From the Liveblog of
Thursday, August 21, 2025
Leading Haredi rabbi dances with draft evader at Bnei Brak event against conscription
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis affiliated with the Shas and United Torah Judaism parties hold special gatherings to mark an international day of prayer and fasting in response to recent government efforts to conscript a small minority of yeshiva students and arrest those who ignore government orders to enlist.
At Bnei Brak’s Slobodka Yeshiva, Rabbi Dov Lando, the spiritual leader of UTJ’s Degel Hatorah faction, participates in a prayer service modeled on Yom Kippur Katan, a minor fast day on which worshipers recite prayers usually read on the Jewish Day of Atonement.
Chatting with The Times of Israel outside the yeshiva, Lando’s driver jokes that the Haredi community’s rabbinic leadership should issue a pulsa dinura curse against those behind efforts to enlist Haredim into the IDF. The pulsa dinura is a kabbalistic death curse that translates to “lashes of fire” in Aramaic.
Asked if the rabbi supported such a curse, the driver replies “God forbid” and then jokingly asks if it’s okay to pray that God deal with such people.
Yesterday, police arrested a 36-year-old man suspected of making threats on the life of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, after he allegedly asked former chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef for halachic approval to kill her.
Addressing yeshiva students at a private event following the prayers, Lando declares that only Torah study protects Israel and that learning is the greatest thing a Jew can do.
He then shakes hands with a draft evader who was recently released from military prison. Still holding the student’s hand, Lando begins dancing with him and others in the room to a song about the plots of the Jews’ enemies coming to naught.
Earlier in the day, former chief Sephardic rabbi and current Shas party spiritual leader Yitzhak Yosef addressed a gathering of Haredim aimed at providing ideological encouragement for “the holy and mighty yeshiva students in the face of the conscription decrees.” While he did not directly address the issue of enlistment, Yosef said that those who toil in the Torah are praiseworthy.
Rav Lando dancing with a draft dodger while yeshiva students sing a song about the plots of the Jews’ enemies coming to naught pic.twitter.com/C7lcgtmkik
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) August 21, 2025
The Times of Israel Community.