Would The Chazon Ish Have Accepted A Total Exemption For Charedim? Apparently Not

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In the days of the Chazon Ish, the charedi world was very different, and charedim who did not “make a living” from Torah study were obliged to serve in the IDF.

The proof is that one of the Chazon Ish’s students, Rabbi Elazar Menachem Man Shach, who later became head of the Ponevezh Yeshiva, also held the same view regarding those “worldly roamers wandering aimlessly through the streets of Bnei Brak and Jerusalem.” He ruled that charedi draft evaders are no less than persecutors of Torah study, and that the charedi public has no interest in freeing them from the IDF draft.

But who will tell us that this was also the outlook of the great leader, the Chazon Ish? This exact question is examined, among other topics, in the monumental book by researcher and historian Prof. Binyamin Brown, “The Chazon Ish — The Decisor, the Believer, and the Leader of the charedi Revolution” (Magnes Jerusalem and Yeshiva University Press, New York).

On page 304, Brown writes: “He [the Chazon Ish] did not think that the exemption from military service should be given to every Haredi Jew simply by virtue of being charedi, but only to a fairly narrow group of yeshiva students.” And here the learned author gives us a bit of history: “In fact, that was the situation until Agudat Yisrael joined the Begin government in 1977. From that point on, almost every charedi man declared ‘Torato Umanuto’  and received a postponement of service. Under the umbrella of this exemption, thousands of charedi men who did not study in religious institutions at all, and in some cases those who had dropped out of yeshivot , were released from service.”

It appears that the first Likud prime minister, Menachem Begin, was dazzled and swept up by the displays of piety from charedi leadership and granted a broad, wholesale exemption to the youth in black hats, regardless of the cost in terms of the blood of fellow Israelis who were not part of that camp.

Brown continues: “It is quite clear that the Chazon Ish would not have justified exemption on that basis. In his halachic novellæ he tended even to narrow the bounds of the Torah-based exemptions to the ‘returners from war’: those who ‘built a house and did not inaugurate it,’ ‘planted a vineyard and did not yet enjoy its produce,’ ‘married but did not yet take a wife,’ or the ‘timid and faint-hearted’ — and he ruled that these ‘returners’ [i.e., those exempt from appearing to defend Israel] are only released ‘when Israel’s survival does not depend on them.’”

And here comes the most astonishing punch line. The Chazon Ish writes in his chiddushim on Orach Chaim 112/114, chap.6 clause 3): “And if they are needed [i.e., those precious yeshiva students], they must come to assist their brothers.” Plain and simple. The Chazon Ish is explicit, with no conditions, no caveats. Just close the Gemara and stand up to save Israel immediately. Nothing more to add.

To provide further support for his conclusion, Brown quotes Pe’er Hador — a book written by a group of charedi writers led by Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, a pupil of the Chazon Ish from the Vilna period and one of his great admirers, considered the official charedi biography of the Chazon Ish: “Even Peer HaDor, written before the wholesale exemption for Haredim in 1977, dares to cite things in his name (which today would of course be censored) that point to his opposition to freeing those who do not study Torah. According to one rumor he recommended conscription to the IDF for ‘those whose Torah is not their profession’ (see Peer Hador cols. 262–264), and according to another testimony (Peer HaDor even cites it, amazingly, from the newspaper HaTzofeh — note by B.B.) he even said that one who is not truly ‘Torato Umanuto’ and pretends to be a yeshiva student in order to obtain a postponement from military service has the status of a persecutor of all the yeshivot in the land.”

Brown cites additional sources to corroborate his assessment and sums them up: “There is great doubt whether the path of charedi society today would have been acceptable to him [the Chazon Ish].”