Feed aggregator

Some 1,400 chareidi men already serving in Israel’s civilian national service program could see their monthly stipends reduced by thousands of shekels after the Supreme Court declined to dismiss a petition challenging the substantially higher payments they receive compared with participants in the general national service program.

The law governing civilian service for chareidim expired at the end of August, preventing new candidates from entering the program. However, approximately 1,400 chareidi participants who began their service while the law was still in effect are continuing under a provision protecting their existing rights until they complete their service.

The legal battle over how much those participants should receive is now continuing despite the law’s expiration.

Supreme Court Justice David Mintz ordered the state to submit an updated response by October 13 addressing whether proceedings over the monthly stipends should continue. The state had argued that the petition became moot once the civilian service law expired, but the organization Israel Hofsheet countered that the dispute remains relevant because approximately 1,400 chareidim are still actively serving under the program.

The controversy traces back to 2014, when legislation established a national civilian service framework for individuals who had previously held Toraso umnaso status. At the same time, provisions of Israel’s military service law allowed yeshiva bochurim to receive military-service deferments.

The legal arrangement governing Toraso umnaso expired in June 2023. The civilian service law was subsequently extended periodically through temporary provisions.

In late 2025, Israel Hofsheet petitioned the Supreme Court, arguing that in the absence of a valid military draft arrangement, chareidi candidates should no longer be referred to or funded through the civilian service program.

The petition also challenged what it described as a significant disparity between the monthly stipends provided to chareidi civilian-service participants and those received by people serving through the general national service framework.

On June 11, the Supreme Court issued an order to show cause directing the state and Knesset to explain, among other issues, why the stipends received by chareidi participants should not be equalized with those provided to participants in the general national service program.

When the law expired on August 31, the state informed the court that new candidates could no longer enter the chareidi civilian service track and argued that the petition therefore no longer had practical relevance.

At the same time, however, the state said that under Section 36(b) of the law, approximately 1,400 people who had already begun their service could continue and would retain their existing rights through the completion of their service.

Israel Hofsheet responded that this was precisely why the case was not moot: the disputed payment arrangement remains in effect for those 1,400 active participants.

The Supreme Court has now declined to dismiss the petition at this stage, leaving the stipend issue open for further consideration.

The financial difference is substantial. According to figures presented in the proceedings, payments under the chareidi civilian-service track can reach approximately 4,580 shekels per month, compared with approximately 1,305 shekels under the parallel general national service arrangement — a difference of as much as 3,275 shekels each month.

If the Supreme Court ultimately orders the payments to be equalized at the lower level, some chareidi participants could therefore lose thousands of shekels in monthly support even though they entered the program while the existing payment structure was in force.

No such reduction has been ordered at this point. The court has only allowed the legal challenge to remain active while it considers whether the payment disparity should continue for the approximately 1,400 chareidim already serving.

The state must now submit its updated position by October 13, after which the Supreme Court could determine whether the current stipend arrangement for those already enrolled in civilian service may remain in place.

{Matzav.com}

The Brisker Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Velvel Soloveitchik, delivered an unusually sharp attack over Sukkos against prominent chareidi institutions that hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog, accusing them of compromising longstanding principles for government funding and declaring that “the Chazon Ish must be trembling in his grave over what they did to his home.”

Rav Soloveitchik, son and successor of Rav Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, made the remarks during a lengthy address at a Simchas Bais Hashoeivah attended by hundreds of talmidim at the Brisker Yeshiva in Yerushalayim.

His criticism focused on Herzog’s recent appearances at two institutions: a visit to a cheder affiliated with Ateres Shlomo in Telz Stone at the beginning of Elul zman, and a visit connected with the Tashbar institutions in Bnei Brak.

Before addressing the controversy directly, Rav Soloveitchik spent approximately an hour discussing the halachos surrounding chibut aravah in the Bais Hamikdash. He then drew a comparison between Chazal’s struggle against the Tzedukim and what he described as the obligation to maintain separation from Zionism today.

“We are in a year when the shofar was not blown on Shabbos and the Daled Minim were not taken on Shabbos,” he said. “Chazal canceled chiyuvim de’Oraisa out of concern that one might come to violate the prohibition of carrying in a reshus harabim on Shabbos. But the Gemara explains that aravah could not be canceled, and therefore they arranged that Hoshana Rabbah would never fall on Shabbos, so that it would not be canceled.”

He continued by citing the Ran’s question as to why Torah obligations such as shofar and lulav could be suspended on Shabbos, while the practice of chibut aravah was protected from ever being canceled.

“The Ran explains that the reason is because the Tzedukim wanted to abolish this practice, as is explained in the Gemara,” Rav Soloveitchik said. “Therefore, they were particular that specifically this matter should never be canceled, even though there is no mitzvah involved. We see that Chazal agreed to cancel mitzvos de’Oraisa, but a practice that the Tzedukim wanted to abolish would never be canceled and was treated even more stringently than shofar and the Daled Minim.”

Rav Soloveitchik then cited the incident described in the Gemara in which esrogim were thrown during a confrontation with the Tzedukim in the Bais Hamikdash.

