And what a great place for Joe Yeshiva. Haredi Yeshivot Implicit in our discussion of yeshivot and the army seems to be an assumption that any Haredi boy who wants to go to a yeshiva is free to do so and can stay there as long as he wants essentially without being held to account, as if it were almost like a refuge from the army. But what concerns me more here is the last question. The experience we have had with our two older boys, as well as what we have heard from friends, suggests otherwise. First of all, it is not easy to get into the yeshivot in the first place.
Space is limited and there is intense competition for every place.
Not only are candidates for the junior yeshivot finishing up 8th grade subjected to oral examinations over what they have learned, but their teachers and principals are asked for appraisals of their character to see whether they meet the standards of the yeshiva. After 3 years of junior yeshiva comes the senior yeshiva, and I assume that the same process applies there as well. And finally, at least in the junior yeshivot, there are indeed graded examinations. No one is claiming that army service is easy. I am the one who gives credit to the soldiers that defend israel while Shaul claims that it is equally hard to learn in a yeshiva.