A long letter, written with the guidance of HaRav Eliashiv zt"l was sent in the winter of 5728, after the Six Day War, to the then Defense Minister. It is relevant today as then.
Excerpts: "Of late, certain circles have begun undermining the status of Torah students, masking their true objectives through a pose of desiring the welfare of the State. It is clear, however, that the good of the State is not their objective. Their true motive is not welcome, to say the least, for any thinking person can understand this.
"Tell me, Honorable Minister, how is it that the Jewish People, who have experienced so many adversities and hardships since the Churban have survived? Which nation could have remained in existence after having been through so many difficulties? We see in world history that many nations which have suffered as little as one percent as us, have not survived and yet, Jewry remains standing in all its glory, splendor and brilliance.
"What is the reason for this? There is only one answer. Throughout its tribulations, beaten and downtrodden in body, we remained unscathed in spirit. Jewry was staunch like an adamant rock against the jaws of wickedness and evil.
"We are behooved to examine what enabled us to guard this smoldering coal that it not be extinguished. It was solely the light of Torah, whose power enables it to banish the darkness of Egypt. And it was that selfsame light which every Jew, each according to his capacity, was able to absorb. This is what gives strength to the weary to stand and withstand all of the difficult circumstances like a stone fortress.
"Where is that light stored? It hovers in the very air of the yeshivos. It is the source from which every Torah student imbibes and absorbs into its blood that every essence, the spiritual nourishment which he is capable of ingesting into his being. Whoever severs himself from the yeshiva, is severing himself from his very lifeblood.
"We have been fortunate to have in our generation many Torah centers from which Torah spreads out. From Zion shall Torah emerge. Mobilizing yeshiva students, chas vesholom, is their very destruction, and who dares to agree to lend a hand to the destruction of the light and glory of Jewry?"
The Method of Study in the Yeshivos
By A. Re'eim
Rosh Yeshivas Chevron, HaRav David Cohen, related: Two students from Yeshivas Me'or HaTorah maintained that the study approach in their yeshiva put too much stress on intensive study when they felt that more emphasis should be placed on breadth and scope.
They were sent to HaRav Eliashiv who said to them: 'You should know that if you wish to grow into talmidei chachomim, the only way is to follow the norm of study in your yeshiva. With the coming years, you will be able to put more stress on expertise in scope but the initial growth must be based on study in depth.'
Incidentally, Rosh Yeshivas Chevron told another story:
There was once a student who eventually left the yeshiva and ended up in a yeshiva with students of his mediocre style and type. In time, he decided that he wished to upgrade his study and be re-accepted into Yeshivas Chevron. Maran messaged me that he wished to talk to me. When I went to him, he said that there was a student who wanted to be accepted into the yeshiva but it was felt that he was not suited. He wanted to know why.
I thought that he had already left the environment of a yeshiva and who knows at what stage he was at the present. He said to me: 'Don't worry. It will be alright. He will sit and study.'
I argued, 'But originally he was also part of the yeshiva, but went astray. Who knows what will become of him even after studying here a few years?'
Maran waved his hand dismissingly. "A year from now, he will already be a chosson."
He didn't appear to be giving him his blessing or to establish a fact but he did intimate that there was no cause for worry regarding his future. In any case, I recorded the date of this conversation: it was in the month of Tammuz. Exactly a year later, in Tammuz, that young man became a chosson.
