In the wake of the anti-Chareidi decrees that Finance Minister Avigdor Leiberman has begun to implement, a Kol Koreih by the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Degel HaTorah was published in the Yated Neman on Friday morning.
“Those who are far from Torah and mitzvos are acting brazenly and wish to uproot and abolish everything that is holy and dear to Yisrael and to chas v’chalilah harm the purity of Yisrael – to revoke limmud Torah, shemiras Shabbos, chinuch, and geyrus k’halacha,” the letter states. “There is grave danger to the fulfillment of the foundations of the Torah HaKedosha in Eretz HaKodesh.”
“They are already declaring their intention to negatively impact avreichim, those who toil in Torah, more precious than gold, whose righteous wives are moiser nefesh that their homes will be homes of Torah. They want to stop them through their decrees to eliminate the budget for their children and cause them to leave the ohel of Torah. They will not accomplish anything because the Torah HaKedosha is ‘our life and the length of our days and we’ll toil in it day and night.'”
“Woe to us that this has come to this in our days, how much we must feel tza’ar for the chillul of Hashem Yisbarach. We are obligated to greatly strengthen ourselves in hasmadas limmud HaTorah and bein adam l’chaveiro. And we must pour out our hearts in tefillah…”
“We are turning to you and warning to all who have yiras Shamayim that no one should cooperate with members of the government, and kal v’chomer should not accept a government appointment for positions such as advisors or others. And even local authorities and heads of institutions who are required to communicate with the government should do so only after consulting and asking a shaila of a chacham…no one should draw a conclusion from other incidents or from a similar shaila but should ask a shaila each time.”
“Vayahi ratzon that we’ll be zocheh to see the yeshuas Hashem on His nation, b’bias Moshiach Tzidkeinu.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
Rambam says someone who says he won’t work, rather he will take tzedakah, is a חילול השם. Taking government benefits with the intent not work, is a grave חילול השם.
This meeting somehow totally forgot about the single most important & useful agenda:- In all future elections, you & all your followers go & vote for religious parties, and increase Chreidi representation in Knesset:- So simple! So obvious!
deracheha – should all the kollel people leave the beis medrash now? is that what rambam meant? whose side are you on?!
not trying to make machlokes in 9 days but to stand up for the kovod of our Torah
we don’t pasken like rambam
why are you waiting to moderate my earlier comment? anti torah comments go right through and a pro torah one has to be thought about?
Deracheha, the subsidies for learning Torah are not tzedakah. They are given for this purpose, and the Rambam has no objection to a talmid chacham relying on them. On the contrary, he rules explicitly that anyone who devotes himself to full-time Torah study has the status of a Levi and is entitled to collect maaser.
Reb moshe says anyone who qoutes that rambam to advocate working instead of learning is atzas hatzer.
correction: atzas heyetzer