An essential part of the Living Torah is that every year in Parshat HaShavua, her eternal messages ring loud and true. As Chanan Ben-Ari sings, “Everyone has been expelled from Gan-Eden, everyone has suffered a Flood… And I also dream like Yosef, and also I’ve been thrown into the pit…”. Parshat Korach is a prime example where every generation has people, or even an “ideology”, which wants to take over the leadership. Presently, Israel’s Korach “award” goes to the 1,142 air-force pilots and staff who said, before Oct. 7th, that they wouldn’t fight if the orders come from Binyamin Netanyahu. Thank G-d, in the end they did, but the Hamas identified this weak point in Israeli security, and it was a terribly “close call”. In fact, the air-force didn’t function on that day, but again, neither did the entire IDF. That’s exactly the point: there’s no army without a “chain of command”.
In all honesty, in religious-Zionist circles there was a similar challenge 20 years ago, when the army was commanded by PM Arik Sharon’s government to uproot 10,000 settlers from Gush Katif. Like in a tragic fire, these entire families all lost their jobs, homes, yishuvim, yeshivot, schools, social fabric etc. all on one catastrophic day. Without getting into the question whether 18-year-old soldiers, who, like the rest of the population, were about 50% strongly against this decision, should have been the ones to uproot their brothers and cousins from their homes, once the order was given, the army will fall apart of everyone decides for himself what to obey and when not. Some, like R. Aviner and IDF Chief Rabbi Avi Ronsky said almost prophetically, we cannot run an army without a “chain of command”. At the time, the potential “refusal” was heard from the “right-wing”, but tomorrow it will come from the “left”. Even R. Mordechai Eliahu and R. Avraham Shapira who said not to obey the command of uprooting, said that religious soldiers should simply ask to be re-assigned to the “outer circles” of the conflict, but we can’t rip the fabric of the army.
BH, by the time it came to attack Hamas, Hizballa, Syria and Iran, the Israeli air-force rethought and overcame their folly, and have been totally functioning, and bezH have been leading the charge, making mincemeat out of our opponents for over a year and a half. Israeli’s know the stereotype that our unbelievably successful air-force pilots often carry a certain aura of superiority (maybe what caused their mistakenly thinking “we know better” than the government), and perhaps it’s even forgivable and somewhat necessary for their self-confidence and daring. But together with our admiration (just see the You-Tubes of their bombing, dodging, dropping “heat flares”, somersaulting and bombing again and again!), yes even they must learn from Moshe Rabbenu, the highest but humblest of men (Bamidbar 12, 3). They also realize today that without all of the other respective units, from intelligence, commandos, D-9’s, infantry, tanks, Iron-Dome, even cooks, and obviously Siyata D’Shmaya, such victory would have been unachievable. We similarly need Kohanim, Levi’im (whether singers, gate-openers or guards), Re’uven, Shimon etc. etc. respectively. Similarly, in our haftara, even Shmuel HaNavi, who originally ideologically and religiously opposed having a king, nevertheless accepted his leadership as the will of Israel (Shmuel I, 12).
I must clarify that I personally never voted for Binyamin Netanyahu, and probably never will. But I remember a leadership seminar which we did as madrichim, where several groups received the same assignment, but some were told to carry it out democratically, while others, with a leader giving orders. The outcome was always that in the short-run, the dictators were more successful, but over time they “lost their followers”. Democracy is great for the long-term, but not for immediate emergencies like army or war, when we all need to “uniformly” fall into line. This was apparently the reason for the downfall of the Bar Kochva rebellion which we bitterly mourn during the Omer, where the students of R. Akiva (who were the rebels, for sources just Google: Bar Kochva, Akiva, Ari Shvat), like good analytical argumentative “Talmudic” students, “didn’t respect each other”, “לא נהגו כבוד זה בזה” (Yevamot 62b), and kept second-guessing their commanders. “Why should we charge from the right? I think we should charge from the left!” “Maybe we should wait for a commander or mashiach who is more ‘religious’ than Bar Kochva!…”, etc.
Yes, democracies must leave room and even encourage demonstrations, checks and balances, but the real choice is done by the people at election-time. How much more so, we must leave the IDF out of the argument. Just as Pikuach Nefesh (“saving lives”) supersedes Shabbat, Yom Kippur and just about everything (Shulchan Aruch Or. Ch. 329), how much more so, Tzahal, responsible for the lives of Am Yisrael as a whole, should be considered “holy of holies”, and above any kind of political rift. The unity on the battle-field is in fact Kodesh Kodoshim, and we pray should be transmitted to Jewish society as a whole, and surely not vice-versa, don’t transmit politics into the IDF.
Shabbat Shalom, Rav Ari Shvat (Chwat)