The article argues that in wartime there is a halachic duty to help defend Israel, and that this duty can justify sanctions aimed at encouraging enlistment. It cites the actions of King Saul in the early years of his reign as a model: when Nahash king of Ammon besieged the people of Jabesh Gilead east of the Jordan and demanded humiliating surrender terms, Saul cut up a pair of oxen and sent the pieces throughout Israel, warning that any man who did not come to war would have the same done to his cattle. The people were terrified and came out together.
The writer says Saul’s sanction was harsher than those used today against draft evaders because the oxen were not slaughtered for food but were draft and threshing animals, so destroying them meant ruining a person’s livelihood. He adds that no exemption for Torah students is mentioned in that episode. The article also says a young Torah learner, whose descendants later served in the army for long periods, called present-day sanctions cruel, but the author replied that refusing to enlist in such times is more cruel, and the young man admitted it.
The piece says current penalties on draft refusers are expected to eventually increase enlistment. It rejects claims that these penalties are defamatory or that the army chief is trying to secularize the ultra-Orthodox, saying the chief of staff’s job is to deal with the military shortage, not religious change. The article also dismisses an argument that the U.S. president is easing pressure on Iran because of the drive to draft ultra-Orthodox men.
To support the halachic duty to defend the state, the article quotes Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 329:6, which says that when non-Jews besiege Jewish towns, one may go out with weapons and even violate Shabbat if lives are at stake, including when they threaten only straw and hay near a border town. The author stresses that the law speaks of “Jewish towns” and does not exempt Torah learners in this context. It then cites the Chazon Ish, Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, who wrote that harsh measures against heretics are not effective in times of hidden providence and can worsen the breach, but that measures which can help should be used, as in Saul’s time.
