The immoral belief that death is preferable to military service

A big change took place yesterday in our country. For the first time in the 76-year history of the State of Israel, Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) young men will be drafted into the military rather than being given an exemption in order to study at their religious learning institutions.

Yet, what seems to be the most natural thing, to fight for one’s country, has become the subject of great controversy, as if requiring these men to fulfill the same task as every other young man (and woman) in Israel, is either beneath their dignity or such a loathsome thought as to engender the notion that death is preferable to saving the lives of one’s countrymen.

In a recent article, titled, “The mother of all depravity: “Gazan children are sent to fight and die,” published by the Jerusalem Post, I outlined that it is in this Gazan culture that life is so devalued and meaningless that parents willingly send off their young children to die, believing that it’s the highest and most sacred of all achievements to which one can aspire. Going against the very natural human survival instinct, it serves to indict the monstrous parents who have allowed themselves to be so indoctrinated to think that death is preferable for their young.

Among the reactions I received, from the article, was one, in particular, which I could not ignore. It was from a friend who said, “In some ways, this is no different from the illogical and convoluted thinking of some Haredi young people who have said they would rather die than serve in the military.”

As incredible as it sounds, this sentiment was also expressed in an article written in +972 Magazine, titled, “We’d rather die than enlist: Haredi Jews vow to defy conscription.” The writer, Oren Ziv reported that “thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrated in Jerusalem, with signs that read, “We will not enlist in an enemy army,” “We would rather live as Jews than die as Zionists,” “To jail and not to the army.” “Zionism uses Jews as human shields.”

While we’ve always known that a large segment of the ultra-Orthodox have been unwilling to serve in the Israeli military, despite the great debt that they owe our citizens, who literally financially support their lifestyle of perpetual study, through their taxes, it is definitely the height of “chutzpah” to take money from the very people who put their own lives on the line to protect each one of us, referring to them as the enemy while they render military service.

To view death, as a preferable alternative, rather than save lives, which is at the very foundation of the Jewish faith, to the point where the observance of Shabbat is permitted to be broken in order to perform “pikuach nefesh,” (the saving of a life) is, itself, a perversion.

After all, “the preservation of human life overrides virtually any other religious rule of Judaism.” Seen as a mitzvah (commandment or also translated as a good deed), it is held to be the ultimate “act of self-sacrifice.”

This is a definition straight from Halakha (Jewish law), so it boggles the mind to comprehend what form of Judaism these ultra-Orthodox are practicing. How is an army, dedicated to the preservation of Jewish life and the Jewish homeland tantamount to the enemy, and how are Jewish soldiers, ready to die for their people, classified as “human shields.”

This is the ultimate distortion of societal, religious and human values, in many ways, not much different from the same delusional spirit which has taken over the God-given ability of parents to employ discernment and rational thought. Their inability to realize that anyone demanding that you hand over your kids, for the sake of blowing themselves up or advancing terrorism, as a way of life, has checked out of reason and sanity and can only be identified as deranged, demented and ravingly mad.

It would seem that this is the byproduct of religious extremes – the lack of capacity to properly distinguish, recognize, evaluate and perceive evil and perversion when it stares you right in the face. But it does not take hold of people naturally. It must be instilled, inculcated and firmly rooted until it becomes a fixed and permanent distortion, responsible for seeing white as black or truth as dishonesty.

We know that terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS and the Taliban, just to name a few, have become adept purveyors of the systematic indoctrination of radical hatred, thought manipulation, re-education and slick emotional persuasion, in their goal to further a cause which glorifies death and removes the fear of losing one’s life. Because if an esteemed reward awaits you in paradise, it’s a win-win situation. So, as insidious as all this is, it’s what we’ve come to expect from these deranged madmen.

But are we supposed to accept that a segment, within Judaism, actually can be so deluded as to also believe that death is a preferable end to that of a life served with honor by saving others? If so, then we have failed bitterly, not only in how the proper interpretation of Jewish law has been disregarded and distorted but also in allowing our government to finance such offensive, disrespectful and insulting hostilities to be supported and sustained on our backs.

It is traditional to deeply search one’s heart and soul, during the highest holiday of Judaism, “Yom Kippur,” usually observed in the month of September. Although we are only in the month of July, perhaps, we, as a people, whose calling is to provide “light to the nations,” should do an early check-in, to see whether or not we have extinguished that illumination by having allowed ourselves to be controlled, manipulated and programmed by others who know just how to exploit and abuse weak individuals, willing to outsource their thinking to evildoers.

Because when Jews, among us, have come to believe, as a result of the indoctrination of their learning institutions, that saving other Jewish lives is no longer the highest calling of our faith, then it is incumbent upon us to find out what they are learning, and what we are financing. 

As painful as it is to draw the similarity between Hamas or Gazan parents, who think that death is a preferable result for their children, and the ultra-Orthodox young men who hold up signs, declaring that they would rather die than serve in the Israeli military, we cannot ignore what is clearly a perversion and an extreme which has made its way into the corridors of the Jewish faith.

According to our Jewish scriptures, dying at a ripe, old age, as our great forefathers, is the ideal time to die but preceded by a life of purpose, service and honor!