The head of the Birkat Ephraim Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, Rabbi Bezalel Pinhasi, delivered a speech of guidance to hundreds of yeshiva students last week before the "Million Assembly" - and declared: "On the other side, they are today in a state of almost helplessness. The world of Torah today has the upper hand.".
The full speech:
""We've said a few things that are well-known, which the campaign certainly knows about. But apparently not everyone knows what the point of the rally that is supposed to be held tomorrow, with God's help. It's possible that a guy can see things superficially - what if we all gathered together, maybe we could each pray from our yeshiva, have a day of prayer, and then there wouldn't be a cancellation of the Torah?! What does a rally give when we gather together, and even though there's no step here, we don't call it a demonstration, but rather hold a prayer rally - what does it give when we just pray together in a concentrated manner, to the point that the 'big guys' are talking about you considering canceling the yeshiva world for a rally, it could cancel it.
Although we do it between two and three thirty, people all understand and know that walking back and forth is a big hassle. What's the big deal about prayer? It's possible that if we prayed and studied here with a fasting speech, it would have no less impact in heaven.
I want you to know the depth of things. I don't know if I can tell you all the depth of things, but at least the surface of things. The truth is that they, on the other side, are today in a state of almost helplessness. The world of Torah today has the upper hand. They are helpless.
When they started, they considered the yeshiva community to be something that could be broken down, like a whole tower of boxes and boxes, if you take two or three boxes out from the bottom - everything collapses. They were sure that the yeshiva world is a tower of boxes, as long as they have space and budgets - they hold on. Won't they listen to us? We'll take the budget away from them. As if the Torah world is standing on their money, and everything will collapse, everything will crumble. Even those who were strong won't stand for it.
They never dreamed for a moment that the yeshiva world, led by the great men of the generation, was so powerful that it could hold the yeshiva world together. This is not a small amount of money, it is millions of dollars a year. They did not believe that there was such a strong backing, that in the Haredi community there was this principle that a yeshiva student is a yeshiva student whose Torah is his art, and that cannot be shaken.
I was abroad last year and met with those who were among the founders of the 'World Torah Foundation', and they told me: 'You know, not only do we do this with joy, with no small donations, but we are even the initiators, we have the idea, we will sustain the world of yeshiva.' And truly, tremendous power is revealed here. And to this day it continues, even though it has been more than a year, which is what they initially thought.
None of them dreamed that the yeshiva world could last even a few months. But they saw that it was not, it was strong, even if there were an opposing part or a part of the Haredi public offering some compromises, this tower would crumble. They saw that there was strength and power, all as one man with one heart, God is the God. The Torah is our life.
They went a step further, preventing the avrechim from being tortured, harming the private pocket, not the general pocket of the yeshiva. Now, the National Insurance, they are constantly looking for a way to drop those weak links, so that everything will crumble. And they see that there is no such thing. There is not even a percentage of yeshiva members who have a thought of doubt about it. They did not believe that this was the reality.
Let's look at another point. There were even those within the Haredi community who believed that the Sephardim were weak and would be afraid, that not showing up was criminal. They thought that the young men were not strong, their parents were not strong. And we said, you don't know the world of Sephardi yeshiva. Today, the Sephardi yeshiva young men are strong, they obey what they are told, none of them will fall.
But they read the map according to what their collaborators said, that the Spaniards are a weak public - and they see that this is not the case.
We said last year, also in public, today the Sephardic Torah Jews, they understand the matter, they are built strong. There is no such side that a guy would fall for the army. Thank God, it is proving itself. They have started another step, now they are arresting, specifically our public, specifically the periphery, these weak houses, they are doing this because they thought that the moment it collapses, the whole tower will collapse. They are really shocked to see the results.
It is God's blessing that they see that the community of Torah scholars is as one man with one heart, like the time of the giving of the Torah. Not even a percentage left. The percentage that did leave is a percentage of workers who were supposedly registered as students. They understood that they have no chance. The yeshiva world is strong. Even if they hit him in his private, general pocket, he is strong, he has a strong back.
Yesterday I saw on Yated that the same person who has this idea of recruiting yeshiva graduates, in this party called 'Ain Atid', said, "We will go to the next elections and make a law that whoever does not enlist does not have the right to vote." After that, the one from the Russians' party also said the same thing.
When I heard that, I was happy. I was happy that's what they're saying. Because if they use it, it means they don't have any more bombs in the drawer - and it certainly won't work. Why won't it work? Because there's no such thing in a democratic country as taking away the right to vote from a certain sector, because they didn't enlist. There used to be such a thing, and even the Gentile nations, which supposedly walk in democracy, if a certain country doesn't give the right to vote, all the countries that are democratic will stop economic relations with them. They can't do that here.
And if he, who is a politician, said this, he thinks we are small, he thinks we are cowards, we are politically connected. That our Knesset members will supposedly be afraid of this thing. On the contrary, it shows that we are strong and they no longer have weapons. What can they do with us? They took away the National Insurance, they took away the dormitories. Take it, take it.
The rally creates a global reality that the yeshiva world is united, in all its shades, Hasidim, Lithuanians, Sephardim, and also the Badatz, which usually had differences of opinion. All of them are one man, one heart, the Torah is our life, it is the bird of the soul of the Jewish people, it is not a political question, it is not an economic question, it will not fall into either the economy or anything else, not even arrests.
A few people stopped, actually from the edge of the camp, so to speak, and the whole world is now crying out, "Would you not be here? How do we make this shofar, so that they know that we are truly all one.".
We need to walk together, to show that we are all crying out with one heart, the Lord God, and not only that the Lord is the Lord, but also that the great men of the generation, who are the Moses of the generation, all of us after them, said not to show up - not to show up. They did not dream this. They did not dream that such a thing could happen. Therefore, this is the sanctification of the Lord. This is the sanctification of the Lord, that everyone comes together, and there are no differences of opinion, no for and against, that everyone shows this thing, it shows the power of unity. This is a shofar, that the whole world will see this.
It also strengthens the generous outside the country. And I tell you that the great men of the generation have other plans, in which the whole world must see that the world of yeshiva is strong, that it cannot be touched, at any cost. So certainly everyone who is included in the world of yeshiva must run first to this, in order to be part of the sanctification of God.
In the end, it is certain that the Torah world will win because nothing will take us away from learning. So whoever truly runs to sanctify God and connect with this group truly has the right. It is a right for him, a right for his children to be Torah learners. It is a tremendous right, more than the right that Torah keepers have.
I tell you, dear young men, God bless you, we are stronger today than we were a few months ago. A few months ago I said publicly that the Sephardic community is strong. It's not like it was when we were in the camps. Today we see that. There is a faction, the so-called Jerusalem faction, which said that they will take the quota from the Sephardim. They will not take any quota from any Sephardim. The Sephardim, God bless you, are strong. They are well-built, they are disciplined. There is nothing to fear.".
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