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IDF and the Orthodox

There he stood before me, a solder with a kippa on the morning train. I was sitting in a side seat facing not front or back but across the width of the train. These are solo seats near the baggage racks. I sit there sometimes to get a little solitude and to be free of blank faces staring at their smart phones and the gentile clothing. But this solder decided rather than taking a seat in the cars to stand in front of me and, what was he doing? Was he putting on his tefillin?

That's what I thought at first. He did seem to be carrying a tefillin bag. But he worked on his tefillin shel yad for what seemed like 10 minutes. What a strange custom I thought. I watched a little more closely as he went to work on his left arm. What is he doing?

Then I realized, he's folding his shirt sleeve, folding it perfectly, into little 2 inch folds. I recalled the Italian men I saw in my youth in New York. He turned a bit and then like a flash it hit me. His arms were muscular and even the veins were protruding, the sign of a weight lifter or maybe a solder who does a lot of pushups.

He was proud of his muscles, hence his desire to show them off and work for 15 minutes on sleeve folding.

Eventually he took hold of the tefillin which he installed rapidly except for the slower wrapping around his muscles. I have seen all kinds of bitul zman in my time but this took the cake.

I couldn't help but notice the irony that the tefillin shel yad and their straps which symbolize the submission of our physical powers to Divine service sitting upon the big muscles upon which this young Orthodox solder evidentially took such pride.

I may seem to be criticizing him but I have pity on him, being a shomer shabbos. His face was one of confusion, to go along with the hardness and arrogance that I so often see on the faces of solders. On most of them, I don't see the confusion. The confusion here was to this poor boy's credit.

How many tyrants he must have in his life: the military commanders and their macho tryanny, religious zionist rabbis and their oppressive foolishness. And the product is a very confused boy, trying to be too many things, serving two gods and the false one winning out for the most part.

IDF and the Orthodox. The more I see this attempted, the more I believe that the two don't mix very well.

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