Bennett urges students to postpone IDF draft for 1 year’s Torah study
Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett calls on students to study Torah for a year before drafting into IDF; says not doing so was 'one of his biggest regrets.'
Bennett's remarks were made during a conference dubbed 'Living the Mission of the Torah' held at the Bnei Akiva center. He added that he is saddened by students' decision to draft to the IDF directly after high school, and advised the gathered students not to make the same mistake.
"I don’t regret a lot of things in life, but one of the only things I do regret was enlisting into the IDF straight out of high school."
"The first thing I recommend," the Bayit Yehudi ledaer said, "as my personal recommendation—to spend at least a year studying Torah."
Bennett suggested that Torah studies in schools are not pure since they they are done to pass the matriculation exams, rather than out of a genuine desire to study it. Therefore, he insisted, it is imperative to add on another year to study what he described as "heavenly matters."
Bennett went on to implore the students to study even after completing their military service, and to study for their entire lives in order to uphold the values of the Torah.
"I (study Torah) every week, and it's a positive thing," Bennett stated before warning that an absence of Tprah study copuld result in the decline of moral values. "Our day to day lives have a strong hold on us—you're students, you'll have to take your kids to school, you'll have to make a living, etc. But if you don't make time to study Torah, you'll lose your sense of morals and fly off into the wind."
Studying in places of Jewish learning in Israel is a common phenomenon prior to drafting into the IDF, as many religious Jews choose from a range of options offered by the state to learn before and/or after the army for an extended time period.
