This week’s Torah Tidbits* may have set the cat among the pigeons in the debate about exemptions from army service for yeshiva students, with a short piece entitled as above.

After pointing out that Moses was “the greatest Torah teacher of all time” it goes on to say:

He had many students in that generation, but probably the greatest was Yehoshua Bin Nun.

Later it says:

And whom did Moshe “draft” to lead the battle against Amalek? Who did not receive an exemption from the draft because of his Torah studies? Yehoshua and Yehoshua.

I am sure there are many excuses for not applying this standard. But that is all they are.

[*Torah Tidbits is an excellent, weekly bulletin produced by Phil Chernofsky for the Orthodox Union of Israel. See here.]