Speaking to Arutz-7 in a pre-election interview, Tzfas Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, son of the late Gaon HaRav Mordechai Eliyahu ZT”L spoke in defense of the candidates of the Bayit HaYehudi Party. “They are tzaddikim and “עובדי ה’” he exclaimed.
The rav told Arutz-7 “I saw a list of hundreds of rabbonim, important people, whom have significantly contributed to the benefit of Am Yisrael who support Bayit Yehudi. Generally speaking I do not get involved in these areas, it is not my task to instruct people in voting, but this time I feel the need for I am told Rav Ovadia said “They are wicked or something like that” in reference to Bayit HaYehudi.
“It is difficult for me to believe. I believe this is an error resulting from the fact that the rav is being misled. I am familiar with most of the people on the [Bayit Yehudi] list and they are simply tzaddikim. There are talmidei chachamim and G-d fearing people who contribute to the Jewish People. I do not understand how it can be said “they are all wicked”.
Rav Eliyahu questions how one can misled such a Talmid Chacham and feed him erroneous wicked information, and how one does teshuvah for such actions. “To say one who votes for them is a kofer?” I know many voting for the party and they are not kofrim. Someone has misled him terribly and it is most serious and I hope they correct it.”
“It is a mitzvah to vote for parties that advance Torah and work for Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael. To my sorrow, Shas is not among them for it already failed with Oslo. That is what Abba said. They brought an agreement that brought tragedy to Am Yisrael and they never asked forgiveness for this.
“There are a number of such parties and HaBayit HaYehudi is the best among them. Their candidates are worthy and I know them.
“I think their goal is correct, a state run according to Torah in Hashem’s ways.”
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13 Responses
WOW! A huge and unbelievable kol hakavod to YWN for publishing this article!! I literally can’t believe my eyes.
This is the concern that MANY very good & frum Jews feel here – the rabbanim & gedolei yisrael have been misled & led astray from the truth. The people surrounding the gedolim have been spreading loshon harah and horrible, biased things about their fellow Jews. This has been done for many years based on selfish interests. There are many great people running in these elections that are not in Shas or UTJ / “Gimmel.” The fact that there’s this misconception that the other parties are all out to get the chareidim is simply not true. The reality is that there are anti-chareidim and there are anti-chilonim out there. However, the Bayit Hayehudi party is NOT one of them. Same with Otzma LeYisrael – they are both wonderful choices to vote for!
Finally, in my humble opinion, the chareidi parties disqualified themselves a LONG time ago with their stance on giving away our Land to the terrorists for the word peace — certainly, we all know that no peace has (or will) come from negotiating with these terrorists! The Oslo plan, the Roadmap plan, the giving away of Gaza… all of it is something the chareidi parties voted for in return for money – money for their yeshivas & avreichim.
Another Rabbinical opinion before the polls open for voting.
No. 1 – Is this being published and distributed thruout the streets of Israel????
The Charedim have moved to the right in security issues and since a large percentage live over the Green Line, the concern for negotiating with terrorists and LAND FOR PIECE is an obstacle when voting for Shas or Gimmel.
@1 Uh…yeah but a Bayit Yehudi candidate openly called for civil marriages. You can’t just ignore that.
I have the utmost respect for Rav Eliyahu, but his support for Bennett & co comes because they are dati leumi and nothing else.
Gedolim being misled? By who? Hashem? Torah? Maran calls it as he sees it and Sefardim are compelled to follow him.
Also you’re wrong, Shas never voted for Oslo (they abstained) and Maran was one of the biggest opponents of the disengagement there was. But what do you care? You only support the people you support because they are dati leumi, just like R’Eliyahu.
Chacham Ovadia strongly opposed giving back gush katif and cursed sharon for it – thats why he’s where he is now! Check out what a great ‘tzadik’ Naftali bennet is: http://www.kipa.co.il/now/The_Jewish_Home/48717.html, doesn’t mind public transport for ‘chilonim’ on shabbos! Oh they don’t have to keep shabbos… And promoting intermarriage and assimilation http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=153089
truth is hes right wont be first or the last time.. that great talmidei chachomim.. were misled to ends contrary to what was good for jewish people..
RBS jew yasher koach its written in shulchan aruch that you have to be michallel shabbos for eretz yisroels safety..
even for straw..
Zionflag: this is not another opinion per say, rather a much needed clarification. Although the gedolim are leaders of the generation, they severely limit themselves by listening to a select few people who are clearly biased. Becaus their time is limited and they don’t have time to do the proper research themselves, they rely on others, and as you can see it doesn’t always turn out well. Not to mention some of what is said is clearly loshon hora, and I doubt. Any of the real gedolim behind “gimmel” or Shas would want it said.
No. 4 – Got to check your records on Oslo and the Gaza Disengagement….. Yes means yes, No means No and abstansion means WE DON’T CARE ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.
Pacifists are pacifists…and they will join in a Left Wing group without concern for mitnachalim in Betar, Gilo or Pisgat Zev.
Just to clarify: Shas abstained during Oslo, at the express instructions of R Yosef, which allowed it to pass. They bear responsbility. Deri has tried to weasel out of the blame for that vote recently but was unable to.
Yahadut HaTorah never voted to make concessions on land. But they did join Sharon’s government immediately after the hitnatkut which they received a lot of flak for. Still not as grave as what Shas did.
I have 1 simple question – if your company sold for 150 million dollars and you had that wad of cash in your pocket and you got called up to serve in Lebanon the VERY next day – would you serve?????? Natali Bennet did just that— if you want to say thank you then vote for him!
It is a well-known fact that askanim control whom some gedolim see and what information they receive.
The Torah instructs us to follow the gedolim even if they say up is down and down is up. It’s justyeridas hadoros and a chutzpah to defy them now on the grounds of “biased sources.”
How can one who is a “gadol” be misled? If they can be so easily deceived, how can they be considered “gedolim?”
And #12, show me where the Torah says to follow the gedolim without a trace of independent thought, no matter what they say. What if a gadol instructed you to eat pig? Hey, down is up, right? I think if anything we are learning from this that gedolim are fallible human beings like the rest of us, and that while we give deference to what they say, we do so while using our own independent, G-d given capabilities of thought,