Skip it. Who can push you to be religious if you don't want? And with what right?

This is all just about SEX. We Jews went through it for thousands of years. Females are simply very necessary.

No one should be coerced in these matters. Religious soldiers shouldn't be forced to violate halacha, and if secular soldiers really don't want to attend a lecture from a Rabbi, they also shouldn't be forced to if they have strong feelings about it. Speaking a a Hareidi man, I know that no one ever came closer to Torah from being forced to sit in a lecture they didn't want to be at. Maybe there is other content that is important for other reasons, but in general things in the army that aren't essential to the actual functioning of an effective army shouldn't be forced on people if it conflicts with their beliefs.

You just want to stir up trouble to promote your own political career, that's called opportunism. Your selfish ambition cares nothing of consequences. It's very hypocritical to talk about principles when it's so obvious you don't have any. You're kidding yourself if you think the majority of Israelis are anti-religion. I'm secular & I resent anti-religion propaganda. Israel does not need divisiveness. This doesn't mean that I agree with anyone not attending an event in which women sing. But I most certainly don't agree with creating even more divisiveness, especially to satisfy your political ambition.

Like always, the hate spewing lipid missed the point. Jewish Law forbids listening to females sing, not any personal opinion or bias. It's impossible for a rational human being to equate violating Jewish Law with Jewish soldiers in a Jewish army listening to a Jewish rabbie before the Jewish New Year. Only Lapid can equate the two.

Whats good for the goose is good for the gander. Why should seculars have to listen to religious mumbo jumbo? Seperate state from religion.

This is just ridiculously funny. Army isn't training Haredi men, Haredis are training the army. Hahahahha. With such an army you shouldn't make enemies!

I would rather go to gaol by defying orders than attend and be forced to listen to drivel and nonsense from "holy men".

Firstly, no one can be forced to listen to a woman singing - but it is possible to be required to *hear* it. In the formidable years of ones life only he can set the barometer that low and say "I can't do this, this is wrong." If there is a psychiatrist in the country who supports this person's dismissal on mental grounds, even if it could be divined that the instance would not occur, exclusively being seen unfit for military duty due to mental illness - then so be it! The mentally ill should not be serving in our military. Moreover, with closer examination one will find that the propensity of those unable to contain their urges at the sound of a female singing, to the point of being recognized as mentally ill, may be equal among both sectors. And perhaps this is what is needed in an integrated army - there will be fewer incidents of sexual harrassment & abuse (and less criminal and traumatic cover-up). But I've never heard of a case of "mentally unstable due to horniness." But if it is a condition, by all means, release the mentally ill soldier (or screen him/her out to begin with) Conversely however, the appeal vs. the displeasure of hearing a lecture by an indoctrinated rabbi who has not updated his terminology and conscious awareness of reality over the past fifty years - well, we all know that the appeal for such lectures weighs far more frequently in favor of mentall illness than grave displeasure. In fact, a sign of mental health and intelligince can be seen with the ability to entertain an idea contrary to one's personal understandings. And those found pathalogically comfortable with such a venue should likewise be dismissed, for we should tolerate no mental illness in the military. In the rare instance that one is found to be pathalogically unable to handle a lecture from a rabbi - any rabbi - this should also be grounds for dismissal, for once again we should not tolerate mental illness among our serving troops. One barometer for one nation; a fair law shall not be unfair. But this was not the proposal advocated by the article's author, which is such a perposterous suggestion that I am certain that with time he could have come up with a better dichotomy which is not being applied. However, he has not.

As a religious man - with rabbinical ordination to boot - it's a rare lecture that I'm interested in attending. I agree with #3 that few adults get anything out of lectures they're forced to attend.

SEPERATE STATE & RELIGION NOW, SO ISRAEL CAN FINALLY JOIN THE 21ST CENTURY, 10 YEARS TOO LATE...

lapid like his father is a Jew who hates Judaism.

What a speech! :-))

there's a fundamental difference between that which is forbidden by one's religion and something that one (vociferously) disagrees with. One need not listen to a Rabbi. One can answer back to a Rabbi. One can even make fun of a Rabbi. It's not really a comparable issue. The issue is not one of listening, it's one of *hearing*. There's no such thing as right of reply there.

His total ignorance of anything Jewish (which no-one can really blame him for, seeing who his father was) is so obvious in this article that it's actually quite sad. He's just a lost soul who really doesn't understand anything about the meaning of life. Misken ...

