Dr. Efraim Shach, Rabbi Shach\'s son and a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Education, spoke about his father two days ago:
\"People often think of my father as an extremist, because of his famous speech of a few years ago against the kibbutzim... But whoever knew him, and his positions, knew that he was far from that. There are things that he was willing to sacrifice himself for, such as the yeshivot. He knew that without yeshivot, there is no future... I, for instance, did not go exactly in the way he would have wanted; I am more in the religious-Zionist camp, and studied in university... He certainly did not excommunicate me or anything like that. When my son was a paratrooper in the army, he would often go and visit his grandfather. One time, my father wasn\'t home, so my son understood that he was in the yeshiva. He then took his jeep and drove up to the yeshiva hall. When my father saw him coming, with his backpack and weapon and everything, the yeshiva boys related later that he ran up and hugged him and asked him how he was, etc... For my father, learning Torah was #1. But for someone who doesn\'t do this, like I didn\'t, my father understood that he should of course go and defend the country, as I did. When my son went to the army after he left the yeshiva, my father gave him his full blessing...\"
\"People often think of my father as an extremist, because of his famous speech of a few years ago against the kibbutzim... But whoever knew him, and his positions, knew that he was far from that. There are things that he was willing to sacrifice himself for, such as the yeshivot. He knew that without yeshivot, there is no future... I, for instance, did not go exactly in the way he would have wanted; I am more in the religious-Zionist camp, and studied in university... He certainly did not excommunicate me or anything like that. When my son was a paratrooper in the army, he would often go and visit his grandfather. One time, my father wasn\'t home, so my son understood that he was in the yeshiva. He then took his jeep and drove up to the yeshiva hall. When my father saw him coming, with his backpack and weapon and everything, the yeshiva boys related later that he ran up and hugged him and asked him how he was, etc... For my father, learning Torah was #1. But for someone who doesn\'t do this, like I didn\'t, my father understood that he should of course go and defend the country, as I did. When my son went to the army after he left the yeshiva, my father gave him his full blessing...\"