"Not by Might, Nor by Force" — Signed, the Rabbis of Religious Zionism

The senior rabbinic leadership of the Religious Zionist world — headed by its elder posek, Rav Yaakov Ariel, and including the Rosh Yeshiva of Merkaz HaRav itself — has published a letter firmly rejecting the arrests of yeshiva students. They chose as its title a pasuk: "Not by Might, Nor by Force." Our readers will recognize it instantly — it is Zechariah 4:6, the verse the Torah world has lived by through every decree, the verse with which we opened our own manifesto on how this struggle is won. When the rabbis of Merkaz HaRav and the rabbis of Bnei Brak are holding up the same pasuk against the same policy, something has happened in Klal Yisrael that the Attorney General would do well to notice.

I. Who Signed — Read the List Slowly

Begin with who these men are, because the weight of the letter is the weight of its signatures. Torat Haaretz Hatova is no fringe caucus. It is the union of rabbis who carry forward the public leadership of Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook — the rabbinic body that, by common description, sets the tone of Religious Zionism in Israel. At its head stands Rav Yaakov Ariel, eighty-eight years old: the longtime chief rabbi of Ramat Gan, a founder of Gush Emunim, a talmid of Rav Tzvi Yehuda at Merkaz HaRav, and the man who came within a political maneuver of the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbinate — by wide agreement the senior halachic authority of the entire Religious Zionist world.

And read down the list. Rav Yaakov Shapira — the Rosh Yeshiva of Merkaz HaRav, the mother yeshiva of Religious Zionism, and a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council. Rav Zalman Baruch Melamed of Beit El. Rav Shmuel Eliyahu of Tzfat. Rav Elyakim Levanon of Elon Moreh. Rav Mordechai Greenberg of Kerem B'Yavneh. Rav Chaim Steiner, Rav Yaakov Filber, Rav David Chai HaCohen — nearly twenty names, the mainstream rabbinic establishment of the community whose sons fill the combat units of the IDF. These are not our rabbanim; our hashkafic differences with this world are deep, documented in these pages, and hidden from no one. Which is precisely why what they signed matters so much.

II. What They Wrote

The letter's language is unadorned and total. The rabbis of Torat Haaretz Hatova, it declares, completely reject the use of arrests and heavy-handed conduct toward yeshiva students. And then the sentence that should be read aloud in every newsroom that has spent two years cheering the enforcement campaign: these actions deepen the rift and the lack of trust, and they do not bring soldiers to the army — they only push the possibility of enlistment further away.

That is not a Charedi talking point. That is the considered public judgment of the Religious Zionist rabbinate — the leadership of the serving community itself — and it is, word for word, the finding of every witness this series has entered into the record: Smotrich ("there is no greater lie"), Halevi with the manpower data, Yudkin with the reserve numbers, Ramon with the four thousand turned away, the army's own recruiters watching the Chashmonaim pipeline empty, and Maj. Ben Sabo, who carried the field data to the High Court and was told he could not have a minute. The Court would not hear the officer. Will it read the rabbis?

III. The Unnamed Addressee

The letter names no official. It does not need to. Everyone understands at whom it is aimed: the Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara, who only days earlier came out against the legislation to freeze the arrests — leading, as ever, the strictest possible line of criminal sanctions and imprisonment. Set the letter beside her ledger as we have documented it: the enforcement campaign, the Section 46 revocations ordered against the yeshivos, the daycare subsidies cut from kollel families, the student registries demanded. The machinery whose every gear the rabbis now condemn answers, link by link, to her office. The Religious Zionist rabbinate has, in effect, told the chief legal officer of the state that her signature policy toward the Torah world is destructive, counterproductive, and wrong — not by might, and not by force.

IV. The Other Half of the Letter — Which We Co-Sign

And the rabbis wrote a second thing, and we place our full weight behind it as well. They call on all sides to calm the tensions, and they strongly condemn the violent street protests — adding, importantly, that any violence, including verbal violence, deepens the crisis and pushes a solution further away.

Our readers know that this is precisely the derech of our own gedolim. Rav Dov Landau declared before the assembled Roshei Yeshivos that street demonstrations of the kind never received from our rabbeim are not our way and too often produce chillul Hashem. The Mir canceled its own atzeres the moment its purpose was fulfilled, sending thousands back to their Gemaras rather than hold a protest for protest's sake. The Sanzer Rebbe commanded his chassidim never to speak negatively of fellow Jews, insisting most of this nation respects the Torah. Now the rabbis of Religious Zionism issue the same call in the same breath as their rejection of the arrests. Mark the picture: the rabbinic leadership of both Torah communities — communities divided on the deepest questions of hashkafah — pulling, together, toward restraint, de-escalation, and peace between Jews. And pulling against them both: an Attorney General, a Court, and a bloc of petitioning organizations pressing for more arrests, more sanctions, more force. When every rav is calling for calm and every lawyer is calling for handcuffs, the question of who is actually tearing this society apart answers itself.

