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| Rabbi Avichai Ronsky |
Rabbi Ronsky is the former Chief Military Rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces. He served in the position from 2006 to 2010, with a rank of Brigadier General.
Rontzki was born to a non-religious Jewish family. He became religious while serving in the army. In 1969, he began is military career in Shayetet 13 but did not complete the training instead moving to Sayeret Shaked in which he fought as a company commander in the Yom Kippur War.
During this time, he began the process of becoming a Baal Tshuva with his wife Ronit who he had met in his unit.
Rontzki studied at Machon Meir and Mercaz HaRav and also was involved with instructing street kids in Jerusalem.
In 1980, he established the Hesder Yeshiva in Elon Moreh. In 1984, he was part of the group that established the settlement Itamar nearNablus and also initiated the local yeshiva that he still leads today. Rontzki wrote the well known four volume army halakhic guide Hitzim K'yad Gibor. In addition to his rosh yeshiva position, he continued to serve in the reserves and rose in rank to the position of chief of staff of the Samaria Territorial Brigade ( חטיבה מרחבית שומרון).
So this Smarkatch Avrohom Birnbaum, goes on to viciously attack this hero. I am choosing not to go through his entire hate filled attack on Religious Zionism!
But here is a quote from the article:
"We can now understand why the entire vaunted Hesder network, so lionized by Religious Zionists as the ultimate syntheseis, has fewer than a thousand students - less than a fifth of the student body at Yeshivas Mir Yerushalyim alone."
Excuuuuse me, Mr Birnbaum, are we now going to judge yiddishkeit by numbers?
There are more non-religious Jews in the world than Religious Jews!
There are more Muslims than Jews in the World.
There are more Christians and Buddhists in the world than Jews!
Of course more Yeshiva boys will choose Mir, it's the easy way out.
Being part of what you call the "entire vaunted Hesder network" takes courage, sacrifice, dedication and commitment. It takes selflessness.
Joining Hesder is the opposite of being narcissistic.
Joining Hesder is being part of protecting the Mir Yeshiva Boys and being a Hero! Mr. Birnbaum!
