At the powerful protest outside Prison 10 last night, Ateres Shlomo Rosh Yeshiva Rav Chaim Feinstein delivered a thunderous address, declaring that the Torah world would never surrender to the government’s draft decrees, even at great personal cost. The rally followed the arrest of Ariel Shamai, a bochur from Yeshivas Ateres Shlomo and a close talmid of the Rosh Yeshiva.
Standing before thousands of students gathered at the gates, Rav Feinstein called out emotionally, “Ariel, you tasted the sweetness of Torah — that’s why the yetzer hara is chasing you! It’s hard for him to see someone like you immersed in Torah. What do you think, that we’re afraid of you? You commanders, you judges of the High Court — you think we fear you? You’re mistaken! We will not bow, we will learn Torah with mesirus nefesh!”
Before the opening shiur by Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, Rav Feinstein’s passionate speech electrified the crowd. “Ariel, wherever you are, we’re with you! All of Ateres Shlomo stands behind you — the roshei yeshiva, avreichim, bochurim, thousands of bnei Torah! Hashem is with you! Learn Torah like Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in the cave. Laugh at the yetzer hara and tell him, ‘I’m not afraid of you!’”
He told the assembled students that they are the heart of Klal Yisroel: “You who toil in Gemara, Rashi, Tosafos, and Rabbi Akiva Eiger — you are the heartbeat of the nation! The entire existence of Eretz Yisroel, every soldier and officer, depends on your Torah!”
Rav Feinstein reminded them that Torah study has survived all persecutions: “We learned Torah under the Romans, under the Greeks, in Babylon, in the Holocaust camps, in exile and suffering — and we’ll continue to learn in any situation. What do you think — that we’re afraid of you? We’re not! We’ll keep learning no matter the cost!”
Citing the Gemara in Maseches Sotah, he thundered, “‘Do not let your heart tremble at the sound of horses and swords,’ because ‘Hashem your G-d goes with you!’ They come with human power, but we come with the strength of Heaven! Eleh varechev ve’eleh basusim va’anachnu b’shem Hashem Elokeinu nazkir!”
He concluded with a message of unwavering faith and strength: “We are not afraid of prison, not afraid of financial decrees, and not afraid of anything worse. You started a battle you can’t win — because we hold the Torah of Moshe and we cling to the Ribbono Shel Olam! Ariel, we’re waiting for you! Write twenty kashyos while you’re there — and when you return to the beis medrash, we’ll all listen and not know how to answer. You’re a true hero, bound to Torah and to Hashem. Chazak ve’ematz!”
{Matzav.com}
