With Operation Brothers Return is in its 17th day, prominent dati leumi rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Zalman Baruch Melamed commented on Sunday night’s solidarity event to be held in Kikar Rabin. The rav explains it is a time for war, not music.

The singing solidarity event surrounds ongoing efforts to locate and release the three youths held captive by Hamas.

Rabbi Melamed feels that singing is not going to bring the boys home and the time would be better spent protesting outside the Defense Ministry, demanding the government get tougher with Hamas. The rav also calls on government and security agencies not to buckle under left-wing and international pressure and to do whatever it takes to find and release the captives.

The rav is quoted by Arutz-7 saying “[We must] hit Hamas leaders hard, to reduce their rights until they realize their own suffering and respond quickly to return the three boys,” he said. “We must beat Hamas until they beg, ‘take the boys and remove the shadow of death from me,'” he added.

Names for Tehillim:

1. Yaakov Naftali ben Rachel Devorah

2. Gilad Michael ben Bat Galim

3. Eyal ben Iris Teshurah

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)