Israel Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said in his weekly sermon delivered on Saturday night that the many miracles Israel has experienced during the current war are thanks first and foremost to the thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews studying Torah on a daily basis.

“Thirteen thousand rockets and missiles have been fired at us,” noted Yosef. “To what do we attribute the miracles [that so few have caused real damage]? To the IDF Chief of Staff? To the Torah students and the yeshivas. That is the correct view.”

It was part of the Rabbinate’s efforts to convince the public that having dedicated Torah students (what Christians might call “prayer warriors” doing spiritual battle) is equally, if not more important to having uniformed soldiers on the physical battlefields.

This amid growing efforts to compel Orthodox Jewish males to do compulsory military service like all other Israeli Jews. The IDF has severe manpower shortages, while tens of thousands of Orthodox Jewish yeshiva students of military age are exempt from serving under current regulations.

But Rabbi Yosef warns that Israel risks giving up divine protection if religious Jews are not free to study God’s Word and other sacred texts unburdened by military service. “It is thanks to the yeshivas where Torah is studied that miracles and wonders happen to us,” he insisted. “Our enemies have rose up in the south and in the north, all the Arabs, the cruel Hamas, and we have been saved from them all thanks to those who study Torah. They are the ones who protect the soldiers and the entire people of Israel.”