URGENT: WORLDWIDE CALL TO FAST AND PRAY

27 Menachem Av 5785
Yom Kippur Katan

We stand on three pillars - Eretz Yisrael, Am Yisrael and Torat Yisrael.  WW1 was about taking control of Eretz Yisrael out of the hands of the Jews; WW2 was about mass murder annihilation of Am Yisrael, leaving WW3 to be the one focused on destroying the Torah.  Believe it or don't believe it, but we are in WW3 - the third war of GoguMagog - and it started on Simchat Torah to bring home that point.  It is now culminating in the all-out war on the Torah world - the rabbis, yeshivahs and yeshivah students.  

The great irony of it is that they are using the war they launched and mismanaged all the way through as the main excuse to go after them.  I'm not going to detail all the abuses of power and lies and organized media incitement.  I'm not going to go through all the reasons why the yeshivah students are neither needed nor guilty of either "draft dodging" or "desertion."  Either you know or you don't.  Either you support the Torah world as a legitimate part of our national defense or you don't.  Either you recognize that this is a major move toward spiritual shmad or you don't.  If you don't, I can't help you.  If you just hate chareidim and only need a good excuse for it, I can't help you.

What might help is to understand the reality of what is happening here - that this is a war on Torah, the final test for who will merit to enter the Messianic Era.  

It's time to make a final decision, choose your side and take a stand that registers in Shamayim!!

TODAY is Yom Kippur Katan for Rosh Chodesh Elul, the beginning of the 45-day countdown.  All the Torah leaders around the world have agreed together to call for a day of fasting and prayer as the appropriate response to the criminalization of Torah students.  It is highly significant also for the fact that the move toward attempting to conquer Gaza City is beginning.  60,000 call-ups have reportedly been issued today.  This is not just about yeshivah students, it's about what comes next for the future of all Jews everywhere!

Your decision whether to participate in the Yom Tefillah (in whatever way you are able) or to remain apart from your brothers and look upon them with condemnation could very well determine what comes next for you personally.  We are approaching the point at which HKB"H is going to openly intervene.

Here is what you need to know...

GEZEIRAS SHMAD: Gedolei Yisroel Call for Global Atzeres Tefillah On Thursday Over Military Draft

In light of intensifying conscription efforts and the arrests of yeshiva bochurim, Gedolei Yisroel have called for massive atzeros tefillah to be held in cities and towns across the country this Thursday.

Harav Dov Landau shlit”a and Harav Moshe Hillel Hirsch shlit”a issued a joint letter urging Klal Yisroel to gather b’rabim and cry out in tefillah and tachanunim to annul the decrees threatening the olam hatorah.

According to the plan, instead of one massive atzeres in Yerushalayim, there will be simultaneous gatherings held “b’rochovos ha’ir” throughout the country.

This follows the historic gathering of Gedolei Yisroel — both Litvish and Chassidish — in Ma’aleh HaChamisha, where it was proclaimed that Thursday would be a yom tefillah for all of Klal Yisroel.

In their announcement, the Gedolim called to dedicate Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul as a full yom tefillah and hisorerus. Every individual is asked to add special tefillos, do teshuvah, work on middos, and increase their limud Torah, so that the gezeirah should be torn up. As part of the day, there is a call for bitul melachah, with Yidden refraining from regular work unless absolutely compelled by an employer. From the age of fifteen and up, all who are able should fast for half the day, while those who cannot fast should do a pidyon with tzedakah. Yidden in chutz la’aretz are likewise urged to join in fasting, giving tzedakah, and davening, so that together Klal Yisroel will cry out to Hashem to annul the decree and bring rachamim and yeshuah.

The Badatz of the Eidah HaChareidis likewise issued a public call to dedicate Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul as a yom tefillah, urging all who are able to fast a half-day and to daven for the removal of the harsh gezeirah.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Haredi leaders call for global day of prayer, fasting to protest arrest of draft dodgers

Jews in Antwerp, London, Paris and New York set to protest ‘religious persecution’ of yeshiva students Thursday, with domestic prayer rallies to be held in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem

Ultra-Orthodox leaders have called for an international day of prayer and fasting on Thursday in response to recent government efforts to conscript ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students and arrest those who ignore government orders to enlist.

Rabbi Dov Lando, the spiritual leader of Degel HaTorah, one of the factions of the Haredi United Torah Judaism party, issued a public appeal to Jews around the world to treat the day as if it were Yom Kippur Katan, a minor fast day in which worshipers recite prayers usually read on the Jewish Day of Atonement.

In the United States and Europe, Haredi Jews are “preparing to tear open the gates of heaven to overturn the conscription decree that threatens the Torah world,” party newspaper Yated Neeman declared on its front page on Tuesday, quoting Lando as saying that “Jews are persecuting Jews because they are learning Torah.”

Ultra-Orthodox newspaper Hamodia, seen as a mouthpiece for UTJ’s Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction, likewise called for a “day of prayer, fasting and the cessation of work to cancel the decree of forced conscription and religious persecution” on Thursday.

Despite the ongoing war in Gaza and the plight of the hostages held by Hamas in the Strip, the State of Israel has “found the time to persecute Torah students” and “deprive them of their civil rights,” the paper declared.

Prayer rallies are expected across Israel, with mass gatherings in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem slated to take place.

The Bnei Brak religious council, a taxpayer-funded government body, was listed as one of the backers of an anti-enlistment event Thursday morning.

The event, set to take place at the central city’s Yeshua L’yehuda yeshiva, will consist of ideological encouragement for “the holy and mighty yeshiva and kollel students in the face of the conscription decrees,” a promotion for the event stated, using Biblical language used to reference soldiers and other fighting men.

The religious councils is one of three organizations listed as backers of the event, which will feature several top Haredi rabbis, including former chief Sephardic rabbi and current Shas party spiritual leader Yitzhak Yosef, a staunch opponent of military service for yeshiva students.

...According to the HaMevaser newspaper, which is affiliated with another wing of Agudat Yisrael, prayer rallies are set to be held in Antwerp, London, Paris, New York, Chicago, Miami and elsewhere. The paper called on everyone aged 15 and older to fast for half the day, while stating that those unable to do so should donate to charity in an effort to appeal to God to “hasten their redemption by canceling the decree.”

However, be warned. Don't let this be you! Don't stumble in the final hour by taking your eyes off of HKB"H and placing trust in "Egypt."

When you pray, please have the kavannah for the cancellation of the gezeirah of exile!!  It is too small-minded to speak only of a cessation of the persecution of Torah students.  Every true Jew is suffering from the exile from our Torah - from the inability to put into practice what we learn from it, all the mitzvot that the State refuses to allow us to perform, including ending this war the way HKB"H has already prescribed!!  And so may it be His will.  Mashiach will come when we are willing to heed his voice.  Let's prove that we are ready.