JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Hagai Luber, a religious actor and the father of Yehonatan Luber HYD who fell in battle in Gaza, expressed his shock and pain after seeing an anti-draft notice in a charedi shul in Netivot.
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In a Facebook post, Luber wrote that :”You must not mistreat any widow or orphan (or bereaved father).”
“Yesterday I finished a show in the south and went to the Sephardic Shtiblach in Netivot to say the Maariv prayers. Near the entrance I saw a notice, which took away my breath and left me paralysed to the ground.
“A war of religious zeal,” the notice thundered. “Whoever receives a draft notice should tear it up. Even a loafer who isn’t learning shouldn’t go there, there are terrible things there etc. etc.
“I debated whether this was the proper place to say kaddish for my son Yehonatan HYD who was a Talmid Chacham, a fearer of G-d and an IDF soldier, as in this shul they believe that they should have fought my righteous son with a holy war. In this shul they believe that my son who was meticulous in performing mitzvos was a “compromiser” and rotten. In this shul they believe that my courageous son should have gone to jail and not saved his comrades in his last heroic battle. My son Yehonatan who studied Torah daily should have called 02-579-5252 and asked for help in dealing with the awful and terrible army.
Yehonatan Luber HYD
“As I debated, the prayers began and I prayed with them and when Kaddish came and there was nobody besides me saying Kaddish, I started: Yisgadal Veyiskadash Shemei Rabo.
“My tongue was dry, my eyes became cloudy and the words came out broken and stuttering, and youths in white shirts, the age of my son Yehonatan, looked at me perplexed and impatient. They didn’t know that my heart was tinged with humiliation, that the notice had stabbed me like a knife, that my prayer was that Hashem wouldn’t exact my humiliation from them, as I was so humilated and bereaved and Hashem loves those oppressed and stands up for them.
“They didn’t know that I prayed that Hashem light up their eyes and they would expound their views in a soft way as is the wont of the Talmidei Chachamim in the land of Israel who are pleasant to one another, and not in a harsh and insulting manner which humiliates and pains a bereaved father like me who lost his son fighting to save them and to save Am Yisrael.
“And I finished Kaddish with the words “He who Makes peace in his spheres, may he make peace for us and for all of his nation of Israel and they answered Amen, and I returned to my car and sat there for a long time in pain, and went back to my hilltop home.”
Hagai Luber
A bereaved father whose pain just increased.
Luber requested that any responses should not include criticism towards any rabbi or community in Israel as he would have to erase them.
אֵין אָדָם נִתְפַּס בִּשְׁעַת צַעֲרוֹ
Mr. Luber,
המקום ינחם אתכם בתוך שאר אבלי ציון וירושלים
Your son ע”ה is a קדוש and is in an exalted place in גן עדן. He gave his life לקדש שם שמים and you are fortunate to be his father! Stand up and be proud!
To me the biggest issue isn’t that you believe one shouldn’t go even if not learning. Thats a fair debate. But to openly say that anyone who goes gets ruined (thats what the wording says) is just a disgrace. There are so many who are so erhlich and turn out frummer. Listen to R Asher Weiss speak about the questions he gets from soilders moser nefesh to keep yiddishkiet despite being crippled or under tremendous pressure and pain. I suspect Rabbi Yosef didn’t write the poster himself rather some hot heads. (I also do not quite understand Shas position. They seem to have been more to the left of charedim. Rabbi Ovadya Yosef ZL was chief rabbi. So they hold of zionism and the state. Where does this new anti zionist stance come from? But this is a separate point)
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Am I missing something? The notice in the picture does not attack IDF soldiers. It is a psak from Rabbi Yosef.
While this father must be in great pain, and no doubt his son was a tzaddik who joined the IDF because of the psak of his Rabbis. His son went to war in order to be moser nefesh for klal Yisroel, and that is a great dead.
I don’t understand, if there is another group of jews who belive that it is a great sin to join the army how is that an attack on his son.
Surely if one where to ask Rabbi Yosef Shli”ta himself if this mans son is a tzaddik he would respond that he is a great tzaddik.
How is the machlokes between the Rabbis of this mans son Hy”D and Rabbi Yosef being presented as anything other than a machlokos leshem shamayim? If one group of people hold something is assur is it offensive to publicize it?
Hashem should bring all of klal Yisoel a nechuma.
Eretz Yisroel is surrounded by enemies that simply want to destroy all of the country and all of the people. So it becomes, who must fight, and who is exempt from fighting. This is a real situation and not hypothetical. I hope this serious reality doesn’t get worse. The amount of yesoimim and alumnos is staggering. The amount of young boys who leave nothing behind is way too much. Daven Daven Daven.
Out of respect for Hagai Luber’s request, I will refrain from commenting directly about the “Rabbonim” who put out statements purported to be based on Halacha like the one shown in the poster. But his view on the attitude of Chareidi society is spot-on – and a Cheshbon Hanefesh is definitely in order.
VIN News, always on the lookout to promote ahavas yisrael and kavod for Gedolei Yisrael.
For anyone who does not believe that the creation of the Medinah is from HaShem, I suggest you consider this: the State of Israel was created in 1948 or 5708. Check out the 5708 pasuk in the Torah. Devarim ל pasuk ה. It reads: HaShem, you Gd, will bring you to the land that your forefathers…….. Take a look, please.
This is not about his son the notice is about yeshiva bochutim not going near the idf as it will kill your yiddishkeit
First, sincere condolences to the father for the horrific tragedy (which he can blame on the Zionists, of course, as Rabbi K noted). Regarding his complaint about the sign he saw, let’s review what the gedolim stated going back a century, and what is objective reality. Rav Chaim Brisker stated (and his son, the Brisker Rav, who lived in both pre-State Palestine and under Zionist Israel, confirmed) that the reason the Zionists want a State is in order to shmad, not that they shmad “only” in order to achieve a State. In any country, the army is an indoctrination center of the country’s philosophy. In the case of Israel, that indoctrination is of the shmad of Zionism. Therefore, in addition to all the other problems of the Zionist army, it is simply not permitted for a religious Jew to be inducted into that army, which was the point of the sign he saw.
I feel for this father. To have a son taken from him at the prime of his life must be devastating. However, many Jews who are for this war do not realize (or maybe they do) the extent it has had on the lives of the soldiers who have returned. Since October, besides the increased death toll of soldiers, there is an increase in severe PTSD and suicide, r’l. Many have been maimed. And the government is unable or refuse to help them. As a result, soldiers are refusing to return to Gaza. The above is being ignored by the Jewish MSM in Israel and in the US.
With regard to the anti-draft notice, rabbis are concerned Jews who join the army are at risk of leaving the fold. The army is not a place for any frum yid whether he is in learning or not.
his son would still be alive if Hertzl’s movement would never have been invented – that is a fact – he should be angry at the medinah, not at the bnei Torah