Maj.-Gen. Elazar Stern, head of the IDF Personnel Wing, has set as his goal to change substantially the form of hesder service. Hesder yeshivot combine advanced Torah and Talmudic studies with military service in the Israel Defense Forces in a national-religious framework. Though regular army service is three years, the hesder students are bound to their framework for four or five years, during which they serve in the army a total of approximately 16 months.
An important feature of hesder for the students is that even in the army, they generally serve together in homogeneous companies of some 30 soldiers each within regiments of three companies.
One major change that Stern has already begun to implement is to make the companies heterogeneous. This change has been effected in one or two regiments as test cases, and Stern would like to continue in the rest of the yeshivot as early as this coming March.
Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, co-Dean of the Har Etzion hesder yeshiva in Gush Etzion since 1971, has written:
"Hesder at its finest seeks to attract and develop bnei [lit. sons of] Torah who are profoundly motivated by the desire to become serious talmidei hachamim [Torah scholars] but who concurrently feel morally and religiously bound to help defend their people and their country; who, given the historical exigencies of their time and place, regard this dual commitment as both a privilege and duty; who, in comparison with their non-hesder confreres, love not Torah less - but Israel more. It provides a context within which students can focus upon enhancing their personal spiritual and intellectual growth while yet heeding the call to public service, and it thus enables them to maintain an integrated Jewish existence."
The Union of Yeshivot Hesder at first strongly opposed the move to "spread out" the hesder students, but has now toned down its position. It still demands, however, that the changes not be forced upon it.
Rabbi David Stav, a co-Dean of Yeshivat Petah Tikvah, explained: "The issues are not black and white, and in fact some of the yeshiva heads want to have more integration of their students in the army. The problem is that we asked Stern and the Personnel Wing not to force it upon the other yeshivot - at least not until after we are able to get a better picture of what effect the new arrangement has had."
One of the feared results of the change was that hesder students spread more thinly among the companies would not have a chance to pray together in the required quorum (minyan) of ten. "However," Rabbi Stav said, "it turns out that not only are they given time to pray, even some of the non-hesder soldiers join in with them. Admittedly, as Stern claimed, more soldiers are now given the opportunity to pray in a minyan."
"There are other issues, though," Rabbi Stav said. "We felt that if religious soldiers are placed prominently amidst non-religious soldiers, and the latter might have to take over some of their responsibilities on Sabbath or during prayers, this might cause hatred. Here, too, it must be admitted that this has not happened; the non-religious soldiers have so far shown willingness to chip in for their co-soldiers."
"But issues such as how many soldiers might drop out of the hesder program, and others, must still be checked, and we are asking for more time before forcing it on all the yeshivot."
Other rabbis say that the positive results of the test period were only to be expected - but that this is no reason to destroy the entire hesder program. "The situation can be compared to the fine Shelef program," one rabbi said, "in which the cream of the crop of the yeshiva high schools go to development towns for their senior year, and truly have a very good positive influence. But does this mean that all yeshiva high schools should close down and their students be spread among all the public schools?
Similarly, the hesder program must be maintained precisely as it is - so that most of the students can serve in the army free from secular influences and a frivolous environment - while individuals or even individual yeshivot can be free to choose their path."
Rabbi Stav said that talk of increasing the army-service period from 16 months to 22 is "nothing more than rumor." The same is true for the reports that 2,000 hesder soldiers will be recruited each time, as opposed to 1,500. "There are only some 1,200 new hesder students each year," Rabbi Stav said.
A final decision on whether next month's enlistment will be totally mixed-company, or only partial, is to be made shortly. The governing board of the Union of Yeshivot Hesder is to meet with Gen. Stern sometime in the next 2-3 weeks.
MK Zevulun Orlev, Chairman of the National Religious Party, said, "Even good intentions must be carried out with the required sensitivity. New initiatives should be carried out with broad agreement and in consultation with the yeshiva heads. The sensitive times that the religious-Zionist movement is undergoing must be taken into consideration."