Rabbi Younes Hamami Lalehzar, one of the leaders of the Jewish kehilla in Iran, attacked Israel live on Iranian television on Friday and disavowed the State of Israel. He spoke on the Machfel program, one of the most popular television programs in Iran.
Beginning his speech in broken Hebrew, he said: “We are Jews who believe in our holy Torah. We we absolutely do not approve of the Israeli government, what it’s doing in the Holy Land. We demand peace for the whole world, for all the inhabitants of the Holy Land.”
He then switched to Farsi, speaking against Zionism and condemning “the Zionists and the government of Israel who are committing war crimes and killing innocent people in Gaza and Lebanon.”
He emphasized that “Judaism as a religion acts according to the Torah of Moses, the prophet of G-d, and fundamentally opposes arrogance and oppression. There are rules in the Torah of Judaism, even in times of war, which indicate that one should avoid harming defenseless civilians.”
In particular, he noted that “according to Jewish law, even in times of war, it is forbidden to cut down fruit trees in a besieged city. And although Zionism grew out of the Jewish community, it is political and not a true representative of Judaism.”
He also compared Zionism to ISIS, which “carries out violence in the name of Islam,” adding that just like ISIS cannot represent Islam, Zionism cannot represent Judaism.
The TV host noted that “Chacham Hamami referred to the true doctrine of Judaism, sees Zionism as a deviation from the Jewish religion and emphasizes that the crimes of the Zionist regime contradict the religious principles of Judaism.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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15 Responses
The title makes it seem as if he has a choice.. Not sure what the purpose of posting this is. As war with Iran seems closer than ever, last thing they need is to be scapegoats. Have to be careful with comments here, not to put the community in more risk than they already are.
Nebech. Does any yid think he is free to speak his mind? He doesn’t seem to be a Neturei Karta. He will say whatever the Iranian government want him to say.
It’s obvious to most people that he doesn’t exactly have the freedom of speech living in that place, on the other hand Hashem puts the words he wants heard in the mouths of the puppets. It is true the destruction that the zionists have brought on our land, the secular ones that is. The haters of religion and Torah. The ones starving our Yeshiva Boys and feeding Arabs. We all hope to one day be in Zion but under the right rule
He happens to be telling the truth, of course. Not only is Zionism, by design, the polar opposite of Judaism – besides that – Zionism and its “State” obviously do not represent Jews; only the Torah represents Jews.
Judaism is a religion, not a nationality. Jews are a people with exactly one thing in common: the Torah, not a common land, culture and language as exists in secular Nations.
In other words, there is no Jewish “Nation” like there is a French or Italian nation. Jews are a group of people who could be members of many nationalities from all over the world, like French Jews, Russian Jews, Brazilian Jews, and many more. Their commonality is simply that they follow the religion of Judaism.
I am sure that many YWN readers, (imho the vast majority of the frum ones) would agree with what he said when you parse it out.
(1) We are Jews who believe in our holy Torah. TRUE
(2) We we absolutely do not approve of the Israeli government, what it’s doing in the Holy Land. TRUE. The Israeli government does many things against Torah values. The Jewish people should be governed by a government that is faithful to the Torah. We absolutely do not approve of how the government violates the tenets of the Torah.
(3) We demand peace for the whole world, for all the inhabitants of the Holy Land. NOT A STATEMENT OF FACT. We all want peace and so fully sympathize with this desire.
(4) “The Zionists and the government of Israel who are committing war crimes and killing innocent people in Gaza and Lebanon.” MISLEADING “war crimes” is not a Jewish term, it is a secular term invented by the international community with whatever meaning they decide to give it.
(5) “killing innocent people in Gaza and Lebanon” Who would argue that a tiny baby is not innocent?
(6) “Judaism as a religion acts according to the Torah of Moses, the prophet of G-d, and fundamentally opposes arrogance and oppression.” TRUE
(7) “There are rules in the Torah of Judaism, even in times of war, which indicate that one should avoid harming defenseless civilians.” TRUE
(8) “According to Jewish law, even in times of war, it is forbidden to cut down fruit trees in a besieged city.” TRUE
(9) “Although Zionism grew out of the Jewish community, it is political and not a true representative of Judaism.” DEPENDS HOW YOU DEFINE ZIONISM. The current Israeli government is political and not a true representative of Torah Judaism.
judging by the comments already posted, the mullahcracy has already succeeded with this despicable attempt to use the jews of iran to sow division in our midst.
I still find it incredible that people think just because people are against the secular religious hating government of Israel it means that they don’t love Israel. Of course we all want the land, of course we know how special it is, of course we know it’s important to have it. But you need to get those goggles off and realize the atrocious people running it and how much they hate everything Hashem stands for and how they cause us so much pain and suffering with their policies. How do you not want to get rid of them? Ask yourself how you could stick up for them. You can’t throw your religion under the bus because you want to live somewhere so badly, the religion comes first.
meanwhile no one bats an eyelash when rabanim employed by the zionist rabbanut praise the evil zionist state and their army, despite that being clearly against the Torah
What’s the big deal? Obviously HaRav Younes Hamami Lalehzar shlit”a is Chareidi. And like Chareidim, he’s anti-Zionist.
He may have even learnt in Brisk and/or holds of the Brisker shita on Zionism.
It looks like Haham Hamami have a great following among some YWN readers.
He will surely welcome these new students in his yeshiva. Nasiya Tova.
he’s a prisoner in iran and has to bow down to the ayatollas.
HaKatan;
Wrong you are. We are a nation!! Read the Torah.
.יחד שבטי קה, כי חלק ישראל עמו, עם לבדד ישכון, ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש
and any place in the Torah that it says: בני ישראל -its refering to עם ישראל!!
I mean, he’s not wrong
Mordechai Hayehudi:
It is you who are wrong.
That exact verse (and the rest of the Torah) is a support to what I wrote, unlike your mistaken understanding.
We are an “עם”, which means a people, not a nation. You can also read Bilaam’s prophecy “uVaGoyim lo yischashav”. We are not a goy, or nation, as are they. We are a religious collective (or a “people”), not a “nation”, as written above.
HaKatan- stop with the semantics. We are a nation!!