HaRav Ezrachi speaking at a meeting of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah in the home of Sar HaTorah with the participation of the Rosh Yeshiva
HaRav Boruch Mordechai Ezrachi, member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah and Rosh Yeshivas Ateres Yisrael, has accompanied many election campaigns. He is a man who has seen many generations of Torah leaders past and present, while absorbing from them a true outlook and conveying it to thousands of his students and adherents, through his gifted cogent rhetoric and razor-sharp pen. He has instilled among his devotees throughout the country the flavor of Torah, daas Torah, and the very spirit of Torah.
During these days that clouds spread across the skies of Torah-true Jewry when our enemies scheme to harm us and sharpen their talons and hone their fangs, in times when the call reverberates from our leaders of "Who is unto Hashem - rally to me," we approached this great man who engages the minds and arouses the hearts, to define our duty for us and dispel the clouds of uncertainties and spread before us the excuses of evaders, amplify the obligation resting upon the shoulders of every Torah student and avreich as well as all those who bear the responsibility of botei medrash and lives heart and soul for Torah even whilst engaged in the stormy waters of life, that he raise the banner of allegiance and connection to the camp, not to bow.
We sought the rosh yeshiva out in the wee hours of the night for the sake of our readers and the voters of Torah-true Jewry and deposited by him our questions in order for him to clarify the spiritual issue which represents the engine and steam of this current election campaign, together with the help of his trusted disciple, HaRav Yaakov Grosbard. At the conclusion of this night-stand, the sun shone and the clouds were dispersed, the hills were leveled and daas Torah shone, demanding and obligating.
Question: "Agudath Israel was historically established as an idealistic movement, not as a political party. HaRav Reuven Grozovsky wrote in the `charter' at the founding of Agudah: "Gedolei Yisrael saw that the land was filled with enemies seeking to change the character of Jewry and rule over Jewish public life, and rose up and founded Agudath Israel." The plan was to work on education, organization and publicity, and to impose Torah in our lives through the reinforcement of religion and expanded activity for the chareidi settlement. What is the role and goal of Degel HaTorah today?
Answer: The role of Degel HaTorah today is geared to fill all of the aims you just enumerated, which actually brought about the founding of Agudah. But all of those roles by themselves have always been difficult to accomplish. Public anti-chareidi figures and inciters gave the party no respite. Our mission, in view of the severity of the situation today, is to stand up for our lives, to save whatever can be salvaged from the burning house.
HaRav Ezrachi
