On the one hand, it’s impossible not to appreciate the Rosh Yeshivah’s responsibility toward every talmid: One of his talmidim was taken to the military prison, and the whole country heard the protest. Some say that the million-man demonstration on Thursday was an outcome of the dynamic that began with the arrest of Ariel Shamai.

I, too, was at the gate of Prison 10, standing near Ariel Shamai’s father. Looking at him, it wasn’t hard to tell that he’s not a full-fledged part of the chareidi tzibbur; Ariel, he explained, is really self-made, his deep desire to learn Torah pushing forward his own progress. And unintentionally, he’s become a symbol of the struggle of the chareidi public to ensure that bnei yeshivah will be able to learn Torah without threats and arrests.

In a conversation with Mishpacha, once the buses were on their way back home, Rav Sorotzkin looked toward the locked metal gates and clarified what motivated him to organize the protest specifically now — even as dozens of bochurim have been incarcerated over the past few months.

“Why,” I ask, “did you raise the hue and cry only when a bochur from your yeshivah was arrested, when over this past year dozens of bochurim have been arrested, including from kiruv yeshivos that are not so widely connected with the chareidi mainstream?”

For the Rosh Yeshivah, the answer is simple. “HaKadosh Baruch Hu put me in charge of Yeshivas Ateres Shlomo, and that means I’m responsible for its bochurim, students and alumni,” he says. “I’m not a gadol hador or a leader of the generation. We have manhigim and gedolim whose guiding light we follow. As for me, my job is to work on behalf of our bochurim and alumni. As soon as the battle touches my area of responsibility, then it becomes our job to shake up the country. In halachah there are special laws regarding a “ben chaburah” — this is the Ateres Shlomo chaburah and Ariel is part of it.”

There was a lot of show involved in this protest, including putting a helicopter in the air. What justifies all that expense?

Rav Sorotzkin waves away the question, as if batting a fly. “First of all, a Yid called me to tell me he was covering all the expenses — the monetary issue is not relevant, it’s totally not the point here. The point is to awaken people and show everyone that from here on in, it’s not going to be like it was until today. For an entire year already, I’m talking to thousands of talmidim about withstanding these nisyonos and not to be moved by threats, not to be afraid of arrests, that the yeshivah will stand behind anything that is needed to support any talmid who gets in trouble.

“Now we have come to a time of the test. Everything I’ve been talking about to the bochurim for a whole year is now being tested. First of all, every bochur in yeshivah now knows that the we’ll turn the world over for him and fight for him all the way. The authorities thought that the chareidi sector would be quiet, would absorb it all in silence, and perhaps would capitulate. And now it’s time to let them know that this is not the new normal, that this appalling behavior cannot continue.”

What does that mean? That if you learn in Ateres Shlomo they’ll fight for you, and if you learn somewhere else, you’re hefker?

“Chas v’shalom! We’re confident that every yeshivah will fight in every way possible for its bochurim. There is the battle of the Torah world in general, and then there is the battle of each yeshivah for its bochurim. We will not sit back in the face of the arrests of our talmidim for the crime of learning Torah.”

What Am I Doing Here?

What can you tell us about Ariel Shamai in particular?

“I can tell you about a bochur who, from age 12, has been making constant strides in his Torah learning. Today he’s on the highest level in lamdanus, in understanding, in depth and in his breath of knowledge. An authentic beis medrash bochur. On the first day after his arrest I spoke to him by phone, and what was he crying about? He even told it to the sentencing officer: ‘They started Perek Chezkas Habatim in Bava Basra in yeshivah. I spent so much time preparing. How is it that I’m not with them now?’ And then he began crying to me, ‘What am I doing here, when everyone is sitting and shteiging in the beis medrash?’ He wasn’t interested in his physical discomfort or the prison conditions, only the bittul Torah.

“Ariel doesn’t come from a home of bnei Torah, but he has wonderful, very special parents who encouraged and supported him on the path he chose. You know, before Ariel came to yeshivah for the first time, there was no chance we would accept him. He had been learning in Rav Ariel Elbaz’s Yeshivat Acheinu for beginners, but Rav Elbaz told us, ‘Test him and then decide.’ When we tested him, the bochen was blown away.”

