The former Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, has spoken out harshly against the positions of the dean of the Orot Shaul Hesder Yeshiva in Tel Aviv, Rabbi Tamir Granot, regarding the conscription law.
In a recording published by Radio Kol Hai, Rabbi Yosef can be heard saying: "Some yeshiva deans attacked me. There's one rabbi, I don't know if he's really a rabbi - Granot, the dean of a Hesder yeshiva. The way he spoke out against us on television. Are you not afraid of disrespecting a Torah scholar?"
The rabbi quoted the Talmud: "The Talmud says: 'What is a heretic? Those who say, 'What do Torah scholars do for us?'' He says - 'Everyone to the military.' What do you mean, 'Everyone to the military'? The same way there is the Air Force, there is the G-d Force, which sits and studies Torah and defends the entire people of Israel."
He even took his attacks one step further, and added: "I think there are a few of them (religious Zionist rabbis) who, if they come to join a minyan (prayer quorum of ten men), you can't count them toward the minyan. They are classified as heretics."