A scant hour before voting began on the state budget on Wednesday, reports emerged that Yamina MK Yomtob Kalfon had visited the home of the rosh yeshivah of Kisei Rahamim, Rabbi Meir Mazuz, and had received his blessing for supporting the coalition in the budget vote.
Following the reports, an announcement was made by Rabbi Mazuz’s staff, clarifying the rabbi’s position and decrying the budget in the strongest of terms.
“It is true that MK Kalfon visited the rabbi, but the rabbi instructed him to vote ‘against,’ and also told him that he hopes and prays every day that this government – the worst ever in history – should fall and break up and be destroyed, as soon as possible,” the announcement stated.
Furthermore, a handwritten letter by Rabbi Mazuz was also published, in which the rabbi wrote that, “I did not give my blessing to this new budget, one that takes away from the poor and gives to stray cats and to those who deny the Torah and to the enemies of the Jewish People, and I hope that all these evildoers (the 61 MKs of the United Arab List, Bennett, etc.) will come to regret their deeds and will cease to cause suffering to the Jewish People.”
Rabbi Mazuz added that it is a mitzvah to join in the Yom Kippur Katan* prayers at the Kotel, or in any other place, and to direct one’s prayers against the government.
* Yom Kippur Katan is a special prayer service recited on the eve of Rosh Chodesh, the New Moon.