Shabbat Parashat Balak 5785

Parashat Hashavua: Moshe and Yehoshua – A Torah of Life

Last week, we saw the Chatam Sofer’s thesis that working the land of Eretz Yisrael is a mitzva and comparable to putting on tefillin. This week we continue discussing the spiritual significance of Torah students serving in the army of an independent Jewish state.

According to the simple reading of the p’sukim, military leadership has deep spiritual roots. Avraham Avinu, the greatest leader of his generation, personally led 318 disciples, the Torah students of that time, into battle to rescue his nephew Lot from captive armies (Bereishit 14:14).

Even according to the midrash, cited by Rashi, that Avraham took “one person,” this was Eliezer, who soaked in his master’s Torah and taught it to others. According to most opinions in the gemara (Nedarim 32a), including Rav, Shmuel, and R. Yochanan, Avraham’s decision to bring his students to battle was entirely positive. Even the one dissenting opinion (Rav Avahu) that criticizes Avraham for enlisting his students does not oppose Avraham’s own involvement in the war.

Rav Avahu’s opinion requires careful analysis. He states that Avraham was punished with his descendants’ enslavement in Egypt for 210 years because he employed angaria (forced labor) on talmidei chachamim. However, this criticism does not apply to the present-day situation, as Avraham’s battle was not an obligatory war. Talmudic use of angaria always refers to coercive hard labor. One such example is King Asa of the Kingdom of Yehuda, who was criticized (Sota 10a) for conscripting “all of Yehuda without exception” (Melachim I, 15:22). This refers to a civil war with Ba’asha, King of Yisrael. Asa went as far as to pay the king of Aram to attack fellow Jews in the Galilee. By conscripting Torah scholars for this unjust conflict, Asa falsely proclaimed it a milchemet mitzva (obligatory war). This cannot be compared to defending Jews under attack, where all agree that universal participation is required.

The two greatest Torah scholars, who were the first links in the transmission of the Torah from Sinai – Moshe and Yehoshua (Avot 1:1) – both engaged actively in milchemet mitzva. They thereby taught us how Torah leadership should respond to security threats. Yehoshua fought Amalek. As the midrash tells us, Moshe himself struck down the giant Og.

We will continue next week, but in the meantime, we point out that we cannot and should not force military service. This is not the way to unite our nation in this mitzva. Instead, we call upon the leadership of the Charedi community, our brothers and partners in many ways, to approach the IDF and Israeli government with the following declaration: “We want to be partners in the sacred mitzva of protecting our nation and state, as has occurred throughout Jewish history. We make this offer with the just demand that the spiritual needs of Charedi soldiers be fully ensured.”

Such a declaration would increase kiddush Hashem, enhance respect for Torah, and bring the entire nation closer to our Father in Heaven.

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