Yeshiva Fundamentalism: Piety, Gender, and Resistance in the Ultra-Orthodox World

5. The Idealization of Soldiers’ Masculinity

96 5 The idealization of Soldiers’ Masculinity And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying: who is the man who has built a new house and has not begun living in it? Let him go and return to his house lest he die in the battle and another man begin living in it. —Deuteronomy 20:5–7 in contrast to the practices of withdrawal associated with work, a model of piety is being constituted in the yeshiva that includes an idealization of soldierhood and this worldliness. The Haredi disapproval of military service in israel is a modern development , formulated by the community’s founding fathers during the post–world war ii establishment of the community in israel. Military service is compulsory for most Jewish israelis over the age of eighteen, except for members of the Haredi community. And as explained in chapter 4, during the three years when most israeli men construct their sense of identity and selfhood through military training and war (Ben-Ari 1998, 58; Ben-Ari and Lomsky-Feder 2000), Haredi men reinforce their body discipline and mortification through talmudic training and yeshiva socialization . to them, true Jewish sacrifice and piety can be achieved only in the yeshiva and not through interference in God’s plans, as in affairs of state. This Haredi resistance to military service is one of the tools by which the community maintains its ideology and practice of separation from state affairs, which is a key principle of fundamentalist ideology in general (Ammerman 1987, 3). The Haredis’ rejection of military service also is part of their general denial of the israeli secular state and its institutions (Almond, Appleby, and Sivan 2003; eisenstadt 2000). The Idealization of Soldiers’ Masculinity 97 This rejection of military service in the israeli Defense Forces has led to frustration and resistance. Through their reflections on the model of the combat soldier, young Haredi students have reconstructed their model of piety and fundamentalism, and contrary to the traditional view of yeshiva piety, they have expressed a desire to participate in the military and be part of the state’s renowned band of warriors. Accordingly, yeshiva students reject the rhetoric of exclusion and instead subscribe to a piety with inclusive hegemonic images, practices, and models of masculinity taken from the dominant secular and Zionist culture. images and models of soldierhood are central to israeli culture. israeli men are expected to fight or to be prepared to fight, to enlist for military service, and to undergo military training, renewed periodically throughout their adult life in the reserves (Ben-Ari 1998; Morgan 1994, 166). in non–Haredi (including religious) israeli society, Jewish male identity is formed by their service in the military and by the language of war and struggle, making the iDF a means of achieving and affirming manhood (Ben-Ari 1998, 112). even before the israeli state was created, scholars claim, the demands for heroism, valor, and self-sacrifice were reinforced by leaders and presented as a contrast to the image of the helpless, effete Jew of the Diaspora. Combat was glorified, and strength, courage, endurance, duty, male fraternity , risk taking, and heroic sacrifice became part of the narrative of legitimizing and building the Jewish nation (Ben-Ari and Lomsky-Feder, 2000). The frequent wars and terrorist attacks in israel became “objective” support for these qualities but also occasioned a counterreading, an exchange of cause and effect, leading to criticism and pacifistic worldviews. The Second Lebanon war (the official israeli title) in the summer of 2006 and its political consequences reinforced these militaristic ideals of heroism and security politics in all aspects of israeli life. Yeshiva piety was constructed as a response to this Zionist ideology, which created the image of the diasporic Jew as its other. Although yeshiva piety was constructed as an exception in israel—a reaffirmation of the excluded Zionist other—by now militarism has infiltrated and influenced it. According to the official Haredi view, the military is dangerous and contaminated. Haredi leaders were concerned that service in the military would undermine the ideals of ascetic yeshiva life, blur community boundaries, and even threaten the existence of the Haredi community. Therefore, members who defy these strictures and join the military are seen as all but lost, undoubtedly exposed to temptation, and defeated by 98 The Idealization of Soldiers’ Masculinity the transgressive nature of modernity and secularization. Until recently, breaking away from the fundamentalist enclave to...