HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Ezrachi delivered divrei chizzuk to hundreds of yeshiva bochurim at the Ner Zerach Yeshiva in Moshav Otzem in southern Israel on Wednesday, JDN reported.

HaRav Ezrachi shared that even before the recent period, he had addressed the possibility of harsh decrees befalling bnei yeshivos, saying that a time might come when Bnei Torah will be required to be moser nefesh. He emphasized that bochurim may be prepared to be moser nefesh but that the ratzon alone is not enough.

“Of course you want to be moser nefesh, but who says you can?” HaRav Ezrachi said, explaining that this is the deeper meaning of the Meshech Chochmah’s explanation of the conduct of King Chizkiyahu, who gave all of his possessions to the King of Ashur but did not surrender “that which was most precious to him”—the holy Torah.”

“The willingness alone to be moser nefesh is not enough. One must prepare and develop the genuine ability to do so, an ability that comes from a heart entirely devoted to Avodas Hashem. If the heart is occupied with other things, it may want to give, but it cannot. It is already full.”

In conclusion, HaRav Ezrachi stressed that we daven not to face nisyonos of mesiras nefesh, chalila, but if the time comes, one should aspire to be worthy of enduring it. “If chalilah, such a situation arises, we must go—and fortunate are those who are seized for divrei Torah. But for us to truly be capable of that, everything depends on our midos being refined and on our hearts not being occupied with jealousy, hatred, and other negative middos.”

HaRav Ezrachi’s warning about the need for Bnei Torah to be moser nefesh is reminiscent of that of HaGaon HaRav Meir Tzvi Bergman, who wrote a sharply worded letter in 2024 following the High Court’s ruling mandating the recruitment of bnei yeshivos. HaRav Bergman wrote in the letter that his father-in-law, HaGaon HaRav Elazar Menachem Man Shach, z’tl, had foreseen this situation.

“And I already wrote [in 2000] in the name of Rabbeinu HaGadol Rosh HaYeshivah [HaRav Shach, z’tl], that if it becomes nogeah– to publicize to the public in his name that the gezeirah of the recruitment of bnei hayeshivos is a gezeiras shmad and it’s necessary to be moser nefesh for it, as it’s explained in Shulchan Orech Yoreh De’ah.”

“And therefore, if we are tested in this, we must oppose it with all our strength, to the point of mesirus nefesh.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)