Hasidic Rebbe Visits Grandson in Military Prison Over Draft

In a striking display of rabbinic solidarity amid Israel's escalating draft enforcement crisis, the Chatam Sofer Rebbe traveled personally to Prison 10 near Beit Lid on Sunday to visit his grandson, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Weiss, currently detained for refusing military conscription and participating in anti-draft demonstrations.

The rare visit by the Hasidic leader to the military court complex underscores the deepening confrontation between Israel's ultra-Orthodox leadership and state authorities over yeshiva student conscription — a conflict that has triggered massive highway blockades and threats by Haredi municipal leaders to sever all cooperation with police.

Rabbi Weiss, a father of two young children, was arrested following his participation in the tumultuous protests outside the home of Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg. He faces charges related to both his protest activities and his refusal to comply with IDF summons, in accordance with directives from leading ultra-Orthodox rabbinic authorities.

'This Will Stand to Your Merit on Rosh Hashanah'

Following the court proceedings, the Rebbe approached his grandson behind the bars and delivered words of encouragement in a brief but emotionally charged exchange. According to witnesses present, the Hasidic leader declared: "Ozer Yisrael b'gevurah — God girds Israel with strength. This will stand to your merit on the first of Tishrei [Rosh Hashanah] 5787."

The Rebbe's reference to the High Holidays carries particular weight in Hasidic theology, where acts of mesirus nefesh — self-sacrifice for religious principles — are believed to generate spiritual merit that reverberates through the Jewish calendar.

But the Rebbe's mission extended beyond his own family. Sources confirmed he used the opportunity to address other detained Haredi students and their anxious relatives who had gathered at the court complex, offering blessings and words of chizuk to those facing similar charges.

Protest of extreme Peleg Yerushalmi demonstrating (Photo: Ronen Shtelzer)

Community Mobilizes Letter Campaign

Simultaneously, the Chatam Sofer community has launched an intensive campaign to secure rabbinic endorsements for a formal letter of support for Rabbi Weiss. The document, titled "Havu Godel L'Mekadshei Hashem" (Give Honor to Those Who Sanctify God's Name), praises the detained scholar's willingness to face imprisonment rather than violate what the community views as a Torah prohibition against military service.

"The distinguished scholar, one of the ornaments of our holy community... who merited to sanctify God's name with mesirus nefesh by being imprisoned for the honor of His name, when he went out to protest against the draft decree," the letter states, according to reports from Kikar HaShabbat.

The document quotes classical Hasidic teachings emphasizing the spiritual magnitude of imprisonment for religious principles: "To sit one day in prison for the honor of Heaven — is worth more than a thousand recitations of Psalms with tears."

Family members of the Rebbe have been actively circulating the letter among prominent Hasidic leaders and rabbinic figures across Israel's ultra-Orthodox world, seeking signatures to demonstrate broad communal backing for Rabbi Weiss's stance. The campaign reflects uncertainty about the duration of his detention, with no clear timeline yet established for his release.

Haredi anti-draft protest (Photo: Israel Police)

Broader Context: A Community Under Pressure

The Rebbe's visit comes as Israel's Haredi leadership escalates its confrontation with law enforcement over draft arrests. The Forum of Haredi Municipalities recently delivered an ultimatum to Police Commissioner Danny Levi, threatening to terminate all municipal cooperation with police forces if yeshiva student arrests continue.

The crisis has also exposed internal tensions within the ultra-Orthodox world. Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef recently accused military police of ethnic profiling, claiming enforcement targets Sephardic yeshiva students while avoiding their Ashkenazi counterparts — a charge that has added another volatile dimension to an already explosive situation.

For Rabbi Weiss's young family, the detention means an uncertain period with their father behind bars. The Chatam Sofer community's mobilization around his case signals that ultra-Orthodox leadership views his imprisonment not as an isolated incident, but as a test case in the broader struggle over Torah study versus military service — a conflict with no resolution in sight.