IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz and Chief Personnel Officer Maj.-Gen. Elazar Stern said yesterday that if the deans of two hesder yeshivot do not resign, their yeshivot will suffer.
"Hesder" means "arrangement," by which the 6,000 students of some 50 such yeshivot around the country combine army service and Torah studies in a five-year program.
It is widely assumed that the two threatened yeshiva heads are Rabbi Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba and Rabbi Yaakov Levanon of Elon Moreh.
Rabbi Levanon, speaking with Arutz-7's Uzi Baruch, said today, "I'm not sure if Halutz was referring to me, or to others, but it doesn't matter; he is making a mistake. By the way, I didn't call for refusal, but rather advised my students to say, 'I cannot.' This was checked from a legal standpoint, and found to be substantially different than outright refusal... I feel that the order to uproot Jews from their homes is an illegal one, but that's not the point; even those who might feel that the order was legal might still be unable to execute it. For instance, if the authorities decide that someone must be evicted from a building in which he has squatted, a policeman who happens to be his brother would likely not be able to implement this lawful order."
Regarding the threat to end the hesder arrangement with his yeshiva, Rabbi Levanon said, "The arrangement is not dependent on the good will of the Chief of Staff. Chiefs of Staff come and go, while the arrangement is anchored in law, and only the Knesset and government can change it."
Rabbi Levanon has some harsh words for Maj.-Gen. Stern, an observant Jew: "As of now, he is the #1 enemy of the hesder yeshivot. He has tried to harm us from many standpoints, including trying to 'integrate' us in the army in ways that we do not want. He was offended by our refusal to accept this idea... and now his goal is apparently to crush the hesder yeshivot. However, we have weathered many threats, and we will weather these as well. I am happy to note that the other hesder heads have said that if even one yeshiva is harmed, they will regard it as if all the yeshivot have been affected."
Rabbi David Stav, co-head of the Petach Tikvah yeshiva, said it is not likely that the army would want to do something that would push thousands of top-quality soldiers into frameworks - i.e., hareidi-sector yeshivot - that do not allow for any army service at all.
"Hesder" means "arrangement," by which the 6,000 students of some 50 such yeshivot around the country combine army service and Torah studies in a five-year program.
It is widely assumed that the two threatened yeshiva heads are Rabbi Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba and Rabbi Yaakov Levanon of Elon Moreh.
Rabbi Levanon, speaking with Arutz-7's Uzi Baruch, said today, "I'm not sure if Halutz was referring to me, or to others, but it doesn't matter; he is making a mistake. By the way, I didn't call for refusal, but rather advised my students to say, 'I cannot.' This was checked from a legal standpoint, and found to be substantially different than outright refusal... I feel that the order to uproot Jews from their homes is an illegal one, but that's not the point; even those who might feel that the order was legal might still be unable to execute it. For instance, if the authorities decide that someone must be evicted from a building in which he has squatted, a policeman who happens to be his brother would likely not be able to implement this lawful order."
Regarding the threat to end the hesder arrangement with his yeshiva, Rabbi Levanon said, "The arrangement is not dependent on the good will of the Chief of Staff. Chiefs of Staff come and go, while the arrangement is anchored in law, and only the Knesset and government can change it."
Rabbi Levanon has some harsh words for Maj.-Gen. Stern, an observant Jew: "As of now, he is the #1 enemy of the hesder yeshivot. He has tried to harm us from many standpoints, including trying to 'integrate' us in the army in ways that we do not want. He was offended by our refusal to accept this idea... and now his goal is apparently to crush the hesder yeshivot. However, we have weathered many threats, and we will weather these as well. I am happy to note that the other hesder heads have said that if even one yeshiva is harmed, they will regard it as if all the yeshivot have been affected."
Rabbi David Stav, co-head of the Petach Tikvah yeshiva, said it is not likely that the army would want to do something that would push thousands of top-quality soldiers into frameworks - i.e., hareidi-sector yeshivot - that do not allow for any army service at all.