Do you think the military police decided to arrest him because they figured no one would fight for him given his background?

“Why Hashem chose davka him — we don’t know. But we do know that he was a target because he doesn’t live in one of the main chareidi centers. They are afraid to start arresting bochurim in those cities. So instead, they hit Ramat Gan and Tel Aviv, assuming it will go over quietly, that no one would raise a ruckus.”

The Medium is the Message

I’d like to address the use of symbols and slogans of the hostage release campaign, which was presented in the media as a cynical gimmick. Does the Rosh Yeshivah perhaps think that there was place for a more refined campaign instead of one that might offend the sensitivities of the hostage families?

“If the media chooses to present it as an offensive gimmick, that’s not my fault. The hostage headquarters, which designed the symbols and the colors, was actually an advertising agency for their own agendas, and all the elements had one goal: to topple the government, around which they built all kinds of justifications. First it was judicial reform, then it was the hostages, all for the sake of their goal. And they preach to the chareidi public about cynical use?”

And yet, should there not have been a place to take these sensitivities into account and to avoid using these symbols in order not to make a cynical, and perhaps offensive, comparison?

“We want to convey a message. In order to do that, we have to take unusual steps that will make waves. And here, we all see that the message got through. After all, if it would not have happened this way, no one would have heard us. Now at least they know that there is someone who is hurting, someone who is shouting. They claim a violation of their sensitivities. That in itself is a cynical claim, because it ignores the essence of the chareidi cry and distracts the discussion in an artificial way to matters of graphics.

“At least we will speak about the essence and we will say it over and over: If we are ma’aminim bnei ma’aminim, we know that to cut off a bochur from his life-source is like cutting off an ill person from the oxygen that keeps him alive. If you cut off a person’s oxygen, doesn’t he shout? Doesn’t he choke? We have to understand that it’s not only our oxygen, but also all of Am Yisrael’s oxygen. The entire world is created and built on the holy Torah. The whole world lives in the merit of the holy Torah. We are not fighting for ourselves, but for the entire Klal Yisrael.

“And, we have to understand that it all begins with our basic starting point of emunah: We are ma’aminim bnei ma’aminim, and we know and believe with all our hearts that the world exists and continues to exist on Torah. And certainly, that all of Am Yisrael — its existence and its future — depend on Torah. There is no Eretz Yisrael without the Torah of Eretz Yisrael. So we’re not protesting for ourselves, but for all of Klal Yisrael. Our victories in the war and the tremendous miracles that we’ve all been witness to are things even the nations of the world saw: that our power is not from military might or advanced weapons, but rather a supernal koach. Am Yisrael doesn’t have the world’s strongest arsenal, but we have an ancient secret: the power of Torah and tefillah.”

At the same time, isn’t there concern about collateral damage? Is the feeling of kol Yisrael areivim zeh lazeh not being undermined? Do we feel the pain of others’ sacrifices enough?

“Look, the fact that there was someone who decided that the way to fight for the hostages is to hang signs and make demonstrations — even though there are others who said that doing these things actually harmed the hostages instead of helping them — doesn’t mean that I have to adopt their ways. Real responsibility for one another is to do what we believe with all our hearts really benefits them.

“The tefillos and the Torah and the chizuk since the war broke out are unprecedented. We are clearly seeing the principle of ‘at the time when Yisrael looks upward they prevail,’ and we’re working with all our hearts for the welfare of the soldiers and the hostages through learning Torah lishmah. You tell me: The miracle that all 20 hostages came back in one piece, walking on their own two feet — do you have a natural explanation for that? Who would have believed it could happen? The concept of ahavas Yisrael doesn’t mean I have to change my opinion and my emunah.”

The cynics are claiming that the ideological radicalization on your part is meant to be a wink to the donors in Satmar. Is there any truth to that?

“Whoever donated to me from Satmar was donating long before all of this. And whoever didn’t give me is still not giving. Since I began battling against the draft, Hashem is my witness — He knows all of my monetary transactions.”

Right All Along?

Were the Peleg Yerushalmi people right? They’ve been opposing the draft in a far more radical manner for a decade already, and it looks as if nearly the entire tzibbur is now following them.

