In an interview with YWN following the shocking arrest of a Ateres Shlomo talmid on Wednesday morning, Harav Shalom Ber Sorotzkin shlit”a decried the ongoing persecution of bnei Torah in Eretz Yisroel, comparing the situation to the dark days of Soviet oppression.
“I came to America to do a job that isn’t easy — to take care of bochurim,” Rav Sorotzkin said. “We have 13,500 talmidim across our mosdos, and every one of them is precious. When I heard this morning that they arrested a choshuve bochur in the yeshiva — an emesdike masmid, whose only ‘crime’ was sitting and learning Torah — I was shaken. We heard such stories from our fathers and grandfathers in Russia, when people were arrested for learning. Now it’s happening again, in Eretz Yisroel.”
The bochur, named Ariel Shammai, was sentenced to 20 days in military prison. “He was handed a 20-day prison sentence for one thing,” Rav Sorotzkin said sharply. “For being an oved Hashem and learning Torah.”
Following the arrest, a massive atzeres tefillah was held outside the prison Wednesday afternoon. Over 1,200 bnei Torah gathered to show support and solidarity with the imprisoned talmid. The gathering doubled as a psichas zman for the yeshiva, led by Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch shlit”a.
“It was a big maamad of kiddush sheim shamayim in a mechubadike way,” said Rav Sorotzkin. “We began Chezkas Habatim there. It gave the bochur chizuk — he saw that Klal Yisroel is with him.”
Rav Sorotzkin said that he will be cutting short his trip to America – he had come to fundraise for his massive network of yeshivos – and returning immediately to Eretz Yisroel to take responsibility for the bochur and advocate on his behalf. “I have no breirah,” he said. “I am going straight back to Eretz Yisroel. We have an achrayus for this bochur.”
Rav Sorotzkin urged Jews worldwide to be marbitz in tefillah. “We must daven to Hashem: Kra ro’ah gzar dineinu. Klal Yisroel areivim zeh lazeh — we all have an achrayus for one another. The tzarah in Eretz Yisroel is a tzarah for every ben Torah around the world.”
He added that fear is spreading among bnei yeshiva. “Many don’t understand that every bochur nowadays is afraid that he could be arrested at any moment. This cannot continue.”
The arrest of Ariel Shammai followed a series of shocking overnight raids by military police targeting yeshiva bochurim who have refused army enlistment on religious grounds.
In one case, police stormed a home in Ramat Gan at 1:30 a.m. and dragged away a bochur who was in the midst of sitting shiva for his father. The young man’s mother — a disabled almanah — and six orphaned siblings cried out helplessly as he was taken away. After widespread outrage, he was released hours later through the intervention of attorney Shlomo Haddad.
Two other bnei yeshiva were arrested the same night — both now facing prison time.
Military police also raided homes in Adam, overturning furniture in a failed attempt to arrest two more talmidim, and attempted an arrest in Neve Yaakov, which was thwarted after hundreds of protesters gathered and forced the police to retreat.
In response to the arrests, Degel HaTorah convened an emergency meeting of its Knesset members, while Peleg Yerushalmi leaders announced plans for mass demonstrations, warning that these were no longer isolated arrests at airports or checkpoints but direct raids on the homes of bnei Torah.
As YWN has reported, Hagaon HaRav Dov Landau who is currently in Los Angeles spoke via telephone to Hagaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, and has called for a massive Ateres Tefillah and protest this coming Sunday.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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One Response
If a man is driving a car with a Gemara propped over the steering wheel, learning intensely, and he runs someone over chas v’sholom, does he get punished for the crime of learning Torah? No, he gets punished for negliglent driving!
We might think that it was a terrible thing that this young man was arrested, but it’s not acceptable for people, no matter who they are, to speak falsehoods about the reason. He was NOT arrested for learning Torah. He was arrested for army avoidance, just like non-charedim who avoid army service are arrested.
Or, to put it another way – it’s ossur to learn Torah on Tisha B’Av, when the obligation of the day is to commiserate over national suffering. If someone learns Torah, does Hashem punish him for learning Torah? No, Hashem punishes him for failing to commiserate over national suffering!