Nadene Goldfoot
As of May 21, 2025, approximately 80,000 Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) men between the ages of 18 and 24 who are eligible for military service have not enlisted in the IDF.
The Shas party decides to exit the government following a meeting of its ruling Council of Torah Sages in Jerusalem, leaving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a government. The party will, however, remain a part of Netanyahu’s coalition for now and is not pushing for elections.
Fellow Haredi party United Torah Judaism quit the coalition Monday night after being presented with a copy of a proposed enlistment bill prepared by Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, which it argued violated the terms of a compromise that was reached by the two sides last month when an effort was being made to prevent the Haredi parties from toppling the government ahead of the war with Iran.
Shas is a Haredi religious political party in Israel. Founded in 1984 by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi, who remained its spiritual leader until his death in October 2013, it primarily represents the interests of Sephardic and Mizrahi Haredi Jews, those Jews of Hispanic and Middle Eastern origin after the 70 CE dispersion of Jerusalem's burning by the Romans.
Shas is the third-largest party in the Knesset as of 2024. Since 1984, it has been part of most governing coalitions, whether the ruling party was Labor or Likud.
This leaving the government comes from the newer expectation of religious Jews taking part as IDF in today's threatening world. They say their students can't perform all the expectations of what they consider necessary as Jews if they enter the service.
United Torah Judaism is a Haredi, religious conservative political alliance in Israel. The alliance, consisting of Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah, was first formed in 1992, in order to maximize Ashkenazi Haredi representation in the Knesset. Despite the alliance splitting in 2004 over rabbinical differences, the parties reconciled in 2006, in order to prevent vote-wasting. In April 2019, the party achieved its highest number of seats ever, receiving eight seats.
Unlike similar religiously-oriented parties in Israel, like Shas, the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit, and Noam, UTJ is non-Zionist. Unlike some other Haredim, the party is notable for its usage of technology and electronic communication.
What impressed me long ago was that the Sephari allowed rice to be eaten during Passover but not for my Lithuanian Ashkenazi people.
Rabbi Elazar Shach, broke away from Agudat Yisrael when he concluded that the party was not representing enough the political interests of the Lithuanian Haredim. At that point, he split from them, and created the Degel HaTorah party for the "Lithuanian" Haredi Jews (also known as "Mitnagdim" by some).
All this coming from interpretation of our 2 books of information; The Palestinian Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud. So many rabbis working to understand what Moses wrote down and what he said, which is called the oral Torah.
The Talmuds, which include both the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds, were written over a period of roughly six hundred years, from the first century CE to the sixth and seventh centuries CE. The Babylonian Talmud is the more well-known and widely studied version. It took several centuries after the Mishnah (core of the Oral Law) was finalized around 200 CE to be compiled, with the main body of the discussions finalized around 500 CE. The Jerusalem Talmud was finalized earlier, around 400 CE.
- Liturgical and Halakhic Differences: Variations in Hebrew pronunciation, prayer melodies, and legal interpretations (halakha) also arose. Modern Times: While intermarriage and globalization have led to some convergence, these three groups generally maintain their distinct identities.
- Despite their differences, all Jewish communities share a common core of Jewish law, tradition, and faith. Some individuals may identify with more than one group or have a blended background.
- Politically, they don't want to lose
- their students. They don't seem to see things like I do. Israel is at a crux of extermination and could use these Jews somehow in IDF.
- I remember that Saul and his children, and David were
- fighters. There are Orthodox Jews fighting in the IDF. How
- can these Torah scholars feel by not being a part of the
- defense when we are in such a time?
- This situation arises from a long-standing exemption for Ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service, an arrangement that has been a subject of ongoing debate and controversy in Israel. In June 2024, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled against the exemptions, stating that there was no legal basis to exempt Haredi men from the draft and mandating their enlistment.
- However, implementing this ruling has proven challenging,
- and themajority of draft-eligible Haredi men remain unenlisted. This
- situation has
- ignited public debate and political responses within Israel,
- particularly amid the
- country's ongoing military challenges and the IDF's need for
- manpower.
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shas
