Jul 15, 2024
by R. Gil Student
I. Allowing a Sin
Most religious Jews are raised and educated in a like-minded environment with schoolmates and friends from a similar background. Depending on the family and community, religious Jews have some exposure to non-religious Jews. Often, the IDF is a mixing bowl, a salad of Jews from different backgrounds who must work together for the sake of personal and national safety. With all the benefits of this exposure, it also poses challenges.
One such challenge faces the religious army commander in terms of the Shabbos observance of his unit members. A commander cannot force his unit members to observance the Shabbos laws in their private lives. In a diverse community like the army, we have to be careful to respect people’s choices even if we believe them to be bad choices. However, sometimes a commander faces decisions that have implications regarding Shabbos observance. For example, if an army unit finishes its responsibilities on Shabbos, a commander has the ability to release the soldiers on leave. If a unit serving on guard duty for a week is relieved by another unit on Shabbos morning, is a religious commander allowed to give his soldiers leave when it is almost certain that some will travel to their homes by vehicle on Shabbos?
A religious Jew strives to fulfill all of the commandments and related laws, whether biblical, rabbinic or custom. A relevant biblical law is the prohibition of lifnei iver, placing a proverbial stumbling block before a blind person. You are not allowed to give a glass of wine to a nazir, who is forbidden to drink wine, if he cannot otherwise reach the glass (Avodah Zarah 6a). A soldier may not leave the army base without permission from his commander. Does the commander violate lifnei iver by giving his permission, thereby enabling his unit members to travel in forbidden ways on Shabbos?
II. What is Leave?
Rav Ya’akov Ariel (cont., Israel) points out that the Talmudic examples of lifnei iver involve providing someone with an object for violating a prohibition. In the case of the unit commander, there is no physical object (Be-Ohalah Shel Torah, vol. 5, no. 29). Rav Ariel asks whether the leave, the vacation, is an “item” that the commander has and gives to the soldiers. Or does it belong to the soldiers and the commander merely removes an obstacle to the soldier using it? Rav Ariel answers that this case is actually in between these two poles. The commander does not give anything to the soldiers but he is not passive either. Rather, the commander actively removes the impediment from the soldier.
Regarding a similar case, Rav Zechariah Ben Shlomo (cont., Israel) considers whether a soldier must return to base early enough on Friday so that the person whose position he is relieving has time to return home before Shabbos starts (Hilkhos Tzava, ch. 93, par. 24, sec. 2). Rav Ben Shlomo says that he is not obligated to do so because he does not cause that soldier to leave but merely removes the impediment to his leaving.
Rav Ariel suggests another way to look at the question. Does a soldier’s free time belong to him or to the army? Meaning, when a soldier enlists, does he obligate himself to the army but retains his basic freedom? If so, when the army does not need him, when it gives him a leave, then he reverts to his full rights to his time? Or, when he enlists, does he pledge all his time to the army and the leave is a gift from the army? If it is the former, then when the commander gives his soldiers leave, all he is doing is relinquishing the army’s rights to the soldiers’ time. He is not giving them permission to leave the base but removing his claim to their time. On the other hand, if it is the latter and all the soldiers’ time belongs to the army, only then we can suggest that a commander gives soldiers permission to leave the base on Shabbos.
Perhaps most importantly, it is only forbidden to give someone an item that is primarily used for a prohibition. It is permissible to give someone an item that might be used for permissible behavior or might be used for forbidden behavior (Gittinf 61a). Since vacation time can be used to travel home or to relax on base, it is considered an item than may be used for either permissible or forbidden activity. Therefore, it is not subject to lifnei iveir.
III. Assisting the Sin
But even without the biblical prohibition of lifnei iveir, there remains a rabbinic prohibition against helping someone to violate a prohibition (mesayei’a yedei overei aveirah). Rav Ya’akov Ettlinger (19th cen., Germany) rules that mesayei’a only applies at the time of the sin. You are not allowed to help or be a part of the sin as it occurs (Binyan Tziyon, no. 15).
That is not the case with giving soldiers leave. Rav Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin (Netziv, 19th cen., Russia) adds that this rabbinic prohibition does not apply when it prevents you from earning a living (Meishiv Davar, vol. 2, nos. 31-32). Rav Ariel argues that a commander may be demoted if he is found to be preventing soldiers for taking leave due to religious considerations. Even if he is not at risk for this, it could impede his progression in ranks. More broadly, this could hurt the progress of religious commanders in general, if there is a concern that they will mistreat in some way their non-observant unit members. It will also risk distancing soldiers from religion rather than bringing them closer.
Rav Nachum Rabinovitch (21st cen., Israel) points out that the Mishnah (Shevi’is 5:9) explicitly permits this prohibition due to darkei shalom, the ways of peace. Since there is no certainty that a soldier will travel far on Shabbos, there is no problem in giving him permission to leave (Melumedei Milchamah, no. 10). However, a commander should try as much as possible to let his soldiers leave base early enough on Friday so they can reach home before Shabbos.
We want others to observe the Torah and encourage them to the best of our ability. We certainly do not assist them violate the Torah. However, when we have control over someone else’s time or body, we have to finely balance the need to give them freedom to make their own choices and, on the other hand, the need to maintain our own faith and integrity.
