The Mitzva to Serve in the Army: Saving Israel
המצווה לשרת בצבא – הצלת ישראל
It is a great Torah mitzva to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces. Two mitzvot lie at the foundation of this obligation, and each of them is a general mitzva that is, to a certain extent, equivalent to all the mitzvot: first, saving Israel from the hands of their enemies; second, safeguarding the Land of Israel so that it remains in the hands of the Jewish people.
Saving Israel: We are commanded that if we see one of our people in danger, we must come to his aid, as it is stated (Vayikra 19:16): “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.” For this purpose a person must be prepared to take on a certain degree of risk. All the more so when the entire Jewish people is in danger, there is an obligation to come to the rescue of Israel. The Sages already said in the Mishna (Sanhedrin 4:5): “Whoever sustains a single Jewish soul, Scripture considers it as if he sustained an entire world.” If so, one who takes part in sustaining the entire nation, all the more so, truly sustains an entire world.
This is a clear-cut milḥemet mitzva (obligatory war), as the Rambam wrote (Hilkhot Melakhim 5:1): “What is a milḥemet mitzva? It is the war against the seven nations (in the conquest of the Land), the war against Amalek, and the deliverance of Israel from an enemy that has come upon them.” The mitzva of war obligates every individual to take on risk far beyond what we are commanded to risk in order to save individual Jews. To save an individual or individuals, all agree that there is no mitzva to enter a danger in which the rescuer will most likely be killed. But in wartime, when it is necessary to endanger individuals in order to save the campaign, the individual must be prepared to enter even a situation in which his danger is greater than his chance of survival. As our master Rav Kook wrote (Mishpat Kohen 143), the principle of “and live by them,” from which we learn that pikuaḥ nefesh (saving life) overrides all the mitzvot of the Torah, does not apply in wartime, because the laws of the community differ from the laws of the individual, and for the sake of the community’s survival individuals must be prepared to enter danger. On this basis, Responsa Tzitz Eliezer (13:100) wrote that the principle “your life takes precedence over your fellow’s life” also does not apply in war, “rather, all the men of war, as one man, are obligated each and every one to give his life to save the life of his fellow. This too is included in the rules of the laws of the community, and within the scope of the conduct of the state and its welfare” (Ha-Tzava Ke-Hilkhata, ch. 15).¹
Notes (1)
- Regarding an individual’s obligation to save his fellow, there are two views. According to most poskim, a person need not enter mortal danger in order to save his fellow, because the principle “‘and live by them’ – and not die by them” (Yoma 85b) also applies to the mitzva of “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.” That is, any action involving real risk to life, which an ordinary person would not be prepared to undertake even to save his property, is not a mitzva to do in order to save one’s fellow. This is the view of Rabbeinu Yona Gerondi, Sma, Ḥoshen Mishpat 426:2, Shulḥan Arukh Ha-Rav, Oraḥ Ḥayim 329:8, and Hilkhot Nizkei Guf Va-Nefesh 7, MB 329:19, Igrot Moshe, Yoreh De’ah 2:174:2, Tzitz Eliezer 9:45, and others. Some say that to save a Jewish life one must be prepared to endanger one’s life; so wrote the Beit Yosef, Ḥoshen Mishpat 426, based on the Hagahot Maimoniyot citing the Yerushalmi, and R. Tzvi Yehuda inclined toward this in Le-Netivot Yisrael vol. 1, p. 158 (Beit El edition). (See also Peninei Halakha: Likkutim II 11:2-3.) However, regarding war, all agree that one must endanger his life in order to win.