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When Will We Finally Understand?

by Ram ben Ze'ev


When Will We Finally Understand?
When Will We Finally Understand?

There is a moment in every generation when the Children of Israel must confront an uncomfortable truth — not about our enemies, not about the world, but about ourselves. That moment is now.


We live in an age where suffering is explained away, where the sanctity of our identity is diluted by the very hands tasked with guarding it. We justify disobedience as progress, and we call transgression tolerance. But at what cost?


We are taught in ספר דברים (Sefer Devarim), "Lo yihyeh keli gever al ishah velo yilbash gever simlat ishah" (לא יהיה כלי גבר על אשה ולא ילבש גבר שמלת אשה) — a man’s vestments shall not be on a woman, and a man shall not wear a woman’s garment. From here the sages derive a deep warning against role confusion — not merely in fabric, but in function, identity, and divine purpose.



Yet today, we send our daughters into co-ed army bases, into combat, into uniforms and behaviours foreign to the soul of a bat Yisrael (בת ישראל – daughter of Israel). We do so not with regret, but with pride — as if defying halakhah were a badge of honour. We silence the words of our sages — Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, the Rambam, Maran, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef zt”l, and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein zt”l — as though they were outmoded voices from another time. We have not outgrown their wisdom — we have abandoned it.


This is not just theory or interpretation. It is the unambiguous ruling of our greatest sages — across generations and communities.


Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook zt”l, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel and a towering halakhic and spiritual authority, ruled categorically that female enlistment in the army is assur gamur (אסור גמור – completely forbidden), even on a voluntary basis. He warned that it violates the very essence of modesty, gender roles, and Torah order.


Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook zt”l, his son and successor, reaffirmed this position unequivocally, stating that no Torah-observant Jew can support the drafting of women — not in combat and not in support roles. He declared it a spiritual danger to the individual and the nation.



Rabbi Ovadia Yosef zt”l, the leading posek for the Sephardi world and former Chief Rabbi of Israel, wrote with clarity and urgency that the concept of a “religious female soldier” is an oxymoron. He ruled that no true bat Yisrael should ever place herself in such a setting, regardless of intention.


Rabbi Moshe Feinstein zt”l, one of the greatest halakhic authorities in the United States, issued a firm teshuvah (תשובה – halakhic ruling) that any female enlistment in the military — especially in mixed environments — is strictly forbidden due to modesty, exposure to impropriety, and the abandonment of the woman’s sacred role in Am Yisrael (עם ישראל – the Nation of Israel).


These are not isolated voices. They represent the overwhelming consensus of Torah leadership. And yet today, in the name of national identity, we ignore them — and in doing so, we undermine our spiritual foundation.


To be clear, halakhah does recognise the exception when it comes to pikuach nefesh. In communities under threat — such as Jewish families living near hostile borders — women may be permitted, and even required, to arm themselves and receive training in self-defence.


As brought by Rabbeinu Yehuda HaChassid in Sefer Chassidim, and cited by later poskim, there are cases where women may dress in military gear and take arms to protect their lives and others. This is not about redefining roles — it is about surviving an immediate threat. But even then, the requirement to maintain modesty and adhere to the sanctity of one’s role remains absolute.



These are emergency allowances, not ideological reforms. They do not justify systemic military enlistment of women or the normalization of co-ed combat units. To conflate survival with progress is to misread Torah.


And still, we ask why we suffer. Still, we act surprised when the right hand of G-D seems withdrawn.


But G-D does not change. Hu lo yishtaneh (הוא לא ישתנה). It is we who have moved. We who have distanced ourselves. As it says in תהילים (Tehillim), "Ach attah zanachta vatekhalmenu velo tetzeh betzeva’oteinu" (אך אתה זנחת ותכלמנו ולא תצא בצבאותינו) — But You have rejected and disgraced us; You do not go forth with our armies.


What more could be said?


We send our sons and daughters into spiritual exile while living in our own land. We blur the distinctions that the Torah makes clear. We surrender to the morality of the Nations and call it enlightenment. And yet, we dare wonder why Shekhinah (שכינה – Divine Presence) eludes us, why unity escapes us, why peace is nowhere to be found.


When Israel fulfils the will of the Holy One, kesheYisrael osim retzono shel Makom, haShekhinah betokh Yisrael (כשישראל עושים רצונו של מקום, השכינה בתוך ישראל) — the Shekhinah dwells among them. This teaching from the Holy Zohar reveals a painful reality: when Israel is faithful, the upper worlds open. But when we reverse the divine order — mixing holy and profane, male and female, purity and defilement — the heavens close and judgment awakens.



Your insight is a call to teshuvah (תשובה – return). Not to apologise to the world for being different, but to stand firm in our difference, in our truth, in our eternal Torah.


When we return, He returns with us.


As it is written in זכריה (Zekhariah) 1:3:Shuvu elai ne’um Hashem Tzevaot ve’ashuv aleikhem (שובו אלי נאם ה׳ צבאות ואשוב אליכם) — Return to Me, says Hashem of Hosts, and I will return to you.


Return. That is the answer. That is always the answer. Not only with words, but with deeds. Not only in fear, but in love. And not only as individuals, but as a nation.


May we merit to hear the footsteps of redemption, and may we be worthy to welcome it — not as beggars seeking relief, but as children returning home.


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