Menachem Mendel

There is a moving letter written by an IDF rabbi describing something that happened before some troops went into Gaza that is making it’s way around the internet. Rav Tzair has the original Hebrew here and here is an English translation (hat tip). In addition, see this related responsum. I found this responsum interesting because of the author’s perception regarding the role of the military rabbi. He portrays the Israeli military rabbi as an integral part of the unit along the lines of the “annointed priest”, כהן משוח מלחמה (see M. Sotah 8 and Deut. 20), and he says that it is possibly in the American army that the chaplain is only responsible for the religious needs of soldiers in the narrow sense of the term. I find this contrast interesting because my experience has always been that the Israeli Army rabbi does not do much beyond making sure that the kitchen is kosher and that there are services in the base synagogue. My guess is that things are different in units that are heavily populated with hesder and people from pre-military mechinot and also that maybe things in general have changed. On a related topic, see this exchange between two people regarding possible halakhic approaches to the current fighting that appears surprisingly in the Guardian. Lastly, see this post from Menachem Butler with his usual comprehensive bibliographic treatment of the topic and these articles by Michael Broyde and this reporting of a talk by Daniel Sinclair which seemed to critique Broyde’s view.

Update: Rav Tzair has just posted another similar story.

Posted on January 12th, 2009 under Israel, Jewish Law, Rabbinic Authority • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed