Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu responded this evening (Monday) to the violent clashes that occurred when left-wing protestors disrupted a Yom Kippur prayer service with separate seating for men and women at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv.
"Those who have seen all the "democrats" violently impose their values on the traditional and religious public understand that these are violent people who use the name of democracy to forcibly impose their values on the majority," Rabbi Eliyahu stated.
"This is not about their defense against our coercion. They force us to pray according to their progressive values. No one forced them to pray together or individually. No one forced them to fast or to eat kosher food.
He criticized the Tel Aviv District Court for upholding the municipality's ban on a 'mehitza,' or partition, between men and women at the prayer service as mandated by Orthodox Jewish law. "But what do we expect from them? They have the backing of the court. The next time you are told that the court protects the minority from the tyranny of the majority, ask who it protected with this delusional ruling!"
"In light of this ruling, people in Haifa were prevented from praying in the synagogues built in tents. According to them, these synagogues are public spaces and it is therefore forbidden to pray separately. Don't say we didn't tell you, tomorrow the liberals with their progressive judges will ban us from praying in the regular synagogues as well.
Rabbi Eliyahu warned that the left-wing assault on Jewish religious practice would intensify following the court ruling and that circumcision is now in danger of being banned in Israel.
"After them will come petitioners who will petition against the right of parents to circumcise their children. And what [our enemies] failed to do during our thousands of years of exile, they will succeed in doing in the name of 'freedom and equality.'
"Does this seem far-fetched to you? A petition has already been submitted to the Supreme Court to prohibit parents from circumcising their sons. What will prevent them from banning circumcision in the name of progress and their liberal values? All the politicians who support these violent people today will explain to you tomorrow that banning circumcision is legal and legitimate.
"I am looking for someone on the center-left who dares to raise his voice against this secular coercion. against the violent protesters. Someone who understands that the court is bringing us into a religious war like nothing we've ever seen before. For two thousand years we fought for our freedom of religion. We will not give it up now in the State of Israel," he concluded.