Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisrael to Travel to U.S.

YERUSHALAYIM

Seek to Rally Klal Yisrael on Draft Law

In a historic decision, the members of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisrael have decided to travel to the United States to arouse Torah-true Jewry in light of the draft law that threatens yeshivah students and young married men in kollel.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Moetzes, which convened at the headquarters of World Agudas Yisrael in Yerushalayim on Monday to address the draft law.

The members of the Moetzes also signed a joint kol korei along with the members of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah in light of the intention to uproot Torah scholars from the beis medrash. They once again appealed to the government not to allow this to happen, and to prevent the tremendous bitul Torah, which brings about the opposite of Divine chessed and rachamim, which Klal Yisrael so desperately needs at this time.

The Moetzes meeting, the kol korei and the decision to travel abroad are all an effort to rally Torah-true Jewry in the Diaspora to stand beside their chareidi brothers in Eretz Yisrael, who are experiencing an assault on religious issues in general, and the draft law that threatens yeshivah students and kollel avreichim in particular.

The details of the trip will be publicized in the near future, and preparations have begun in the various communities that are waiting for the arrival of the Gedolim.

The joint kol korei begins with a description of the draft decree that threatens yeshivah bachurim and kollel avreichim “whose toil in Torah is their trade,” the intention of which is to “uproot them, chalilah, from the beis medrash.” The kol korei declares that “there is no right to uproot them from their place, and thus, to violate our right of existence in our Holy Land.”

The Gedolim note that there is “certainly no right to draft them and coerce them into the army framework, in which their very presence is a spiritual danger, Hashem Yerachem, and which is the opposite of the pure chinuch they received and their toil to live lives of emunah.” They emphasize that “We are carrying out the mission of those before us, to protect the lomdei Torah, and we vigorously object to the plan to force one who is Toraso umnaso to leave the beis medrash.”

The Gedolim also convey their distress that “a small part of Am Yisrael have reached a low level that was not present in earlier generations, where Jews persecute Jews in Eretz Yisrael for their desire to learn Torah and devote themselves to Torah,” and note that they are “once again calling on the government: al tarei’u, don’t allow the persecutors of religion to realize their intentions.”

The kol korei concludes with a call to the yeshivah students and kollel avreichim themselves, to whom Gedolei Yisrael lovingly say, “Be mekadesh Shem Shamayim — fortunate are you that you were caught for divrei Torah. Stand strong and with strength and devotion, and do not submit even one bit to those who seek to separate you from the source of your life.” They express their hope and offer a brachah that the law will be suspended and that “Torah magna umatzlah — protects and saves, and that Hashem will not abandon His Nation and His Land.”

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