Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef on Sunday sharply criticized the Supreme Court's justices, who decided to halt a budget for yeshivas after the exemption allowing yeshiva students to avoid enlistment expired.
Speaking at a Lag Ba'omer event in Jerusalem, he said, "These are foolish judges. Instead of giving more money to the yeshivas, they give pennies to the married yeshiva students."
"Instead of raising it, they went and cut it. For nearly two months there has been no money for the yeshiva world. Where are your brains? We are in such a difficult situation, and when there is a war, we need merits for the nation of Israel. Instead of supporting that, you are cutting off the branch you are sitting on."
He stressed, "Our Torah helps our soldiers, all of the wounded. If G-d would give them brains, they would bring back all of the budgets. In normal times, they should have quit the government - what kind of government is this? They are waiting for them to join a government with the Left and then whatever we want, they will give us, while the Right always makes us problems."
Late in March, Supreme Court justices Uzi Fogelman, Yitzhak Amit, and Noam Solberg issued an interim ruling, freezing support for yeshiva students who are of age to enlist.
The freeze took effect on April 1, when the government's interim order allowing the yeshiva students' enlistment to be delayed expired.
The justices noted that the order was issued, in light of "the Attorney General's position on the illegality of transferring support monies after this time, and due to a lack of a source with any apparent authority to continue the budget, we did not see fit to order a transitional instruction."
"Institutions whose eligibility under the criteria for subsidies will be impacted by the interim order will continue receiving funds for those students who are not not under the purview of the ruling, until the end of the current school year, on August 9, 2024."