Both the Chazon Ish and Rav Eliyashiv Wrote that "Everyone is required to Defend Israel in Milchemes Mitzva"

 

by Menachim Rehat as printed in the pamphlet Matzav Huruach

Loosely translated to English 

This is not the first time that the Chareidie leadership has lost sight of reality who unfortunately stand on the sidelines while others have been serving for 400 days, their families falling apart, their businesses collapsing, and their health severely undermined; this callousness will never be forgotten and will be remembered forever 

The greatest poskim including the Chazon Ish and Rabbi Elyashiv require going out to defend Israel 

1. At two historical junctures, the Charedie  leadership lost the ability to see reality that was expected of them. 

The first time was about 80 years ago, when the biggest disaster befell our people.

 At the time, the leadership did not read the map correctly and instructed its followers not to immigrate to the Land of Israel and to continue to cling to the impurity of exile, a move that ended with the loss of millions of our brothers in the furnaces of Auschwitz.

The second time, is happening now, right before our eyes, when Talmedei Chachamim and Torah scholars insist on preventing their followers, through all kinds of political twists, from coming to Israel's aid from the hand of the oppressor that insists on killing all of us even at these very moments. 

So they yell, as is the custom of Satmar and the Peleg,: "We shall be killed and not transgress. 'We will die and not enlist.' 

Listen to the rhetoric of Minister Meir Porush in the Knesset plenum: 

"If they had told us at the establishment of the State that it would look the way it does today, that we would not be able to study Torah in the Land of Israel, they would arrest yeshiva students who study Torah... In my opinion, Agudat Yisrael would say that it does not want a Jewish state."

So That's it?  Burn down the club. Is A third exile preferable?

 Woe to the ears that hear this.

2. And the general public looks from the sidelines and cannot believe. 

Is this Naomi (from Ruth)? 

Is this Judaism? 

Is this the way of the Torah of Israel? 

Is this Daat Torah, the halakha that has accompanied us throughout generations?

 How is it even possible that Jews of Torah and mitzvot would act in this matter, which factually is a complete contradiction to the Torah and Halacha, which oblige anyone to come to Israel's aid from the hand of trouble?

In addition to the very act of renouncing the law of Torah, our brethren, who are strict about light and severe in all other matters, create a situation of terrible Chillul Hashem that has no eternal atonement.

 Where did the boldness come to deny the halakha that has been handed down to us from Moshe Rabbeinu ("Your brothers will come to war and you will sit here?") to all the great leaders of our generation?

3. This week, my colleague the publicist Uri Heitner, who is located in the center-right wing of the political map, and who wears a "transparent" kippa but often instills and loves Judaism in the Golan Heights, debated the question of whether Chareidim who oppose going out to save Klall Yisrael in defensive war  are the new Reformists, who freely distort the Torah at will, without fear of G-d in their hearts. Or did they detract from it – mainly infidels? Are they Reform or Apikorsim?

And he comes to an unequivocal conclusion: 

The are not Reform but apikorsim:

 "Someone said that the Chareidim are the real Reformers, because their way of Judaism, and especially evasion, is a new Judaism. In my opinion...  We are not talking about reform, but mainly apikorsas."

4. As an observant Jew, it is difficult for me to attach such heretical labels to people who are considered to belong to the camp of the faithful of Israel. 

Even though their newspaper "Yated Ne'eman" does not shy away from affixing false labels about the Dati Leumi demanding that they enter under their umbrella: 

"Those who wear Kipa Seruga are distorting our Mesorah" (Ytd, 12 Tammuz 5785).

 I will not get into this arument, but I will only bring the sources, all of whom are united in their opinion, without "ipcha mistavreh"– that in a Milchemes Mitzva, everyone goes out to defend Israel, and there are no exemptions for anyone.

 Here are the words of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (by virtue of whom, woe to that shame, Shas threatens to turn the worlds upside down): 

"In reference to the soldiers of the IDF who are defending klall Yisrael and our holy land, there is no doubt that it is a great mitzvah that they perform to destroy the enemy armies that come to sow destruction and destruction, to kill and destroy people, both souls and children, and this is what the Rambam ruled (Melakhim 85:1) that anyone who helps klall Yisrael from the hand of the oppressor and who comes upon them,that is in fact a milchemes mitzvah." II 14).

Rav Kook (whose rulings are unfortunately not accepted by the Chareidim) wrote: 

"When all of Israel goes out to war, they [the priests] are also obligated to go out. And the war of the people of Israel is also the service of the Creator. Anyone who is more special to the service of G-d is obligated more than the rest of the nation" (Shabbat Ha'aretz).

5. The Chareidim, as far as we know, do not accept the rulings of the Rav, but do they accept the rulings of the greatest recent Chareidie  poskim – for example, Rabbi Soloveitchik, the Chazon Ish, and Rabbi Elyashiv?

What?!  Conscription evaders, unbelievable! 

 This is what Rabbi Soloveitchik of Brisk wrote (and I will be forgiven for the complex original language, and for those who have difficulty it is recommended to switch to the thick letters): 

"In a war of mitzvah, everyone would go out, as explained in Mishna, 44b, 

"Everyone goes out to war, even the bridegroom from his room and a bride under her chuppah," andKohanim go out even in a war of reshus!

 The Acharonim have already wondered from here about the Rambam's Mishnah in the 13th chapter of Shmita and Yuval 12, that the tribe of Levi does not wage war like the rest of Israel... It would seem to say that the Rabbi of the tribe of Levi does not wage war like the rest of Israel, it does not mean that they are exempt from going out to war at all, for it seems that if they were required to go out in time of war, they would also have gone out... In fact, they are not exempt at all from going to war" (Stencil, Students' Lists, Sotah 43a).

The Chazon Ish writes: 

"It seems that in a war of mitzvah, even a bridegroom is not exempt when we need their help to win the war, for the sake of pikuach nefesh and the salvation of the people, everyone is obligated. Rather, even when there was no need , except for a certain number [and this was the case in most of their wars, there was no room for the fighting army except for a certain number], there was permission to take a groom , for there are no exceptions in a war of mitzvah, and in a war of reshus they are not exempt except when the victory of Israel does not depend on them, because the number of the army that needs them is in their hands, but if they are needed, they are obligated to come to the aid of their brothers. Mo'ed, Hilkhot Eruvin, Likutin, paragraph 114/6, letter 3, s.v. it seems that it is a matter of law).

This was also the opinion of Rabbi Elyashiv, quoted by his son-in-law, Rabbi Zilberstein in Choshukei Hemed: 

"Rabbi Maran HaRav Elyashiv Shlita [zt"l] commented when do we say that talmedei chachamim are exempt .... only when the plague of thefts has not yet come, for then their Torah will protect them from harm, but when the plague has begun, and the thieves have taken over the place and are familiar with all its entrances, they do not rely on the miracle and must participate. Bava Metzia 108a).

6. Against the background of this explicit ruling, all that remains is to warn that the Chareidie leadership is once again leading its followers to a dead end. 

And in this regard, all generations will be remember this perfectly forever.