13 may 2018
White House senior advisors Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner receive a blessing from Israeli Chief Rabbi Yitzhak
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reportedly received a blessing in Jerusalem on Sunday from Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef — who was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League earlier this year for comparing black people to monkeys.
Kushner and Trump, both senior advisors to President Trump, are in Israel as part of the American delegation celebrating the moving of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Jewish Insider reported that in addition to having dinner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and attending a ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they also received a blessing from Yosef, one of the country’s two chief rabbis.
During a sermon in March on how to properly say a blessing, Yosef used the Hebrew word “kushi,” which was used in the Bible but is now considered a derogatory term for black people.
“You can’t make the blessing on every ‘kushi’ you see — in America you see one every five minutes, so you make it only on a person with a white father and mother,” he said, according to the Times of Israel. ”How do would you know? Let’s say you know! So they had a monkey as a son, a son like this, so you say the blessing on him.”
The ADL said in a tweet at the time that the remarks were “utterly unacceptable.” Yosef’s office responded that he was merely citing the Talmud, which also has similar language about other animals like elephants.
Yosef had also attracted criticism for other comments in the past few years, such as implying in 2017 that secular women behave like animals because of their immodest dress and claiming in 2016 that according to Jewish law, non-Jews are forbidden from living in Israel.
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reportedly received a blessing in Jerusalem on Sunday from Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef — who was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League earlier this year for comparing black people to monkeys.
Kushner and Trump, both senior advisors to President Trump, are in Israel as part of the American delegation celebrating the moving of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Jewish Insider reported that in addition to having dinner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and attending a ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they also received a blessing from Yosef, one of the country’s two chief rabbis.
During a sermon in March on how to properly say a blessing, Yosef used the Hebrew word “kushi,” which was used in the Bible but is now considered a derogatory term for black people.
“You can’t make the blessing on every ‘kushi’ you see — in America you see one every five minutes, so you make it only on a person with a white father and mother,” he said, according to the Times of Israel. ”How do would you know? Let’s say you know! So they had a monkey as a son, a son like this, so you say the blessing on him.”
The ADL said in a tweet at the time that the remarks were “utterly unacceptable.” Yosef’s office responded that he was merely citing the Talmud, which also has similar language about other animals like elephants.
Yosef had also attracted criticism for other comments in the past few years, such as implying in 2017 that secular women behave like animals because of their immodest dress and claiming in 2016 that according to Jewish law, non-Jews are forbidden from living in Israel.
Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink
17 apr 2018
Rabbi Ophir Wallas of the Bnei David Military Mechina was caught on video teaching young would-be soldiers that Israelis are, from the halachaic point of view, permitted to wipe out Palestinians, and that only fear of massive retaliation prevents that.
Rabbi Wallas’ words can be heard here. They are taken from a longer lecture he has given his students, which – for those who have too much time on their hands – can be seen here. Here is my translation, with essential footnotes:
“In conquering the Land [of Israel] according to Nachmanides and Rashi [*], who say that the wars of today are also mitzvah wars for conquering the Land, I am beholden to nothing. This isn’t the law of the persecutor [**], right? What law are we dealing with? The laws of a mitzvah war, a war of occupying the Land. Even if I don’t conquer Gaza right now, [conquering it] is part of my ability to settle the Land of Israel, so it is also a part of the mitzvah of conquering the Land.
And therefore it follows, there’s no other way; like, we’d have to kill them all. Because this is the difference between the Law of the Persecutor and mitzvah wars. […] A mitzvah war of conquering the Land, which is not limited to saving the people of Israel from their enemies, according to some of the Rishonim [***] I could, on the face of it and by the essential law, destroy, kill and cause to perish [****] all of them. I will not do so, because if I were to do so, and reject international treaties, then the State of Israel shall parish, unless we shall witness a miracle of miracles – and one must not trust in a miracle. And that’s the only reason I won’t do it.”
