If the IDF adopts a recommendation that obligates religious soldiers to attend
events in which there are women singing, “rabbis would be forced to tell
soldiers ‘you have to leave [such an event] even if there’s a firing squad
waiting outside to kill you,’” the chief rabbi of Samaria and rabbi of the Elon
Moreh settlement, Elyakim Levanon, said in a radio interview on Thursday
afternoon.
Levanon comments followed a report in
Yediot Aharonot that the
committee established by the IDF to recommend policy on the issue of Orthodox
soldiers having to listen to women sing at army ceremonies will recommend that
soldiers be obligated to attend official events with female singers, despite
religious objections.
According to Jewish law, it is forbidden for men to
listen to a woman sing in person, as a women’s voice is considered akin to
nakedness.
Levanon justified his remarks by arguing that the imposition
of this regulation would constitute a period of explicit religious persecution,
during which, according to Jewish law, a Jew must “die and not transgress,” even
for a seemingly small aspect of Jewish law.
“Someone who does not know or
understand Jewish law in time of coercion, does not know what hole he is getting
himself into in a situation like this,” Levanon said in his interview on Radio
Kol Hai on Thursday afternoon. “I really hope that there are some intelligent
people who are going to prevent such a terrible step as this from being
taken.
“And for what, for female singers, this is what the IDF takes a
stance on? This will make a soldier better or worse?” he asked.
Levanon
further claimed that should the recommendation be adopted, the IDF would no
longer be a Jewish army and he would advise anyone who asks him that they should
not enlist.
“We’re all subordinated to the Shulchan Aruch, to the Rambam
and to the Gemara, haredi and religious-Zionist alike, and the moment there is
religious coercion, Halacha doesn’t permit compromise on adherence to Jewish
law,” he said.
Rabbi Yehuda Gilad, head of Yeshivat Maalei Gilboa and
rabbi of Kibbutz Lavi, called Levanon’s comments “unfortunate” and said that the
entire episode of women singing in the army was like a “conversation of the
deaf.”
“On the one hand soldiers should not insist on leaving such
events, but on the other they really shouldn’t be forced to stay, Gilad told
The
Jerusalem Post.
“From a liberal perspective, the rights of minorities
should be protected and the army should be more sensitive to the beliefs of
religious soldiers. At the same time, from a Torah perspective, if people are
offended by such a stance then ‘
kavod habriut’ [respect for others] should
override this law and soldiers should not insist on not attending such
events.”
Gilad also took issue with Levanon’s basic premise that
obligating soldiers to stay at events with women singing constitutes a period of
religious persecution, as defined by Jewish law.
“The concept of a period
of religious persecution really doesn’t apply here,” he said. “If a foreign army
is forcing Jews to convert, that’s a period of religious persecution. Comparing
the IDF to the Roman army in this way, it’s completely unrealistic.”