The success of air defense against Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah is due to religious seminaries, not the Israeli military

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said Israel’s success in defending against missiles fired by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas is due to yeshiva (religious seminary) students, not the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), during a lecture on Saturday night , reports the Jerusalem Post.

“It was truly a miracle,” said the chief rabbi. “In the last few months, I’m told they’ve fired 13,000 rockets at us from the north and the south. A very large amount. Thousands of rockets were fired at us. There should have been, God forbid, hundreds or thousands of victims, but, thank God, although there were a few people injured – every Jewish soul is dear to us – but in relation to what could have been, 13,000 rockets have were thrown upon our state, praise God what miracles and miracles have been done for us” said Rabbi Yosef.

“Gentlemen, whose credit is this? Merit of the Chief of Staff? Whose merit? It is the merit of the yeshiva students, that the yeshiva students sit and deal with the Torah (the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, no), to their credit, the Holy One, Blessed be He, did wonders and miracles for us,” he added Rabbi Yosef.

“That’s the right perspective. When we said this a few weeks ago, there were some yeshiva leaders who shamelessly attacked us in the media. They spoke to the secular press. So much chutzpah (insolence). Some of the yeshiva heads sent me letters asking me to retract what I said. I told them that under no circumstances am I going to take back what I said,” the rabbi stated, repeating his insistence that the army’s success is due solely to the yeshiva students.

In March, Rabbi Yosef stated that the ultra-Orthodox (Haredim) would all leave Israel if Haredim conscription was imposed.

“They have to understand, all these secular people who don’t understand, they have to understand that without the Torah, without the yeshiva, without the kollel (institute of talmudic and rabbinic studies, no), the IDF would not succeed. Already the army doesn’t always succeed, we saw how the army ‘succeeded’ at Simchat Torah,” the rabbi said at the time, alluding to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack when the IDF belatedly responded.

Earlier this month, protesters demonstrated against the rabbi and presented him with a “Dividing Israel” award, a reference to the Israel Prize the rabbi is set to receive on Independence Day.

The “award” stated that it was given for “Yosef’s activity in sinking the nation, entrenching polarization and perpetuating Haredim’s evasion of incorporation.” The award also mentions the rabbi’s comments against military service.

A recruitment exemption for Haredi youth ended earlier this month, with the High Court of Justice ruling last month that the government would have to end all funding for yeshivas, where students have not been recruited until now.

The exemption technically expired last year, but the government approved a resolution delaying Haredim conscription until a new law is drafted. That resolution expired on April 1 after the government failed to pass new legislation to that effect.

Prosecutor General Gali Baharav Miara said earlier this month that the government no longer has a legal basis not to recruit Haredim youth.

Rabbi Yosef is one of Israel’s two chief rabbis, appointed by the government for a five-year term, renewable only once. He is the son of former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (1973 – 1983) who founded the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic Shas party, which represents Jews of North African and Middle Eastern origin, who have now become the majority of Jews in Israel. Shas is part of the governing coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as is the Torah Unity party, which represents ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews (of European origin).

Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, David Lau, also the son of a former chief rabbi, distanced himself from his Sephardi colleague’s statements, praising the IDF.