JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The former Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, delivered a speech of encouragement to yeshiva students and avrechim, calling on them not to fear the various enforcement authorities acting against the Torah world.

During the “Keter Shel Torah” conference of the Bukharian Jewish Congress, before thousands of yeshiva and kollel students, the rabbi declared: “‘No weapon formed against you shall prosper.’ Do not fear the Attorney General or the Police Commissioner , all the people who drive on Shabbat and eat non-kosher food, do not fear them.”

The Chief Rabbi added another message of encouragement to the yeshiva students: “You are the guardians of the sacred trust (Mishmeret Hakodesh); fortunate are you and fortunate is your portion.”

His remarks come against the backdrop of an unprecedented wave of arrests of yeshiva students in recent days, as police have been transferring yeshiva students to the military police under a new policy introduced by Police Commissioner Danny Levy.

As previously reported, last year Rabbi Yosef instructed yeshiva students to tear up and throw away draft notices sent to them by the IDF. “I said that if a draft order arrives, tear it up. Do you have a toilet at home? There’s no house without a bathroom. Tear it up, throw it into the toilet, and flush the water. Nothing — pay no attention to it,” the rabbi said at the time in an explicit directive.

The Chief Rabbi’s statements come after a year and a half of repeated warnings from him regarding the draft law and the government’s conduct. Rabbi Yosef repeatedly warned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not pass the draft law, contrary to promises made to charedi politicians.

“The draft decree is a decree that pains all of us. If we had gone with the left, it would have been much better,” Rabbi Yosef said about a year ago during his weekly lesson. “If my father, Maran, were alive with us, he would never have allowed this to happen. Before the government was formed, before the first budget was passed, he would have demanded passage of the draft law.”