In an interview R' Ovadia Yosef gave when he was elected chief rabbi, the interviewer from the newspaper Yediot Achronot asked him if he believed that yeshiva students should be exempt from serving in the IDF? He answered, “Yes! We believe that the Torah over which these students toil day and night protects the IDF soldiers in whatever battles they may face, as it says (Zecharya 4:6), lo b’chayil v’lo b’koach ki im b’ruchi amar Hashem (“not through might or power but through My spirit said Hashem”).”
When a Channel 12 News reporter spotted a secular Jew among the hundreds of thousands of participants at the funeral of R' Chaim Kanievsky, he asked him his reason for being there. The man said, “I merited to be by R' Kanievsky about 20 years ago in the middle of the night. It was an experience not possible to explain.” He then said, “I view all the righteous avreichim here around us as indispensable. Toras Yisrael is what holds up the world, what enables it to exist.” The secular Jew then spoke aloud to the Chareidim surrounding him: “Chizku V’imtzu. Continue in your path. I served in the IDF for 25 years. I’m still friends with IDF Chief Aviv Kochavi. And I’m telling you that without you, Am Yisrael wouldn’t continue to exist. Without the light that you spread, Am Yisrael couldn’t exist.”
During Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 (which was a large-scale operation during the second intifada) that occurred during the Pesach intercession, R' Ovadia Yosef publicly called all yeshiva students to cancel Pesach vacation and “report for duty at the ‘army base’ of Torah study.” R' Ovadia said, “The soldiers of the IDF do holy work, safeguarding Israel. Only because the IDF soldiers put their lives on the line to guard us can we study Torah, can we daven in shul and the like. Without the army, would our enemies let us sit peacefully and learn Torah? No! Only through the kindness of the IDF soldiers is this feasible. May Hashem guard them forever! May they return to their homes to live good, peaceful lives! Everyone must appreciate this and bless and pray for them. If you see a soldier, you can only kiss him: After all, he is protecting every Jew in Israel with his very life.”
How should we view those Israeli soldiers who have been killed while trying to defend their Jewish brethren?
A student in the Kol Torah yeshiva in Yerushalayim approached his Rosh Yeshiva, R’ Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, and asked him if he may leave his Torah studies in the yeshiva to travel to the North in order to daven at the graves of tzadikim in the Galil. R’ Auerbach answered, “It is better to say in yeshiva, and study Torah.” The student asked further, “Isn’t there a time I could go to visit the graves of tzadikim?” R’ Auerbach answered, “In order to daven at the graves of tzadikim, one doesn’t have to travel up to the Galil. Whenever I feel the need to daven at the graves of tzadikim, I go to Mount Herzl, [the national cemetery for fallen IDF soldiers in Yerushalayim], to the graves of the soldiers...who fell ‘Al Kidush Hashem.’”
