Rabbi: Seculars' raison d'etre sustaining yeshiva boys

Leading ultra-Orthodox leaders slam High Court ruling revoking yeshiva students' income support

Ari Galahar|Published: 06.16.10 , 07:58

Leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis slammed a High Court of Justice ruling revoking income support allowances for married yeshiva students. Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, one of the leaders of the haredi-Lithuanian sector said of the judges, "They're out of their minds, they're cutting down the branches they're sitting on."

Finding Gaps

Shas source: We'll ensure stipend for secular students as well

Ynet reporters

Religious movement seeks way around High Court ruling calling for cancelation of assured income for yeshiva students. Source tells Ynet, 'If necessary, we will amend law such that secular students may also receive assured income'

Shas source: We'll ensure stipend for secular students as well

Commenting on the ruling, the rabbi said, "They think they'll keep cutting back on what the haredim supposedly take from them, but they don't realize that their raison d'etre is to sustain those who study Torah for a few pennies.

"If they stop, the Americans won't give them money anymore. It's been proven that everything they do to the haredim comes back to get them, as we've witnessed with the incitement campaign against the ultra-Orthodox, which came back to get them in the flotilla affair all over the world."

Rabbi Shteinman, 97, added that currently there is a state of symbiosis between seculars and haredim: "They help us and God Almighty helps them."

'Funny seculars'

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the top haredi rabbis in Bnei Brak, also commented on the High Court ruling and said, "They're funny these seculars who think they're hurting the haredim but they themselves should have been the ones to protest the decision."

Rabbi Yehuda Lefkowitz was even fiercer and stated, "Because we kept quiet about the Emanuel affair, it carried on with the yeshiva students and no one knows where it will stop."

Lithuanian spiritual leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv was not told of the decision as he was feeling ill on Monday.

In a groundbreaking precedent, the High Court of Justice ruled Monday that the State's manner of allotting assured income to yeshiva students was illegal, and ordered the clause be removed from the State Budget for 2011.

The precedent was set with majority of six justices concurring, led by Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish.