Thank you for your incredible article on all of the halachic sourcing regarding serving in the IDF. Just two questions that I have: 1: Why is it so certain that these are considered milchemet mitvot, even according to the Rambam cited in Hilchot Melachim, maybe it only applies to when a majority of Am Yisrael is in Eretz Yisrael, or if there is an established halachic entity (such as a melech or sanhedrin) which could therefore establish officially the "presence" of Am Yisrael that is "being threatened". Additionally, according to the logic posed why should we not raise an army in America or Europe to defend our brothers from potential threats? 2. Is there any consideration to be taken into account to the potential for spiritual pitfalls and decline that can happen to a soldier as a result of the current secularist culture that exists in the IDF? Does halacha also permit lowering ones observance for the sake of milchemet mitzvah? thank you

Glad you enjoyed it! 1. There is in fact an opinion (the Ramban) who holds that one needs permission of Sanhedrin to go on an offensive Milchemet Mitzva to conquer Eretz Yisrael (although the Rambam doesn't mention any such condition for any of the 3 types of Milchemet Mitzva). On the other hand, no opinion brings that as a necessity for the type under discussion, a war of self-defense, for the principle of "whoever rises to kill you, kill him first" (Sanhedrin 72a) does not allow for time to start debating the issue (especially when we don't even have a Sanhedrin to hold that theoretical debate), our enemies certainly wouldn't "politely" wait around for those many years until we restart the Sanhedrin)! In wars of self-defense all agree that you can not, should not, and need not hold any kind of deliberation, but the Jewish people can and must get up and defend ourselves asap. Nobody would doubt that a democratically elected body like the State of Israel, officially representing almost 8,000,000 Jews (probably most of world Jewry) is the best (and probably the only) example of a Jewish representative and official decision to go to war in the name of Am Yisrael. It would be absurd to think we should just absorb the attacks, or scatter the entire State and "run for our lives", every time one of our enemies has a whim to attack us. The ingenious Torah of G-d would not command something so illogical and cruel to His beloved children of Israel, and that is precisely the Milchemet Mitzvah of self-defense. Indeed, you are correct that there would be a similar mitzvah to go to war to save Jews in exile, as well, but the problem was always technical. For example, in the Shoah we were too spread out, outnumbered, disorganized, and had no military training. Even in the attempted heroic Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, all knew that we didn't stand a chance of surviving, much less winning. On the other hand, the IDF did go (precisely 50 years ago this week!) to save the 105 hijacked Jews in Entebbe, even though about a third were in fact not Israeli citizens. 2. Thank G-d that, with the founding of the Chashmonai Haredi Brigade, that question is irrelevant, and to deliberate on the topic would just confuse that anachronistic question which has clearly been solved. To the contrary, the necessity is to give the answers clearly as they really are very simple: everyone is obligated in the current Milchemet Mitzvah of Israel.