After reports claimed he allowed breaking Shabbat to dodge enlistment, Rabbi Zilberstein clarified his words were hypothetical and reaffirmed support for haredi enlistment under proper rabbinic guidance.
Rabbi Yitzhak Zilberstein, a senior Lithuanian-haredi authority and member of the Council of Torah Sages, has forcefully rejected claims that he issued a halachic ruling permitting Shabbat desecration to avoid Israel Defense Forces service.
Speaking during a Torah class, Rabbi Zilberstein said the reports misrepresented his words entirely: “Whoever publicized that does not know his right hand from his left hand. It’s all a tale.”
He clarified that his comments referred to a purely hypothetical scenario: if a government were to ban Torah study, Jews could even travel on Shabbat to escape such persecution. “But where is that happening here in the Land of Israel? Of course not! Authorities do not prevent Torah study. Even in the army, if one wants to study Torah, who will oppose it? G-d forbid!”
One attendee mentioned his son had desecrated Shabbat because he believed Rabbi Zilberstein had permitted it. The rabbi dismissed this outright: “Maybe he dreamed a dream! I did not say that.”
On the issue of enlistment, Rabbi Zilberstein stressed that young men not committed to full-time Torah study should follow the path outlined by the late Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, who supported service in the Netzach Yehuda battalion. This IDF unit was created specifically for haredi soldiers who wish to combine military service with Torah learning.
The clarification underscores both the sensitivity surrounding military conscription in the haredi community and the rabbi’s emphasis on truth in halachic rulings.
