Rabbi Dov Lando, head of the Slabodka Yeshiva and a leader of the Lithuanian-haredi community, sent a message to other yeshiva deans to emphasize the importance of Torah learning in protecting the Jewish nation.

In a letter sent to the other deans and quoted in Yated Ne'eman, Rabbi Lando stressed, "Only because of the Torah learning have the Arabs not united to destroy its inhabitants, G-d forbid."

"Those who wish to diminish Torah are endangering all of Israel," he warned.

He quoted, "'And let the land not vomit you out for having defiled it (Leviticus 18:28)' - how does the Land of Israel not vomit out its inhabitants for all of the terrible things that have been happening here for so many years? This special medicine is that of Torah learning, and this is the medicine that they wish to lose."

Earlier this year, Yated Ne'eman published a letter from Rabbi Lando calling for yeshiva students not to appear for call-up, "or even respond to the initial draft order."

"We do not have the ability to rely on agreements and understandings with the military's leaders, since their hands are tied with cables of iron by the judges, and the entire response to the decrees of the echelon is simply to cave to their war against Hashem and His Torah," Rabbi Lando wrote in the letter.

"Now the situation is that the echelons have announced war against the Torah world, and they are the ones who opened a front and came to change the order which existed all through the years, and ordered the army to begin a process of actual enlistment of yeshiva students."