When the author states " the difference between a perceived moral obligation and a boring, irrelevant lecture" what does he refer to? I have no knowledge that listening to a rabbi lecture is a Torah prescription. I am secular and I was in the IDF I strongly resented being forced to attend the passover ceremony and listen to the prayers. For me this was torture. Also the author states:"If a secular soldier can’t bear to listen to a rabbi talk ..., he has a serious issue". Maybe the rabbi has a serious issue. Maybe if the rabbi was smarter even seculars would not feel torture

I'm an Israeli. Born and raised in Jerusalem and served for 5 years in an elite force in the IDF and have had to deal with lots of things. I have a Masters Degree in Journalism and work as a lawyer. I have set in many lectures. I CANNOT SIT 20 MINUTES LISTENING TO A RABBI TALK ABOUT ANYTHING! The main reason for that is: I am willing to listen to Wisdom, but not to Stupidity and ignorance that does not portray a sense of reality! Do I have a serious issue??

who goes there, has to adjust. not the other way round.

If a humanistic secular soldier is forced to listen to religious mumbo-jumbo from Rabbis, he would not be true to his own principles of intellectual honesty. He would be under a moral obligation to walk out, just as the religious soldier, who cannot listen to a woman singing. The secular soldier is being honest with himself, the religious soldier merely cannot control his sexual libido while a woman sings.

Don't we have enough problems to face. why do we have to fight amongst ourselves!

"It is certainly the right of every soldier to reject these laws or to interpret them differently". I'm glad you at least recognize that these "laws" are subject to interpretation or even rejection. For what we're dealing with here are soldiers listening to rabbis promoting the most stringent reading of those laws, and they're creating fissures within a community that must be united if it's to be effective. "Shalom bayit" doesn't only apply to one's own household.

-" Raised in the US, currently growing up in Israel", says it all does it not.

This halachah has been well established and applied by the whole orthodox world for almost a millenia - and maybe before (because the halachot were codified "only" a few hundred years). The Rambam who explained the prohibition died in 1204 - 807 years from now. So if 8 centuries is a "new humra", what is an "old one" ? Even by reading the Talmud the problem is pretty clear.

The founder of the Jewish state would have known how to solve this issue: He would draft every yeshiva student ( later in his life he regretted his waiver of 400 student in 1948) and relegate the Rabbis to the kashrut supervision in the kitchens. we forget that the zionist revolution was a revolt against the medevilism of shtelt judaism and a call to create a free andsecular state of the Jews.

Great article

It is important to mention that as the religious population grow by leaps and bounds and the secular population decreases in percentage, the need for the IDF to enlist the religious becomes more and more critical. For the army to work, all must respect the other. The religious must learn to respect the secular and the secular the religious. The problem here is that the secular must learn what and how a religious person thinks and what his/her values are. Lapid and the errand IDF commander seem to think themselves experts in matters that really required a bit of education, which is obvious that they lack. Any one who believes that a religious boy must listen to a woman sing is lacking in understanding of some basic tenets of Judaism. To put people like this in leadership positions weakens and destroys what the state of Israel needs the most and that is unity through understanding.

Women took equal share of responsibility and participated in IDF from the initial formation of this country. While you sat in your homes like a chickens, she took gun and went in front. Now you all are waking up and showing as if by joining IDF you are doing a big favor on your country and not performing you duty. When you go on war, knock on enemy door, you will face men and also women. So what you will tell them? We are not allowed to look at you? We can not arrest you as it requires touching you? Keep religion and state separate. As a combat soldier you will face women as a enemy, then get your training alongside them. They were here with this country much much before than you. And remember, as you expect not to compromise your rules, even seculars do not like to be bullied around on the name of religion.

If you really served then you'd know that if you did not want to hear a lecture, all you had to do is volunteer for bsisit or mitbach (do you know what these are?) and then you would not only be free of torture, but you'd let one of your mates enjoy the lecture.

isnt that the opposite of wisdom?

Yes poor you she iyeh lecha refoua shelema

The Halacha is about not hearing a woman singing and not participating in training nor fighting against or with women...your ignorance is the root of the problem you are Jewish be proud that you are and learn to respect you neighbor...

and is poorly written, Ynet should never have printed it.

This is first and foremost the army of the people of Israel. Anything else - anything else - delegitimizes it and puts it in serious danger of being the preserve of one interest group. That way is disaster.

to hear a woman sing: Have you lost your minds? There is no Toranic injunction against female singing that I know of, nor is this is a question of modesty. This is an expression of a benighted, fundamentalist approach to Judaism, that would have been unrecognizable thirty years ago, for example, in the Bnei Akiva youth movement, where religious boys and girls sang together ....If this puts an end to haredi service in the IDF, then let it, and let them do national service in the nations hospitals and such.

Israel is the Jewish homeland and its army should be religious but what does “religious” mean Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Modern Orthodox, or Orthodox? The army must allow each solider to be religious as he sees fit, however, ultra orthodoxy does not allow its adherents to be proper members of a modern armed force. Their rabbis seem to think we are still in the 16th century when the “Shuchaln Aroch” was published.

I love it when some American Jews become sentimental about the IDF. It may come as a suprise to some that thousands of non Jews serve in the IDF. Arabs, Druse Beduin and Circassians. Also, how do you define "Observant Jews " There are many Observant Jews who do listen to women singing. Anything can be taken to extremes, that does not make it right I am sure none of you like the way women have to hide their faces in Afganistan or the fact that girls cannot go to school there. This is an example of Islamic extremism, and we know that in Judaism there are also extreme interpretations of The Law.

But, if he wants the religious to serve in the IDF, they need to be treated with respect and forcing them to listen to women singing for no good reason is not treating them with respect.

working overtime on weekends

The solution to all this is to have a volunteer proffesional force and not a draft. Let people work without being forced into the army. There is no need for this anymore!

The issue of women singing is not a matter of as Lapid said "cannot think of anything else but the level of sexiness in a female singer’s voice" but rather their level of religious observance and yes there is such a halacha as the Prohibition of kol isha though there are opinions that allow for a group of women as apposed to a solo singer. Perhaps officers and commanders need to be more sensitive to such soldiers and place them on guard duty or in the kitchen during ceremonies that might offend their religious sensitivities. There are many changes the army needs to make, I know because I served in a regular combat unit, and I am orthodox, (modern charedi), but there are also ways to accommodate and compromise with out creating major situations .

Lapid's article sounded like a spoiled brat that wants his way, and only his way. This article is clear and balanced. That some cant be bothered to read it, mainly those that say they cant sit thru a Rabbi's shiur, Yes you do have a problem. You are either to self absorbed to listen to anyone else, or your attention span is too short to consider more than your own desires. You, more than the dati, should be careful when women sing, because you are probably just entertaining your desires at that time, but as your desires are everything to you, that;s "good".