Question:
Doesn't the Rambam write at the end of Hilchot Shemitah Ve-Yovel that yeshiva
students are exempt from army service?
Answer:
Many authorities who rule that yeshiva students are exempt rely on these words
of the Rambam (ibid. 13:12-13): "Why didn't the Tribe of Levi merit a
portion in the Land of Israel?...
Because they were set aside to serve G-d, to serve him and to teach His
upright path and His righteous laws to the community... They are therefore kept
separate from worldly matters. They do
not wage war like the rest of Israel, they do not receive a heritage, and they
do not have the benefits of a strong body – rather, they act as the army of
G-d... And this applies not only to the tribe of Levi, but to every individual
man in the world who volunteers and who understands on his own to separate
himself and to stand before G-d, to serve Him and toil to understand G-d... and
who relieves himself of the burden of the reckonings with which people are
involved..."
Making
halachic conclusions about exempting yeshiva students by comparing this matter
with what the Rambam writes about the Levi'im and Torah scholars is a
distortion of the true Torah. Our Rabbi
Ha-Rav Tzvi Yehudah already pointed this out for various reasons (Li-Netivot
Yisrael vol. 1, p. 125):
1.
These are not Halachic statements but ethical and spiritual guidelines, and the
Rambam often ends his books in this manner.
2.
The Rambam details the various exemptions from war in Hilchot Melachim (The
Halachot of Wars), and not in Hilchot Shemitah Ve-Yovel (The Halachot of the
Shemitah Year and Jubliee Year). No
exemption for those who learn Torah is mentioned in Hilchot Melachim.
4.
Ha-Rav Tanenbaum, who was the secretary of the Va'ad Ha-Yeshivot in Israel,
heard from Ha-Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer that it is a falsification to claim
based on this Rambam that yeshiva students are exempt from military service.