As much as it your right to be religious it is also my right not to be religious. I do not live by religious rules and will not listen to religious preachings by those who cliam to represent it. In the words of Albert Einstein " belief in God is a "childish superstition" and Jews were not the chosen people.The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish" Amen sister

Lapid writes: "If a soldier who stands at attention during a Holocaust Commemoration Day or Memorial Day ceremony cannot think of anything else but the level of sexiness in a female singer’s voice, he should be released from the IDF in any case on mental grounds." Unfortunately in the sense that I'm not particularly a fan of Lapid, I have to agree. One thing I HAVE BEEN is a standard male horny son of a gun all my life. Women's voices have just not been a problem. Trying to write a PhD thesis while girls in bikinis are gallivanting in front of me...yes, that's distracting. Voices can be pleasant and yes, once in a while, even sexy, but it's just not a big deal. This is nutso stuff.

Thank you for reading an Israeli news source. It appears that you may be interested in hearing more than one side of the argument. Since our military has an impressive record, (don't take my words at face value, do the research and make your own conclusion) I'm not too worried.

Y Lapid is 100% correct. You don't bully us with your stone age bullshit and we will not force you to liscen to woman singing..

Last I heard I didn't hear that soldiers can opt out of educational lectures on the basis of the topic of the lecture. I'm sure that if that were the case then people would opt out on lectures about religion, Rabin, and from NIF groups. Entertainment, though should be a different matter. If someone doesn't want to be forced to sit through a concert then what is the harm? It is the bone headed insistence to degrade religious soldiers and force them to violate their religious sentiments that is the issue.

Which law, please? These laws didn't exist in biblical times (when women danced and sang as a pre-marital selection method, among other things. So where did it come from: it started in medieval time which for good reason was called the "dark ages" for its ignorance and superstition. Education changed most people but the hasidic movement has turned dark age and misogyny into an art form. It goes against all things decent and normal, but this government is allowing the lunatic fringe among the hasidic sects to grow in strength and impose their sickness onto all of us. Lapid for president.

what an idiot

First of all, Israel is not a theocracy...but I'm sure you already knew that. Not only that, but to have somebody living in present-day Turkey denigrate Israel while your government moves closer to becoming an Islamist state like Iran is absolutely laughable. In fact, you should probably be a lot more concerned with Erdogan and his wannabee mullahs than about the Haredim in Israel.

Halacha is flexible. No one is stoning his son, even though it is allowed in the Tora. On the other hand, listening to a woman's voice is not forbidden in the Tora. It was made Halacha by Rabbis, and Rabbis can undo this. They just have to look around and see that reality changed since the Rambam (Kairo, Middle Ages). Oh, and I recently read that divorce rate and the rate of sexual harassment is not lower in the religious sector than in the secular. So all these modesty laws can safely be discarded.

the IDF is a proud army resting on the principles of Military Authority.... The only exception is that our soldiers have the right to violate a direct order if they feel it is unethical (see the examples given in this past weekend's Yediot Magazine the article by Dr. R. Bergman). In short no Israeli soldier should ever find himself in the position of saying "I was just following orders" This business of women singing and rabbis lecturing doesn't fall under that rule and so it falls under the general category of Military Authority. No soldier of the IDF has the right to violate Military Authority so to all the soldiers "Suck it up boys and girls...get thee to the singing and get thee to the lectures...its an order! Just do it!"

While I do support the freedom to choose what lecture one attends (if not a strictly military topic such as tactics, new weapons, etc.), I do not support "political" moves such as divisive actions among soldiers. Commanders should be approached and the topic discussed. If no satisfaction is given, the soldier should write the Ombudsman, not about the commander, but in getting religion out of any mandatory attendance requirement.

to compromise, all you've accomplished is getting yourself surrounded by those who want to kill you. Compromise, a tenet in Western Civilization is not understood with Arabs in the Middle East. To them it's a sign of weakness. The once proud Israel is now seen by nearly all as a weak, frail state that's been backpedaling itself into oblivion. Now, the Arabs are about to go for the coup de grâce, and you have no one to blame but yourselves. When they come for you, and they will, you must crush them once and for all, or the State for the Jewish people will fade into history. 

In 1971, I took part in the Three Day March event, conducted in the hills around Jerusalem, just before Pesah. Some 25,000 took part, from all walks of Israeli life. A number of IDF units also marched. The IDF handled all the logistics, including arranging the evening entertainment - which included women among the musicians and singers. I never noticed religious soldiers protesting or walking out over their presence.

It seems that whatever Charedim do, they are in the wrong. You criticise them for not going to the the Army, and you criticise them when they do go to the army. If there is Charedim in the Army, they should be accommodated to as much as possible. I dont think a female singing had anything to do with serving in the army, and the backlash nothing to do with refusing orders. It was an expression of hating Charedim. Do us a favour Lapid, GET A LIFE!