Yeshiva students ‘will not go to army under any circumstances,’ says Degel HaTorah spiritual leader

Degel HaTorah spiritual leader Rabbi Dov Lando slams the High Court of Justice for its “wickedness” and intimates that the justices will face divine judgement, after they ordered the government to adopt a raft of measures that would punish ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers by denying them various welfare benefits.

“The judicial authorities are continuing in their wickedness…[and] the end of the wicked is to face judgment,” Lando says during a speech at Bnei Brak’s Ponovezh Yeshiva.

“We cling to our Torah, and all these difficulties will not disturb our Torah study in the slightest,” he says, asserting that, on the contrary, there will be more yeshiva students and more yeshivas and that the Haredi community will “ignore” the “decrees,” which will “vanish like a blowing wind and fly away like a dream.”

“Yeshiva students will not go to the army under any circumstances, not through coercion and not willingly, whether there is a law or whether there is no law” exempting them, he continues, asserting that “it is the role of the authorities to arrange this and not to make it difficult.”