Hundreds of members of the Sephardi Olam HaTorah gathered Sunday night for a protest outside the gates of Prison 10 following the arrest of Bnei Brak yeshiva bochur Yisrael Guchfi, who was sent to prison

During the gathering, addresses were delivered by Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah member Hagaon Harav Shlomo Machfud and the head of the Halichot Moshe institutions, Hagaon Harav Shabtai Levi, and a number of other Rabbanim and Roshei Yeshivos. The gathering concluded with Hagaon Harav Moshe Zalicha leading the crowd in a mass Kabbalas Ol Malchus Shamayim.

HaGaon HaRav Shabtai Levi highlighted Israel’s current security situation, emphasizing the importance of the Torah world to the country’s security: “We’ve been at war for 78 years, from operation to operation and from war to war, without a decisive victory, facing seven fronts. Everyone asks: Where is the IDF’s deterrence power? We have planes, precision missiles, intelligence, and the Mossad, yet the enemies around us continue to grow stronger. There is no deterrence. They’re making a mockery of us.”

“Hezbollah is growing stronger, Hamas is growing stronger, Iran is growing stronger—they’re laughing at all of us. We fired endless missiles, and it had no effect. Endless millions, and it had no effect.”

Harav Levi then defined the true source of deterrence: “The passuk in this week’s parsha states: ‘And all the peoples of the earth shall see that the name of Hashem is called upon you, and they shall fear you.’ Deterrence cannot be achieved with weapons, missiles, and planes. The only power of deterrence that Am Yisrael possesses, and that its enemies do not, comes from the Olam HaTorah and shemiras hamitzvos. It is the Torah world that brings protection and Hashem’s bracha upon the entire nation.”

Concluding his remarks, Harav Levi called for continued spiritual strengthening: “Our path is clear. They seek to make arrests, and we deepen and continue our limmud Torah. This is our heritage, and through it we will merit geulah and yeshuah.”

HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Machfud spoke tearfully about the imprisonment of Lomdei Torah: “We stand here today, during these days of Rachamim and Selichos, facing the iron and concrete walls of the military prison, and our hearts are bleeding. Instead of the holy yeshiva bochurim sitting in the Beis Medrash with their Gemaras open before them, with the voice of Torah protecting all of Klal Yisrael, there are bochurim sitting here behind bars.”

“This is not a new struggle,” the Rav emphasized. “For 78 years, the state has fought over everything holy, but the latest decrees surpass them all.”

“They built the state only to destroy Yiddishkeit. They don’t really want soldiers. They don’t want them in the army. They don’t care about the yeshiva bochurim who are learning in yeshivos. What do they care about? Uprooting Yiddishkeit from Klal Yisrael!”

“They know that Am Yisrael is not Am Yisrael except through its Torah. The Torah is our life, and they cannot move us even a hair’s breadth.”

The Rav invoked the mesirus nefesh of Rebbe Chanina ben Teradyon and emphasized: “Torah is acquired only through mesirus nefesh. The nations of the world burned the Torah and persecuted those who learned it, but Netzach Yisrael lo yeshaker.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)