Arutz Sheva spoke to rabbis and students at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, which has embarked on a unique mass mobilization crowdfunding campaign, to grow and expand both physically and spiritually, enabling it to accommodate the burgeoning growth of its student body.
Rabbi Yehoshua Magnes explained that the mission of the Merkaz HaRav is to implement the teaching of Israel's first Chief Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, to imbue the physical rebuilding of the Land of Israel with a soul via the Torah learning undertaken for that purpose within the yeshiva's walls.
"This dedication that Rav Kook meant is what we live every day of the year. Now has come the time that baruch Hashem the yeshiva is becoming larger and larger, and we need more and more room, and we're calling on everyone who believes in Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael and the Torah of Israel to come together with us, help us to make the yeshiva broader, higher, greater - ensuring that we have room for more and more boys who want to come here. They're streaming to come here with fire in their eyes."
Rabbi Magnes continued: "The mission of Merkaz HaRav has always been studying Torah to become great Torah scholars at the highest level, but the idea behind it is that we don't study only for ourselves; the Torah we study here is the Torah of the Jewish People, and it's helping the Nation of Israel be built up in the Land of Israel."
Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva, constitutes the main source of strength for the religious Zionist world. Many yeshiva graduates hold important rabbinic positions in Israel and the Diaspora, and others hold key positions in the State of Israel.
Yeshiva student Rafael from Los Angeles, California says he was on a break in Israel from his university study in L.A., when he met a Merkaz HaRav alumnus who described yeshiva life and invited Rafael to sample the atmosphere there. He decided to stay, "and look at this place; look at what we have going on now," he says while motioning to the room filled with yeshiva campaigners dedicating the day to the expansion project. "We're trying to raise a lot of money to help the yeshiva grow, help the alumni - there are a lot of married people here who give up so much of their lives, and their wives and the children all giving up so they can sit and learn Torah in Eretz Yisrael, and supporting the Zionist cause, and growing in Torah as much as we possibly do on earth."
To contribute to this lofty and noble cause click here and be a part of the soul that animates the physical and spiritual rebuilding of the Land.