If our readers were upset that we published an interview that presented another side to the yeshivah draft issue, it’s only to their credit. And not all rabbis who align themselves with the nationalist Zionist camp are for a blanket draft either. Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook as well as his successor Rav Avraham Shapira, both expressed fierce opposition to the conscription of Torah scholars
We’ve been bombarded with reader feedback after publishing an interview with Aviad Friedman secretary of the Plesner Committee which was convened for the supposedly urgent need to work out a plan for drafting yeshivah students into Israel’s military forces. Our intention of course was not to promote his views but still I’m glad so many readers were upset about the piece.
We believe it is important to reveal the other side’s hand yet we were heartened by the enraged responses we got from our readers which was a testimony to what they hold most dear. There’s a popular saying that the news media serve as the watchdog of democracy and we know that this isn’t always true. The media seems just as likely to appear in the guise of a Rottweiler that attacks the deserving and undeserving indiscriminately. In any case the readership is clearly the watchdog of journalism. Our readers proved that in their responses to the Friedman interview.
Last week Eytan Kobre wrote an excellent piece dissecting the interview and revealing in part what motivated us to publish it. He showed us that we can’t blindly follow anyone who happens to wear a kippah nor can we necessarily consider him a spokesman for the Torah-observant community. Unfortunately some of the avowed enemies of Torah study have kippot on their heads. Perhaps like Aviad Friedman they even learn Daf Yomi and live in accordance with halachah. But this doesn’t mean they necessarily grasp the true essence of Torah and what it means in the life of the Jewish People.
Over the past several weeks as the struggle for freedom of Torah study continues clear lines have been drawn dividing those who believe in the Torah’s Divine origin from those who view Torah as a cultural heritage that is worth observing and preserving for one set of reasons or another. Furthermore members of the National Religious movement have echoed Aviad Friedman’s views writing in the secular press to urge religious Zionists to join the public effort to put those who sit and learn Torah for their nation into uniform.
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