“We see in the Gemara that when they fought the Tzedukim, they threw esrogim at them in the Bais Hamikdash,” he said. “The question is why they were not concerned about disgracing the mitzvah of the esrogim, which are cheftzei mitzvah. But it is explained in the Rishonim that because it was necessary to fight the Tzedukim, they permitted even disgracing the mitzvah of the Daled Minim and throwing esrogim. The main thing was to disgrace the Tzedukim.”

After citing additional sources regarding Chazal’s battles with the Tzedukim, the Brisker Rosh Yeshiva turned directly to the present day.

“Today, in our generation, when it comes to the battle against the Tzedukim of our generation, the Zionists, there are those who have forgotten Chazal’s battle against them,” he said.

Rav Soloveitchik cited a story about the Chazon Ish, saying that even when he served as sandek on the fifth of Iyar, the date marking the establishment of the State of Israel, he instructed that Tachanun be recited.

“It was all in order to reject the position of the Tzedukim, so that they should not say that the Chazon Ish did not say Tachanun because of the establishment of the state,” he said. “We see how much the Gedolei Yisroel were prepared to set aside halachos so that there should not be even the slightest suggestion of a connection with the Zionists.”

Rav Soloveitchik then turned his criticism toward the Tashbar institutions in Bnei Brak, referring to the historic association of the institution with the Chazon Ish.

“And who could believe,” he said, “that we are standing decades later, and in the home of that very Chazon Ish, where they established Tashbar on taharas hakodesh, in Yiddish, without taking any government funding until a few years ago — and recently they switched to Hebrew and began taking funding — they have now turned the place into a museum in order to receive a little money from the government.”

“And more than that, they dared to bring President Isaac Herzog to affix a mezuzah in that very museum,” he continued. “Someone brought me pictures of it, so it is clear that it actually happened. Have the people of Bnei Brak gone crazy? How can they sink to such a level? Have a little respect for the Chazon Ish! Instead of throwing his budgets back in his face, instead of throwing esrogim at him, they let him affix a mezuzah and even appear before hundreds of children. How can this be?!”

The Brisker Rosh Yeshiva then referred to another rosh yeshiva whom he did not name, but whom he said had previously spent time at the Brisker Yeshiva and had also hosted Herzog before talmidim at the beginning of Elul zman.

“Recently, I was also told about a rosh yeshiva who used to come around here in our yeshiva, someone who also knows how to sing ‘Beshilton Hakofrim,’ and he too dared to do this and brought the president of the state to appear before the students at the beginning of Elul zman,” Rav Soloveitchik said.

“I sent for him to come speak with me about the matter, but he doesn’t respond. He claims that he is busy establishing Torah. How is it that someone wears the hat of kana’us and sings ‘Beshilton Hakofrim,’ and afterward honors the Zionist president in front of hundreds of students, all for a little money?!”

Rav Soloveitchik said his grandfather, the Brisker Rav, would certainly have cried out against such conduct, and invoked the Chazon Ish as well.

“My grandfather, the Brisker Rav, certainly would have cried out over such a thing, and even the Chazon Ish. Apparently, the Chazon Ish is trembling in his grave over what they did to him in his own home,” he said.

“Today, everything is done for money. Soon we will hear the loudspeakers in the streets screaming, ‘Hatzilu! We must have an eighth seat in the Knesset in order to save the yeshivos!’ If they would not honor and flatter the resha’im this way, and if they would not take all their money from them, they would not need to scream ‘Hatzilu!’”

Rav Soloveitchik went on to recount an episode involving Rav Chaim Mann and the maskil Yechiel Michel Pines. According to the story, Pines encountered Rav Mann at the Kosel and asked where he was going. When Rav Mann replied that he was going to Rav Yehoshua Leib Diskin, Pines remarked that he presumably already knew what Rav Yehoshua Leib would tell him — that he should merit sitting in the sukkah made from the skin of the Livyasan — because that was the bracha he routinely gave people.

Rav Mann nevertheless continued, and Pines accompanied him. When they arrived and knocked on Rav Yehoshua Leib’s door, Rav Yehoshua Leib saw them and told Rav Mann, “You should merit sitting in the sukkah of the Livyasan — and whoever does not want to sit there does not have to.”

Rav Soloveitchik applied the story to the roshei yeshiva he had been criticizing.

“I am certain that those roshei yeshiva with the beautiful beards who do everything for a little money are declaring that they do not want to sit in the sukkah of the Livyasan, and indeed they will not merit it,” he said.

The Brisker Rosh Yeshiva concluded with another story about Rav Yehoshua Leib Diskin, recounting how he was imprisoned following accusations made against him by maskilim. Community activists sent an attorney to speak with him, but Rav Yehoshua Leib refused even to look at the lawyer’s face because, he maintained, the man was a rasha.

When the case reached court, Rav Soloveitchik related, the attorney used Rav Yehoshua Leib’s refusal as part of his defense, arguing to the judges that a man so uncompromising in his religious principles that he would not even look at the lawyer who had come to save him could hardly be suspected of acting contrary to his Torah convictions. Rav Yehoshua Leib was subsequently released from prison.

“The Torah tells us, ‘Mesanecha Hashem esna.’ Where is the Jewish feeling for that?” Rav Soloveitchik asked in conclusion.

{Matzav.com}