During a lesson to his students, former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef addressed the debate over IDF enlistment, stressing that his recent comments had been distorted and that he has no opposition to IDF soldiers.
"I said that our Torah protects all soldiers, and there were those who twisted my words as if I had spoken against the IDF," Rabbi Yosef said. "No one has gone like I did, during the Iron Swords [war], to all the bases — air, land, and sea. Among them are many God-fearing people who set times for Torah study."
"I said I care for their wellbeing, that they not be harmed. That is why I said we must strengthen Torah learners — ‘a thousand to the camp and a thousand to that camp,’ like King David who sent 12,000 soldiers and parallel to them 12,000 Torah-learners. That is what I said. G-d forbid, hatred for soldiers? We value what they do—Iron Dome, defending the land — but their strength must stem from the Torah, that's all."
Rabbi Yosef added that his previous remarks on hesder yeshivot, which combine Torah study and army service, were directed only at a small number of their deans, and not the institutions themselves.
"I did not speak against the heads of the hesder yeshivas - only about a few of them," he explained.
He further emphasized his close ties with rabbis and religious judges from the Religious Zionist community, mentioning Rabbi Tzvi Kostiner of Mitzpe Ramon as “a righteous and G-d-fearing man,” and noting his friendships with Religious Zionist religious judges such as Rabbis Zion Luz, Rabbi Moshe Amsalem, and Rabbi Shlomo Shapira. "We would joke together in the religious court," he said.