Rav Meir Zvi Bergman, rosh yeshiva Rashbi in Bnei Brak and senior member of the Moetzes Gedoleio Hatorah of Degel Hatorah, delivered a strong rebuke regarding the conscription of yeshiva students into the Israeli Defense Forces.
Addressing a gathering of roshei yeshiva, Rav Bergman, son-in-law Maran Rav Elazar Menachem Man Shach zt”l, stated, “Everyone knows that even one day that a boy is in the army is truly destruction. The entire war now is a war for the King, for Hakadosh Boruch Hu.
“We must know that it is forbidden to cooperate with them.”
Criticizing Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Rav Bergman remarked, “Then one foolish guy comes and sends out draft orders. We are obligated to sacrifice our lives for this.”
On Thursday, the Israeli Yated featured a letter from Rav Dov Landau, rosh yeshivas Slobodka, urging yeshiva students to ignore draft notices, “or even respond to the initial draft order.”
“We do not have the ability to rely on agreements and understandings with the military’s leaders, since their hands are tied with cables of iron by the judges, and the entire response to the decrees of the echelon is simply to cave to their war against Hashem and His Torah,” wrote Rav Dov.
He further elaborated, “Now the situation is that the echelons have announced war against the Torah world, and they are the ones who opened a front and came to change the order which existed all through the years, and ordered the army to begin a process of actual enlistment of yeshiva students.”
Rav Lando reiterated, “The instruction to the yeshiva students is not to appear at all at the Draft Offices, and not to respond to any sort of call-up.”
Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, rosh yeshivas Slobodka, also denounced the draft, saying, “This is a battle of self-sacrifice. This is not a regular battle. We have been through many religious battles over the past decades, but now this is a battle of self-sacrifice – even if the boys need to go to prison.” He noted, “The entire instruction of Rav [Aharon Leib] Shteinman to appear at the Draft Offices was only when there was discourse with the chareidi community. The moment there is no discourse and every proposal we suggest is rejected, then, from our perspective as well, there is no discourse.”
{Matzav.com Israel}