Before I begin, a very little bit about me. I learned in the Mir for two years.

I think of those years as two of the best of my life, and the best years of my learning. I still donate to the Mir on a monthly basis and I attend their annual dinner. All by way of saying, I like to think I still belong to the Mirrer world. This is not my call for revolution. I will not tape this article to the front door of the building. I just have some shaylos. One of the ways I keep up my kesher with the Mir is by subscribing to its weekly Divrei Torah pamphlet, "Bishvilei HaParsha." The pamphlet always contains two sections: a Dvar Torah on the Parsha written in Lashon HaKodesh by a current Maggid Shiur or hanhalla member, and a transcription of the weekly English-language shiur given every Wednesday afternoon to alumni via conference call. As of late, the Divrei Torah in this pamphlet have turned from general thoughts on and lessons from the Parsha to an explicit focus on the Chareidi draft/yeshiva funding issues. Each of these Divrei Torah has taken a predictable stance: the yeshivas and yeshiva way of life are facing an existential threat from the current government that demands our entreaties to HaKadosh Baruch Hu for His intervention. Here is the newest salvo. Won't you take a moment or two to read it (just the English portion)? Thanks. [] Okay. Let's go through this. R' Kaplan Shlita who gives a wonderful, popular shiur at the Mir takes us to the section of Parshas Mattos that discusses Moshe Rabbeinu's instruction to the Bnei Yisroel to avenge the sin of Ba'al Pe'or by taking on (and decimating) the Midyan nation. R' Kaplan cites to the Medrash that the pasuk "Elef LaMateh, Elef LaMateh" should be understood as a directive to send 3,000 men per tribe not 1,000 so that a thousand would fight, a thousand would guard the keilim and a thousand would daven. Right away, you can tell where R' Kaplan is going with this. The daveners were on equal footing with the fighters: they're all soldiers. Fine. Continues R' Kaplan to quote the estimable former mashgiach of the Mir and Ponevezh, Reb Chatzkel Levenstein zt"l, that it wasn't enough for the daveners to daven at home, because had they stayed at home to daven, they would have assumed that the battle was won because of the specialness of the military. Are we catching this? The davening regiment did not daven at home. They were drafted into the army right along with the soldiers. They formed the davening battalion. They were there, in the battle. (Am I placing too much emphasis on the "home" part? I don't think so. If this battalion stayed at home, they would have been no different than the rest of Klal Yisroel, who surely prayed for their army's success too. The only way it's relevant for 1,000 daveners per tribe to have been drafted is if they did not stay at home.) This is a point that R' Slifkin has made repeatedly on his blog: if the Charedim are so convinced that it is their learning and davening that does the heavy lifting, why do they recede from the battlefield? They should get right in there! To my eyes, this isn't even a rhetorical question any longer. Reb Chatzkel's p'shat on the Medrash insists on the very same. Yet, somehow, the irony is completely lost here.

(Speaking of R' Slifkin, the further irony is that he just finished assuming in a recent post that the Charedim have finally dropped the "our davening and shtayging is what protects us" line. Not so fast!) Here's something else about that section of the Parsha that blows my mind. Take a look at Rashi on 31:4. "Elef LaMateh," says Rashi, specifically includes Shevet Levi. The tribe that was charged with fulltime avodah. The tribe that was given no portion of the land, that was specifically carved out of the GDP, that was to live off the tithes of the rest of the nation even that tribe had to participate in this war. In this war, there were no exceptions. Now, I don't know if Israel's current situation qualifies for the exact same treatment. But before anyone assumes that a gigantic chunk of the populace is automatically excluded from all battles, this Rashi should give us pause, right? I think so. Let's go on. R' Kaplan relates an anecdote from Reb Chaim Ozer that I rather enjoyed and find completely inoffensive. I have no trouble accepting that Moshe Rabbeinu's army consisted of only the most worthy tzadikim, regardless of their physical strength. But then we get to the lesson that we're supposed to draw from the anecdote. Let's pull a blockquote: The zechus haTorah is what saves Klal Yisrael, not the army. Because the soldiers fight to protect the yeshivos, they have the koach to win their battles. But if the yeshivas are closed down, from where will the army draw its power? Some people will say, Yes, but its not fair, because the ones who are learning never die, and the ones who fight do die. We know, however, that the foot soldiers on the battlefield are not the principal players in the war. The real war is fought in the back rooms, where the strategies and battle plans are built. This is especially true today, when wars are fought mainly on the computer. But its not fair! people might argue. The computer guys never die! Lets take them and put them at the front. The fallacy of that argument is blatantly obvious. We need the computer guy more than we need the foot soldier! Putting him on the battlefield would jeopardize the entire army. When Klal Yisrael fought against Amalek, they drew their koach from Moshe Rabbeinu sitting and holding up his hands. Today, we, the yeshivaleit, are the computer guys. By sitting and learning, we are fighting the main part of the war. Well, then. First of all, can we do away with this "if the yeshivas are closed down" line? No one is proposing to close the yeshivas. In Yesh Atid's wildest fantasmagorical dreamscape, the most that will happen is that yeshivas that refuse to incorporate basic instruction in math, English and civics (latter not clear) will lose their funding. I'm not sure how that's meant to apply at the post-secondary stage, but be that as it may, the implicit proposition is that yeshivas in Israel should subsist the same way their American counterparts do on the basis of tuition dollars and privately raised funds. If it's starting to dawn on folks that that's impossible when Israeli Charedim don't earn nearly enough to carry that plan forward, well then, it looks like we've bumped into the beginning of a solution. Start incorporating some

