Amid the growing wave of arrests of yeshiva bochurim and their transfer to military detention facilities, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef delivered a forceful message of encouragement to yeshiva students and young kollel yungerleit, urging them not to fear Israeli law enforcement authorities acting against the Torah world.

Speaking during the Keser Shel Torah gathering organized by the Bukharian Jewish Congress before thousands of yeshiva students and avreichim, Rav Yosef invoked the pasuk “Kol kli yutzar alayich lo yitzlach” and directly addressed the ongoing crackdown.

“‘Kol kli yutzar alayich lo yitzlach,’ do not fear the attorney general and the police commissioner, all the people who drive on Shabbos and eat neveilos, do not fear them,” Rav Yosef declared.

The former chief rabbi then turned directly to the yeshiva students with additional words of encouragement.

“You are the guardians of the holy watch. Fortunate are you and fortunate is your portion.”

His remarks come as police and military authorities continue carrying out what many in the chareidi community describe as an unprecedented campaign of arrests against yeshiva bochurim, with detainees being transferred to military police custody under a new policy associated with Israel Police Commissioner Danny Levy.

Rav Yosef’s comments also revived attention to controversial remarks he made last year regarding IDF draft notices sent to yeshiva students.

At the time, he instructed bochurim to tear up and discard the enlistment orders.

“I said that if a draft order arrives — tear it up. Do you have a toilet in your house? There is no house without a bathroom. Tear it up, throw it into the toilet, and flush the water. Nothing. Do not take it into consideration at all,” he said at the time.

The renewed statements come after more than a year of repeated warnings by Rav Yosef regarding the government’s handling of the draft law crisis and his skepticism that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would ultimately pass legislation protecting yeshiva students from military service despite promises made to chareidi parties.

“The draft decree is a decree that pains all of us. If we had gone with the left, it would have been much better,” Rav Yosef said roughly a year ago during one of his weekly shiurim.

“If Maran father had been 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 that the draft law be passed.”

{Matzav.com}