Rabbi Moshe Maya: If Charedi Requirements Become Official IDF Order, They Can Enlist

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Rabbi Moshe Maya, a member of the Shas party’s Council of Torah Sages and known as one of the more strident opponents of drafting Haredim into the IDF, said on Monday in an interview on Kol Chai radio that charedi boys can enlist in the IDF as long as the army anchors its commitments in official military regulations. This marks a historic shift for Rabbi Maya, who is effectively removing his fierce opposition to army enlistment—on the condition that these assurances be formally codified.

“If there is an arrangement where anyone who enlists will not violate Shabbat and can preserve his sanctity and purity—why shouldn’t he enlist? But there’s one condition: it has to be written in an official IDF order. As long as it’s just declarations, it’s worthless,” said Rabbi Maya.

As previously reported, the members of the Council of Torah Sages of Shas, Rabbis Moshe Maya, Shlomo Machpud, and Moshe Tzedaka, issued a sharply worded letter in June that expressed total opposition to the draft of charedim into the military, including into so-called “charedi tracks.” The rabbis emphasized that they oppose even the enlistment of those who are not engaged in Torah study.

In that letter, the rabbis wrote:

“Since the honor of the Torah is being trampled, and the heads of the government have decided to oppose any deferment law that does not include quotas or targets, and are seeking to pick off the weak as Amalek did, by trying to obtain agreement to compromise by drafting those not learning Torah and thereby destroying their observance of Torah and mitzvot, this leads to a desecration of God’s name, God forbid.”

The letter adds that:

“We are obligated to uphold the dignity of religion and make it absolutely clear that the prohibition on army enlistment applies equally to every Torah-observant Jew, even in relation to tracks labeled ‘charedi,’ because the army inevitably leads to spiritual downfall and serious transgressions.”

Rabbi Tzedaka had asked Rabbis Maya and Machpud to join him in signing the letter in order to:

“Publicly declare that, according to the view of the holy Torah, it is absolutely forbidden to agree to or promote any law that includes enlistment targets, and it is forbidden to compromise even for a single soul—even if he is not currently studying—and even regarding so-called ‘charedi tracks.’ We must immediately restore the original Torato Umanuto (‘his Torah is his profession’) arrangement without conditions, as was the case in the past. The merit of the holy Torah and its observance will truly protect Israel more than anything else.”

Rabbi Maya’s statement, as well as another recent statement from him, appears to soften or reframe the previous stance, suggesting that under strict and official religious accommodations, military service could be permitted for charedim. However, this stands in contrast to the absolute prohibition expressed in the June letter he co-signed. The shift by such a senior rabbi is likely to spark considerable debate within the charedi community.