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Mesiras Nefesh

In her Cross-Currents post today, Shira Schmidt offers thoughts on the Siyum Hashas and Daf Yomi from the perspective of a charedi woman in Israel.

Whether or not one agrees with Mrs. Schmidt's religious ideology, her posting is generally worthwhile and her thoughts of interest.

Unfortunately, toward the end of her long post, Mrs. Schmidt unnecessarily offends (while adding nothing to the substance of her main post), by taking a shot at religious Zionist Israelis. Mrs. Schmidt wrote (all grammatical errors are Mrs. Schmidt's):

"I would like to ruminate about the way [the charedi and the national religious] use the word 'mesirus nefesh' (lit. self-sacrifice). At the siyum, the Kaliver Rebbe used the term mesius nefesh twice in connecting with Torah study, and once in connection with the sacrifice by women...

"I contrasted this use of the term with an article I read in Haaretz on the way to the siyum, about the controversy by a few extreme settlers in Gush Katif of whether mesirus nefesh was demanded if the disengagement forces Jews out of Gaza. In 'Choose death over violation of the law?' by Nadav Shragai, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook was quoted as saying, 'It is a positive commandment from the Torah, ... that we are obligated to this land, and all of its borders, with mesirus nefesh. When a situation of coercion arrives … we are all obligated to yihareg ve’al yaavor.'

"I contemplated the the consequences that ensue from the different foci in these two sectors of Orthodoxy: the Daf Yomi rabbis invoke mersirus nefesh for study, while some in the national religious sector apply mesirus nefesh to emphasis on the land of Israel."

I don't agree with the political extremism of a small number of those who are religious Zionist, but Mrs. Schmidt's contrast is most offensive, and requires a response.

First, she distorts the Haaretz article. Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook was most certainly not quoted with respect to the Gaza withdrawal - as Mrs. Schmidt implies - because he passed away long ago. The quote from R. Kook is from 1974, and the Haaretz article's main premise is that today "some people are taking things too far, and using Rabbi Zvi Yehuda to back them up." The article, incidentally, is by one of Haaretz's very few religious and right-wing writers, Nadav Shragai.

Second, while it is fair to criticize the religious Zionist sector's approach since the Six Day War, in which the Land of Israel has become its main priority, Mrs. Schmidt completely ignores the thousands of national religious boys and young men who devote their lives both to Torah study and to Israel.

It's ironic that Mrs. Schmidt would use the concept of mesiras nefesh with which to bash the religious Zionists. While Mrs. Schmidt says that the literal meaning of mesiras nefesh is "self-sacrifice", a closer definition of the words is to give up one's life.

In contrast to all other sectors of Israeli society, a majority of national religious boys and young men volunteer for IDF combat units. They are the ones who have defended Mrs. Schmidt and her family from suicide bombers, all too often giving up their own lives so that Israeli civilians can feel safe going out to a mass gathering celebrating the Siyum Hashas.

In contrast, the charedi counterparts of these heroic boys and men use permanent "deferments" from the army.

On a July 31, 2003 post on this blog, I wrote, in part:

"The IDF is severely undermanned, especially now with thousands of soldiers in Palestinian cities. There is no reason why 40 year old reservists should spend a month in Jenin with a combat unit, while 25 year old charedim avoid the IDF entirely. Indeed, on the army issue the position of the charedi leadership lacks any moral basis, and those of us who are religious - whether charedi or not - should not accept the burden of having to defend it."

There are many examples of real mesiras nefesh among the religious Zionist sector; I'll offer one example which is probably fairly typical. I have a friend in Israel, whose parents live in New York. Three years ago, his entire family went to Israel for Pesach for the chance to spend a rare week together. Following the bombing in Netanya on the Seder night, Prime Minister Sharon ordered 20,000 reservists to enlist immediately. I called my friend, who said he didn't have much time to talk, he was called up and had to report to his unit shortly, but had obtained permission from his commander to first spend one day with his parents. He then joined his reserve unit, whose mission was to capture Palestinian terrorists in and around Bethlehem and Hebron. About three weeks later, when Sharon allowed the reservists to go home, I called my friend, who was actually on a bus heading home. He thanked me for calling, but again said that he couldn't talk, because he was too tired after sitting in a tank for days at a time without any sleep. That summer, I visited Israel and attended my friend's engagement party, when he told me that he was very backed up in his graduate school work, having missed more than two weeks of classes while serving in the reserves.

Of course, while my friend was battling terrorists in Judea, the charedi participants in Daf Yomi referred to in Mrs. Schmidt's post didn't miss a daf.

Mrs. Schmidt has a lot to learn about real mesiras nefesh.
posted on 3/04/2005