In a dramatic address, Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, Rosh Yeshivas Slabodka, warned that the chareidi community is facing an existential struggle over the future of Torah learning in Eretz Yisroel.

Speaking at the Ichud Bnei HaYeshivos conference in Yerushalayim, Rav Hirsch focused on the ongoing battle surrounding the draft law and the status of yeshivah bochurim, urging organizers and educators to impress upon bochurim the gravity of the current situation.

At the outset of his remarks, Rav Hirsch described the challenge confronting the Torah community as a genuine war requiring sacrifice and determination.

“We are literally at war, and one must make sacrifices for a war,” Rav Hirsch said. “I am not speaking about the war with Iran, but about the war being waged against us by those within our own midst. We have no way out of this situation unless there is special siyata d’Shmaya. We must explain the situation to the bochurim.”

In what observers described as one of his most candid public discussions of the draft-law negotiations, Rav Hirsch revealed details of proposals that were advanced during talks over military service requirements for yeshivah students.

“They wanted a law under which fifty percent of yeshivah bochurim would go to the army,” he declared. “That was not going to happen. They want to destroy the Torah world, and we must fight against it.”

Addressing the broader community, Rav Hirsch called for intensified tefillah and urged Klal Yisroel to focus on specific passages during Shemoneh Esrei that speak of the downfall of those who seek to harm Torah observance.

“One should have in mind during the tefillos of ‘V’lamalshinim Al Tehi Tikvah’ and ‘V’chol Harishah K’rega Toveid,’” he said. “If all of Klal Yisroel will have the proper intentions, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will do what needs to be done.”

{Matzav.com}