Cut the boy some slack here!!! If the IDF is so strict about Shabbat observance, why aren't they arresting religious shirkers? What a disgrace!

What the hell is a cat doing in a communal kitchen in the first place, surely there should be a cover over the pot?

Unfortunately, we see that religious laws, becomes their space, in places where they would not have to be obeyed. I can understand the prohibition of cooking on Shabbat, but punish someone because he does not believe it makes us very close to Iran or Afghanistan. The next step will be to ban soldiers to shave with Gillette

oh tallush stop being sooooo anti when it comes to religeon, you have no idea the damage you are causing yourself by being this way. do you have ANY idea how important it is to keep Shabat. study Torah, Kabala(soul of the Torah) you would be enlightened. G-d bless Gilad

Just remember in the IDF one must follow orders even if they seem unfair You will scream about soldiers not following orders to dismantle settlements but condone disobeying an order not to cook on Shabbat, well they are the same AN ORDER IS AN ORDER

I mean the Torah way?

Whether they are to throw people out of their homes, or to refrain from cooking on shabbat.

They share it with the ketzele. Sometimes the ketzele even falls into the cholent pot. More meat for everybody!

When I was a kid and we were living in the tropics, the neighbors cat used to sneak into our kitchen and take off with meat my mom had on the cutting board. My mom then made a noose anchored it and stuck it next on the window corner where the cat would sneak in. One day the cat got noosed and was hanging off the noose and caterwauling loudly in fright. The neighbor hopped over the wall, cut the noose and rescued his cat. The cat never came back. The neighbor was mad.

This soldier received such an unusually harsh sentence for such a minor offense because of the serial problems with discipline in the Kfir Regiment. From refusing orders, mutiny, prisoner abuse, allegations of murder and this, a minor violation. The whole damn regiment should be disbanded. It's clearly problematic and doing Israel great harm.

Cat or no cat his orders were you don't cook on Shabbat and he broke those orders. His reasoning may have been inocent but he was still beaking orders and armies only function because there is a chain of command and discipline. His superiors did have a right to punish him for not following orders but they should have been more understanding of the circumstances. The right thing to do would have been to tell you in future you follow your orders, your a soldier not a civilian. This time though because its obvious your motives where honest and reasonable we will let you off with a verbal warning, next time ask permission from a superior officer first.

Another reason to SEPERATE RELIGION & STATE

Not only that, he broke standing orders that are there so that other soldiers in the army (the religious Jewish ones) can actually serve in the army and eat the food prepared there. So not only did this soldier break standing orders (a very serious matter in the military, which lives by its discipline), he also effectively spat on his religious Jewish brothers in arms.

and it tried to catch the rat in the meal That is what you may be offered on Sabbat for meal in Israeli Army if you try to feed yourself you will go to prison for 20 days Would you send your son to such an army?

A lot of us have been in similar situations and there are other options beside desecrating Shabbat. Sounds like it was his preference to disregard Shabbat AND orders. Paqid Yirmeyahu Paqid 16, The Netzarim, Ra'anana, Israel Israeli Torah-reverer (& Orthodox Jew) Advocate for Logic as Halakhic Authority Welcoming All Torah-reverers (Jews & non-Jews) www.netzarim.co.il

they were not obliged to eat this . Again your paranoia Mr Roman .

a "ba'al Tschuva" , a pseudo convert , a turkish guy . Truly , a nice trio ! And i , the ONLY TRUE Jew has to read their crap .

BT's and converts are Jewish, you ignoramus. A Turk can be Jewish as well. I'm sorry that offends a "true Jew" like yourself.

The soldiers disobeyed an order, so fine him 100 shekels, make him do some push ups and then get on with your life. I respect Judaism and have many Orthodox friends. However, the IDF just makes secular Jews distrust the religious when they have barbaric punishments like this.

Everybody else is subhuman except for Chuckie's little circle of seculars. You can kush mir in tuchis, Chuckie.

Firstly, make the cat do 50 push-ups for desecrating Shabbat. Plus it's a cat, cats are evil, except for keeping away snakes, which are even worse. Secondly, the soldier and his batallion should have gone on a capture mission to find the cat and bring it back for questioning. Thirdly, 20 days? Discipline shcmisipline. The article clearly states this soldier had other discipline offences. This is clearly a case of a superior looking to bust the guy for other offences. If you dim wits honestly believed cooking on Shabbat deserves 20 days in the "brig" just because it disobeys orders, you belong at a juvenile delinquent correction camp, not a military. Fourthly, for all you "ex-soliders" saying an order is order, please pipe down. Cooking and answering the telephone in Tel Aviv is what most of you did. If you truly believe you were actually combat soldiers you most likely served your three years in a "special" ward where they gave you toy guns and told you whatever you wanted to hear... When on earth did people get so serious and stupid? If the military is supposed to be as insanely rigid as you all believe then I assure you this is why we perform like Arab armies... We're obessed with dominating over our own, and hierarchy. It completely ruins fluid intelligence. In fact the solider was most likely busted because of past behaviour and this was just the front to do it. So for all the discordious chimes, please pipe down.

And this low level exceeds all permitted limits .

A TRUE convert can be a follower of the Jewish faith , but a fake one ? Have i to think that a BT did a great thing ? For me , no normal person can become such a fanatic as he is . And regarding this Turk , read his tb's , you will know what kind of guy he is . For the rest : try to read everything they wrote , if you can read , at least .

Standing orders on Kashrut and Shabbat observance in military kitchens is so that religious Jewish soldiers can eat the food cooked there. These is no room for exceptions, as once you permit one, you essentially permit all of them. Once there's concern about the food being cooked during the Shabbat, religious Jewish soldiers can't eat the food there *at all*. We can no longer be certain about the kitchen, about what was prepared before Shabbat and what was prepared during it. In the same way, not observing Kashrut would mean the kitchen would not be trusted to provide Kosher food. That's the whole of it. Trust. There is no room for slipping up here, and the military law is quite clear on that as well. But perhaps you would be satisfied with us religious soldiers eating bread, fruit, and vegetables, just so as to not bother the secular soldiers.

This soldiers did'nt obey the rules , that's sure . But what he did are NOT the rules , so you are only looking for another excuse for the religious fanatrics not to serve . He did'nt oblige anyone to eat from this non kosher food . He was hungry , prepared something , he's maybe not even a cook .

Really. So a kitty cat ate from the pot. Really tough soldiers, this bunch. A Palestinian warrior would have eaten that cat raw and live. If they were really worried about it, all they had to do was microwave the stew to kill any germs.