it.
So they decde they can't trust Netanyahu any longer and he is just playing with them, constantly making excuses to buy time and kick the can down the road, so they support going to early election (not a big deal, it is a different of 4-6 weeks, not any significant change). The initial vote passes. PM Netanyahu seems to go into panic mode and despite the process of voting the government out having started, he tries to push the bill through, has the committee put on the afterburner and plan to bring it to vote almost immediately, whether he has the votes or not - even if it does not pass he can say I brought it to vote and tried, don't blame me.
Tonight Degel announced they will not play along. We are not interested in Netanyahu just bringing it to a vote. They are also saying it is a bad proposal - though they still have not said if they would or would not support it should it actually come to a vote. They said Netanyahu can't just bring a law, he has to bring a law with a majority vote.
So Netanyahu first said wait until after the elections, Degel said no. Now Netanyahu is pushing for a quick vote on a law and Degel is saying, no, wait until after the elections.
The news is reporting, anonymously of course, that the people around Netanyahu are angry at Degel Hatorah saying Degel played with them. Degel, they are saying, never planned to support the bill, they now just want to blame its failure on Netanyahu. Netanyahu's biggest concern, which is what's pushing him to push the law forward now, is that Degel might not support him for Prime Minister after the next election - he already lost Agudat Israel. And if Degel doesn't, it will be messy for Shas as well.
So they are each blaming the other for the failure of a bill that neither side, seemingly, wanted. Degel spent four years ignoring the fact that Netanyahu was trying to not bring the bill forward and only make it look like he was taking it seriously to keep them happy. Netanyahu spent four years saying this bill (that he clearly never actually intended to bring to vote) would bring 23000 haredim to the army within 3 years while ignoring the fact that the Haredi leadership repeatedly said, despite pushing for a bill, that despite any passed law not a single Haredi would conscript because of it.
Will Netanyahu successfully push a law through with a majority vote this week and save himself? We'll see what happens.
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Dec 21, 2025
for Bnei Chutz Laaretz
This event is being promoted in RBS for tomorrow night, to deal with the threats and temptations of the IDF against the Chareidim...
I have no problem with the content. I believe in the marketplace of ideas. They can argue their perspective...
I am just wondering if all these bnei chutz laaretz keep two days of yom tov
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Nov 27, 2025
taking the initiative on the draft issue
I have said for a long time that the Haredi community should be proactively fighting back regarding the draft law issue and the attacks on them and taking the initiative.. Instead of the entire country ganging up on the Haredim, rightfully or wrongfully - whatever your position might be, and them just making up excuses and reasons (different ones each time) why they shouldn't be drafted, they should be taking the initiative in some way and going on the attack.
What does going on the attack mean?
In my opinion, going on the attack means not just complaining about the campaign while also complaining that "they should first draft all the Arabs and the come to us" or "there are more draft dodgers in Tel Aviv, deal with them first", or other similar kvetching I have heard.. Rather, do something about it.
What is there to do about it? Go to the Supreme Court with a suit against the government (and/or the Attorney General and/or whoever else might be relevant) to force them to draft the Arabs and not just ignore them. Sue the government et al to go after the draft dodgers in a more serious manner. Sue the government to look at the Hesder programs to determine if they are also not sharing the burden equally considering the shorter army service they do. Sue the government for any other shortages or discrepancies in service by any other minority population.
Will that upset lots of people? Sure. That would be the point, but it would also ponit out publicly the unfairness, from the Haredi perspective, in goign only after the Haredim.
Stop complaning and do something about it.
Well, they might finally be doing something about it.
Some Haredi organization named Emes L'Yaakov is doing just that. They have petitioned the Ministry of Defense and other relevant parties with a demand to stop the illegal discrimination between different groups that do not get drafted to the army. This petition of the Ministry of Defense is a leadup to filing a petition with the courts.
The petition claims that while yeshiva students who do not get drafted have been slapped with financial sanctions and limitations losing subsidies and grants, while other students who did not induct into the army continue to enjoy their personal benefits uninterrupted. Additionally, Haredi educational institutions have been losing funding for students who were not drafted while Universities and the like do not get docked for students who did not enlist.
The petition also complains about the Dati Leumi community saying they draft for less time but have had no sanctions placed on them and on their institutions. Anyone not drafting equally should get their funding cut proportionally.
And if the government does not draft other minorities, they should impose similar sanctions on those communities similar to sanctions being imposed on the Haredi community.
the petition says that if immediate action is not taken, they will go to the Supreme Court
source: Kol Rega
I can see this backfiring, as people get even more upset with the Haredim over this attack, but it would really bring the issue to the forefront and not leave it as just a Haredi issue.