A few other notes are essential. First, and please bear with me, what is a mechina? Literally, it means a “preliminary school”, but in Israel it came to mean a school which prepares students who finished their high school studies for military service. While most Israeli Jews are drafted soon after finishing high school, a select few are allowed to study for one more year, and in this year they are supposed to be indoctrinated to become better soldiers. Most mechinas boast of a high percentage of graduates who go on to become officers and serve longer than draftees. With one exception, all mechinas are religious, and are in fact a form of yeshiva. Mechina teachers are public employees who get their salaries from both the Education Ministry and the Defense Ministry.
Mechina leaders often meet with senior officers, up to the Chief of Staff, and participate in high-level discussions about the level of religiosity of the army, particularly whether women may serve with men. The fact that the mechinas are producing a large number of motivated officers when most Israelis do not wish to become officers gives them unusual leverage with the high command – with the result that they are rarely, if ever, supervised.
This began to change over the last year. The Bnei David mechina, the first of them, has long been considered the flagship of the National Religious movement, and its leader, Rabbi Elli Saddan, even won the Israel Prize – the country’s highest civil honor – for his contribution to education. However, over the last year, several rabbis of the mechina – including Saddan himself – were caught on videos saying highly inflammatory things. The main targets of the mechina rabbis have been gays and women; the utterances were so inflammatory, as the rabbis exposed their misogyny and homophobia, that the Minister of Defense demanded at one point that one of the worst offenders, Saddan’s deputy Yigal Lewinstein, resign or the mechina will be sanctioned (Hebrew). Soon after, Lewinstein went on “vacation”, but the mechina insisted he was not fired (Hebrew).
As one scandal after another hit Bnei David, leftists have made it a habit to go over the mechina’s videoed lectures looking for bait. The Wallas quote is the latest prize. Most of the haul, however, dealt with misogyny and homophobia. This is one of the rare examples of what Bnei David rabbis think about Palestinians.
Now we need a crash course in Jewish [not Israeli] warfare law. It basically distinguishes between two sorts of wars: reshut (permitted) wars and mitzvah (ordained) wars. Kings are permitted to go on reshut wars if they so please, but such wars are handled under relatively humane laws. Mitzvah laws are a different concept entirely: they are holy wars, the enemy is considered to be the enemy of God, and, as Wallas says, “I am beholden to nothing.” The model is the extermination wars of the biblical Joshua. Most Halacha scholars are divided about what constitutes a mitzvah war, but they agree that wars to reconquer the Holy Land fit the bill – after all, they are modeled on Joshua’s.
There used to be a snag: Only a king could declare a mitzvah wars, and Judaism was not supposed to have a king until the messiah came. The National Religious movement made a leap of faith over this hurdle: it declared Israel to be “the beginning of the growth of our redemption” (a phrase recited every year in the Independence Day prayers), and treats the state as semi-holy, and one that may declare mitzvah wars.
And, at the end of the chain, we have a government-sponsored rabbi teaching children ardent for some desperate glory that legally they are permitted to order their soldiers to destroy, kill and cause to perish women, old men, and children. Yes, there is still a caveat: If Israel is to suffer because of international treaties, it shouldn’t be done.
But what if the time is right?
Technically, Rabbi Wallas is somewhat under military supervision. As his teachings – while essentially correct, alas – go directly against military law, one might expect he’d be removed, demoted or reprimanded. But, while Lewinstein was reprimanded for denigrating women soldiers, Wallas has less to fear.
No one in the military command cares about rabbis rhapsodizing about genocide.
Notes
* Two prominent medieval glossa writers, Rabbi Moshe Ben Nachman and Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki
** A halachaic law permitting the harm, up to killing, of a person who is “persecuting” others and putting them in danger.
*** Jewish religious scholars of the High and Late Middle Ages period
**** Wallas is here quoting Haman’s order for the extermination of Jews, Esther 3:13.
Rabbi Wallas’ words can be heard here. They are taken from a longer lecture he has given his students, which – for those who have too much time on their hands – can be seen here. Here is my translation, with essential footnotes:
“In conquering the Land [of Israel] according to Nachmanides and Rashi [*], who say that the wars of today are also mitzvah wars for conquering the Land, I am beholden to nothing. This isn’t the law of the persecutor [**], right? What law are we dealing with? The laws of a mitzvah war, a war of occupying the Land. Even if I don’t conquer Gaza right now, [conquering it] is part of my ability to settle the Land of Israel, so it is also a part of the mitzvah of conquering the Land.
