Recently, I had the privilege of bringing US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on a visit that was quiet in nature but thunderous in meaning.
Together, we sat with two of the greatest Torah sages of our generation, Rabbi Dov Landau and Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, in the heart of Bnei Brak. The conversation we shared was not political. It was foundational. We spoke about the soul of the Jewish people.
At a time when Israel is navigating deep political turmoil, military challenges, and national trauma, one debate has returned to the forefront with intensity: the drafting of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) young men who commit their lives to Torah study into the army. To many, this is framed as an issue of equality, fairness, or national unity.
But from the perspective of the Torah world, and indeed from the lens of Jewish eternity, it is something far deeper and far more dangerous.
What the Torah means
To understand why, one must first understand what the Torah means to the Jewish people. It is not merely a body of laws or customs; it is the very justification for our presence in the Land of Israel.
Our covenant with God, as outlined in the Torah, is the foundation upon which Jewish nationhood is built. Without it, we are no different than any other nation. And without those who dedicate their lives to the study and preservation of Torah, the transmission of that foundation is lost.
Throughout history, we have seen that when Torah observance weakens, the identity and continuity of the Jewish people begins to unravel. It is not an accident of culture; it is a spiritual truth.
The yeshiva students in Israel today are not avoiding service; they are serving the Jewish people in the most essential way, by anchoring our nation to its divine mission.
This does not mean there is no room for discussion. The Talmud itself debates the balance between military defense and spiritual commitment. But what we are seeing today is not a debate; it is an attempt to erase the Torah’s role in Israel’s future.
Forced conscription
To forcibly conscript every yeshiva student, to treat spiritual scholarship as dispensable, is to declare that Jewish survival rests solely on might, not meaning. That is a recipe for spiritual self-destruction.
Israel must never become a nation that forgets who it is.
We are not a military state; we are a holy nation tasked with a divine purpose. The horrors of our history – the Holocaust, the inquisitions, the exiles – were not meant to transform us into a people of power alone. They were meant to remind us of our unique mission in the world.
Ambassador Huckabee understands this. His reverence for the Torah and its scholars is sincere and profound. In our meetings, he emphasized that the world looks to Israel not only as a bastion of democracy and strength, but as a light unto the nations. That light emanates from the Torah, from the very people who are now being asked to set it aside.
We are not blind to the challenges. There must be responsibility, there must be national cohesion. But it must not come at the cost of our souls. Yeshiva students are not freeloaders on the Jewish state; they are the spiritual defenders of its essence.
If Israel becomes a nation where Torah is no longer central – if every Jew is a soldier but none are scholars – we will have won battles but lost our purpose.
The Jewish people were never meant to be like every other nation. We dare not try to be.
The writer is the founder of Dirshu, an international Orthodox Jewish organization whose goal is to strengthen and encourage Torah study.