Har Bracha gives up on hesder status

Yeshiva accepts Defense Ministry verdict, refers students to Alon Moreh.

By JONAH MANDEL
The Har Bracha yeshiva on Monday recommended to students interested in combining torah studies with military service to transfer to other seminaries, finally accepting the Defense Ministry's decision to remove it from the hesder list.
Defense Minister Ehud Barack had decided to cancel the arrangement which allows yeshiva students to study alongside serving in the army with Har Bracha after the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, refused to retract statements he had made supporting insubordination in the army under certain circumstances.
“The army adamantly refused to let us be part of the Hesder yeshivotsince we insist on our stance, which is Da'at Torah and thereforecannot change,” Rabbi Gur Galon, who teaches the fourth and fifth-yearstudents, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday, referring to a halachicedict from some 15 years ago prohibiting the evacuation of Jewishsettlements.
“To keep the students out of this clash and prevent them from enteringdilemmas they didn't choose, as well as their parents, we decided torefer our students to another hesder yeshiva which is physically andideologically close, that of Elon Moreh,” he added.
Last week Rabbi Dov Lior, who heads the Elon Moreh yeshiva, reiteratedhis support of refusing military orders under certain circumstances.
“Insubordination is a lethal and destructive act, but there areinstances when we use chemotherapy and radiation to stop a cancerousgrowth,” Lior said in a Bar Ilan conference dealing withinsubordination.