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
