In this week’s Torah class we studied chapter 31 of Yirmiya with many commentaries. It’s a beautiful prophecy about what the real redemption looks like and how it comes about . . . from which we learn what real redemption doesn’t look like and what doesn’t bring it. As always, much for us to think about and apply to our times.
The recording is above and on Rumble here. The link to join the classes live on Thursdays at 8PM Israel time is here.
Arutz Sheva’s propaganda glorifying IDF service servitude, and demonizing those who have other ideas about it, is relentless. If the masses weren’t dumbed down and brainwashed, if they were capable of being objective and thinking for themselves, they would see right through this propaganda as easily as they can see through Russian, Chinese, or North Korean propaganda.
Arutz Sheva’s propaganda is different only in that it emphasizes “serving” as the highest religious ideal, in addition to the nationalistic programming that is germane to all military propaganda.
Consider this typically mind-numbing bit of propaganda from yesterday: a video of hundreds of students from Hesder yeshivas indoctrination camps singing and dancing as they officially begin their servitude. It’s a joyous celebration!
Watch it here: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/412884
What are they dancing about? That they are surrendering their bodies and souls to reshaim, kofrim, and “intelligence failures”, who have demonstrated beyond any shadow of doubt that they are unworthy of being entrusted with Jewish bodies and souls? That they are “protecting us”? Repeat a lie often enough and it starts to feel true.
It is the Religious Zionist Harakiri dance, celebrating their upcoming physical and spiritual destruction for a delusion they cannot let go of.
Since “serving” is the highest religious duty, the Dati Leumi world sanctifies any and all deaths in the IDF as a kiddush Hashem, severely downplays the spiritual dangers of IDF servitude, and never accepts such concerns as a valid reason to avoid subjecting oneself to the IDF. There are no valid reasons.
At the end of the previous post I shared more cheap propaganda from Arutz Sheva and the demons they serve. Let’s take a closer look at this quote from a Hesder cultist on Molech enlistment day, which distills the decaying husk of Religious Zionism in a nutshell:
“Thank G-d, I was able to build my reverence of G-d in two years, to come really ready for the army, ready for the spiritual obstacles that exist here.”
Halevai we could properly build our reverence of Hashem in a lifetime! This 18-year-old pisher seriously believes that he managed to do it in only two years, enough to withstand the spiritual threats he knows exist in the IDF.
Let’s be frank about what these spiritual “obstacles” include: widespread promiscuity; overpowering temptation; Shabbos desecration; constant exposure to secularism, trampling of halacha, and blatant kefira; serious cutting of corners when it comes to Torah study, tefilla, and general mitzvah observance. That’s a partial list.
Let us not forget the real possibility of being ordered to knowingly imperil one’s life for no justifiable reason, like running into a booby-trapped building to conquer it for the thousandth time, or sitting around in a Puma loaded with munitions and a malfuctioning open hatch, waiting for someone to run up and drop in an explosive. (See Seven Jewish Soldiers Sent to Burn in a German Oven, IDF Lies About Another Soldier Being Executed, Video Evidence and Official Reports for Every IDF Soldier Killed in Gaza in 2025.)
What a terrible shock some of these poor souls will experience when they expect to be taken straight to the highest places in heaven, and are instead harshly prosecuted for abetting their own wrongful death (I won’t call it suicide, but it’s far closer to suicide than a kiddush Hashem).
The IDF may make some accommodations for religious soldiers, but that’s strictly for the sake of integrating them into the un-Jewish melting pot. At the end of the day, like all profane armies, soldiers are expected to follow orders, or else. And we’re not talking about Hashem’s orders.
If Religious Zionists are truly God-fearing, Torah-minded Jews, they appreciate the great danger they are facing, they did a serious calculation, and concluded that in spite of it all they should join the IDF, fine. I could respect them even if they are wrong.
But if that were the case, if these yeshiva students were deeply concerned that they are entering a spiritual death trap, they wouldn’t be singing and dancing on enlistment day. It would be an extremely sober and somber occasion. It would be Tisha B’av and Yom Kippur in one. They would be fasting and praying from the depths of their being that they pass this extreme spiritual test, the likes of which no one can sufficiently prepare for, let alone brainwashed kids in Hesder yeshivas.
They cannot plead ignorance. They are surrounded by past and present IDF soldiers. They know how many of them fall, how many of them are ruined, how few of them emerge unaffected by the spiritually poisonous “obstacles”, if that is even possible at all.
Why are they celebrating? They should take a look around at the yeshiva students they are dancing with. How many of them will suffer devastating injuries? How many of them will lose a limb? How many of them will suffer from PTSD? How many of them will eventually commit suicide? How many of them will be unable to keep a family together because of what they are enlisting for?
How many of them will fall prey to temptation and commit grave sins? How many of them will be unable to withstand pressure from commanding officers to violate Shabbos when it isn’t really justified? How many of them will become a shell of their yeshiva selves, even if they stay marginally “religious”? How many of them will leave Torah observance altogether?
