Rabbi Dov Lando, the head of the Slabodka Yeshiva and a leading Lithuanian-haredi rabbi, spoke Sunday evening at an event welcoming the the yeshiva students who were recently arrested for draft evasion and later released.
At the Sunday evening event, Rabbi Lando said, "Happy are you who were captured for words of Torah. We are very concerned about this, and we are worried mostly about the difficult effects which may be caused if the arrests of yeshiva students continue. And therefore we are working hard, through the representatives and in other ways, so that they will not, G-d forbid, disrupt the yeshiva students' study, without exceptions."
"Those who were captured for Torah study - we are filled with appreciation your firm stance, against all the temptations on the one hand, and the difficulties on the other, and we express our appreciation for your declaration that, 'Many waters will not be able to extinguish the love that we have for the Torah.'"
Rabbi Lando also recalled the arrest of Rabbi Amram Blau, saying, "When Rabbi Amram Blau was put in prison, the Chazon Ish came to visit him, and the Chazon Ish said then that it is not Reb Amram who is in jail, but Shabbat itself is in jail! When a yeshiva student is put in prison only because he wishes to learn Torah, it is not he who is in prison - the Torah itself is in prison, G-d save us."
Concluding his statements, Rabbi Lando slammed, "Let everyone who is a partner to this crime of placing the holy Torah, the Torah of G-d, behind bars, know: You are not fighting with flesh and blood, you are fighting with the Torah and the Holy One Who gave it, G-d save us. To our great dismay, we are in exile among Jews, and we all pray that G-d will aid us quickly and redeem us from this exile we are in, and we will learn Torah quietly and safely."