A Hebrew commentary argues that the heated dispute over ultra-Orthodox military enlistment should not only be fought politically or ideologically, but examined as a test of how one thinks about opponents. The piece opens with a Chassidic melody by American singer Avraham Mordechai Schwartz that the author says has stayed with him all week, then links it to a teaching of the Chatam Sofer on the verse about the cherubim, reading it as a call to elevate one’s inner thoughts.
The writer says the enlistment debate has split the religious and ultra-Orthodox public, with some sending sons to battle, some to the study hall, and some combining both. One side sees military service as the highest form of mission, while the other sees full-time Torah study as the Jewish people’s shield. He stresses that the disagreement is deep and painful, but insists the first question is not how to win it, rather what one thinks about those who disagree.
The article asks whether someone demanding Haredi enlistment necessarily despises Torah, whether someone defending yeshiva life is indifferent to soldiers at the front, and whether a judge, police officer, politician, or commentator on the other side is automatically an enemy. It says it is easy to fight a caricature, but far harder to argue with a human being who has real pain, real faith, and real concern for the Jewish people.
Using the concept of “ma’aseh chashav,” the writer says thought itself matters as much as action, and asks whether anger and hatred have invaded one’s mind and turned an entire public into an enemy. He concludes that even during a justified struggle for values, thought must remain pure and respectful, because before winning an argument, a person must make sure he has not lost himself. The essay ends by noting that the cherubim symbolize closeness, with the verse, “and their faces were one toward another,” and says the author is the editor-in-chief of the Haredi weekly B’Kehila.