basic secular studies and we'll be killing two birds with one stone: more earning power for Charedim and no reduction in that sweet, sweet government cheese. Back to R' Kaplan. Here he makes an argument I've had the pleasure of hearing a few times: that it's not the foot-soldiers that matter in the first place; it's the behind-the-scenes muckity-mucks, the leaders and strategizers, who really count. Naturally, in this mashal, the Charedim, being behind the scenes, are the mucks. Let's unpack this. First of all, regardless of whether I accept this argument and I do not the airtightness of its logic hardly matters. In the end, the Charedim have to convince the people to whom they are insisting that their contributions are the most important. Otherwise, this is all academic. And since, suffice it to say, they have not convinced anyone not already in the choir, there really isn't much point in carrying on with this. Second, let's say we accept that davening is literally, in our actual, lived-in, real-world way, the more important component of self defense. For that to be true, shouldn't our davening at least resemble the tefillos of the davening battalion of Parshas Mattos? Which is to say, shouldn't the Charedim actually daven explicitly for the well-being and success of the soldiers? That part matters, right? If someone is sick, R"L, we don't suffice with our undifferentiated tefillos on the assumption that Hashem will direct them where they're needed. We mention the choleh's name. We say tehillim on his behalf. How are tefillos during wartime any different? If the Charedim are going to insist that their davening is what protects the soldiers, then shouldn't they, you know, mention the soldiers? Does anyone think the Mirrer Yeshiva says a Mi Shebeirach for the Tzahal? I can answer that. Does anyone think they would need two hands to count the number of Charedi yeshivas and shuls in the entire State of Israel who say it? Third, why does this meme persist, this insistence that the really important soldiers aren't even on the battlefield? Is R' Kaplan picturing some movie scene where a bunch of guys with badges on their uniform stand in front of a triptych of gigantic screens and bark orders to launch the missiles? Here's an exercise that will help him picture a more realistic scene: think of a famous general. Any general. Doesn't matter who. Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, Norman Schwartzkopf, David Petraeus, whoever. All supreme commanders of allied forces. What do they all have in common? They were all there. They were all in the place where the war was being fought. They weren't in some NORAD underground bunker somewhere in Virginia. They were in Japan, in France, in Iraq, in Afghanistan. Sure, they weren't literally the guys taking that hill or invading bin Laden's compound. That's a young man's job. But they sure weren't safe back at home. Yes, there is a coterie of policymakers who don't actually fly out to the war front, who stay in DC and make decisions using computers. People like the President. The Secretary of Defense. The Director of National Intelligence. The National Security Adviser. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Their advisers. Yes, they are needed where they are; we don't ask them to uproot the Pentagon and camp down

wherever a battle is being fought. The same is true in Israel. The Prime Minister and Defense Minister don't put themselves right at the Erez Checkpoint. They stay in their headquarters. The idea that there is a logical path that takes you from those few individuals to the entire Charedi sector is risible. The generals are out there on the field, where they belong. So should anybody else who purports to be a part of the fight. But the most mind-boggling part to me of this whole Dvar Torah is the flippancy with which it discards the complaint that it is unfair that only the soldiers risk their lives. So what, says R' Kaplan. We're the important ones because we're davening. How. How is it possible to think this without having the pasuk in 32:6 spring to mind. You don't even need to look it up to know to what I refer. The Bnei Reuven and Bnei Gad have told Moshe Rabbeinu that they want to stay in the Ever HaYarden, where the grass is greener. Says to them Moshe Rabbeinu, "Shall your brethren go to war while you stay here?" Have you no consideration for your fellow man, your fellow Jew? Should they go off to war and turn around to see you staying put? Do you not understand how demoralizing that is? So the Bnei Reuven and Bnei Gad immediately clarify their intentions to Moshe Rabbeinu. Not to worry, they explain, we will lead the Bnei Yisroel into battle. We will fight on the frontlines and we won't come back until every tribe has settled its portion. As R' Kaplan would have it, their answer made no sense. They should have stared at Moshe in disbelief. "But Moshe," they should have said, "we will daven!" In the end, I come back to Reb Chatzkel's p'shat in the pasuk, because the entire solution to this whole dilemma is right there. Just imagine if the Charedi tzibur were to take his vort seriously. Imagine if the Charedim insisted that they deploy to the Golan, to Gaza, to wherever there is a battle being fought, and daven and learn, right there. What an enormous Kiddush Hashem that would bring, but even more importantly, what achdus would that revive among us all. I am convinced that Chiloni society would ask nothing more. Forget the Nachal Charedi, forget the debate over the age of deferment or how many annual exemptions there should be or whether it's possible to grow in learning if you have to build in national service for 32 months. I don't think any of that would even be up for discussion. Just show you mean what you say. Show you care about your fellow Jews' lives as much as you care about your learning. Show how ready you are to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who have sworn to protect you them with rifles, you with seforim. They will have the rechev and sussim, you will mazkir the Shem Hashem Elokeinu. Just do it side by side.