Rishon Letzion on IDF Draft Danger: Would Have Been Better to Align With the Left

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Harav Yitzchak Yosef shlita sharply criticized the recent draft decree targeting yeshiva students and said that the Shas party’s alliance with right-wing parties has not yielded results, going so far as to say it would have been better to align themselves with the Left.

Speaking at the ‘Yazidim’ shul in Yerushalayim in which he gave his weekly shiur, Rav Yosef addressed the growing concern over arrest warrants issued against Yeshiva students.

The shiur was held in conjunction with a memorial gathering marking the 55th yarhtzeit of Harav Hagaon Rav Ezra Atiya, zt”l, Rosh Yeshiva of Porat Yosef. The event was attended by notable Torah leaders including the current Rosh Yeshiva Harav Moshe Tzedaka, as well as Harav Yitzhak Bracha, Rosh Yeshiva Ateret Yitzhak, among others.

In his remarks, Harav Yosef expressed disappointment with the political choices made concerning the draft issue:

“The draft decree is a decree that hurts all of us. If we had gone with the Left, it would have been much better, but we are going with the Right, stuck with the right — I don’t know what they found with the right.”

“In any case, we need to pray to G-d to revoke this decree so that yeshiva students can study in peace and not in fear.”

Rabbi Yosef also shared a personal incident that took place just days prior:

“On Thursday they brought me a guy with a draft order and an arrest warrant — they want to arrest him. I took it and I tore it up for him. What is this? A Talmid Chacham? The state has existed for 77 years — this never occurred to anyone? Crazy people! We need to pray to G-d that He will bring the entire Jewish people back to repentance, that He will leave the Talmidei Chachamim alone, that He will leave the Yeshiva students who can study in peace and safety.”

Before the shiur, Rav Tzedaka presented a letter from Rav Yosef and other Gedolim, opposing the conscription of yeshiva students into the military.

The letter emphasized:

“Let no student — even one who [only] observes Torah and mitzvot, even if not in a formal study framework — be tempted to fall into their net, without any distinction between class or denomination. And to the instigators we say: Remember that he who leads many astray will not be given the opportunity to do teshuva!”