And therefore it follows, there’s no other way; like, we’d have to kill them all. Because this is the difference between the Law of the Persecutor and mitzvah wars. […] A mitzvah war of conquering the Land, which is not limited to saving the people of Israel from their enemies, according to some of the Rishonim [***] I could, on the face of it and by the essential law, destroy, kill and cause to perish [****] all of them. I will not do so, because if I were to do so, and reject international treaties, then the State of Israel shall parish, unless we shall witness a miracle of miracles – and one must not trust in a miracle. And that’s the only reason I won’t do it.”
A few other notes are essential. First, and please bear with me, what is a mechina? Literally, it means a “preliminary school”, but in Israel it came to mean a school which prepares students who finished their high school studies for military service. While most Israeli Jews are drafted soon after finishing high school, a select few are allowed to study for one more year, and in this year they are supposed to be indoctrinated to become better soldiers. Most mechinas boast of a high percentage of graduates who go on to become officers and serve longer than draftees. With one exception, all mechinas are religious, and are in fact a form of yeshiva. Mechina teachers are public employees who get their salaries from both the Education Ministry and the Defense Ministry.
Mechina leaders often meet with senior officers, up to the Chief of Staff, and participate in high-level discussions about the level of religiosity of the army, particularly whether women may serve with men. The fact that the mechinas are producing a large number of motivated officers when most Israelis do not wish to become officers gives them unusual leverage with the high command – with the result that they are rarely, if ever, supervised.
This began to change over the last year. The Bnei David mechina, the first of them, has long been considered the flagship of the National Religious movement, and its leader, Rabbi Elli Saddan, even won the Israel Prize – the country’s highest civil honor – for his contribution to education. However, over the last year, several rabbis of the mechina – including Saddan himself – were caught on videos saying highly inflammatory things. The main targets of the mechina rabbis have been gays and women; the utterances were so inflammatory, as the rabbis exposed their misogyny and homophobia, that the Minister of Defense demanded at one point that one of the worst offenders, Saddan’s deputy Yigal Lewinstein, resign or the mechina will be sanctioned (Hebrew). Soon after, Lewinstein went on “vacation”, but the mechina insisted he was not fired (Hebrew).
As one scandal after another hit Bnei David, leftists have made it a habit to go over the mechina’s videoed lectures looking for bait. The Wallas quote is the latest prize. Most of the haul, however, dealt with misogyny and homophobia. This is one of the rare examples of what Bnei David rabbis think about Palestinians.
Now we need a crash course in Jewish [not Israeli] warfare law. It basically distinguishes between two sorts of wars: reshut (permitted) wars and mitzvah (ordained) wars. Kings are permitted to go on reshut wars if they so please, but such wars are handled under relatively humane laws. Mitzvah laws are a different concept entirely: they are holy wars, the enemy is considered to be the enemy of God, and, as Wallas says, “I am beholden to nothing.” The model is the extermination wars of the biblical Joshua. Most Halacha scholars are divided about what constitutes a mitzvah war, but they agree that wars to reconquer the Holy Land fit the bill – after all, they are modeled on Joshua’s.
There used to be a snag: Only a king could declare a mitzvah wars, and Judaism was not supposed to have a king until the messiah came. The National Religious movement made a leap of faith over this hurdle: it declared Israel to be “the beginning of the growth of our redemption” (a phrase recited every year in the Independence Day prayers), and treats the state as semi-holy, and one that may declare mitzvah wars.
And, at the end of the chain, we have a government-sponsored rabbi teaching children ardent for some desperate glory that legally they are permitted to order their soldiers to destroy, kill and cause to perish women, old men, and children. Yes, there is still a caveat: If Israel is to suffer because of international treaties, it shouldn’t be done.
