Just a few months after attending his son’s beret march completion ceremony at the Western Wall, attorney Yissachar Dov Indig returned to the plaza once again, this time under pouring rain but with the same sense of pride. His second son had now completed the demanding march and received the beret of the Hasmonean Brigade.
This marked the second intake of the Haredi brigade to hold a beret march ceremony at the Western Wall in recent weeks. Over two weeks, soldiers of the Hasmonean Brigade completed advanced combat training, culminating in a 50 kilometer march through the Jerusalem hills before finishing their training at the Western Wall. The ceremony was led by the brigade commander, Col. A., with the participation of the full command staff.
The soldiers trained at the Tevetz base, where they underwent navigation exercises, night combat training, raid and assault drills. The goal was to prepare them for operational missions as required and in any location. The entire training framework and base infrastructure were adapted to the Haredi way of life. Upon completion of training, the soldiers will join the Yonatan Battalion, the first regular battalion of the brigade, which will be established at Camp Keren in the Golan Heights. There they will begin further training and carry out operational activity as a regular combat force.
Among the graduates was Y. Indig, until recently a student at the Slabodka yeshiva, headed by leading Lithuanian rabbinic figures Rabbi Dov Lando and Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch. He enlisted in the Haredi brigade following his older brother, S., who studied at the Kaminetz yeshiva and joined the first intake of the brigade.
The older brother attended the ceremony to honor his younger sibling. Both brothers, despite studying at prestigious yeshivas, felt that Torah study was not necessarily the field in which they should invest their full energy. On a personal level, they believed that serving in the Israel Defense Forces was the right course for the benefit of the people of Israel. S.’s enlistment, and his accounts at home about the brigade and the effort made to adapt it to Haredi recruits, led his brother to realize that this framework was also suitable for him if he was not fully realizing his potential in the traditional yeshiva schedule.
Their father, attorney Yissachar Dov Indig, told Yedioth Ahronoth and Ynet that after the events of October 7, his two sons, who had received significant spiritual grounding in yeshiva, immediately understood the need to take part in the war and chose the Hasmonean Brigade, which is tailored to Haredi soldiers.
At the same time, Indig stressed his principled position on the draft bill. “Any attempt to force enlistment on the Haredi public will not be meaningful and will not produce results,” he said. “If we are to discuss drafting those who are not engaged in Torah study, it must be done only with the agreement of the rabbis. One must not forget that Torah is an integral part of the defense of the people of Israel, and only with the consent of the leading rabbinic authorities can we advance a law that truly fits the Haredi community.”