Enough Torah?

I was at the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) annual convention last week where I spoke the day after Yesh Atid MK Dov Lipman delivered his keynote address. Lipman artfully crafted his narrative of a young American idealist drawn to Beit Shemesh by its kaleidoscopic population who then subsequently became disillusioned by intra-religious confrontation. Only in Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party did he find the mutual respect between religious and nonreligious he craved upon making aliyah.

While impressed by Lipman’s ability to kasher Yesh Atid for a gathering of Orthodox rabbis with a Kumbaya story of social amity I was more interested in gleaning hints as to Yesh Atid’s real agenda.

MK Lipman noted that the draft committee headed by Yesh Atid MK Yaakov Peri had explicitly exempted chareidi yeshivah students reaching the age of 21 from any threat of being drafted for the next four years — i.e. beyond the term of the present government. He quoted an anonymous rosh yeshivah to the effect that 30 percent of current yeshivah students will opt to enter the job market or enter academic or vocational training programs if freed from fear of the draft.

The 30 percent figure is ridiculous and made more so by the current climate of confrontation which will increase social pressure within the chareidi community to remain in yeshivah. But the agreement of the Peri Committee to a four-year waiting period ostensibly to allow the IDF to develop suitable arrangements to accommodate large numbers of chareidi soldiers suggests that Yesh Atid’s primary goal is integration of chareidi yeshivah students and kolleleit into the economy not into the IDF.