The heart of G-d-fearing Jews is soured and sore in light of the intentions to issue draft decrees against yeshiva students and kollel avreichim, who toil in Torah and for whom Torah is their only occupation, in order to uproot them from the beis medrash. The [only] place for these Torah students is in the tent of Torah, and no one has any right to uproot them from their place and thus to veritably strike at the very core of our existence. They [government authorities] surely have no mandate to draft them and force upon them the milieu of the army, where just being there constitutes a grave spiritual danger, Hashem yeracheim, and it is the opposite of their pure upbringing and their purpose in life.
We, as loyal agents of earlier generations to preserve and guard these Bnei Torah, hereby vehemently protest the scheme to force people whose entire life occupation is the study of Torah, to leave the halls of the botei medrash and adapt themselves to the various agendas which will surely transform and undermine the very character of those who are subservient to the word of Hashem. They aim to do this using economic or criminal punishments with the purpose of wrenching them away from Torah study and causing Torah to be stopped from Jewry chas vesholom.
Woe unto us that a fragment of our people have fallen to such lowly levels, to a degree not witnessed in previous generations, that Jews pursue and hound their fellow Jews in our Holy Land precisely because of nothing more than their desire to study Torah and sacrifice themselves for its sake, and they seek to sever them from it by establishing decrees of army service. If this is carried out as they plan, it will cause a tremendous chillul Hashem and stamp a stain of shame and accusation upon our whole nation, from whose midst its own demolishers and destroyers rise up.
We hereby repeat our appeal to the heads of the government: Stay your hands! Don't allow the persecutors of religion to carry out their intentions!
We lovingly address the students and kollel avreichim of our holy yeshivos whose occupation in life is Torah: Sanctify the Name of Heaven. Fortunate are you for having been caught for the sake of Torah. Stand steadfastly, courageously and firmly on guard and do not submit in any iota to those who seek to wrest you from the source of your vitality. The Eternal One of Israel will not deceive [or disappoint], and in the merit of your Torah and the prayers of the public which accompany you, you will surely merit redemption and salvation, and exceeding Heavenly compassion.
We are confident that all decrees commonly are nullified and that Torah will protect and save, and that Hashem will not forsake His people and not abandon His portion. We plead to the Creator to have mercy upon us and send us salvation and compassion very speedily, and that we merit to reveal the glory of Hashem and the raising of the banner of Torah and yirah, and the coming of our Redeemer, speedily and in our days. Amen.
