Israel – As the dispute about women singing in the Israel Defense Forces refuses to die down, both sides are citing Shlomo Goren, the late chief military rabbi who famously blew the shofar at the Western Wall captured during the Six-Day War.
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“We regret and are pained by the spirit of ‘religious’ insanity that is causing confusion among religious soldiers, desecrating the Holy Name and damaging the solidarity and unity of the IDF and the memory of Rabbi Shlomo Goren, of blessed memory,” wrote former senior military rabbis in a letter to Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.
The letter from the rabbis – Maj. Gen. (res. ) Mordechai Piron, 90, and Menachem Hacohen, 79, both close associates of Goren – encompasses the tolerant attitude toward women in the IDF. It also backs Chief Military Rabbi Rafi Peretz against the attacks on him by other rabbis.
The dispute about women’s singing in the IDF refuses to subside. Last week, for example, retired military rabbis, nearly all of them ultra-Orthodox, met in Jerusalem and attacked Peretz for not rebelling against IDF personnel chief Orna Barbivai’s order that all soldiers must attend official ceremonies, even if women are singing there.
But according to Peretz’s critics, unlike him, Goren would often fight the top brass over religious principles, in particular the matter of women singing.
Maybe this letter from two Gadolei Yisroel will put a stop to this insanity of trying to impose chumrahs on women in the army during a time of national crises when the IDF needs to assure unit cohesion and morale. Rav Goren, Z’tl, is recognized, and respected by all, and his views on this matter, which span both halacha and military awareness, should trump those of any other less-informed rabbonim.l
Now the posek, or role model or rather spot light, is on Rabbi Shlomo Goren. Now, not everybody who is ultra orthodox goes according to R. Gorens rulings. (even R. Moshes rulings are not universally unequivocally accepted.)
Imho, nobody should be forced to decide between religion and army, (democracy), The army should look to accomodate (whenever possible), especially after they have committed to every haredi soldier that he won’t have to decide between religion and army.
Crazy. Completely against Halacha. Now Isee where Shlomo Goren got his bad reputation from.
Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t the Halacha against men listening, not women singing? So if the women want to sing, the men have to decide whether to go or to politely, without making a stink, excuse themselves.
Rabbi Goren is generally held in (extremely) low regard among the Charedim in Jerusalem where I live. He is considered someone who bent to pressure and was mattir Mamzerim and other things. So his Hetter here will not turn any heads.
(Notice that I wrote Rabbi Goren, and did not take the common liberty of removing the Rabbi from anyone I do not agree with or like, the unfortunate common practice…)
Wow real dedolim I’m sure in future halaca questions there opinon will be sought,OMG
HaRav Goren is also famous for going across enemy lines in 1948, risking his life, to return the bodies of our Jewish soldiers – so their wives wouldn’t have to be agunos. He was a very great man. He saw the big picture – after everything our people suffered during WWII, there would be a Jewish homeland. A place for the Shearis Haplayta to come to. And, in fact, we came. Hundreds, thousands, millions of Jews from all over the world came and made a home for themselves. We sometimes forget our history. Jewish people in Eretz Yisroel is a miracle after 2,000 years.
So, it’s hard for me to get very excited about singing. Maybe they could issue earplugs together with the rifle and uniform.
B”H there is water, food, housing, education, schools, shuls, yeshivas, health care – maybe we could find something to be grateful for instead of all the complaints.
We need to stand together to merit all that Hashem has given us.