Overview

• Rabbi Yitzhak Zilberstein published a letter on Friday in chareidi newspapers addressed to yeshiva students ahead of the Elul term.
• He alleges the government seeks to pull students from Torah study and is imprisoning some, characterizing the situation as a time of great distress.
• He urges students to be strong, begin the term with full vigor, and engage in uninterrupted Torah learning.
• He invokes Talmudic and Rashi teachings about mounting accusations and successive decrees against Torah scholars before the Messiah’s arrival.
• He quotes Rabbi Dov Landau on the growing burden of exile and Jews persecuting Jews for Torah study, and he concludes with a blessing to annul harsh decrees.