New York (VINNEWS) Footage of a private conversation held by HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau, shlit”a, Rosh Yeshivas Slabodka in Bnei Brak and the senior spiritual leader of the Lithuanian Torah world in Eretz Yisroel, was broadcast on Monday by Israel’s N12 news. The remarks were made during the war in the Rosh Yeshiva’s home, in a small, closed gathering of rabbonim, and were not intended for public release.
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The full context of the conversation is not known. Neither the length of the original discussion nor the questions that prompted the Rosh Yeshiva’s comments were made public.
A Long-Standing Hashkafah
In the footage, the Rosh Yeshiva, now 96, reflects on what might have been had the State not been established in its secular form. He suggests that under the United Nations, or even under Arab rule, the physical situation of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisroel might have been better. He also expresses the view that the Zionist movement contributed to Arab hostility toward Jews, and that it brought physical, not only spiritual, harm upon Klal Yisroel.
Those familiar with the history of the Torah world will recognize these themes. The concern that a secular national movement would provoke the nations, and would replace Torah with nationalism as the center of Jewish identity, was voiced by many of the leading gedolim of previous generations. Among them were the Brisker Rav and the Chazon Ish. Many trace this concern to the Gemara in Kesubos (111a), which speaks of the oaths that Klal Yisroel not ascend “as a wall” and not provoke the nations. Rav Landau’s remarks reflect that tradition. They should be understood as a hashkafic assessment, not as an expression of any warmth toward those who seek to harm Jews.
The Protective Power of Torah
The Rosh Yeshiva emphasized his conviction that the Torah learning of yeshiva students is what protects the land and its inhabitants. He noted that, in his view, there is otherwise no explanation for why enemy forces have not overrun the country. This is rooted in the Gemara in Sotah (21a), that Torah both shields and rescues, and in Bava Basra (7b–8a), which states that talmidei chachamim do not require guarding because their Torah protects them.
On Those Who Fall
The remark that drew the sharpest reaction concerned soldiers killed in battle. In the footage, the Rosh Yeshiva says that those who are killed fall “because we are not learning enough.” Read carefully, the statement is not an accusation against the fallen. It places the responsibility on the Torah community itself: “we.” This follows the teaching of Chazal (Berachos 5a) that when suffering comes, a person must first examine his own deeds. It is a call for greater Torah learning, not a judgment upon those who gave their lives.
The Rosh Yeshiva also expressed disagreement with the approach of the Religious Zionist rabbinic leadership. He suggested that some fight for the honor of the State rather than solely to save lives. This is a disagreement in hashkafah that has divided the Torah world and the Religious Zionist community for generations.
If the Robbers Save Us”
The Rosh Yeshiva also addressed the relationship between the chareidi community and the State. He used a sharp metaphor, comparing it to living among robbers who nonetheless protect those around them, and asked, “What can we do?” The remark reflects the complex reality felt by many in the Torah world: deep reservations about the secular foundations of the State, alongside a recognition that its security forces are in fact protecting them. The Rosh Yeshiva also spoke with pain about secular Israelis’ distance from Yiddishkeit. He described the establishment of a state on a secular basis as a chillul Hashem.
Reaction
The broadcast drew criticism from Israeli politicians, including opposition figures. They objected to the Rosh Yeshiva’s characterization of Zionism and to his comments regarding Religious Zionist soldiers. The timing of the release, in the midst of election season, was noted by several observers.
Rav Landau serves as the spiritual leader of Degel HaTorah, a component of United Torah Judaism, which is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition. He became the senior leader of the Lithuanian Torah world after the petirah of HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein, zt”l. He is revered by tens of thousands of talmidim and followers for his greatness in Torah, his humility, and his lifetime of devotion to the yeshiva world.
Readers comments:
*Rav Landau is an adam gadol who certainly does not need anyone’s haskama to voice his opinion, and we need to be careful to conduct such a discussion with the proper respect. That being said, I would agree with Educated and others who have pointed out that this is not a new issue, and that many gedolim and tzaddikim held differently. I would also add that after the Holocaust, from 1945 to 1948, there were close to half a million Jewish displaced persons in Europe, many of whom had nowhere to go and no country willing to take them in. Then, with Hashem’s help, the State of Israel was established and welcomed them with open arms. Yereim and shleimim, together with Jews of all backgrounds, danced in the streets when the state was declared. It would require quite a bit of speculation to maintain that the state of Torah and Yiddishkeit in Eretz Yisroel today would be anything resembling what it is now had the country come under Arab rule.
* Whoever leaked private conversation to secular media is surely going to pay for every single negative comment that ever surfaces. Obviously secular people don’t value the Torah and don’t understand the concept of a soul being more important than the body. It will all be misinterpreted even by many people here and that is all caused by the person who spread it first
* Rav Landau makes a completely reasonable argument.
Jews in London do not need hundreds or thousands of dead British Jews to keep Jews safe. Jews in America do not need Jewish boys dying to protect Jewish neighborhoods.
If the price of a Jewish state is that Jews must constantly die to protect Jews, then asking what exactly was gained by statehood is not absurd. It is the obvious question.
* The struggle between Zionism and Torah Jewry is not merely a political disagreement. It is one of the deepest spiritual clarifications of the final generation. It is a struggle over the very meaning of the Jewish people, the meaning of Eretz Yisroel, and the meaning of redemption.
The Torah teaches[1] that Klal Yisroel is not a nation like the nations. The Jewish people were not created by land, language, army, government, or culture. Klal Yisroel was created by Hashem at Har Sinai. Its existence is bound to Torah. Its mission is kedushah. Its future is Geulah. Therefore, whenever Jewish identity is separated from Torah and redefined as secular nationalism, the foundation of Jewish existence is distorted.The land of Eretz Yisroel is holy beyond measure. Yerushalayim is the heart of the world. The Beis HaMikdash is the place of the Shechinah. Every loyal Jew yearns for the return to Zion and prays daily for the rebuilding of Yerushalayim. But the holiness of Eretz Yisroel cannot be separated from Hashem. The land is not an ordinary homeland. It is the palace of the King. To enter the palace while rejecting the King is not redemption.
This is the root of the Torah opposition to secular Zionism. The opposition is not to Eretz Yisroel. It is not to Yerushalayim. It is not to Jewish life in the land. Torah Jews lived in Eretz Yisroel long before modern Zionism. They built batei midrash, kollelim, communities of kedushah, and a life of tefillah and yearning. The opposition is to the ideology that took the holy longing for Geulah and changed it into political nationalism.
Modern Zionism arose in the atmosphere of European nationalism. Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, organized the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897 and presented the Jewish question as a political problem requiring a political state. This was the essence of the new ideology: Jewish suffering would be solved not by teshuvah, Mashiach, Torah, and Divine redemption, but by sovereignty, diplomacy, settlement, and national power. From the Torah view, this was not Geulah. It was a replacement for Geulah.
* Rabbi Dr. Joseph Ber Soloveichik stated that the founding of the State of Israel is responsible for the massive increase in Arab hate of Jews.
Source for all: https://vinnews.com/2026/10/05/top-israeli-haredi-rabbi-arab-rule-would-have-been-better-zionism-brought-disasters-onto-jews/
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