V. The Pasuk They Chose

And dwell, finally, on the title, because these talmidei chachamim did not choose it casually. "Lo b'chayil v'lo b'koach, ki im b'ruchi, amar Hashem" — not by might, and not by force, but by My spirit, says Hashem (Zechariah 4:6). It is the verse the navi gave a generation rebuilding the Beis HaMikdash against pressure and threat — the eternal Jewish declaration that what Heaven builds is never built by coercion. We opened our own article "How We Win" with this very pasuk, because it is the whole strategy of the Torah world in seven words: not the state's might, not the enforcement's force, but Torah, tefillah, and the ruach of Hashem.

Now the rabbis of Merkaz HaRav have written the same seven words across a letter to the enforcement state. We do not paper over what still divides us from these rabbanim, and they would not want us to. But a pasuk held up from both sides of the divide, against the same handcuffs, is not nothing. It is, perhaps, the beginning of the very thing this campaign was designed to prevent: the two Torah communities of Eretz Yisrael discovering how much they hold in common the moment the state raises its hand against either one's sons.

VI. Our Answer to the Letter

So to the rabbanim of Torat Haaretz Hatova we say plainly: thank you, and yasher koach. You owed the Charedi world nothing, and you stood up for its sons anyway — as Rabbi Levinstein did, as Rabbi Tirosh did, and now as your entire union has done with its collective signature. You have modeled, once again, what we have called the only real bridge between our communities: truth spoken across the divide, and respect extended without the demand that either side stop being itself.

And to the Attorney General, one sentence. When the gedolim of Bnei Brak and the rabbis of Merkaz HaRav — who agree with each other on almost nothing — sign the same message to your office, Madam Attorney General, the message is no longer a sectoral complaint. It is the voice of the Torah of Israel, in all its houses, telling you: not by might, not by force. The spirit has outlasted every power that ever tried the other way. It will outlast this one too.

May Hashem strengthen the hands of all who pursue peace among His children, turn the hearts of those who trust in force, guard every ben Torah in every beis medrash of every community, and speedily bring the day when His spirit alone governs His land — bimheirah b'yameinu, amen.

Sources

The letter

• The letter "Not by Might, Nor by Force" of the rabbis of the Torat Haaretz Hatova union — its complete rejection of arrests and heavy-handed measures against yeshiva students as deepening the rift and pushing enlistment further away, its call to calm tensions, and its condemnation of all violence including verbal violence — signed by Rav Yaakov Ariel together with Rav Elazar Agra, Rav Eitan Aizman, Rav Shmuel Eliyahu, Rav Yosef Artziel, Rav Moshe Gantz, Rav Mordechai Greenberg, Rav David Chai HaCohen, Rav Michael Hershkovitz, Rav Uri Cohen, Rav Elyakim Levanon, Rav Yehoshua Magnes, Rav Zalman Baruch Melamed, Rav Mordechai Nagari, Rav Yaakov Filber, Rav Isser Klonsky, Rav Chaim Steiner, Rav Yaakov Shapira, and Rav David Turgeman
• The standing of the signatories: Torat Haaretz Hatova as the rabbinic union continuing the public leadership of Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook and setting the tone of Religious Zionism in Israel; Rav Yaakov Ariel as former chief rabbi of Ramat Gan, cofounder of Gush Emunim, and candidate for the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbinate; Rav Yaakov Shapira as Rosh Yeshiva of Merkaz HaRav and member of the Chief Rabbinate Council
• The Attorney General's opposition, days earlier, to the legislation freezing the arrests of yeshiva students, and her insistence on criminal sanctions; Zechariah 4:6 — lo b'chayil v'lo b'koach ki im b'ruchi amar Hashem

The structural relationship to other articles in this series

• "How We Win" — the pasuk, and the derech, this letter now shares
• "Not Even for a Minute" — the officer's testimony the Court refused; the rabbis' letter says the same
• "There Is No Greater Lie" — the full witness list, to which the Religious Zionist rabbinate is now added
• "Yashar Koach, Rabbi Levinstein" — the first such voice, and what it means when truth crosses the divide
• "We Were Just Following Orders" — the Attorney General's ledger, link by link