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22 Adar II 5763 - March 26, 2003 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Position Statement

Darkness has covered the earth and the yoke of Golus is tightening from without and from within. From without, our enemies stand ready to destroy us physically and from within, a government has been set up by cohorts whose only tie is hatred--the hatred of amei ho'oretz for talmidei chachomim--and whose only aim is to be like all of the nations and to satisfy their urges and desires.

They have whetted their swords to threaten Klal Yisroel with deep-seated hatred which they use to incite the masses, and with plots to uproot every glint of Judaism, to decrease the number of Torah scholars, to alter Bais Yaakov education and to destroy the walls of sanctity in the Jewish home, to impose upon us a situation that will not allow us to exist here, Rachmono litzlan. Woe are we that this has come to be in our days!

Therefore, dear brothers, gird yourselves through earnest reflection in the fundamentals of our traditional emunoh, for which every generation has made great sacrifices, and for the survival of the Nation ever since Yisroel became a people, because our very survival and existence since we became the Chosen People has been the power of the Torah handed down from generation to generation.

We must realize that we did not and do not have any connection to either the Right or the Left; our participation in the respective governments was only to save whatever could be saved from the lion's den. Therefore we must grasp onto the Tree of Life, not relinquishing it even slightly, chas vesholom, and this strength will allow us to face the difficult trials before us.

We will not be impressed when we see the way has been paved for the evil, for we know that the truth will emerge victorious and will come to fruition, based on the promise by Hashem Yisborach that we will not be forgotten.

We hereby call on all of Beis Yisroel to strengthen itself in Torah, fulfilling the mitzvos and doing maasim tovim, to increase tefilloh and tachnunim, particularly in these times, and particularly on Wednesday, Erev Rosh Chodesh Nisan, 5763.

Educators everywhere should rouse the hearts of their talmidim and impress upon them the importance of keeping the Torah and mitzvos, to strengthen pure emunoh in HaKadosh Boruch Hu, in the Torah and in Chazal, to give them the strength to stand firm with mesirus nefesh for a life of Torah and keeping mitzvos and educating the coming generations.

And of those leaders who call themselves religious and observant, yet are allied with the evildoers, it should be said that they have befriended iniquity--"chover le'ish mashchis." This is especially so since they have openly shown they are scheming to destroy Judaism just like the other parties, and venomous hatred drips from their tongues. Our rabbonim fought against them from their inception, for they foresaw the eventual results of their shatnez approach to education that mistakenly endeavored to bring other "values" into Hashem's pure Torah, until they remained with these "values" alone, stripped of Torah and yiras Hashem, and we must distance ourselves from them to the extent possible.

How great is the pain of seeing the chilul Hashem they are causing while they continue speaking as if they want to elevate the Torah and mitzvos! We must not weaken in our declarations against them, for they have no connection to Torah and mitzvos. Leave the Torah to those who faithfully keep and engage in it!

And certainly as we strengthen ourselves in devotion and clinging to the way of Torah and mitzvos, we will merit being among the survivors who will call in the Name of Hashem after the masses have been sieved and refined, and to see the light of the face of the Living King with the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu speedily in our days.

Yosef Sholom Eliashiv
Aharon Yehuda Leib Steinman
Yechiel Michel Feinstein
Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz
Chaim Pinchos Scheinberg
S. Y. Nissim Karelitz
Tzvi Markovitz
Avrohom Yaakov Zalesnik
Chaim Kanievsky
Shmuel Auerbach
Boruch Rosenberg
Gershon Edelstein
Meir Tzvi Bergman
Yehuda Ades
Nissim Toledano

 

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