At the urgent request of Torah leadership, roshei yeshiva in all Torah centers and yeshivos are arousing their students to increase intensive toil in study and diligent application through uninterrupted extended study sessions, as well as to augment prayers and increased commitment made individually. It is hoped this will fend off the sword-threat menacing all yeshivos and Torah centers in these critically decisive days, when voting is taking place in the committee dealing with the law to establish the status of bnei yeshiva. Certainly it is the perseverance of Torah study without interference which is imperative to the very survival of the Jewish people.
The roshei yeshiva repeatedly clarify the message conveyed by the elders of the generation that there will be absolutely no compromise on this issue and not a single student shall [be made to] forsake his Torah study. This battle is waged for the Torah itself and it is a battle to the finish. They noted how important it is during these frenzied days when people without a single inkling of the sanctity of Torah and of its students, or of the value of Torah study, and who themselves never tasted the sweet flavor of toil in Torah, set themselves up to decide the fate of our blessed bnei Torah. Many have an explicit objective to blight ongoing Torah study as it has been maintained throughout all our generations, and surely since the establishment of the State. In the light of this state of affairs, there is a heavy responsibility upon every individual avreich and yeshiva student to reinforce themselves, since our future and the future of the coming generations hang in the balance; they must rend the heavenly gates with prayer and strengthen themselves in toil of Torah.
HaRav Gershon Edelstein, rosh yeshiva of Ponovezh yeshiva, said: "Decrees have been issued against us with the aim of abolishing Torah from our midst, of actually uprooting it. But Torah is eternal and not dependent upon any factor or government. Rather, it is dependent upon us, bnei Torah, upon our buttressing ourselves and sacrificing ourselves for Torah, studying it with all our might. If we do, all those decrees will automatically be nullified. We must immerse ourselves in Torah, totally, without interference or diversion. Our natural curiosity should be focused only on Torah-related things and not on anything else.
Meanwhile the Knesset committee headed by MK Ayelet Shaked, has been preparing the bill regarding the draft for its second and third reading. On Monday, the voting on the various paragraphs was already in full swing and will continue up to and including next week.
Among the paragraphs already approved on Monday was that of reducing mandatory army service for all men by four months, from 36 months (three years) as it has been from the beginning of Statehood, to 32 months. It is ironic that the same bill which seeks to expand army service to yeshiva students is cutting it for everyone else.
Prime Minister Netanyahu made the following statement in a meeting of the coalition partners of Halikud Beiteinu this past Monday, with relation to the discussions of the Shaked Committee which has, as stated, begun the preparatory discussions for the proposed bill: "We will not have a situation where [yeshiva students] will sit in jail over this issue of Torah study."
Deputy Foreign Minister, MK Zev Elkin, who served as Coalition Chairman in the past Knesset session, expressed determined opposition to the suggestion of imposing civil sanctions upon yeshiva students who refuse to be drafted on grounds of their desire to pursue their Torah studies. He mentioned that the Likud was also opposed to this in the previous Knesset and this was cause for new elections. He also expressed the hope that the party stick to the stand which Likud has embraced up to the present and declare its opposition to the idea of imposing civil sanctions.
