Under the headline “Israel Nearing Elections,” the main article on the front page of the Yated Ne’eman newspaper in Israel on Thursday morning detailed the instructions of HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau and HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch to act to dissolve the Knesset due to “the attempt to turn lomdei Torah into criminals.”
The article states: “The representatives of Maranan and Rabbanan were surprised to discover the list of sanctions that Yuli Edelstein sought to introduce in the conscription law, which could harm many households of lomdei Torah by thousands of shekels per month and, at times, tens of thousands of shekels per year!”
“HaRav Landau and HaRav Hirsch instructed the Knesset members: ‘A government that intends to treat the Torah and those who learn it in such a humiliating manner is a bizayon to the Torah and has no right to exist. It it is forbidden to be partners in it. It must be overthrown, and we must go to elections.’”
A special editorial, which appears under the main headline, states, “The draconian sanctions of the ‘portiz,’ which are intended not only to bring about the conscription of lomdei Torah but also intended to humiliate, are not only ‘ineffective politics’ that will not achieve their goal— the conscription of lomdei Torah—but are the essence of evil and malice.”
“If the law that the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is plotting passes, chalilah, and the list of sanctions that have been exposed is part of the legislation, it will be an outrageous absurdity: an [Israeli] Arab who raises his son for terror and violence will be entitled to receive all these benefits from the State of Israel. A prisoner who is in jail for a serious crime will also not be harmed. But a ben yeshivah whose only sin is his desire to continue studying Torah will pay the full price and the draconian sanctions will severely harm him and his family, even if and when they supposedly meet the target goals.”
“And what next? According to Edelstein, after the severe and malicious violation of basic civil rights that are granted even to foreign workers, they will continue to remove garbage from the residential neighborhoods of lomdei Torah. At least for the time being!”
“A country whose laws so severely harm lomdei Torah for their learning and does not recognize the value of limud Torah, this is ‘אם בחוקותי תמאסו ואת משפטי תגאל נפשכם. This is a country that has raised a flag of public Chillul Hashem in the eyes of the entire world.”
It was also reported on Sunday that HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef, one of the heads of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah of Shas, instructed the chairman of the party’s negotiating team, former minister Ariel Attias, to inform Prime Minister Netanyahu that the conditions set by Edelstein for advancing the draft law mean “the end of the government’s term.”
In addition, HaRav Yosef instructed Attias to maintain an open channel with all parties in the Knesset for possible cooperation after the elections.
“The main mission in the Knesset is to strengthen and maintain lomdei Torah, without whom we have no right to exist; therefore, we must act in every way with anyone who is willing to assist in the matter, and there is no connection here to the right or any other stream,” HaRav Yosef stated.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
