The Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, criticized the Supreme Court judges following their overturn of a decision he made denying the demand of a divorced father who became non-observant to have his hassidic 10 year old son stay with him every other Shabbat. The Chief Rabbi had ruled that the child should spend Thursdays with his father and remain with his observant mother for Shabbat.
"These secular judges who do not know a single page of Talmud - what do they know? They do not come close to the ankles of our rabbis. There is no need to fear them."
Most of the media, however, reported the Chief Rabbi's words out of context as if they related to the Supreme Court unanimously ruling on Tuesday that the state is obligated to draft yeshiva students into the army, in the absence of a "legal framework" that allows for distinguishing between yeshiva students and other candidates for military service.
The Court asserted: "The state does not have the authority to order a blanket exemption from enlistment, and it must act in accordance with the provisions of the Defense Service Law. In the absence of a legal framework for exemption from enlistment, it is not possible to continue transferring support funds to yeshivas and study halls for students who have not received an exemption or whose military service has not been deferred," ruled the nine judges. The head of the panel, Acting Chief Justice Uzi Fogelman, wrote that "the state must act to enforce the provisions of the Defense Service Law on yeshiva students".
"As everyone knows, on the morning of October 7, 2023, the State of Israel experienced a brutal terrorist attack. Since then, for a period of over 8 months, we have been at war against terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and the northern front. As is known, the needs of the army in peacetime are not the same as in wartime. Accordingly, the current stance of the defense establishment is that due to the abundance of security tasks and the intense fighting in various arenas, there is a concrete and urgent need for additional manpower."
The chairman of Shas, Aryeh Deri, criticized the decision: "The Jewish people have survived persecutions, pogroms, and wars only by preserving their uniqueness - the Torah and the commandments. This is our secret weapon against all enemies, as promised by the Creator of the world. Even here, in the Jewish state, alongside our precious soldiers who risk their lives against the enemies, we will continue to zealously guard the society of Torah learners who uphold it under hardship. They are the ones who preserve our inherent strength and perform miracles in battle. There is no power in the world that can separate the people of Israel from Torah study, and anyone who tried in the past failed miserably. No arbitrary ruling will cancel the society of Torah learners in the Land of Israel, which is the branch on which we all sit."