“I’ll tell you the answer I heard from Rav Avraham Yehoshua Soloveichik, which applies to this exactly. There was one crazy man in Brisk. On Rosh Chodesh Elul, he began coming to shul with a lulav and esrog. The Rav called him over and asked: ‘What is this? What are you doing?’ And the man said, ‘Rebbi, you’ll soon see that I am right!’

“Another week passed and then another, and he kept coming with the lulav and esrog. The askanim of the city called him and said, ‘You’re harming your children’s shidduchim. Everyone thinks you are crazy.’ Yet he said to them: ‘You’ll all see that I’m right in the end.’

“Another week passed and still he’s coming to shul with his arba minim. The gabbaim of the tzedakah funds gathered and said to him: ‘What are you doing? You’re shaming your children and leading to poverty in your home! No one wants to get near you!’ He said to them: ‘You’ll all agree with me yet.’

“Finally, it was 15 Tishrei, Succos. And everyone came to shul with a lulav and esrog. He said to them: ‘I told you that you’ll all agree with me in the end, right?’

There were ten years when it was quiet and the Torah world was undisturbed. The gedolim instructed that we shouldn’t bring the punitive part any closer than necessary, and in the merit of this way, we gained a decade of peace and quiet. But even today, I don’t believe the way to do it is what Peleg is doing. I don’t scorn anyone, any group or derech. But did you see how clean were the protests we made? Such a Kiddush Hashem — without clashes, condemnations, beatings or arrests.

“After our demonstration at the prison gates, the police commissioner said to another officer, ‘Too bad my son doesn’t learn in such a yeshivah,’ and then told me, ‘You can continue doing whatever you are doing, it’s fine with us.’”

Follow the Money

The elaborate swag at the protests notwithstanding, you are known for your opulence when it comes to kavod haTorah. There have also been rumblings about the solid gold and silver aron kodesh you recently built in the yeshivah, utilizing 2.5 tons of silver and 350 craftsmen from around the world, at a cost of over $9 million. How many families of avreichim could be supported and fed with this money?

“You’re not the first to ask, or to tell me it was a huge waste of money. So you should know that there was never a single day that the avreichim did not receive their stipends.

And I want to point out that the aron in the Beis Hamikdash weighed nearly two tons of pure gold. And it’s not like there were no poor people around. Afterward the Torah speaks about the korban one brings when he’s so poor he doesn’t have enough money even to buy a lamb, or even to buy doves and birds, so he brings flour.

“But all that is just polemics. The really important fact is that through what you call an indulgence, I’ve already raised three times the original amount of the aron kodesh for the yeshivah. The donor paid twice the cost just to have the zechus to donate it. And then, I sold the zechus to open the aron at pesichah for $4 million. The donor who bought pesichah called me afterward to ask: ‘Who actually opens the aron?’ I said, ‘You can come and do it yourself.’ He said, “I can’t come, I live abroad.’ And I said to him, ‘So pay for someone to open the aron for you, and he doesn’t have to open it for free. Take a chassan who is getting married and pay him $18,000 to open the aron in your name.’”

MK Avigdor Liberman said in response to using the hostage symbols that he would cut all state funding to Ateres Shlomo. Even though you’re practically a celebrity fundraiser, does this scare you?

“I didn’t know that there is a law in the State of Israel that one who expresses a certain opinion gets his budget funding cut off. But if that’s the decision, let them stop it. That won’t buy my quiet when they put our bochurim in jail. There’s a Borei Olam who sustains and supports everyone. We’ve already been seeing that even with the draconian cuts in child stipends for day care and other monetary punishments, the Torah world continued to grow and thrive.”

The Rosh Yeshivah has said in the past that his dream is to cut off from State funding completely. Is that true? Because you’re known as an expert fundraiser, so perhaps it wouldn’t personally affect you?

“I said it as an aside, as an expectation, not that it is my dream. I have lots of much bigger dreams. All of Ateres Shlomo’s government funding doesn’t even cover 20 percent of our budget. Eighty percent of the budget comes from holy Yidden who love and honor Torah, who are happy to give to Torah in its purest form. Does the State think that with its twenty percent it’s become the boss? That it has control? Not over me! I don’t care what their opinion is.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1085)