I also think it does not go far enough, but maybe it is good as a first step with a plan to raise the pressure further down the road. They should be suing for discrimination and selective enforcement. Sue the government to draft the Arabs. Sue the government to go after draft dodgers in a more hard handed manner. Sue the government to cancel the inequal hesder arrangement.
If they would be wildly successful, it could also backfire because then everyone is equally punished and equally drafted so they have nothing left to complain about, and forcing them use more enforcement will end up with more enforcement against them too. But they would have to be wildly sucecssful for that to happen which honestly seems unlikely.
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Nov 9, 2025
is a boycott realistic?
Yoeli Brim is reporting that in the fight of the Haredi community against the arrests of deserters and draft law proposals they find unacceptable, the rabbinic courts connected to the Haredi parties are talking about going nuclear. By going nuclear I mean they are considering announcing a boycott, or cherem, of the major companies such as Osem, Tnuva and Strauss, among others.
The idea of such a boycott would be to cause damage to the markets and bring the government to its knees needing to save the economy from collapse.
The anonymous sources in the Haredi community have been threatening such movements for a long time already. I dont know if they have the power they think they have or if they think they have more power than they do, but a boycott like that could definitely do at least some damage.
That being said, I see some problems with this..
If they boycott all the big companies, what are they going to eat? they need to continue eating just like everyone else does.
And, if they think they buy enough that stopping the purchases would have a major effect, what is their alternative? they still have to spend money on food so they will spend it via other companies? This might hurt specific companies like Tnuva, Osem and Strauss, but how will it hurt the economy if they are still spending the same money just on other products?
How much of an affect can they have on the big companies? If you go into Haredi stores, a lot of what is sold is off brand products and not products from the more expensive bigger companies. Obviously this is not 100% as Tnuva and Tara dairy products are sold in Haredi stores as are Osem cereals and bamba and pasta etc, but a lot of of the products are from smaller companies anyway. I dont know numbers and how to compare what they buy from the large companies vs what everyone else buys from them and what they buy from smaller companies, but it might be a consideration.
Is it ok to hurt companies that have nothing to do with the draft issue in any way to hurt the government? It is not like Tnuva or Osem can turn around and say ok forget it, we wont draft the Haredim. It is not up to them and they have nothing to do with this.
I am not even sure what bringing the government to its knees on this issue looks like in this scenario. Strauss, for example, starts to suffer from lack of sales. The government sees the quarterly earnings report of Strauss and Tnuva dropping badly and the related stocks start dipping badly. What does the government do - go to the Haredi leadership and say we wont draft your boys just dont crash the markets? I just dont see this playing out like that. Do you see it as a realistic maneuver?
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Aug 20, 2025
Tweet of the Day
Hilarious!
אנשי הפלג הירושלמי הכריזו על הפגנת "יום זעם" מול כלא 10 בשעה 17. אלא שהזמן עובר והמפגינים עדיין לא הגיעו.
— אהרן רבינוביץ (@AronRabino1) August 20, 2025
גורם בפלג אומר לי בשיחה: "המפגינים תקועים בפקקים בדרך. זה לא נורמלי הפקקים במדינה הזאת, מה זה צריך להיות".
אמיתי לגמרי
Translation:
The Peleg Hayerushalmi people have declared a protest "Day of Rage" opposite the entrance to Prison 10 at 5pm. But the time has come and gone and the protestors have not yet arrived.
A Peleg leader told me "The protestors are stuck in traffic on the way [to the prison]. The traffic here in this country is not normal, what is this all about!?"
Completely true.
Hilarious.
They are going to protest and shut down roads that will cause horrible traffic and frustrate many and they are frustrated sitting in traffic on the way and complaining about the traffic.
They are going to protest and shut down roads that will cause horrible traffic and frustrate many and they are frustrated sitting in traffic on the way and complaining about the traffic.
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Jul 31, 2025
Desecrate Shabbos to run away
There was an emergency conference held by a group of rabbonim and Admorim regarding the situation with the Draft Law for the Haredi community. Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein, one of the leading poskim of the generation, participated in this conference yesterday.
Rav Zilbershtein says that he said to Rav Abramski that he is shocked to hear that. Rav Abramski basically said what today would be converted to "hold my beer"... you think that is shocking? wait until you hear what I am about to say! Not only should people leave Israel but they should even be mechalel shabbos to run away from Israel if necessary!
