"Just as the rabbi risks death in entering the battlefield together with the soldiers, it is a simple fact that if the unit leaves for an operation on a Saturday, the rabbi must leave with said," wrote Chief Military Rabbi Brig.-Gen. Avichai Ronsky in a letter to the IDF Rabbinate.
Ronsky was responding to criticism leveled against him after he took part in an operation in Gaza on a Saturday. The IDF rabbi contended that "the military rabbi is an inseparable part of the combat unit."