HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, Rosh Yeshivas Slabodka, spoke about the decision of the Supreme Court on Thursday evening to freeze the funds of some yeshivos beginning on Sunday.
“Everyone knows what happened last week, that they completely revoked our right to to learn Torah in Eretz Yisrael for the time being. We’ll now need to be moser nefesh for Torah. We don’t know exactly how – how much they’ll be makpid on us.”
“Because there are two types of people among those trying to be mevatel our limmud Torah. Some don’t necessarily hate us or religion but they don’t believe and understand that the Torah is what saves them. That the fact that we’re still here in Eretz Yisrael surrounded by enemies is only because there’s Torah in Eretz Yisrael. Only! And if they’re mevateir on Torah – they’re cutting down the trunk that the country stands on. They don’t believe this, rachmana litzlan.”
“And there are other people who are mamash reshaim – they hate us, they hate religion, they hate Torah, they hate bnei Torah. They want to destroy us and we’ll have to stand against them. There will be mesiras nefesh. I hope we won’t reach that but it’s very possible that we’ll have be moser nefesh to stand against them. But now is not the time for details.”
“But one thing is clear, that the first thing we need at a time like this is that we’ll have mesiras nefesh for the Torah itself. That the Torah itself will turn into a korban. If the Torah itself turns into a korban, our limmud will be a korban. What’s the p’shat? Full sedarim without any bitul Torah. Learning Torah with mesirus nefesh. This surely obligates us, to learn Torah like a korban. And this surely could help to eliminate the whole problem – definitely.”
“Hakadosh Baruch Hu will give us the koach of insight – to sit and think a little. What happened here was historic – that for the first time, the State revoked the koach to learn Torah. This is a tragedy! What do we need to do about it? Surely the first thing is strengthening our Torah.”
“If we’ll do that, maybe we’ll have siyata dishmaya. If we bring this korban to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, maybe He’ll have pity on us and we won’t have to bring other korbanos. Hashem should give us the koach to do what He wants from us.”
(YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)
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8 Responses
For several thousand years, Yidden have been able to be learn torah w/o taxpayer subsidies and stipends. I suspect they will be able to get by now as well.
Moshe Hillel Hirsch said:
“Everyone knows what happened last week,
that they completely revoked our right
to learn Torah in Eretz Yisrael for the time being.”
If that statement were factually correct,
then the government of Israel would be arresting
anyone who learned the weekly parashah with Rashi,
which they are not doing.
Don’t understand . Who is not letting us learn? We all saw clips of soldiers close to the front sitting and learning. Everybody is proud of these soldiers.
The Government wants to stop the money, Not the learning.
American yeshivas don’t either get money from the government and we’re learning.
Gadolhadorah
And the Jewish world out there will increase the Kollel money we collect so the medina tzionus doesn’t win an inch…
What Rav Hirsch says isn’t a joke. The situation in Erets Yisroel is serious for frum yidden. It’s time to switch gears. Frum Americans need to realize already that Chilonim (secular Israelis) don’t care about the fate of Judaism. They don’t care about their “thoughts and prayers” during the war. Just the opposite they’re going to use the war as an opportunity to further try to destroy yiddishkeit ח”ו. WAKE UP! This is more serious than any hostage situation you can think of!
The Satmar and Brisker Ravs said that taking money from the Zionists for chinuch gives them merits to survive and thereby delays Moshiach and the Geula.
R Schach warned against fully relying on government subsidies to support learning when Menachem Begin offerred such, warning that subsidies might not be always available. If large numbers of Jews support learning, it can be done without relying on coercive government power to take money from those who do not agree.
I think the Rav is correct.
They will have to be mosser nefesh.
Government is not saying they can’t learn, only that gov’t will no longer pay them a salary to do it.
So from here on, they will have to remain in kollel despite not receiving a government salary to do so.
Government will still be subsidizing them in a million other ways (health care, monthly payouts per child, food subsidies, housing subsidies, tax breaks, etc).
Just no salary.
This will be their “messirus nefesh.”
And if they aren’t willing to learn without getting a monthly payout, then they don’t belong in full-time learning anyway.