Ex-chief rabbi calls father of slain soldier a ‘heretic’ for pushing to draft yeshiva students

Former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who is also the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, calls a fellow rabbi and bereaved father a heretic for advocating conscription for yeshiva students.

“Who is an apikores?” Yosef is heard saying in recordings first leaked by Kol Chai radio and published by Ynet, referring to the traditional Jewish term for a heretic. “He says, ‘Everyone should go to the army.’ What do you mean by everyone [should go] to the army? They study Torah. Just as there is an air force, there is the ‘God force’ of those who sit and study Torah and protect the entire people of Israel.”

In the recording, Yosef explicitly criticizes Rabbi Tamir Granot, who serves as the head of the hesder yeshiva Orot Shaul in Tel Aviv — which combines Torah study and military service — and whose son, Cpt. Amitay Granot, was killed by an anti-tank missile on the Lebanon border in October 2023.

“Several heads of yeshivot attacked me,” Yosef says. “There was one rabbi — I don’t know if he’s a rabbi — Granot, the head of a hesder yeshiva. The way he spoke against us on television. Aren’t you afraid of the humiliation of the Torah scholars?”

“I think there are some of them who, if they were to come to join a minyan (prayer quorum), we would not include them in the minyan,” Yosef continues. “They fall under the category of apikores. Not all of them.”

It is not immediately clear when Yosef made the remarks published on Kol Chai.

In March 2024, Granot publicly criticized Yosef over his threat that the ultra-Orthodox community would abandon Israel if they were compelled to serve in the army.

“You need to… go up to Mount Herzl and apologize to my son, a yeshiva student and soldier,” said Granot in an interview with Ynet, referring to the Jerusalem military cemetery.