But what if the time is right?
Technically, Rabbi Wallas is somewhat under military supervision. As his teachings – while essentially correct, alas – go directly against military law, one might expect he’d be removed, demoted or reprimanded. But, while Lewinstein was reprimanded for denigrating women soldiers, Wallas has less to fear.
No one in the military command cares about rabbis rhapsodizing about genocide.
Notes
* Two prominent medieval glossa writers, Rabbi Moshe Ben Nachman and Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki
** A halachaic law permitting the harm, up to killing, of a person who is “persecuting” others and putting them in danger.
*** Jewish religious scholars of the High and Late Middle Ages period
**** Wallas is here quoting Haman’s order for the extermination of Jews, Esther 3:13.
26 mar 2018
Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has slammed his Sephardic counterpart in Israel, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, for making “deeply offensive” remarks about black people, comparing them to monkeys.
Yosef drew criticism last week, for comparing, during one of his weekly religious lessons, black people with monkeys, referring to them using the pejorative term in Israel, “kushi.”
“We don’t say a blessing for every kushi … He needs to be a kushi whose father and mother are white … if you know, they had a monkey for a son,” Rabbi Yosef said, according to Days of Palestine.
Delivering a sermon last week, Mirvis said that the comments, which were made in the context of a Talmudic discussion, were “totally unacceptable” and said that his office “has contacted the Chief Rabbinate in Israel directly” to voice its objections.
Last week, the Anti-Defamation League also rebuked Rabbi Yosef for his derogatory comments.
The New York City-based organisation devoted to battling anti-Semitism and racism called Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef’s comments “racially charged” and “utterly unacceptable.”
08/20/15 Noam Chomsky: Israeli Apartheid ‘Much Worse’ Than South Africa
Yosef drew criticism last week, for comparing, during one of his weekly religious lessons, black people with monkeys, referring to them using the pejorative term in Israel, “kushi.”
“We don’t say a blessing for every kushi … He needs to be a kushi whose father and mother are white … if you know, they had a monkey for a son,” Rabbi Yosef said, according to Days of Palestine.
Delivering a sermon last week, Mirvis said that the comments, which were made in the context of a Talmudic discussion, were “totally unacceptable” and said that his office “has contacted the Chief Rabbinate in Israel directly” to voice its objections.
Last week, the Anti-Defamation League also rebuked Rabbi Yosef for his derogatory comments.
The New York City-based organisation devoted to battling anti-Semitism and racism called Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef’s comments “racially charged” and “utterly unacceptable.”
08/20/15 Noam Chomsky: Israeli Apartheid ‘Much Worse’ Than South Africa
20 mar 2018
During lesson discussing blessing of trees and 'strange creatures', Sephardi chief rabbi offers Talmudic exceptional examples in which 'negroes' should be blessed: 'when their parents are both white and they have a monkey.'
Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak Yosef has drawn criticism for comparing, during one of his weekly religious lessons, a "negro" with a monkey.
"We don’t say a blessing for every negro … He needs to be a negro whose father and mother are white … if you know, they had a monkey for a son, they had a son like that,” Rabbi Yosef said.
During the lesson, which was given on Saturday night on the weekly Torah portion of Vayakhel-Pekudei, the rabbi spoke about the blessings of trees which is a customary ritual during the month of Nissan, which began last Shabbat.
The halachic question revolves around whether to bless one tree or at least two and in this context, Rabbi Yosef offered examples of other blessings, for example the blessing of "strange creatures" that evoke attention or repulsion, rather than aesthetic pleasure.
“Someone who sees strange creatures blesses them,” he said. “You see a negro, bless him as an exceptional creature. Which negro? When his father and mother are white and he comes out black.” The rabbi emphasized that “not every negro needs to be blessed” and that it only applied to a blak person who was born to white parents.
Elaborating on the halachic matter, Rabbi Yosef continued: “You go around in the streets of America, every five minutes you will see a negro. Do you bless him as an ‘exceptional creature?’ However, he should be a negro whose father and mother are white.
