Hyehudi.org

A:

And the answer is no. By no means should one serve in the army. Because it doesn’t pay to get killed for nothing! When you go out in a milchama, a battle where the Chachmei HaTorah command you to go out and fight, then you’re sacrificing your life for k’vod Shamayim. But if you’re going out in a war because of what others tell you, baal habatim – even Orthodox baal habatim, but they’re baal habatim – so it means you’re giving the greatest donation that you have, for something that might be nothing at all. It’s too much to donate. Your life is too precious.

So you’ll ask me, “Well, what about helping out our fellow Jews?” Let me explain something to you. Suppose a fellow says, “I’m going to go pick a fight with the colored people in Brownsville.” He gets on his bike, and he wears, let’s say, a black hat and a beard and he cycles into Bedford Stuyvesant, and he starts calling people names. You know what’s going to happen to him.

Now, you happen to be passing by on a bus – there’s a bus that goes through Bedford Stuyvesant – and you’re looking through the window and you see this hero surrounded by all of these menacing people. So you’ll ask me, maybe you should get off the bus and help this fellow in his fight?

Look, if you want to be safe, you’d better just keep on riding until you get to Williamsburg. Because what are you going to do already? Is it your fault? Who told people to put themselves in such a situation? Did the gedolei Yisroel say it?

Now, there’s a lot to talk about on this subject, but I can’t speak anymore now because the time is brief. But if you’re asking me for my opinion, then I’ll tell you: By no means should you serve in the Israeli army. And I say, stay away! If you have to go there, make sure not to renounce your American citizenship. And don’t allow yourself to be drafted.

October 1977