The Ironic Result of Military Service
An ironic result of military service on the part of those Haredim whose attachment to radical religion was feeble is, paradoxically, the strengthening of their religiosity and their subsequent return to the embrace of Haredism.
Written By Prof. Gideon Aran
It is precisely those who have stopped putting on phylacteries for daily morning prayer, who return to observing this commandment and others as part of their military service, and as part of what becomes taken for granted in a framework with strong group pressures.
A total institution with uncompromising standards that encourages the revival of Haredi sentiment and the strengthening of Haredi consciousness. In the Haredi Nachal, Talmud study or reciting of blessings is performed as military routines.
Taken from “Body, Violence and Fundamentalism: The Case of Jewish Ultra-Orthodoxy” By Gideon Aran.
The Haredi And Purim – The Jewish Traditional Carnival
The Haredi imagination is intrigued by physicality, adventurism and by military life. This can be deduced from indirect evidence, such as analysis of children’s and youth’s costumes on Purim – the Jewish traditional carnival.
Written By Prof. Gideon Aran
Costumes may subtly express identification with an ideal model, yearning for something far-off and the playing out of fantasies. Apart from Haredi popular disguises as exemplary figures from Jewish mytho-history (such as the High Priest, the Prophet Moses or King David), Haredim are also fond of disguises of contemporary modern Israeli figures, mainly pilots, paratroopers, policemen and firemen.
The latter – all Zionist icons – represent physicality, manliness and action-seeking. As already mentioned, Haredim tend to equate Zionism with activism, violence and an emphasis on the body. This Haredi tendency reveals hidden admiration and envy of Zionism, due, among other reasons to its perception as made of elements of virility and aggressiveness.
Taken from “Body, Violence and Fundamentalism: The Case of Jewish Ultra-Orthodoxy” By Gideon Aran.
Result of The Geo-Political Circumstances
As a result of the geo-political circumstances of the past several years, there are a considerable number of Haredim who have need of firearms. Not only do they accept the carrying of pistols and guns and training in marksmanship, but do so with enthusiasm.
Written By Gideon Aran
Haredim who carry guns and shoot them often look like kids enjoying a new toy. Experienced shooting (and martial arts) instructors testify that Haredim are their most gung-ho clients. They learn and practice “in earnest” and “get high” on their energies in performance. Compared with the secular or even the national-religious (including West Bank settlers), Haredi shooting is the most aggressive and ecstatic.
We have been told that hey use up twice as much ammunition as members of other groups. There is also a proliferation of militaristic images within the Haredi world itself. Note some typical idioms like: the Yeshiva students “kill themselves in the tent of Torah”; some Hasidic circles regard themselves as “Armies of God’; and the trucks they send to proselytize other Jews are named “Commandment Tanks”.
Taken from “Body, Violence and Fundamentalism: The Case of Jewish Ultra-Orthodoxy” By Prof. Gideon Aran.
The Attraction to the physical and machoistic characteristics
Attraction to the physical and machoistic characteristics basic to an army career becomes revealed in the Haredi world in many ways, including buds of paramilitary, if not truly militaristic culture.
Written By Prof. Gideon Aran
Gideon Aran
For instance, take the adulation of Haredim towards generals who are decorated war veterans, even if it be known that they eat non-kosher foods and violate the Sabbath. Haredim are also amazingly knowledgeable about the details of acts of heroism of underground fighters against the British and of Israel Defense Forces fighters.
They take pride in their familiarity with the minutest details of incidents which have been long forgotten, incidents which embody the qualities of level-headedness, initiative under pressure, risk-taking, self-sacrifice, physical strength, and so on.
Taken from “Body, Violence and Fundamentalism: The Case of Jewish Ultra-Orthodoxy” By Gideon Aran.
Prof. Gideon Aran: Commanders of the Haredi Battalion
Commanders of the Haredi battalion find it difficult to reconcile the natural tendency to cultivate fighters’ pride in their unit with the requirement to admit their inferiority relative to full-time yeshiva scholars.
Written By Prof. Gideon Aran
Gideon Aran
Moreover, the tendency to cover up the embarrassing fact that the battalion is composed entirely of yeshiva drop-outs clashes with the explicit statement they are required to make that had they not been drafted they would not have continued their Torah education. While publicly undertaking not to entice the gifted and the motivated away from the Torah study, in practice there is a tendency to attract such students for army service in order to raise the prestige of the battalion and to ensure its high religious and military standards.