I dont know or care much about what went on there and who said what, but Rav Zilbershtein did say something very interesting that I came across.
Rav Zilbershtein related that he had heard form his rebbi Rav Yechezkal Abramski. He says the psak Rav Abramski said was shocking and Rav Abramski had told him to publicize it but then Rav Abramski himself publicized it.
According to Rav Zilbershtein, Rav Abramski had paskened that there is a decree to join the army but it is very not appropriate. The halacha is that if we cannot work it out with the army and avoid the service then there is a mitzva upon each person to leave Israel and make every effort possible to not live here!
Rav Zilbershtein says that he said to Rav Abramski that he is shocked to hear that. Rav Abramski basically said what today would be converted to "hold my beer"... you think that is shocking? wait until you hear what I am about to say! Not only should people leave Israel but they should even be mechalel shabbos to run away from Israel if necessary!
source: Hamechadesh
That is shocking.
My [funny] response to that is that if one is already going to be mechalel shabbos one can also join the army and be mechalel shabbos!
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Jul 23, 2025
Picture of the Day
Protesters from the Peleg Yerushalmi group, along with protestors from the Eida Hachareidis, blocked roads around the country today protesting the IDF Draft Law, and specifically the fact that some people were arrested and handed over to the IDF Military Police. In the above scene they are calling on US President Trump to intervene...
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Jul 14, 2025
monologues from the yeshiva (video)
they went to Bnei Braq and just let yeshiva guys talk about the draft law and the IDF, no narration, no story, no chatter, just letting them talk and be heard.. interesting perspectives..
שידרנו הערב במהדורה: "מונולוגים מבני ברק" - בחורי ישיבות, בני תורה, ישיבת פוניבז', משמיעים את קולם בצל מבצע מעצר המשתמטים הצפוי. אין קריינות בכתבה. באנו רק להשמיע- ואלו הקולות. ניכר הפער העצום בין השיח בכנסת ובתקשורת על קידום השוויון בנטל, לבין מה שחושב הציבור החרדי בשטח 》》》 pic.twitter.com/NRQAB6Esh2
— יואלי ברים yoeli brim (@yoeli_brim) July 13, 2025
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May 29, 2025
Quote of the Day
You can't cancel the Haredi community because right now there is a problem with too much reserve duty or financial difficulty. I did not force the Religious Zionists to become Haredim, they should not force me to become not Haredi....Clearly it is uncomfortable in relation to people who have gone out to reserve duty for hundreds of days time after time. We get hit over the head about this but we really do not have any way to help with this issue..
-- MK Yitzchak Pindrus (UTJ)
I dont know what he should have said, but saying this isnt going to garner any sympathy for the Haredi position ....
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May 14, 2025
Quote of the Day
If they arrest yeshiva students - we will all leave and go to chutz laaretz. There is no right of existence in this land if we don't have the Torah.
-- Former Chief Rabbi of Israel Rav Yitzchak Yosef, regarding the recent news that the IDF will start enforcing the existing laws and search for people who have not reported for duty
I dont think this is as big a threat as he thinks it is...
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May 11, 2025
Netanyahu upsetting his partners
PM Benjamin Netanyahu upset a lot of people today, mostly within his own coalition.
Netanyahu made two statements in direct opposition to the desires and even demands of his coalition partners.
In a meeting to the Security and Foreign Affairs Committee about the upcoming Draft Law, Netanyahu said that within two years we will draft 10500 Haredim, for the first time ever. This is the number of Haredim the IDF is able to absorb. There will also be serious personal and institutional sanctions if they dont meet the quotas. We will take care that anyone going in to the IDF as Haredi can leave the IDF as a Haredi. I greatly respect those who learn Torah, but the time has come for the Haredim to give back more.
The other thing PM Netanyahu said is, "I know there are those who have dreams of resettling Gaza with Jewish settlements - I dont want to disappoint you [but it isnt going to happen]". Netanyahu has said this several times before since the war began, but only closer to the beginning of the war, not since he adopted the newer strategy of raining hell on Gaza and conquering the land to hold it..Going back to war with this new official strategy (even though it looks like it still isnt yet being employed) raised hopes in some that this is our chance...
I dont know what's going on that Netanyahu suddenly seems to be openly trying to upset his coalition partners... reports are speculating that he will soon dismantle the government and call for elections and that is why he is setting some strong positions to campaign on. I dont know if that is true or not - I thought he should have done so long ago.
