Throughout the ages, the enemies of Klal Yisroel from without and oppressors from within have attempted to coerce us into following their practices and ways, whether by adapting to a gentile lifestyle or embracing the accursed Haskala philosophy. They have tried to misinterpret our Torah and to impose their laws and mores into the structure of pure Torah. Only through our leaders' adamant staying power and determination, and their fortifying the walls of Torah with a deep sense of responsibility for the future in preserving the ancient, generations-old tradition, and the guidance and direction of our Torah leadership — were our people able to survive the difficult times. They have even succeeding in entrenching themselves ever deeper in Torah, expanding the borders of kedusha everywhere, especially in Eretz Yisroel, following the devastation of the Torah and yeshiva world during the Holocaust, when our people were threatened with genocide and total eradication. Their survival was only due to their unyielding, uncompromising stand to pursue the path of our fathers and masters, generation after generation, in the face all of our persecutors.
This was the essence of the poignant message that stirred up the Torah leaders and the roshei yeshiva who gathered to hear a series of chizuk talks delivered over Pesach on current matters with special focus on the threat from our secular enemies from within who seek these days to constrict and harm the Torah world.
And just as in every generation we are threatened, and yet Hakodosh Baruch Hu rescues us from their hands, so too today, but only through intensifying Torah study and subservience to the directives of our rabbonim will we be able to stand up to all those who seek to harm us.
The various roshei yeshivos who delivered the talks mentioned the words of HaRav Shteinman who dwelled on the attempts and decrees to diminish the Torah world, primarily through the terrible threat of army service, "The decree of mobilization is tantamount to a denial of our very faith! We must fight for our lives against all of these dangerous schemes seeking to uproot Torah and its toilers." They embellished upon this message with further quotes in which he emphasized, "We must not give in, even with regard to a single Torah student."
