More than two years after hundreds of its students were hurried into active military service following the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, life at Yeshivat Har Etzion in the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut is starting to regain some sense of normalcy, says one of the institution’s head rabbis, Mosheh Lichtenstein.

On a chilly but sunny winter day, young men walked through the halls of the imposing building located in the Etzion Bloc, or Gush Etzion, a cluster of Israeli settlements south of Jerusalem in the West Bank. Some held cups of coffee, others carried books as they made their way to the bright beit midrash, or study hall, which was filled with the sound of study partners animatedly debating the finer points of the Talmudic tractates and other ancient Jewish texts they were studying.

Colloquially known as “the Gush,” the yeshiva is renowned for its intellectual rigor and is an influential institution in the Religious Zionist movement in Israel and in Torah studies worldwide. It operates a flagship hesder program that combines Torah study with military service, as well as a post-high school program for overseas students and a full-time advanced study track for older men.

Sitting for a wide-ranging interview in his office, Lichtenstein described the pride and pain in seeing students and alumni mobilizing and facing tremendous challenges, including the heartbreaking loss of six in the two-year war.

Yeshivat Har Etzion was established in 1968 by Holocaust survivor Rabbi Yehuda Amital. Three years later, he was joined by prominent American rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, Mosheh’s father, who was married to Tovah Soloveitchik, the daughter of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the spiritual leader of the US Modern Orthodox movement.

At the time of the move, the younger Lichtenstein was 10. He went on to study at the yeshiva, then earned a degree in English literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and rabbinical ordination from the Chief Rabbinate. He became co-head of the yeshiva in 2008.

Soloveitchik’s worldview, rooted in the relationship between man and God, and in the balance between Judaism and modernity, still profoundly influences the yeshiva, which is known for these values more than many other Israeli institutions of Torah study.

At the same time, the yeshiva remains deeply immersed in the Religious Zionist project, sitting in a settlement and educating some of the community’s best and brightest.

“[After October 7], we made a policy decision that the learning should continue as much as possible with those who were here,” said Lichtenstein. “I told the students they owed it to themselves, to Jewish history, to Torah, and to God that, in such times, the flame of Torah should continue to burn and express itself even stronger.”

The rabbi also addressed some of the most pressing questions facing the Religious Zionist community and the State of Israel as a whole.

Addressing a recent uptick in settler violence (as of last month, the IDF had recorded over 752 incidents of nationalistic crime and extremist settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the year), he insisted that ultimately, the mainstream Religious Zionist community and leaders carry the responsibility to stop it.

“The violence that is going on is horrible and is morally and ethically wrong,” he said.

“The perpetrators do these things because, to a large extent, society will tolerate it,” he charged. “The degree to which members of the community will believe that [this violence] is a desecration of God’s name or is just unfortunate behavior is a function of what mainstream Religious Zionist communities will hear on Friday night in their rabbis’ sermons. If they hear harsh condemnation, it will create a certain dynamic.”

The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

The Times of Israel: Two years after October 7, how is the yeshiva doing, and how are the students doing?

Mosheh Lichtenstein: It’s been a long two years, with many different feelings. On October 7, the yeshiva was entirely mobilized: the overseas students and the young Israelis who hadn’t yet been trained [as soldiers] stayed, but anyone who had been in the army was called up.

The yeshiva emptied out. Normally, we have hundreds of people........

© The Times of Israel