Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel, dismissed calls to require hareidi-religious men to enlist in the IDF in a talk Saturday night. Rabbi Amar spoke prior to the weekly Torah lecture given by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
Rabbi Amar said that the issue of hareidi enlistment “is nothing more than the evil inclination, which has put a ruach shtut [lit. ‘spirit of nonsense’ – ed.] into some people.”
“In our generation Torah is flowering like we have not seen for generations,“ he said. “The evil inclination saw this and was jealous, and went and put it in some people’s heads to fight against Torah.”
“There has never been nonsense like this,” he said. “As if we have no issues, our society doesn’t have rich or poor, we’re all ‘fully equal.’ This is the only equality we lack, there are no enemies, we have made peace with them. The only enemy left is the yeshivas.”
“There has been nothing like this before, this craziness… Due to our sins this spirit of nonsense entered some people,” he said.
“Our redemption depends entirely on Torah,” he concluded.