Anyhow, I doubt that my powers of perception were so diminished back when I was familiar with this paper that such articles were commonplace but somehow slipped under my radar so I suppose this is either a very uncommon article for Mishpacha or the chareidi community in the Holy Land has gone through similar changes (though slower no doubt) to the ones I see occurring (in no small part thanks to the internet) in the American Chareidi community.

Anyhow, I’d certainly be curious to know ~

mnuez
http://www.mnuez.blogspot.com

You are correct. You didn’t - others did - and I got confused.

The gist of my response still applies however. Just because you believe something is appropriate doesn’t mean others are bound to it, nor should it be held against them. There’s no halachah supporting your position [nor theirs] so it’s merely a matter of what you feel vs. what they feel. Hardly compelling.

Whether Halacha allows it is a different matter. I suspect that Shakirat was a Rodef and that it was allowed - but since I it’s not my neck in the noose, not my synagogue in Austin that will be blown up, I’d rather leave this to those whose lives are at risk.

Nachum, Sanhedrin 99b and Makkos 10a, for starters. Berachos 64a, Pesachim 68b and Avos 1:2 (as explained by Rashi) are also relevant sources. I am sure you could come up with dozens of other sources if you spend some time on it.

You’re welcome to believe as you wish obviously and you may even have a strong point. Others however, are welcome to believe otherwise and they may be correct. Either way, you cannot assume improper motives of people who don’t believe as you do. To state that Hareidim “don’t have Hakaros Hatov” toward soldiers because they don’t recite a public Mi Shebeirach on Shabbos is absurd.

In a “ticking bomb” situation, an unpleasant interrogation is extremely unlikely to be effective, since the captive can send the police on wild-goose chases until the bomb goes off.

Oh, and if “not … pleasant” is a coy euphemism for torture, please see Rabbi Aryeh Klapper’s remarks in response to a Tradition article on torture in wartime.

Actually - neither is the correct answer.

RCS did not break “new” ground when he prayed on behalf of the IDF soldiers or thanked them for risking their lives. It’s something that almost every single yeshivaman in EY did and continues to do. Rav Shach zt”lgave a long drashah in Ponoveizh just prior to the Six-Day war expressing the need to daven for the welfare of the soldiers who would be entering battle…

Only the Neturei Karta faction has ever refused to do that and they’re not very popular or numerous if you hadn’t noticed.

Both. RCS did his 30 + years ago; and RJR, nobly, is reinforcing and reviving that traditional torah-true hashkafa.

You’re right. It may not be “axiomatic”, but no one would deny that respect among the broader secular public for the religious contributions to society via Torah study, is less than impressive. On a daily basis, one can find articles decrying the Hareidi lack of one thing or another in the secular press. Surely, you’re not unaware of this phenomenon, are you?

“Once again Jonatahan Rosenblum has crossed barriers and shown that one can be Charedi and have … indeed should have … public Hakaras HaTov for the Israeli Defnese Forces…Hakaras HaTov for the IDF is not new. R. Chaim Shmuelevitz famously did the same thing many teasr ago”

Harry - which one is it? Did RJR forge new ground or is it old hat for Chareidim as evidenced by RCS?

KT

That’s not so. I know at least one person saying Yizkor for the fallen Israeli soldiers. I am sure there are many more. It is an individual decision. Given that today this issue is political which is wrong no matter how you look at it, people are reluctant to admit.

This is because as bnei torah we have to keep our eye oon our responsibilities and trust g-d to worry about his. This is a key underpinning to the terutz for bochurim being patur from the army now; i.e. we can’t make g-d’s problem’s our problems. One thing we WILL be held accountable for is whether we lived up to our job description. [comment on "Arafat's Posthumous Victory"]

this is an unfair stereotype of secular Jews. While, as another commenter suggested, none of us knows the metaphysics of how torah plays into the defense equation, it is not axiomatic that people commonly referred to as secular, discount, across the board, the value that the religious segment brings to society.

Hakaras HaTov for the IDF is not new. R. Chaim Shmuelevitz famously did the same thing many teasr ago, when Yeshivas Mir narrowly escaped being attacked during (I believe) the Six Day War. In recent times such praise has become unpopular (to say the least) in Charedi circles. Thank God there are people like Jonathan who can remind people where their hearts and minds should be.

considering that the secular population foots the bill for much of the Torah learning, i think that there’s alot of hakaros hatov.
it might be useful if you could bring a source in the torah or shas
that establishes the ‘fact’ that “Torah learning in protecting all of us ”
i don’t spend hours each day learning to protect am yisrael, i do it because i am commanded to do so . no more , no less.

May we only share in good news,

Baruch

In 1973, a young hesder soldier named Beni Gal was sent from the Yeshivat Har Etzion, where he was learning, to an outpost in the Sinai to lead the tefillot. He was a remarkable inspiration to all the soldiers, whatever their level of religious commitment. The commander of the base wrote that the merit of the pure shofar blasts Beni blew - not only in the synagogue, but wherever soldiers were on duty - must have had a part in the delivery from danger of all the soldiers there on Yom Kippur, ten days later.

On that Yom Kippur, Beni should have been in yeshiva but insisted on returning to Sinai, where he could again be with the soldiers. He was sent to a different outpost and was among the first casualties of the YOm Kippur War. The power of his tefillot and his complete emunah surely gave strength and comfort to those who were with him in their last hours.