Rabbi Dov Landau Attacks a New Yeshiva Combining Secular Studies

A new yeshiva will soon open in Beit Shemesh under the direction of Rabbi Dovid Leibel, and it will embrace secular courses from outside the yeshiva in the style of an open university.

This information was just published in a secular newspaper.

The Council of Torah Sages’ current leader, Rabbi Dov Landau, sharply criticized the plan in a letter on Monday.

All of the council members except Rabbi Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi, who is presently hospitalized in bad condition with respiratory issues, signed the letter, which was printed in Yated Neeman.

During a visit to the US, Rabbi Landau learned about the idea from a Rosh Yeshiva, who gave him the specifics and cautioned him about the risks involved in starting such an institution.

Rabbi Landau asked that his letter be published in Yated Neeman and be signed by the other Gedolim.

Rabbi Meir Zvi Bergman, Rabbi Baruch Dov Povarski, Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein, and Rabbi Zvi Drabkin all contributed their signatures to the letter.

“Torah study has always been clean and untarnished by any trace of mixing with other disciplines, and our rabbis devoted themselves and fought holy wars against any plans to mix even the slightest amount of other studies within the walls of the Torah fortresses and holy yeshivos,” the letter claims.

“However, we have now learned that there are plans to open a yeshiva gedolah in the city of Beit Shemesh that will combine the sacred and the profane, Heaven forfend.

It is our obligation to provide a strong warning and to cause a great storm to inform all Yere’ei Hashem that they should not send their children and disciples to this location or provide them with any help, should G-d forbid.

Happy is he who can uproot this scourge before it begins and will keep the House of Israel faithful to Hashem and his Torah free from any aspects of this iniquitous culture, remaining sanctified to Torah study, keeping Mitzvos, and following the Torah path.”