Talmud Torah K’neged Kulom means that they have only one responsibility – to learn Torah. Any attempt to diminish that by anyone is seen as Shmad – forced apostasy. The government is therefore characterized as Amalek.
So there is a reaction to any kind of required national service. That requirement includes registering for a future draft. The more moderate factions follow a Gadol like R’Shteinman who has called for peaceful resistance. R’ Shteinman has asked Yeshiva students and Avreichim to comply with the current law and register. The actual draft (should that remain the law) will begin in a couple of years and will be dealt with at that time.
But the extremist faction of R’ Shmuel Auerbach does not believe in compromise. R’ Shumel has called for active resistance and protest and asked his followers to refuse to register even if the consequences are jail for failing to register. (My guess is that his strategy is to fill the jails with young students which will make the government look bad internationally – forcing them to rescind the law). The latest manifestation of this dispute happened in the city of Ashdod where 40 Charedim were arrested during an anti draft rally.
But that was nothing compared to what’s happening in Bnei Brak.
One of the greatest Yeshivos in Israel, Ponevezh is so divided that physical violence between the two factions is becoming more and more common. From the Times of Israel:
A brawl erupted at the Ponevezh Yeshiva, where a prominent rabbi, Shmuel Markovitz, was physically assaulted by a student of a rival faction, sparking the violent confrontation between the two groups.
Markovitz’s students, who refer to themselves as “the Mehablim,” a Hebrew word that connotes either terrorists or saboteurs, then stormed the yeshiva dormitories of their long-time rivals, “the Sonim,” or “the haters,” and a full-blown fight broke out.
The students vandalized dorm rooms and hurled furniture at one another, and a canister of tear gas was released in the compound.
Although students from both factions share the same facility, the two groups have been at loggerheads over their support for rival rabbis vying for the yeshiva’s leadership. Markovitz, who was assaulted at the start of the melee, is one candidate; Eliezer Kahaneman is the other…
Ambulance workers said dozens of people were injured and 13 were hospitalized for tear-gas inhalation.
Is this really the kind of ‘Torah’ the world should be supporting? Are these students the future recipients of Adopt-a-Kollel funds?
To the best of my knowledge – what’s happening in Ponevezh is not happening at other Yeshivos. But at the same time, when a premiere Yeshiva like Ponevezh – a Yeshiva that in the past has set the standard for the Charedi paradigm of Torah study; a yeshiva whose leader for decades was Rav Eliezer Menachem Man Shach, ZTLwhom many considered to be the Gadol HaDor – generates this kind of behavior, one has to question its ultimate value to Torah and to Klal Yisroel.
Despite the likelihood that it will not happen, I hope the Charedi leadership examines whether their current paradigmatic efforts truly produce the desired outcome. The outcome God wants of His people as expressed by the prophet Isaiah (42:21) ‘Hashem Chafetz L’Man Tzidko, Yagdil Torah V’Yadir’. Is this glorifying the Torah for the sake of God’s righteousness? If the level of poverty doesn’t do it, then the Chilul HaShem that Poenvezh now is – should!