Question
Hello
I have seen an answer to a person who asked wether there is a Chiyuv to serve in the IDF.
Your answer was : The obligation to serve in the IDF is based on the commandment to fight a war of self-defense.
Furthermore:
One should work to overcome one’s negative emotions.
I do not understand this answer. In fact I think it is wrong.
First of all - it is directly against the Jewish religion to overcome negative emotions. In fact - the Jewish religion directly states that it is the obligation of a person to use both the negative and positive emotions for the purpose of serving God.
For instance - one might have negative emotions towards serving in the IDF - because one does not want to kill others (a more important Mitzvah of not spilling blood given even to Beni Noach) and also not getting killed by himself (as you know, Jews are required to save themselves from harm).
In particular - if a Jewish person has negative emotions towards doing a Mitzvah - it is his Rabbis fault and not his own! It is very important to remember that.
Anyway - a person like that (the one who asked the question) might even tend to go to the Talmud, be a Talmid Chacham and find solutions for our problems which do not involve killing other people. Instead of going there and justifying brutality (which is very easy)
Yours Truly
Shlomo
p.s Would love to hear your comment!
Answer
One's obligation to fulfill the mitzvoth of the torah is not dependent our emotions. It is obvious though that one's emotions will have effect on his motivation. However, part of our torah education is adapting ourselves to do Hashem's will and to realize that the source of all morality comes from the torah and it ascends way above human morality
