Yeshiva students in Bnei Brak, studying with coronavirus precautions
Yeshiva students in Bnei Brak, studying with coronavirus precautionsYossi Zeliger/Flash90

Rabbi Yitzhak Koldetzki, the son-in-law of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, called for a gathering of supplications and prayer in order to prevent the further deterioration of those who spend their days in yeshivas, Kikar Hashabbat reported.

Due to closures caused by the coronavirus outbreak, yeshiva students - like other students - have spent only minimal time in their yeshiva settings over the past few months. As a result, parents and educators are struggling in the face of a reality in which the spiritual level of their students has radically declined, in some cases to a "critical level."

Kikar Hashabbat quoted Rabbi Koldetzki as telling a small number of people that "the situation in general is much lighter, and there are less seriously ill [people]."

He added that "unfortunately there are certain young men who do not live in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem, who have not come to yeshiva. We are concerned that young men, a very large number of them, have not returned and have fallen into [idleness], roaming the streets. This is a life-threatening situation, when they do not come to the yeshivas."

"What the [secular] Zionists have not managed to do in 70 years, in these trials we have lost young men. We must pray that they are all healthy," he mourned, calling for special prayers until the beginning of the Hebrew month of Elul.

"The situation is not simple. There are yeshiva students who are falling off the [Torah] path. We need to care about them, so we need to pray."