Overview
- Radio Kol Chai released a recording in which former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef questioned Rabbi Tamir Granot’s rabbinic standing and labeled some Religious Zionist rabbis heretics who should not be counted in a minyan.
- Rabbi Granot, head of the Orot Shaul Hesder Yeshiva and a bereaved father, has advocated broader enlistment of yeshiva students, positioning his stance at the center of the dispute.
- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Tzohar head Rabbi David Stav condemned the remarks as humiliating and a desecration of God’s name, publicly defending Granot.
- Rabbi David Lankry urged congregants to remove Rabbi Yosef’s books from homes and synagogues, calling the comments a grave offense and a pattern of denigrating those who serve in the IDF.
- Senior rabbi Yaakov Ariel called for calm, characterizing the comments as a slip of the tongue that Rabbi Yosef likely regrets, while no public apology or retraction has been reported.