Rav Laizer Yudel Finkel ZT”L was the last Rosh Yeshiva of the Mirrer Yeshiva in Poland. The vast majority of the students of the Mirrer Yeshiva escaped Nazi-occupied Europe to Kobe, Japan and then to Shanghai. The Rosh Yeshiva eventually re-established the Mirrer Yeshiva in Jerusalem and a large percentage of the students that were in Shanghai rejoined him, including his son-in-law, Rav Chaim Shmulevitz ZT”L, who eventually succeeded him.
Since the founding of the State of Israel, fixed-term military service has been compulsory for its citizens. Those learning Torah in Yeshivas have often received exemptions from mandatory military service through a special government arrangement organized by Israel's founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. To obtain this “learning Torah is his profession” exemption (Toraso Umanuso), a statement attesting to that fact needed to be signed by the Rosh Yeshiva of each Yeshiva institution. Rav Laizer Yudel, with tears in his eyes, would tell each student that asked for his signature on the statement that “Torah is his profession” the following: “I have never told a falsehood in my life. I am signing that your profession is to study Torah. Please learn diligently and commit yourself to it, so that I am not a liar.”
