Rabbi Shlomo Aviner of Beit El published an article in Maayanei HaYeshua, a weekly magazine aimed at the religious and newly-religious audience, in which he called upon young women not to enlist to the IDF. "If it is a challenge you are looking for," he wrote in an open letter to religious girls, "we have a wonderful challenge for you: [call for the] cancellation of young women's military service, until there is 'national service' for all of them, including the secular girls, just as secular women's groups demand. Create a movement of girls for cancelling the draft for young women. What a great challenge!"
Religious-Zionist rabbis have never come out so strongly against army service for girls, and in fact many religious girls have served in the army in the past.
Under the headline "Don't Enlist, G-d Forbid!," Rabbi Aviner wrote: "Never enlist in the army, in any framework and in any way. G-d forbid! Never!" He mentioned that all of the great sages of modern Israel forbade women's service in the IDF, including the chief rabbis and religious-Zionist rabbis, some of whom served in the IDF and attained senior rank. "It is forbidden! Forbidden like unkosher food! Forbidden like work on Shabbat! And especially, forbidden like immodest dress!," he explained.
Rabbi Aviner rejected the argument offered by some young women, that they want to serve the country through the military service: "One does not do a mitzvah [commandment] by doing an aveira [transgression]," he explained. Women in the army causes damage to the army, he said: "The role of women in war is to support the men of the family who go to war, but their own enlistment is a Chilul HaShem [desecration of G-d's Name]."
'Ah, the Uniform!'
Rabbi Aviner questioned the true motive for the enlistment of young women: "You are not going to the army just for the country but for yourself. Be honest! You are going because it is a challenge, for the feeling and the experience, because it is a great window of opportunity – a profession, an education, academic studies. Generally speaking, being a soldier is an honor, and especially the uniform. Ah, the uniform!"
"You are not going to the army just for the country but for yourself. Be honest!"
The rabbi went on to suggest a plan of action: "As with any ideal, start with yourself. Then convince two girls who want to enlist to stop and see the light, and let each of them convince two others, and so on until we completely put an end to this evil. A mixed army is truly immodest, it is terrible…" If the IDF needs women, the Rabbi added, let it hire civilians.
Rabbi Aviner said that comparing service in the mostly-male military to membership in a mixed-sex religious youth movement is "a despicable lie." The military, he explained, is not a place where get whatever you ask for. "There is a regime. There is obedience. There are orders. You cannot switch jobs if your assignment turns out to be problematic. Not only that, even if you are well off, you could get
" We need you to function as a clean and pure woman, without a dark record from the past."transferred to another, problematic unit." The IDF has no unit that is protected from mixed-gender mingling, he reminded his readers, and added that the situation in that respect is getting worse.
"Swimming against the current is an experience, but don't swim in a muddied stream," Aviner wrote. "We need you for the Nation of Israel for your whole life and not just for these two years. We need you to function as a clean and pure woman, without a dark record from the past. Do not harm the building of your delicate, pure, spiritual personality. The army is a place where others make decisions for you and you are not free. The general atmosphere is far from pure, as well. What could be fun and experiences for other girls may turn out to be a deep scar for your whole life."