Addressing a gathering in honor of two draft evaders released from military prison on Sunday evening, the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah party claimed that those enforcing the conscription of Haredi men into the military are fighting against God and the Torah.

“When a yeshiva student is placed in prison solely because he wishes to study Torah, it is not he who is in prison! The Torah itself, God forbid, is in prison,” Rabbi Dov Lando declared during a celebration in honor of yeshiva students Yitzhak Revivo and Yair Saadeh.

“Let everyone who is complicit in this crime of casting the holy Torah, the Torah of God, behind bars know this: you are not fighting flesh and blood; you are fighting the Torah and the one who gave it, blessed be his name,” the 95-year old rabbi added.

Lando, the chairman of Degel HaTorah’s ruling Council of Torah Sages and one of the most prominent rabbinic leaders of the so-called “Lithuanian” stream of ultra-Orthodoxy, is a steadfast opponent of Haredi conscription to the Israel Defense Forces. He accused Israel of declaring “war” on yeshiva students via his Yated Neeman mouthpiece in August after the IDF began arresting draft evaders.

He has also ordered yeshiva students to ignore call-up orders, prompting Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman to file a criminal complaint against him last May.

According to Lando, yeshiva students are forbidden from speaking with military representatives. Those who have been declared draft dodgers and are liable to arrest must avoid any contact with the authorities, and those looking to travel abroad must first clarify their........

© The Times of Israel