Wednesday January 17, 2018

Be’er Sheva

A large delegation of anti-Zionist rabbis from Jerusalem and elsewhere traveled to participate in the wedding of a Torah student whom they barely, if at all, know.

The groom, Nadav Ben Nint, was released from military prison on Monday, only two days before the wedding – and must report back for another six months of incarceration by next Thursday, or face an even longer, punitive prison term of an additional two years. His offence – refusing to serve in the Israeli Armed Forces on religious grounds.

The fiery and joyful dancing at the wedding was enhanced by the presence of the renowned scholars Rabbi Yaakov Indursky and Rabbi Leibel Deitch, as well as the recently-released Prisoner-of-Conscience Pinchus Freiman (who was incarcerated for a period of time together with the groom), Avrohom Lederman, and others.

The contingent also delivered a meaningful wedding present on behalf of the Oiz Le’Gevurah organization, which helps yeshiva students and other Orthodox Jews who will not serve in the Israeli Army for religious reasons.

The religious Jewish community has always been staunchly opposed to joining the Israeli army, following the fundamental principle of Jewish belief that Jews are in exile and are forbidden to have their own state or army, or to wage wars against any nation. This is in addition to their objection to the ongoing immoral behavior of the Israeli army; and the widely-held belief that the true purpose of the forced conscription is not the enhancement of the numbers of servicemen – the primary goal is to force the community’s youth to violate their religious beliefs, to mold them into “modern (read: secular) Israeli citizens,” to have them abandon the Torah.

Jerusalem Chief Rabbi Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss, spiritual leader of the Edah HaChareidis, also sent a personally-inscribed book of Psalms as a wedding present, together with his prayers for the happiness of the newly-wed couple and, most pertinently, his wishes for the quick release of the groom from the clutches of the Zionist authorities.