One of Israel’s preeminent rabbinical figures this week reacted to the rampant secularism in the Jewish state by urging his followers to rouse their “estranged brothers” to repentance.

Speaking at a “Siyum HaShas” event at Israel’s largest yeshiva, Rabbi Meir Tzvi Bergman lamented that just as in past generations going all the way back to biblical times, “we today find ourselves in a situation where Jews from among the Jewish people seek to burn and wage war against the holy Torah. The Torah is being trampled upon by Jews in the public sphere, Heaven forbid.”

The rabbi stressed that it was the duty of ultra-Orthodox Jews to “ensure that there is no disgrace to the Torah in our midst.”

The way to accomplish that, he explained, was to “commit ourselves to diligently studying the holy Torah, to toil harder, to understand more deeply. This is the true honor of the Torah.”

And the end result, the aging sage concluded, will be the “inspiring of a pure spirit within our estranged brothers, bringing them to repentance. May we merit the coming of the righteous redeemer speedily in our days. Amen.”