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Mar 12, 2025
stop bluffing
The Haredi dailies, the newspapers like Yated Neeman, Hamodia and Hamevaser (and maybe others?) have run a "kol korei" from the Moetzes, the Council of Sages, calling upon the people to gather wherever they are and have a prayer rally to annul the evil decrees against the Torah (referring to the Draft Exemption law), using a lot of verbiage connected to Purim saying Taanis Esther is a day for prayer, etc...
While tefilla is always good, I have another suggestion for them that might work more immediately, and it is a solution they themselves came up with, suggested and have bandied about for many years already...
That would be, leaving the government because what they were promised has not been given.
the Haredi parties have been threatening this government time after time since it was formed a little over two years ago that if the Draft Law they want is not passed by a variety of deadlines, they would collapse the government. And every time Netanyahu calls their bluff and fails to pass a draft law for them by each deadline, they decide not to collapse the government because they want other things as well that they would have to risk losing by collapsing the government. So the government continues to think they are not serious and keeps promising the passage of the law and just regularly moving the goalposts, and the Haredi parties continue to just accept it despite their regular threats (though recently they have also stopped threatening, and only Minister Goldknopf has continued with the threats).
If they would carry through on their threats they might be taken more seriously next time. And also, collapsing the government would give them more time and kick the can a little further down the road, which is something they have been doing for a long time.
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Jan 29, 2025
Quote of the Day
We are essentially safeguarding the old Judaism of the exile. What does that mean? The Jews never fought - we always prayed to God and ran away...
-- Asher Medina, Spokesman for Shas
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Jan 26, 2025
a pointless law?
Haredi journalist Ishay Cohen interviewed former Minister (and former jailed minister) [rav] Shlomo Benizri from Shas about the Haredi Draft Law.
Benizri said whether the law is good or not good is irrelevant. If the Haredi gedolim do not come out explicitly saying young Haredi men [not learning full time in yeshivot] need to conscript into the army, they general Haredi community won't go, and nothing else about the law will make a difference.
האמת הפשוטה | השר לשעבר הרב שלמה בניזרי על חוק הגיוס המקודם בימים אלו:
— ישי כהן (@ishaycoen) January 26, 2025
"חוק לא מעשי, בלי קריאה של גדולי ישראל להתגייס - חרדים לא יתגייסו לצבא". pic.twitter.com/uz2ELEiYly
To be sure, Benizri is not threatening and is not promising and is not warning and is not making bombastic statements. he is stating the reality as he sees it. And I happen to agree with him. Sure, some young Haredim will allow themselves to be drafted, just like we have some individuals today going to the army from the Haredi community. As a general rule, the Haredi community will continue to avoid the draft if the gedolim dont say explicitly to go join the IDF. And he seems to think that the gedolim will not make such a statement.
Which basically makes this entire exercise of trying to find a draft law acceptable to the Haredim and to the IDF and to the public all at the same time into what is basically an exercise in futility. It is well known that the tactic used by the Haredi politicians all along throughout the years was to delay. No law was ever good enough and no law caused haredim to draft and no law was really acceptable, but they were just good enough to cause the can to be kicked further down the road. But for how long can they continue to kick the can down the road, all the while increasing the public anger over the situation and sometimes directed at them... what's the point of this law they are insisting on but seemingly have n intention to act upon? Or maybe Benizri is wrong and once the law passes the Haredim, at least the ones not actually learning full time, will conscript into the army? Maybe the gedolim will call upon more young Haredi men to draft... it just seems pointless and provocative for nothing
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Jan 6, 2025
siyata dshmaya
Rav YitzchakYosef, former Chief Rabbi of Israel and currently head of the Shas council of Sages, said that the reason the government has been unable to pass a draft exemption law for Haredim is because Amir Ohana is serving as Speaker of the Knesset. The government has no "siyata dshmaya" because of that.
The government has done some good things, specifically within the context of the war against Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran. I am not sure how to define when it can be said the government is functioning with siyata dshmaya and when it isnt so I will trust Rabbi Yosef on this matter. I just don't understand why it would come out as an issue with the draft law (which he called the draft exemption law) rather than anything else. This government has not had much good fortune in anything other than in the war itself, had a horrible attack on its watch, has had unprecedented number of terror attacks, has overseen the highest number of road deaths in Israel's history, has failed to pass many laws, has been dysfunctional in many ways. Maybe it is Ohana's fault, I dont know.
Funny that he would point out specifically the draft law, which has not yet even come to vote. Maybe once it does it will be easy to pass - it certainly looks like the coalition likely has the numbers to pass it, considering they have fired and punished its main opponents and are threatening to fire others if they dont back down.
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