The meeting at the home of HaRav Edelstein: (from the left) HaRav Yehudah Silman, HaRav Dovid Cohen, HaRav Dov Lando, HaRav Gershon Edelstein, HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, HaRav Yigal Rosen, HaRav Nosson Zochovsky, HaRav Meir Kessler
Sunday afternoon in the home of Rosh Yeshivas Ponovezh, HaRav Gershon Edelstein: Roshei yeshivos and rabbonim ascend in twos and threes, having been invited to participate in a special meeting dealing with pressing problems facing the chareidi public. The roshei yeshivos have already delivered their shiurim in their respective yeshivos before large numbers of talmidim, the pride and prospect of the coming generation, Torah dissemination in its purity. But now, the entire generation and its disposition are the crux of this gathering and an air of awe and sanctity pervades the living room which has been the core of Torah transmission for the past dozens of years.
Seated around a long table, the participants feel the anxiety of preserving and upgrading the character of the bnei Torah royal `legionnaires' and their adherents. In turn, they raise important issues relating to the nucleus of chareidi Jewry, discussing them solemnly at length. Their words slice through the serious atmosphere, creating a mount upon which stands stolidly the pride of chareidi Jewry in preventing any foreign winds from penetrating our camp from the sweeping threats of the outside world.
(from the left) HaRav Dov Lando, HaRav Gershon Edelstein, HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch
HaRav Gershon Edelstein:
We need siyata deShmaya. The imminent signs of Moshiach have manifested themselves for many years but have increased greatly in the present.
We have gathered here to discuss areas which need attention and due prevention of their aggravation. We see attempts to educate us, to make us more progressive and scientifically minded. There are bodies which actually work within our circles without asking permission, promoting all kinds of questionable public activities because they have funds and have to show something achieved with them, much to our dismay.
In order to thwart their influence, our best weapon is to fortify ourselves increasingly. We must prevent their infiltration and implement ways to counter their public activities lest they harm our community. But we must do so through the direction of our Torah leaders who are authorized by their status and daas Torah to fight them.
For example, there are bodies with money who organize festive `seminar's' where the main purpose is really the accompanying food. The come and eat and eat and eat. This is not a one-time phenomenon. People have money and they organize these so-called study nights.
One must seek counsel with gedolim to know how to act and counteract, whether in a public forum or even in a private home. These activities are driven by materialism and hedonism, catering to physical cravings. There is something very not-Jewish and about them. There used to be nothing like this with Jews.
We must prevent their influence over us, fight their impact on our pure education. They want to introduce science, to value science. We need heavenly assistance in this. May it be His will that He grant us this.
HaRav Dov Lando:
Although he was present at the meeting, HaRav Lando wrote a letter which was read at the meeting
Letter of HaRav Dov Lando
In a letter, the Chazon Ish wrote (against National Service for women):
"We are engaged in building defensive barriers between our young sons and daughters and the wild world outside, against the atheistic denial of religion and the lusts of desire." These were a directive and direction for the coming generations until the coming of Moshiach.
All the more so, for with the passing times, we find ourselves faced with new trials surfacing from all directions. We find that we must be more inventive in standing in the breach without any faltering. We find that these words take on new power for advice for us to be able to protect ourselves.
[There is] a desire to connect to the outside, secular world, its values, concepts, ways of thinking, aspirations of all kinds and its approach to whatever is going on, its manner of speech and writing and in its wake have been established `educational' (in quotes) institutions for boys and for girls, and similar programs, whose single purpose is to remove the barrier between us and them. That is an opening to the deepest reaches of the she'ol, to untamed streets, and the "atheistic denial of religion and lusts of desire" [referred to by the Chazon Ish] Rachmono litzlan.
Let them not tell us stories about our [so-called] dismal condition or tell us how to manage our problems of daily survival through their new ways and means, all of which end up in one result: destruction and destruction and destruction, yismerenu Hashem.
It is our obligation, our mitzvah, to be strong and stand staunchly, deliberately but cautiously against all of their methods in various shapes and forms and those who stand behind them. May Hashem assist us in doing so.
HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch:
"We know exactly what we need. [One should] set his sights and goals according to the knowledge that man was created to bask in the blessed bliss of Hashem and the glow of His Shechina, for this is the genuine pleasure, greater than any other possible delight. Where? In Olam Haba, and the way to attain it is only through Torah and mitzvos. Torah is of the ultimate importance. A ben Torah should not feel any affinity to the culture of the world or its enticements since they are very compelling and cause less yiras Shomayim and less value to Torah.
"Some come with an outspoken design to affect a change in chareidi society. As they put it: in the past generation, the chareidim occupied themselves in creating protective walls between them and the outside world, Zionism and the secular State. They concerned themselves with guarding their particular character. This purpose was justified, they concede, for those times. But a change is now in order. They maintain that `we must introduce integration. The chareidi world must ease itself into the secular world,' so they say. They want to change yeshivos, diminish Torah study to mere subjects in a regular curriculum such as Chumash, Medrash, machsheves Yisrael — which is a distortion of `machshava'. They have forgotten the very purpose of Torah study.
"We must address these problems and our relation to them must be from the very beginning. We must talk about the inner values, the purpose of Creation, about downgrading worldly things and upgrading the importance of Torah and the esteem of a Jew. We must strengthen our connection to this and even within the kollelim, there should be someone who can do this through Mussar talks, which will surely help."
In summation, he added, "We must truly come up with an idea of how to help those who leave the kollelim for the business world out of financial distress, so that they remain within the Torah environment in their fields and not sever themselves altogether."
