Explosive 40-year-old letters from Rav Shach and Rav Shteinman just detonated in the draft-law crisis, proving yeshiva deferments were always only for serious, full-time Torah learners.
While everyone’s screaming about the new draft law, someone just dug up explosive, decades-old letters from the two biggest Litvish gedolim of the last century (Rav Shach and Rav Shteinman, zt”l) that basically say:
“Deferments were NEVER a free-for-all. They were ONLY for young men who are 100 % dead-serious, sit-and-learn, Torah-is-their-entire-life bnei Torah. Anyone else? Out. Even if they’re sick and can’t keep the seder - take them off the list. No exceptions.”
Rav Shach in 1980 straight-up wrote to all the roshei yeshiva:
“The whole reason a ben yeshiva gets to stay out of the army is only if Torah is literally his profession and he’s not doing any side hustle, ever. Every gadol signed off on this. Rosh yeshivas better be ruthless - only sign for the real ones. Anyone who doesn’t fit? Don’t you dare put his name down.”
Rav Shteinman in his own handwriting in 1983:
“I will personally only sign a deferment for someone who does nothing but learn. Torah has to be his whole world. Period.”
The message exploding across the Haredi world right now is brutal:
If you’re a real masmid [serious Torah learner], you’re not flying to Uman every other week or crying about not having a driver’s license. The second those things start bothering you, maybe you don’t belong on the deferment list that’s meant for the elite learners protecting Klal Yisrael with their Torah.
In other words: the exact same restrictions people are rioting about today were already the iron-clad rule 40–45 years ago, straight from the mouths of the gedolei hador.
The draft-law fight just got torched by history itself.
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