Haredi community leader Rabbi Dov Lando declared this evening (Sunday) in his speech at the Ponovezh Yeshiva that yeshiva students will not join the army in any situation - whether there is a conscription law or not.
"Yeshiva students will not go to the army under any circumstances, neither by coercion nor voluntarily, whether there is a law or not," he said.
In his remarks he referred to the yeshiva where he studied in his youth. "I am here in this place, moved and excited by the place where I spent my youth," he said, adding that the yeshiva has become "the birthplce of many Torah scholars."
Addressing the judiciary, the rabbi said, "The judicial authorities continue in their wickedness, we, believers, believe that God will burden their hearts." He added, "Even when the Holy One, blessed be He, assigns a burden through the obligated, the fate of the wicked is to be held to account."
The rabbi called on the yeshiva world to continue Torah study without compromise: "All these difficulties will not hinder our Torah study; on the contrary, we will increase Torah study, increase Torah learners, increase houses of study," he said.
The rabbi clarified his position emphatically. "We will not pay attention to their decrees, we will ignore them, and they and their decrees will vanish like a passing wind and like a fleeting dream," he said.
He concluded, "It is the authorities' role to regulate this and not to make it difficult, and if they insist, comfort and salvation will come to the Jews from another place."
The remarks come against the backdrop of the Supreme Court ruling to deepen cuts to welfare budgets for haredi families in which the father is liable for conscription.