Rabbi Moshe Maya, a senior spiritual leader of Shas, has made a remarkable shift on the question of Haredi enlistment. Just last summer, after the High Court of Justice moved to end service exemptions for yeshiva students, he declared it was “forbidden” for those not learning full-time to join the army, warning that enlistment would inevitably lead to violations of Shabbat. That statement reflected the hard red line many Haredi leaders have held for decades: without full-time Torah study, military service was off-limits.
This week, though, Maya struck a very different tone. Speaking on Radio Kol Hai, he said that if the IDF establishes formal protections—specifically a General Staff order guaranteeing Sabbath observance and a fully religious framework—then “why shouldn’t he enlist?” for those not studying full-time. Without such guarantees, he cautioned, any deal would be “worthless.” Still, this represents a major softening from his earlier blanket prohibition. Against the backdrop of Supreme Court rulings against blanket exemptions and the mounting pressure threatening Netanyahu’s coalition, Maya’s words hint at an opening: a path for broader Haredi participation in the IDF, so long as it is on religiously sustainable terms.
Read the full article in the Times of Israel.
