Rabbi Dov Landau: Yeshiva Students Shouldn’t Try To Raise Funds In Secular Neighborhoods

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Prior to Purim it is customary for yeshiva students in Israel to leave the Beis Midrash and go to raise money for their yeshivas and for the TaT (Tomchei Torah) which assist the poorer students and those getting married in obtaining the necessary clothing they require.

Rabbi Dov Landau issued a letter, printed in the Yated Neeman newspaper, in which he called on yeshiva students to increase their Torah study prior to Purim and to only raise funds in Chareidi neighborhoods.

Rabbi Landau first mentioned the custom of establishing a time for Torah study on Purim night and day and said that the custom- established by Rabbi Aharon Leib Steinman z’l and Rabbi Gershon Edelstein z’l- should be continued with as much time devoted to study as possible.

Additionally, he called on those raising funds for the yeshivos not to try and solicit funds outside charedi neighborhoods, “especially due to the war situation in our holy land – may G-d protect it – and the antipathy from those who hate religion towards Torah scholars, and therefore we must be extra careful not to stand out and thus cause more animosity and hatred etc.”

Rabbi Landau called on the charedi public to “give graciously to the yeshiva students and help them generously to strengthen the Torah and those who learn it.”

In another letter, Rabbi Landau called to make special prayers on Taanis Esther before Mincha – “To cry out and beg for our souls and the souls of our brothers in captivity that they be released and returned to their families, and may Hashem hear our prayers and give us redemption and repose as He did in those days when he destroyed our enemies.”