In a rare move, the Council of Torah Sages of the haredi Degel HaTorah movement convened late Monday evening in Bnei Brak and called on the government not to enact any mandatory draft into national service of the 54,000 yeshiva students who have until now been able to indefinitely postpone enlistment.

The council, headed by the acknowledged leader of the non- hassidic “Lithuanian” haredi community Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, declared that “The Council of Torah Sages deeply regrets the wave of incitement against the haredi community, especially against the holy Torah students, in whose merit the world continues to exist.”

The rabbis went on to call on the on the government “to not change in any way the state of affairs regarding yeshiva students which has been in effect from ancient times here in the Land of Israel.”

The Council of Torah Sages, led by the “gadol hador,” the leading rabbi of the generation, determines the stance of the haredi community on almost every issue of public life, have not been made for many years, and there are several potential new additions.

Degel Hatorah is the non-hassidic faction of the United Torah Judaism political party, which also includes Agudat Yisrael, which represents the hassidic stream of the haredi community.

In attendance at the meeting were also UTJ MKs Moshe Gafni and Uri Maklev, who provided the political background to the absence of any legal framework for yeshiva students to gain deferals from military service, which the Tal Law provided until it expired on August 1.

The meeting, which took place in Shteinman’s residence in Bnei Brak, was intended to serve as a unifying rally for the haredi community in light of what it perceives as threats to its lifestyle regarding the possible drafting of yeshiva students because of the expiration of the Tal Law.

Despite the calls for unity, Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, an opponent of Shteinman did not turn up to the meeting.

Divisions within the haredi leadership have opened up of late following the illness and death of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the former leader of the “Lithuanian” haredim, last month.

Rabbi Auerbach, 86, was considered by his supporters to be the natural successor to Elyashiv, but Rabbi Shteinman, 98, succeeded in gaining acknowledgement as the new leader of the community.

The council meeting was also called to admit several new members given the recent deaths of former membes Rabbi Haim Pinchas Scheinberg and Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Fink.

According to reports in the haredi media, Auerbach decided not to attend because his recommendations for new members of the council were not accepted.

The haredi website Behadrei Haredim even reported that Auerbach may step down as a member of the council in protest.

Current members of the current council are Shteinman himself; Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, dean of the Maalot Hatorah yeshiva in Jerusalem; Rabbi Nissim Karlitz, head of the rabbinical court in Bnei Brak; Rabbi Meir Tzvi Bergman dean of the Rashbi yeshiva in Bnei Brak; dean of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak Rabbi Gershon Edelstein; and Rabbi Yitzhak Shteiner, the head of the Kamenitz Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

All of the council members were in attendance apart from Auerbach, while Rabbi Haim Kanievsky, another leading rabbi and a supporter of Shteinman who was expected to attend (although not a member), was not present having been briefly hospitalised for a minor complaint and only released on Monday.

The rare meeting of the council Monday evening was slated as a call for “shalom bayit” or familial peace, within the haredi community, but Auerbach’s absence will sour this unity call.

A low-level power struggle between the two became particularly rancorous over the battle the supporters of the respective rabbis fought over Yated Neeman, the daily newspaper of Degel HaTorah.

Shteinman’s supporters succeeded in gaining control of the newspaper which had traditionally favoured Auerbach.

Auerbach’s followers, led by the deposed editor and director of Yated Neeman subsequently established a newspaper, HaPeles, claiming to represent the true path of Degel HaTorah, as established by the movement’s founder Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach. (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 08/14/12)