if they want to live in this country they should defend it and its values not hide in a yeshiva from behind the bodies of their brothers who have answered the call to service of god and to defend the jewish people.

In the past, the only way you managed fulltime study was a rich father-in-law.

The Torah commands us to fight to ''liberate the land of Israel from non-Jew'' and to save the ''jews from enemies'' - see both the Rambam and the Ramban The Charedim are violating the Torah with this lifestyle!!!

Service in the IDF is a waste, you say? Did you intend to use such offensive, obtuse language to describe serving your country, or did some editor use the word without your knowledge? Your article explains why the law should draft all without exception and punish draft evaders. My daughter is now in the IDF and her devotion to Israel stands as a rebuke to these draft dodging yeshiva types.

I'm with you. This article is an insult to all the families, who lost sons and daughters in the defense of Israel, not to mention to all the Jews, who fought and died during WWII to put an end to that madness. As a good Jewish-American, Frank Loesser, so aptly put it, "Thank the Lord and pass the ammunition."

that doesn't comfort me at all, knowing my 19 year old daughter has to protect these medieval throwbacks. "avoid sex until marriage." a cabbie in TA told me a story of how he would drive a "hasid" around Ben Yehudah until he found the "place" was looking for. And he paid the cabbie to wait, and according to the cabbie, that was one of many incidents. These people are parasites, chad veh chalak. I did reserves with religious guys, ZIONIST religious Jews who believed that protecting their beloved homeland would mean they would have to do patrols...in a jeep...on shabbat. These are religious Jews who earn the right to live in Eretz Yisrael, not the parasites in B'nei Brak, and Beit Shemesh (I remember when it was still a Moroccan development town) and Mea Shearim.

One fact that the author fails to recognize in this incendiary article is that without the IDF, these Haredim would be unable to study in the yeshiva. Rather than considering IDF service like other Israeli kids, these people allow others to defend them from the very real dangers facing Israel. Studying was never meant to be an excuse for fulfilling a person's obligations. What I fear most is the growing anger and resentment of most Israelis because of the refusal of the Haredim to contribute to the country's welfare.

Nice to see that the yeshiva students think that the army to which they owe their very lives is a waste of time. Israel has created a self perpetrating class that refuses to defend their country or work.Shame on them and shame on you for the moral equivocation displayed here.

Kassams, Grads, Shahabs, Fajrs and Katys, fired by the tens of thousands from all sides, will not discriminate as to who they hit,..from the most secular to the most Orthodox. And who will stop this onslaught, the 50% of the Charedi who dont work, and a higher % that refuse national/military service? They, the Charedi dont get it. Hitler said: to the grandparent, they are all "racial Jews" and must be eliminated from the Reich. Hungary went further..back to the great grandparent. 1.5 children were killed, gassed, hung, experimented upon, little innocenet kinder. 4,000 miles away, my relatives were all drafted during WW2, fought in the Rhineland, and in the Pacific. They were either hurt, a few were killed. A survivor of Auschwitz told me that when she and her relatives and neighbors were rounded up, a few Krauts guarded thousnads..of Jews. There was no attempt to storm the guards Sure, everyone was afraid..and the SS were brutal. But Israel has 170,000 regular troops and 500,000 reservists, all trained. 60,000 Charedi could make up 12 brigades..all of them strictkly kosher and not assimilate into the rest of us, as if we are poison. Since I was 10 years old and left my "Jewish' neighborhood in the USA to move into a mixed area...I have felt the sting and pain of Jew hatred, which is also prevalent today. The Jew now is the last to be hired the first to be hired, thanks to defacto affirmative action. Our newspapers encourage Tikkun Olam, per our Torah. Obamacare is a "Jewish thing", accroding to some authors. Jewish thing? Where is that written in the Torah? Lets help ourselves THEN LOOK to others, that DONT HATE US. The major wing of a large Protestant Church almost won a vote to divest from Israel. By one vote gues, and we still want to aid the world? 600m Arabs, Turkey,, and Iran will not cry one tear if Israel is destroyed. Look at Syria for UN and EU and USA help. Barbarism galore for 13 months.with no end in sight. Russia/Chna know that this has a snowball effect..Russia wants that base in Syria. Iran is 6mos from a natomic bomb and says daily that Israel must go, that a New World Order is theri goal ( sound familar). The Deputy PM. says the Torah dictates we control the planet..AND kill black babies through abortion. Yet no UN outcry? The Charedi are not bringing down Israel, but this article is nonsensical. We secular Jews also contribute: we sell and buy Israeli products, we go into the army from abroad, we send delegations to Israel, we promote good PR back home, we work as scientists, doctors, teachers, social workers, administrators, etc. And what do the Charedi contribute..study of Torah? One can study Torah and Talmust..and the great Jewish historians..and practice the many rituals..and still aid their country physically. I am sorry, but the Charedi are a symptom of a deeper disease in Israel...."do not do unto others"... They are disgraceful...If they wont work/serve..put them on ships bound for NYCity..then buses to Monsey New York, where they will fit in with their comrades...but the boyim up there are not so polite. Get it. We in the Diaspora give over 3b year to Israel to aid that country...I am afraid that is being used to support these professional moochers. And what if we stop givingZ? Then what? You dont serve your country...then leave. That should be the penalty.

