Lithuanian Yeshivas Leader R. Moshe Hillel Hirsch: It’s a Mitzvah to Be Deserters

Photo Credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90

Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, head of the Yeshivat Slabodka, delivers a lesson, October 22, 2024.

Lithuanian Yeshivas Leader Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch has come out strongly against the government’s attempt to enlist Haredi youth in the IDF, saying that “it’s a Mitzvah do be deserters.”

It’s a Mitzvah to dodge conscription into the IDF because the deserters study Torah, and by doing so “ensure our existence in Eretz Yisrael,” the spiritual leader explained.

“Without the world of Torah, destruction will come, our existence depends on you,” he told Yeshiva students who came to seek his guidance on the matter.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has ordered the Ministry of Defense to send out some 7,000 conscription orders to members of the Haredi community. Israel Hayom reported that in recent weeks, hundreds of yeshiva leaders and students have come to consult with Rabbi Hirsch on the draft issue.

Baharav-Miara wants to “destroy the Land of Israel,” Rabbi Hirsch declared.

“This justifies being deserters. They want to destroy the Land of Israel, they don’t understand, but in fact, that’s what they’re doing. If God forbid, they succeed in what they want, to turn the world of Torah into a world without Torah – they will bring destruction to the Land of Israel,” he warned.

Rabbi Hirsch, a native of the United States, is considered a moderate voice in the Haredi world.

The Ministry of Defense says that following the war and the heavy burden placed on the enlisted soldiers and the 300,000 citizens serving in the reserves, the army must increase its conscription numbers to include Haredi youth.

כביש 4 נחסם ונפתח, חרדים קיצונים מפגינים בבני ברק: “נמות ולא נתגייס”https://t.co/T3LyeHBqfE pic.twitter.com/DJyVEO8k13

— ynet עדכוני (@ynetalerts) November 17, 2024

However, the Haredi leadership has blocked any attempt to compromise with the government on this issue. Haredi demonstrators blocked Route 4 highway in central Israel on Sunday evening in protest of the first 1,000 of 7,000 new draft orders dispatched earlier in the day.

Since the state’s founding, some members of the Haredi community have been exempted from service, because their Torah learning is their total occupation. However, back in 1948, only some 400 Haredi yeshiva scholars were granted this status, but by the year 2010, this number grew to more than 63 thousand.