“And Israel encamped there”: one brigade, one heart

The old Israel

The year is 2000 (5761), and for the first time in my life I find myself inside a deep social divide. In the years before, I had moved between two Charedi yeshiva high schools, and when I finished my studies at the “Nehora” yeshiva high school in the summer of 5760, I landed in a complicated situation. My name had not gone through properly at the Vaad HaYeshivot, the body responsible for arranging the status of the Torah world with the enlistment authorities. The result was not long in coming: a draft notice.

My first reaction was complete astonishment: “What have I to do with a draft notice?!” My aspiration was clear and natural, to be a regular yeshiva bachur, exactly like all my friends. (Some of my classmates at “Nehora” did go on to hesder tracks, being Mizrachnikers, while for us yeshivishers reality was altogether different.)

Who could have imagined then, in those distant days, that just one generation on, the circle would close so powerfully inside my own home?

At the time, the very notion of enlistment tracks adapted to the Charedi public barely existed on the ground. There was a single, pioneering track, the “Nachal Charedi,” founded about a year earlier (1999). In military terms it had indeed proved its quality, but the Charedi yeshiva world of the day regarded it with great suspicion, and the general mood was: “Maybe it’s Nachal, but Charedi it certainly is not.”

I will not weary you with all the twists and turns of those days. The bottom line: after a year’s deferment on the basis of Torato Umanuto status and an appearance before an unsuitability committee at the Bakum, the IDF induction center, I was released from military service with a full medical profile.

I tell this because in those days the system simply offered no adapted answer. We did not have so much as a hava amina, even a passing thought, of serving, since the IDF was in no way equipped to take in young men from our community without requiring them to give up their identity and values. The idea itself lay entirely outside our consciousness. The average Charedi who did reach the army in those days was generally assigned to rear-echelon jobs of no real meaning, only to fulfill the obligation and gain the legal possibility of entering the workforce. And that was that. The system and the community lived on two parallel lines that never meet.

The new Israel

The year is 2023, and there is no need to say much about what took place here.

A deep rupture, chaos, a pain that will not let go and a collective shock.

Yet out of that abyss something new grew and rose: a fierce and uncompromising desire to get up, take responsibility and act.

In the two decades since I was that boy at the Bakum, the Charedi world and Israeli society have undergone deep and rapid change. The rupture of October distilled the understanding that it is no longer possible to stand aloof, and brought the true need for connection to the surface. To my great joy, in the course of my work in advertising, I have had the privilege of taking an active part in marketing and accompanying a range of frameworks and organizations focused on enlistment and adapted service for the Charedi public. At first, most of the effort centered on professional and technological tracks, technology incubators and quality rear-echelon positions. The combat side had not yet taken shape as a complete and precise answer, since it could not offer a protected, sealed environment for a young man from a Charedi home who wishes to keep the values dear to him, to his parents and to his community and social surroundings.

And then came the dramatic turning point: the Chashmonaim Brigade.

This is no longer one more compromise or after-the-fact solution. This time it is a brigade built from the ground up as a prestigious boutique track, joining tremendous unit pride to professional and operational standards of the very first rank. The meticulous structure of the Chashmonaim Brigade shows itself in a complete and uncompromising synchrony between the world of the spirit and the world of action: a tough operational schedule and elite training woven, naturally and by design, with fixed prayer times with a minyan, daily times for sacred study, and stringent halachic care over every single detail on base and in the field.

And suddenly, it all sounds and looks entirely logical. Yes, a young man from a Charedi home, raised on the values sacred to us and a believer in the path, who feels he has not found his exact place within the walls of the yeshiva, no longer has to spend his time in vain. He has an exclusive, adapted answer. He can enlist for meaningful combat service at the spearhead of the IDF without sacrificing anything of his Charedi identity. To go in Charedi and come out Charedi, with the service record of a combat soldier of the highest level. A true, living union of Sifra and Saifa (The Book and the Sword), at a level we could once only dream of.

Together, the tribes of Israel

Of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai it is written: “And Israel encamped there.” Rashi, in words brief and clear, explains: “As one man, with one heart.”

The People of Israel has been divided in its opinions throughout the generations, before Mount Sinai and after it, at every one of the many encampments in the wilderness. But the moment they receive the mind of Hashem, when there is clarity about the shared and supreme goal and the right foundation is laid for it, all the parts join into one living whole. There are no more partitions, no more disputes that separate, only one heart, beating, strong and united.

L’havdil, the Chashmonaim Brigade gives exactly this feeling: unity, deep cohesion and one beating heart. So, out of this shared strength, out of complete mutual respect for a unique identity and its spiritual needs, it is possible to bring about real change and create a true connection above all disputes. This is the first brigade ever in the history of the IDF to inscribe “fear of Heaven” on its banner as its leading and central value, without apology and with tremendous communal and personal pride.

Only a short while ago, my personal circle closed completely, when my wife and I were privileged to accompany, with Jewish, Charedi, Israeli emotion, our son who enlisted to serve in the Chashmonaim Brigade, in the brigade’s Cohort 5.

My beloved son, it remains for me only to wish you, and all your comrades in the fear of Hashem and in arms: Hashem is with you, mighty men of valor!