“We don’t say a blessing for every negro … He needs to be a negro whose father and mother are white … if you know, they had a monkey for a son, they had a son like that,” Rabbi Yosef continued. So what will you say, that there needs to be two negroes? No, but this an example that the Gemorah ( commentary on the Mishnah, the Oral Torah) gave. So the same applies to trees.”
Rabbi Yosef has already found himself on the wrong side of a number of organizations for lessons in the past which have contained racist and other controversial content. Women’s organizations, the IDF and other organizations have criticized the rabbi for some of his statements.
He once described the the courts as worse than "the courts of gentiles" and asked "why do they deal with matters of halacha?" Furthermore, he criticized the IDF’s rules of engagement. “Don't be afraid of anyone who afterwards will go to the High Court or some chief of staff will come along.”
He also described the last government as a “government of malice” and said that mixed-gender classes were “against Halacha and against the Torah. But it is possible to educate small children of 9 years old in a mixed school.”
A statement issued on Rabbi Yosef’s behalf insisted that “The words of the rabbi are quoted from the Babylonian Talmud in Berakhot. R. Joshua b. Levi said: 'On seeing pockmarked persons one says: Blessed be He who makes strange creatures. An objection was raised: If one sees a negro … he says: Blessed be He who makes strange creatures…. Our Rabbis taught: On seeing an elephant, an ape, or a long-tailed ape, one says: Blessed is He who makes strange creatures.’”
Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak Yosef has drawn criticism for comparing, during one of his weekly religious lessons, a "negro" with a monkey.
"We don’t say a blessing for every negro … He needs to be a negro whose father and mother are white … if you know, they had a monkey for a son, they had a son like that,” Rabbi Yosef said.
During the lesson, which was given on Saturday night on the weekly Torah portion of Vayakhel-Pekudei, the rabbi spoke about the blessings of trees which is a customary ritual during the month of Nissan, which began last Shabbat.
The halachic question revolves around whether to bless one tree or at least two and in this context, Rabbi Yosef offered examples of other blessings, for example the blessing of "strange creatures" that evoke attention or repulsion, rather than aesthetic pleasure.
“Someone who sees strange creatures blesses them,” he said. “You see a negro, bless him as an exceptional creature. Which negro? When his father and mother are white and he comes out black.” The rabbi emphasized that “not every negro needs to be blessed” and that it only applied to a blak person who was born to white parents.
Elaborating on the halachic matter, Rabbi Yosef continued: “You go around in the streets of America, every five minutes you will see a negro. Do you bless him as an ‘exceptional creature?’ However, he should be a negro whose father and mother are white.
“We don’t say a blessing for every negro … He needs to be a negro whose father and mother are white … if you know, they had a monkey for a son, they had a son like that,” Rabbi Yosef continued. So what will you say, that there needs to be two negroes? No, but this an example that the Gemorah ( commentary on the Mishnah, the Oral Torah) gave. So the same applies to trees.”
Rabbi Yosef has already found himself on the wrong side of a number of organizations for lessons in the past which have contained racist and other controversial content. Women’s organizations, the IDF and other organizations have criticized the rabbi for some of his statements.
He once described the the courts as worse than "the courts of gentiles" and asked "why do they deal with matters of halacha?" Furthermore, he criticized the IDF’s rules of engagement. “Don't be afraid of anyone who afterwards will go to the High Court or some chief of staff will come along.”
He also described the last government as a “government of malice” and said that mixed-gender classes were “against Halacha and against the Torah. But it is possible to educate small children of 9 years old in a mixed school.”
A statement issued on Rabbi Yosef’s behalf insisted that “The words of the rabbi are quoted from the Babylonian Talmud in Berakhot. R. Joshua b. Levi said: 'On seeing pockmarked persons one says: Blessed be He who makes strange creatures. An objection was raised: If one sees a negro … he says: Blessed be He who makes strange creatures…. Our Rabbis taught: On seeing an elephant, an ape, or a long-tailed ape, one says: Blessed is He who makes strange creatures.’”
