Posted on 04/18/2012 3:56:56 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
The Ometz watchdog group has filed a complaint to Defense Minister Ehud Barak over rabbis’ lectures on IDF bases. The group claimed there is a “phenomenon” in which soldiers are forced to hear the rabbis speak.
“Among the lecturers in the IDF are ‘chozrim b’teshuva’ [those from secular homes who became religious – ed.] who talk about the process they went through, and ultimately these lectures have an element of ‘brainwashing,’” said Ometz head Aryeh Avneri.
Avneri also expressed concern over a different matter: “Recently there was a completely new phenomenon, when a man wearing black clothes and with a beard appeared on one of the air force bases, and blew the shofar at the entrance gate,” he wrote. “A brief investigation revealed that this was the rabbi of the base, who allowed himself to go around in civilian, hareidi clothes.”
He had one additional complaint related to lectures on Judaism, “Beyond the question of whether imbuing IDF soldiers with hareidi ideology is new policy, the question arises, why are IDF soldiers not hearing lectures from lecturers in the fields of philosophy, geography, history, medicine, communications and the like… as frequently as they hear lectures about religion.”
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(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
those Ometz dreck are pais cutting wannabes
No matter how much the chilonim (secular Jews) dislike it the number of religious/observant Jews just keeps going up! And that number is affecting the IDF and IAF.
CBS Poll: Israelis More Religious
9/12/2010
A poll of Israel’s Jewish population by the Central Bureau of Statistics shows that 58% of Israeli Jews classify themselves as traditional or religious, to varying degrees. 42% called themselves “secular,” while 25% said they were traditional, but not necessarily religious. Another 13% termed themselves traditional religious, while 12% used the term “religious” alone. Another 8% said they were hareidi-religious.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/193922#.T49MEFEzfN4
Survey: Israelis Grow More Religiously Observant
9/12/2010
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139584#.T49McVEzfN4
22% Religious Among New IDF Officers
2/17/2011
Among the 377 new IDF officers who received their ranks in a festive ceremony in Mitzpeh Ramon yesterday are 18 females (4.8%) and 83 religious officers (22%).
It was also reported that 18.5% of the new officers live in kibbutzim, moshavim and the like, nearly 20% live in communal towns, and 61.5% live in cities.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142388#.T49LLlEzfN4
58 Percent of Jewish Israelis are Religious or ‘Traditionalist’
9/26/2011
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/148286#.T49NHlEzfN4
Study: Belief in G-d, Religious Observance on the Rise
1/26/2012
A new study shows that 80% of Israeli Jews believe in G-d. The study by the Gutman Center of the Israel Democracy Institute, conducted on behalf of the Avi-Chai fund, polled thousands of Israelis in the past several years, and discovered that the number of Israeli Jews who believe in G-d and practice a religious lifestyle is on the upswing.
Analysts speaking on Army Radio Thursday said that, while the previous studies showed a continuous decline in the level of belief among Jews in Israel during the 1990s, the latest study shows a significant increase in belief since 2000. The poll showed that 77% of Israeli Jews believe in a “divine power” that guides the world, and that 72% believe that prayer has the power to improve their lives. 67% believe that Jews are the chosen people, and 65% believe that the Torah and its commandments are of Divine origin. In addition, 34% believe that Jews who do not observe the Torah are endangering their fellow Jews and Israelis.
The poll also showed a marked change in the number of Israeli Jews who consider themselves “religious” or “observant.” In the latest study, 15% consider themselves “religious” (“Dati”), compared to 11% in 1999, while 7% said they were Hareidi, compared to 5% in the previous study. 32% said they were “traditional” (“Mesorati”), compared to 32% in 1999. 43% of Israelis in the current study consider themselves “secular” (“chiloni”), compared to 46% in 1999, while 3% today said they were “anti-religious,” compared to 6% a decade ago.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/152129#.T49Nz1EzfN4
And religious Jews have as many children as they can, as opposed to the chilonim who have one or two kids at most. All the rabbinate have to do is permit polygamy, and those that can afford it and want it will be able to make even more babies. So much for the Arabs one day outnumbering us. They’re having less kids, I hear.
At the risk of getting in trouble again:
The Torah actually permits polygyny, for Jews and non-Jews. However, this isn't like the mormon doctrine, which is connected with producing "gxds" to live in other worlds. It's simply permitted for a man to have more than one wife (a wife can have only one husband). A husband, however, would have to have the means to properly care for and support each wife. It's never been something most people could handle. Monogamy has been the practice for millenia now.
However, back in the Middle Ages Rabbi Gershom issued an edict banning polygyny for 'Ashkenazim. I have heard that this edict has expired, and I have heard that it has not. What do I know? And while it was still permitted by Mizrachi (Eastern) authorities (who lived in the Arab/islamic world), on the founding of Israel the rabbis there ruled that all Israeli Jews should practice monogamy.
Outside Israel Jews have been bound since Talmudic times by the dictum Dina' deMalkhuta' dina' (the law of the land is the law).
And that is the way it is in American in terms of the numbers of children that Conservatives have (2-4 children) versus the secular Left (0-2).
Pretty soon there won’t be a Reform, Reconstructionist, or Conservative Judaism (or any other freak show forms of Judaism) but only the Orthodox.
Baruch HaShem!
When a people “choose life” as He has said to do many blessings flow from it.
Love it! Thanks for that!
They should change the law in Israel, then. It has decreed, but must still be nullified. Rabeinu Gershom made the decree for everyone, but his influence did not extend to the Mizrahi communities, who never excepted it.
Myself, I am entirely content to remain married to only one woman, having lived that way for nearly 30 years, and being unable to afford more. It’s the young men that concern me, who are often forced to make huge concessions to get out of a bad marriage when they are not at fault, because otherwise they cannot marry again. I’m also concerned about demographics. A man who can afford more than one wife, and whose first wife is agreeable to it, ought to, for the sake of the nation. Arabs and Bedouins are not similarly constrained, and at this time the rationale of Rabeinu Gershom’s decree no longer exists.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Myself, I am entirely content to remain married to only one woman, having lived that way for nearly 30 years, and being unable to afford more. It’s the young men that concern me, who are often forced to make huge concessions to get out of a bad marriage when they are not at fault, because otherwise they cannot marry again. I’m also concerned about demographics. A man who can afford more than one wife, and whose first wife is agreeable to it, ought to, for the sake of the nation. Arabs and Bedouins are not similarly constrained, and at this time the rationale of Rabeinu Gershom’s decree no longer exists.
You're mighty brave to be saying all this. An awful lot of people would like to forget that Judaism is an ancient Middle Eastern religion with (in many ways) more in common with islam than with Xianity. Shoot, I once thought I was going to be banned for merely explaining that the Halakhic position on abortion is not 100% identical to the Roman Catholic position.
While the Israeli rabbinate is at it, they can bring back yibbum as well.
Yibum is still around. I think one of the Belzer Rebbes did it a few decades ago.
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