Army service is a part of Torah

Recently, I heard Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri being interviewed on Army Radio over the issue of equal sharing of the military burden. His arrogant haredi spin was clearly concocted ahead of time. According to Deri, secular Israelis cannot comprehend how Torah is our oxygen, the principal shield defending Israel -- soldiers are simply second-rate substitutes for the real thing.

First of all, I doubt that there is a religious individual in the country who has done more firsthand damage to Israel and its Jewish identity than Deri, who over the last few dozen years has exploited Judaism and our invaluable Torah to manufacture capital and power. Generally speaking, I would not buy the ideology of an individual whose used car I would not purchase.

Today, hundreds of mostly religious Zionist communities dot the Israeli landscape. Tens of thousands of Zionist yeshiva students pore over Torah studies day and night, assiduously following each halachic ruling and treating even the minutiae with gravity. Religious Zionists learn the same Gemara until midnight as the haredim do. We sleep on the same flimsy mattresses and eat the same basic loaves for supper.

As a trend, the number of hesder yeshiva graduates completing rabbinic ordination and religious-court-judge exams with honors is growing relative to their counterparts in the ultra-Orthodox community. Zionist yeshivas are churning out thousands of inspiring educators and teachers, who are imbuing the next generation of Zionist children with fear of God and a love for mankind. Prodigious Zionist students and halachic jurists are actually the ones paving the way for a common Jewish lifestyle in modern Israel while safeguarding the embers of Judaism.

An integral part of Torah study and doing God's work at Zionist yeshivas includes self-sacrifice in the name of state security and for the sake of maintaining the sanctity of our land. We are not willing to "undo" the Torah for state security. For us, providing security for the state and a base of mutual support are themselves a part of Torah.

Religious Zionists do not aim for a restoration of 1920s Diaspora life in Poland, but a life resembling the heritage of King David's disciples, who toiled and sweat over Torah study while fighting in the army. When Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, of blessed memory, developed the model combining Torah study with army service, much of the ultra-Orthodox community considered it a Reform startup. They persecuted Kook just as they persecuted Maimonides in his day and burned his books. However, the facts are stronger than haredi propaganda. This winning combination of Torah study -- for its own sake and with no intention to profit from it -- and bearing the national burden has only gained in preponderance over time. I was lucky enough to have been educated by rabbis who all served in the army and fought in Israel's wars. The same voice guiding us through complex discussions of morality also triggered the battle cry "Forward! Attack!" while we defended the State of Israel.

Israeli society and the media must stop being duped into purchasing the phony Jerusalem kugel that charlatans such as Deri and his associate political wheeler-dealers have been trying to pawn off. Every night I study alongside haredim at Torah schools, even though I do not identify with their anti-Zionist worldviews.

During my regular military service in the paratroopers and the 17 years of reserves that followed, I served right alongside individuals who defile Shabbat and eat shrimp but are willing to sacrifice their lives for the sanctity of God in the name of state security. Forswearing any part of Judaism is forbidden. I do not desert the Sabbath because I keep kosher. I will not disrespect my mother for the sake of honoring my father. For me, the baseless question of which is more important, army service or Torah study, amounts to weighing blood against oxygen.

Nachman Rosenberg is the executive vice-president of the Tzohar movement.