Monkeys and Charedi Purity

(In the picture above, I am bonding with an usually tame monkey, a rescued animal that I encountered at a sanctuary in Africa. It has absolutely nothing to do with this post. Except that it features a monkey.)

My difficult decision of whether to write about exotic animals or charedi army enlistment has now been solved, thanks to the latest development which involves both.

The former exemption from army service was for those for whom “Torasam U’mnasam” - Torah is their (economically unproductive) ...