I agree with Arie bagolan.. this guy cant have it both ways.....serve,and do your national duty,or withold all state benefits.... The sad thing is...this guy is not alone....all these pompous parasites believe they are a class above the rest

Where did the author say the idf is a waste this a ynet editorial blood libel.The article indicates the ethical jewish beliefs but im believing serving in specialized haredi units for three years and with miluim will improve the sanctity of the Torah Studies.

The intimation that our soldiers who defend the lives of our citizens are wasting their time in the defense forces, and the intimation that inequality between separate social groups is laudable, are both extremely offensive and at odds with the generally accepted theme of democracy.

The mention of wasting time in the IDF is mentioned toward the end of the article. The writer acknowledges that not all yeshiva students are suited to that life, but then conversations go: 'So maybe we should join the army? What? After we “wasted” a few years at the yeshiva we’ll “waste” three more years?!'

For chareidi yeshiva students life decidedly does not revolve around Torah study but rather the appearance of studying Torah. They do so in order to avoid the army, satisfy the demands of their community and to snag a desirable spouse. With the thousands of "students" (and they claim to be students not for three years but for all of their lives) studying on yeshiva one would think that our generation would have produced giants of Torah scholarship like never before. Instead it is an ocean of mediocrity. The time is long past due to tell these phonies that their gig is over.

This is an issue Israelis most sort amongst themselves. However as one who loves & admires Israel, and am afraid for its future, what I thought while reading this was.....do they not see what a precarious position Israel is in? Would more people serving not reduce the burden on everyone? If the enemy breached Israel's defenses would they not kill these Yeshiva students & their families too? In 1193 the Islamic Turkish warrior Khilgi attacked the Buddhist University of Nalanda in North India. The thousands ofBuddhist monks there did not fight and were all beheaded. Better be trained to defend yourselves!

Is there an equivalence between putting the one life you have on the line and giving up many pleasures??? Oh, I know! I am missing some part of the equation.

Who grow up to be proffessional spongers, draft the lot of them and cut their benefits.

There is a concept in some Haredi circles, that they are doing their service to protect the land through their learning of Torah. I know during the last incursion into Gaza a few Yeshivos made a sincere effort of non-stop Torah learning to protect the soldiers in the battlefield.

In a modern Orthodox Synagogue the Rabbi has a university degree. Congregants who are lawyers, doctors , businessman volunteer to be the Chazan & read from the Torah. Obviously in America you can go to a Yeshiva & University .

Our brothers can read all they want after doing service to our country.

These yeshiva students chose a life style that insulates them from all forms of adult endeavors like working and decision making. The Torah does not require constant study in place of working. The Ram Bam was against making Torah your occupation and he was also a medical doctor. Furthermore the Torah requires defending the homeland. These yeshivas offer a copout from truly growing up. The government should stop supporting them.

"One of the essential components in the moral world of a yeshiva student is asceticism." If that's the case might one conclude that state support for this life-style choice interferes with the student's full achievement of this goal.

Unbelieveable the chutzpah of this writer. You live in the Israel, you do as others do in the support of the nation. Not up to you to decide if yeshiva worship suffices. It doesn't, and the religious right is finally getting its comeuppance. How arrogant and absurd! There is no comparison between serving in the military and being in a yeshiva. You interrupt your life of "prayer'" and repetitive whatever just as a soldier does. You put your life on hold like everyone else. Does you feces smell like roses, friend? I take it you think it does.

I for one appreciate and admire the dedication of those [ hareidi] " yeshiva students ...there at least 10 hours a day, mulling philosophical and legal issues in the Talmud " Perhaps 1% of these students have minds that are capable of genius, another 10% are talented and if they dedicate themselves, as you have described, can sometimes challenge the 1% . OK What about the other 89%, especially those who are "not fitted" for studies ? Secular Israeli youth may be also divided into such, somewhat arbitrary, distinctions: Talented thinkers and those not yet fitted for studies. Yet most Israeli youth, reluctantly , some eagerly, do thier part in the IDF ! Israel requires sacrifices from ALL, Jews :hareidi, religious, and secular. moshe

Now it happens that they also consider going to the Yeshiva a waste of time, and we all should be condesending with that. Come on!!

i agree with Mika 100%. also for the soldiers do not havea choice but are proud to do thier duty. i would like to say some other things to the author about wasting time,but the email would not been published so be a proud ISREALI and do some kind of service. you chose to go to yesiva

And no one mentions the secular dodgers who sit on their back side, booze all day, in the Internet and watch movies etc etc etc Its the "escape goat" all over again.