I was walking down Malchei Yisrael Street yesterday. On one side of the street some female soldiers donning green uniforms entered the Schneller Army Base. On the other side of the street were some Beis Yaakov seminar girls dressed in their the blue-skirt-and-shirt school uniform. I saw two sides of the street and two different uniforms.
I wondered if members of these two groups of young women ever struck up a casual conversation. I imagine that such an occurrence would be very rare. If they did, they would find that the ideological gap that separates them is much wider than the width of Malchei Yisrael Street. Although both girls speak Hebrew, they would find that many words in the lexicon of one of them just don't exist in the lexicon of the other. Even the words that are common for both often carry different meanings and connotations.
This is Israel as we approach Rosh Hashanah 5766.
A Jew's view from the capital of Israel and the future site of the Third Temple, may it speedily be rebuilt.
4 comments:
Cosmic: There are more and more girls going into the IDF that have a common ground and language with the Beis Yaakov girls. While I wouldn't want my daughter doing this, its becoming more & more prevalent.
http://www.lind.org.il/features/hadas_maariv_june05.htm
Shana Tova.
Jameel,
Interesting article.
"Sherut Leumi" and all the more so army service are "muktzim mechamat mi'us" in the Hareidi world. I heard that a Hareidi rabbi once rendered a halachic decision that any woman who served in the IDF has a supposition (chazaka) that she is no longer a virgin (the decision at the time caused a big uproar).
It's interesting that the IDF slang for a female soldier is "chatza'it" (skirt) when so few of them actually wear one.
I have a feeling that if these Beis Yaakov girls saw a woman soldier wearing a skirt, they would not be impressed. Kind of like "toveil vesheretz beyado."
Obviously the Beis Yaakov girls would not be impressed. But, tachlis, the frum girls going to the army (and more and more are going -- well, then again, that *was* prior to the hitnatkut) and they know a heck of alot more about the beis yakov girls, then vice-versa.
If the "hitnatkut" stops this trend of religious girls going to the army then I guess every cloud does have a silver lining.
Post a Comment