A Scanner and the Scammers

There is a war against the Torah. It is being fought by the Chareidi politicians themselves.

On Monday evening, the United Torah Judaism party, which consists of Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah, quit the Netanyahu government over its proposed Chareidi conscription bill. As formulated by Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein, the bill failed to satisfy the demands of the two factions of United Torah Judaism.

Last night, the Shas party decided to withdraw from the government for the same reason; ministers from Shas handed in their resignations today.

Edelstein has kept his cards close to his vest, so we don’t actually know the details of his proposed legislation. But spokesmen from UTJ have openly explained the aspects of the bill that they find problematic, and from their objections we can discover at least some details of the Edelstein bill.

As reported by Sam Sokol in the Times of Israel, one of the objections voiced by UTJ is the requirement that yeshiva students who receive military exemptions sign in and out of their yeshivot using a fingerprint scanner. Apparently, the idea that students who attend yeshiva would be forced to actually attend yeshiva is unacceptable to the Chareidi politicians in the Knesset.

Let’s take a step back. The official reason that the Chareidi parties demand exemptions from the army for yeshiva students is the claim that their Torah study is equivalent to military service. Most authorities in the Chareidi world argue that yeshiva study protects the Jewish people from physical harm as much or more than the actions of the IDF; drafting them into the Israeli army would only hurt Israel’s ability to defend itself. Others may acknowledge that while the physical protection afforded by Torah learning can be debated, the spiritual needs of the Jewish people require the constant study of thousands of yeshiva students, even at the expense of creating a greater burden upon other sectors of the population to serve longer in the army. And there’s a third group which openly fears for the spiritual welfare of Chareidi soldiers, and believes that all Chareidim, regardless of whether they attend a yeshiva, should receive military exemptions.

I will not belabor the point by explaining yet again why I believe that the Chareidi position represents a complete misreading of the sources, and is frankly indefensible.

For the sake of argument, however, let’s work within the Chareidi mindset. Let’s assume for now that the Chareidi leaders who demand exemptions from the army truly believe that Torah study is a valid replacement for military service.

We also know that every rabbinic leader in the Chareidi world believes that Torah study - whether or not it provides physical or spiritual protection for the people of Israel - should be maximized. They would unquestionably argue that those who do not serve in the IDF should use that exemption in order to study Torah to the greatest degree possible. Even those who want all Chareidim - even those who are not studying in yeshiva - to be exempt from the army would acknowledge that their mandatory yeshiva attendance would be a net positive.

Why, then, would representatives from United Torah Judaism publicly admit that they are bothered by the idea of a fingerprint scanner, and that this was one of the factors that convinced them to withdraw from the current government?

The use of this device would force those who receive military exemptions because they are enrolled in yeshiva to, in fact, attend yeshiva. It might even force them to study for three sedarim a day - a development which every Chareidi leader should obviously encourage.

It is mind boggling that Chareidi political leaders simultaneously claim that yeshiva study is a valid replacement for IDF service, and assert that enforcing yeshiva study is beyond the pale and a reason to reject the impending legislation.

It only makes sense if we acknowledge the open secret of the Chareidi world: namely, that there are countless yeshiva “students” who, in fact, barely spend any time in yeshiva. They are officially enrolled while concurrently working off the books, or attending trade schools, or doing nothing at all.

This farcical situation involves numerous Torah prohibitions. These supposed students are forced to lie, falsely testifying that they are yeshiva students on official government documents. Many of the institutions steal government money, as the yeshivot receive government funds based on the number of students who are officially enrolled. (The pseudo-students who receive kollel stipends from the government are stealing, as well.) Those who work while legally attending yeshiva inevitably cheat on their taxes, as they cannot acknowledge that they are earning money when they are supposedly spending their days within the four walls of the beit midrash. And this is before we even get to the problem of bitul Torah, when people who are enrolled in yeshiva choose to do something else instead.

This is a scandal, and all of us are literally paying for it. A marvelous way to stop it is to institute an enforcement mechanism. Something like a fingerprint scanner.

Yet that very point was one of the reasons that UTJ quit the coalition.

So let’s get this straight. The Chareidi parties claim that Torah study is a valid replacement for service in the IDF. Every Chareidi rabbi wants the Chareidi public to learn Torah as much as possible. They should all celebrate the introduction of a fingerprint scanner: it will force the Chareidi public, which claims to be learning in yeshiva, to actually learn in yeshiva. It can put an end to the fraud, the thievery, and the lying. It would be the government’s gift to the Chareidi public. If it were legislated, the amount of Torah learning would rise to unprecedented heights.

Instead, it was a thorn in UTJ’s side that helped convince it to quit the government.

The next time we hear about the “war against Torah,” we should remind those who use this misguided term that the war against Torah is literally being fought by the Chareidi politicians themselves.