Why are they dancing? Why are they joyous? Why are they not absolutely terrified for their fate in this world and especially the next?
What makes them confident that they can withstand spiritual tests that have ruined so many people like them, so many people far greater than them? Are they on the level of Yosef HaTzaddik? Even he didn’t emerge from his test unscathed. How can they dance?!
Again, if they feel they absolutely must join this Hellenist army under Erev Rav command because the Torah truly demands it, and the very survival of the Jewish people depends on it, I can respect them even if they are wrong. But they should be sober and somber.
And that is the real reason why they are singing and dancing. Because theymust sing and dance, otherwise the whole charade would come tumbling down.
Imagine one Hesder yeshiva student stands to the side while everyone is celebrating. His friends grab his arm to pull him into the circle, but he refuses. They ask him why. He says he is reflecting on the great spiritualdanger he is facing, and he doesn’t feel that it is appropriate to be celebrating right before his soul is attacked from all sides.
Will his friends respect him more? Will they stop dancing as well and join him in somber reflection? Or will his comrades turn on him, heaping ridicule and scorn upon him, simply for worrying about his soul instead of drowning out his concerns with euphoria?
Let’s take it even further. What if this brave 18-year-old Hesder student decides that he is not ready to face these spiritual challenges, that he is too weak, that two years in Hesder didn’t sufficiently build his reverence of Hashem to stand up to a powerful machine designed to destroy his soul? What if he says he had a change of heart and will not enlist, no matter the consequences, because it would be spiritual suicide for him and the Torah forbids it — at least for him?
We know the answer to this. He’s finished. He will be a total outcast in his community. No girl will marry him. His own family will reject him. He would be better off burning a Sefer Torah while waving a rainbow flag. That they could lovingly embrace — but not bowing out of IDF servitude.
If the bullying doesn’t force him into line, they will destroy his life, and they will consider it a mitzvah. After all, even if he has a point, he is hurting morale.
What’s so bad about “hurting morale”? What would be so bad if more people stopped and reflecting whether all these compromises and “sacrifices” are really worth it, really what Hashem wants?
Because Religious Zionists, deep down, don’t care. They are not fighting for you, or for Hashem, but to keep the delusion going. Someone who starts to ask questions threatens the entire charade.
Religious Zionists don’t especially care that so many of their yeshiva students throw it all away. It’s certainly not a deal-breaker. Even if someone knows he will fail the spiritual tests, avoiding the IDF is not an option. It’s still worth it. It’s still a mitzvah. It’s still fully expected of him, or else.
If he sins, so what? He served in the IDF. Hashem understands. Hashem loves him even more for it. Free pass to heaven.
IDF cultists claim that anyone who loses his religiosity in the IDF was weak to begin with. They are literally heaping scorn upon Jews who are spiritually destroyed in an environment that chases away the shechina. They are weak! They were never religious anyway! And if they don’t enlist, their piety is a sham!
When it comes to the IDF, Religious Zionism has become a form of Darwinism, or spiritual eugenics. Only the strong survive.
This is also why they demand that “Charedim” who aren’t learning, or learning “enough”, join the IDF. If they are already not especially religious, they should let the IDF finish them off.
Torah-minded Jews understand that we don’t throw the spiritually weak to the wolves; we protect them.
That’s why the Hesder yeshiva student with misgivings continues to sing and dance. Because it drowns out his thoughts and buries his concerns with group hype.
Precisely why they sang and danced when children were being sacrificed to Molech — to drown out their screams and prevent the parents from stopping it.
He dances because he is part of a cult. He dances because he must.
Speaking of bullying and abuse, here’s another excerpt from Arutz Sheva, which in no way changes their position on IDF servitude for one and all:
Prosecutors claim the victims were punched, struck with weapon barrels and batons, sprayed with pepper spray, locked inside rooms and restroom stalls, and forced to shower after being covered with bleach and other cleaning chemicals. They were also allegedly made to sleep in storage rooms lacking basic conditions and were fired at with air rifle pellets.
One of the alleged forms of punishment, referred to as “Hitlers,” involved repeated kicks to the shins with military boots. Prosecutors allege the assault continued even after one soldier was left bleeding and unable to walk properly, while the incident unfolded in front of other troops.
The indictment further states that, over three consecutive nights, younger soldiers were locked in their rooms after lights-out, beaten with fists, struck on the shins with a wooden stick, shot with air rifle pellets, and ordered not to laugh or react to the abuse.
According to prosecutors, many of the alleged victims avoided seeking medical treatment out of fear that reporting their injuries would expose them to further harassment and violence from the veteran soldiers.
Sounds less like a moral army or anything resembling a Jewish army, and more like a prison gang. Fortunately the prison guards Military Police — the same people hunting down religious “draft dodgers” — are taking care of it and, like October 7, lessons will be learned.
Related article:
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