Rav Yitzchok Yosef, the former Rishon LeTzion and nosi of Shas’s Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, sharply attacked Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara on Motzoei Shabbos over her directive preventing this year’s state-sponsored memorial events honoring his father, Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l.
Speaking during his weekly shiur, Rav Yosef contrasted the decision with the annual commemorations held for assassinated Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, arguing that political considerations were behind the differing treatment.
Rav Yosef recalled the enormous and diverse crowd that attended his father’s levayah in 2013, when hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets of Yerushalayim to pay their final respects.
“At Maran’s funeral, there were nearly a million people there. All of the Jewish people. There were secular and religious Jews, knitted kippahs, white kippahs, Chassidim, Litvaks. Anyone who was at the funeral and saw the broad public that was there — everyone was there, a million people. Now, the anniversary of the Rav arrives, and they want to hold a memorial for him as is proper, as befits his honor, as the entire public recognized his greatness. Suddenly, they issue a legal opinion — this wicked woman, the attorney general, what is her name? Miara, this crazy Miara — issues a legal opinion saying that it is forbidden to hold a gathering in honor of Maran.”
Rav Yosef then questioned why memorial events honoring Rabin were permitted close to elections while events honoring Rav Ovadia were being restricted.
“Rabin, he was murdered under circumstances, just shortly before elections. And they don’t prohibit events for him, because he belongs to the left. Fine, let them hold a gathering, why not? But the Rav, Maran, the gadol hador, who was not a political figure — Maran was a Torah figure, Rabin was a political figure, but Maran was a Torah figure — she issues a legal opinion this week saying that gatherings are forbidden before elections. They should not listen to her. Who is she anyway? HaKadosh Baruch Hu should destroy her, He should give her the blow that is coming to her.”
The controversy surrounds the cancellation of “Yom Maran,” the state memorial day established in honor of Rav Ovadia Yosef, the legendary Sephardic posek and longtime spiritual leader of Shas. The attorney general’s position was that the memorial events could not proceed in their planned format ahead of the upcoming elections.
Rav Yosef rejected the reasoning, emphasizing that his father’s stature extended far beyond partisan politics and pointing to the enormous cross-section of Israeli Jewry that revered him.
He concluded his remarks with another fierce denunciation of Baharav-Miara over the decision.
“She is meddling, meddling with Maran? Maran, the gadol hador, she is meddling with him? This will not pass in silence. Hashem should help that she receives the blow that is coming to her.”
{Matzav.com}
